This research was assisted by a grant from the Joint Committee on Southeast Asia of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Ford Foundation as well as a faculty grant in aid from Arizona State University. I am grateful to James Foard, Joel Gereboff, F.K. Lehman and Frank Reynolds for their comments on earlier drafts of this essay. All mistakes and omissions are my own.

¹ In Sri Lanka as well, the Theravāda Buddhist tradition and its social paradigm have similarly undergone reformist transformations, including political radicalization. For a discussion of similar developments in the South Asian context, see Tambiah, Stanley J., Buddhism Betrayed?: Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991)Google Scholar and “Buddhism, Politics, and Violence in Sri Lanka”, Fundamentalisms and the State: Remaking Polities, Economies, and Militance, ed. Marty, Martin and Appleby, Scott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 589–619Google Scholar.

² Particularly relevant here are the writings of Thwin, Michael Aung, “The Role of Sasana Reform in Burmese History”, Journal of Asian Studies 38, 4 (1979): 671–88Google Scholar and his Pagan: The Origins of Modern Burma (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985), pp. 47–68Google Scholar; Ishii, Yoneo, Sangha, State, and Society: Thai Buddhism in History, Monographs of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Jackson, Peter, Buddhism, Legitimation, and Conflict: The Political Functions of Urban Thai Buddhism (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989)Google Scholar; Mendelson, E.M., Sangha and State in Burma: A Study of Monastic Sectarianism and Leadership, ed. Ferguson, John P. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1975)Google Scholar; Sarkisyanz, Emanuel, Buddhist Backgrounds of the Burmese Revolution (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Suksamran, Somboon, Political Buddhism in Southeast Asia: The Role of the Sangha in the Modernization of Thailand (London: C. Hurst, 1977)Google Scholar and also “Buddhism, Political Authority, and Legitimacy in Thailand and Cambodia”, in Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia, ed. Ling, Trevor (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 101–153Google Scholar; and S.J., Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 19–158Google Scholar, along with his later, revised essay on “Galactic Polity” in Tambiah, Stanley J., Culture, Thought and Social Action (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also his The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)Google Scholar.

³ See in particular Ling, 's introduction, “Towards an Account of ‘Buddhisms’ in Country-Specific Terms”, in Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia, ed. Ling, Trevor, pp. 1–5Google Scholar.

⁴ This argument has been put forth in particular by “Contested Visions of Community in East and Southeast Asia”, the editors' introduction to Asian Visions of Authority: Religion and the Modern States of East and Southeast Asia, ed. Keyes, Charles, Kendall, Laurel and Hardacre, Helen (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), pp. 1–16Google Scholar.

⁵ The trend towards laicization was noted by, among others, Swearer, Donald K., “Sulak Sivaraksa's Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society”, in Crossroads: Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 6, 2 (1991): 18Google Scholar.

⁶ Keyes, Kendall and Hardacre, , “Contested Visions of Community”, p. 5Google Scholar.

⁷ My use of this term follows Jean Comaroff, “Defying Disenchantment”, in Asian Visions of Authority, ed. Keyes, Kendall and Hardacre, , p. 308Google Scholar.

⁸ In the use of this term, I am following Giddens, Anthony, Modernity and Self-Identity: Self and Society in the Late Modem Age (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991)Google Scholar.

⁹ In this regard, see Tambiah, Stanley J., “The Persistence and Transformation of Tradition in Southeast Asia with Special Reference to Thailand”, in Daedalus 102, 1 (1973): 55–84Google Scholar, World Conqueror, pp. 102–131, and Culture, Thought and Social Action.

¹⁰ See especially Tambiah, , World Conqueror, pp. 54–72Google Scholar, and Reynolds, , “The Two Wheels of Dhamma: A Study of Early Buddhism”, in The Two Wheels of Dhamma: Essays on the Theravada Buddhist Tradition in India and Ceylon, ed. Obeyesekere, G., Reynolds, F.E. and Smith, B. (Chambersburg: American Academy of Religious Studies, 1972), pp. 6–30Google Scholar.

¹¹ Exceptions to a more general neglect of popular religiosity and the state cult in the literature on traditional Southeast Asian Buddhist societies are found in the writings of Frank E. Reynolds and Stanley J. Tambiah who show that the veneration of certain Buddha images believed to possess extraordinary power were significant aspects of legitimation for the traditional polity. See, in particular, Reynolds, Frank E., “The Holy Emerald Jewel: Some Aspects of Buddhist Symbolism and Political Legitimation in Thailand and Laos”, in Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, ed. Smith, Bardwell L. (Chambersburg: Anima Books, 1978), pp. 175–93Google Scholar, and Tambiah, , Buddhist Saints, pp. 195–347Google Scholar. While clearly some degree of monastic concurrence must have been necessary in the propagation of the royal state cults of just kings (dhammarājā), our understanding of the role religious monuments, relics, and pilgrimages played in the propagation of traditional popular piety and in religio-political legitimation remains otherwise still largely unsatisfactory.

¹² See Thwin, Aung, Pagan, pp. 183ffGoogle Scholar.

¹³ See Heine-Geldern, Robert, “Conceptions of State and Kingship in Southeast Asia”, Far Eastern Quarterly 2 (1942): 15–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁴ An English translation of this text, accompanied by an insightful introduction has been published by E., Frank and Reynolds, Mani, The Three Worlds According to King Ruang — A Buddhist Cosmology (Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, 1982)Google Scholar. A recent essay on current discourse concerning this cosmological text was published by Jackson, Peter A., “Re-Interpreting the Traiphuum Phra Ruang: Political Functions of Buddhist Symbolism in Contemporary Thailand”, in Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia, ed. Ling, Trevor, pp. 64–100Google Scholar.

¹⁵ See Lehman, F. K. (Hlain, Chit), “Burmese Religion”, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Eliade, Mircea (New York: Macmillan, 1987), vol. 2, pp. 574–80Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Arguments on the relation between social hierarchy and merit making have been put forth by, among others, Cunningham, Clark E., “Characterizing a Social System: The Loose-Tight Dichotomy”, in Loosely Structured Social Systems: Thailand in Comparative Perspective, ed. Evers, Hans-Dieter (New Haven: Yale University, 1969), pp. 106–114Google Scholar; by Tambiah, Stanley J. “The Ideology of Merit and the Social Correlates of Buddhism in a Thai Village”, in Dialectic in Practical Religion, ed. Leach, Edmund (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar; and Schober, Juliane, “Paths to Enlightenment: Theravāda Buddhism in Upper Burma” (Ph.D. diss., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1989)Google Scholar.

¹⁷ For example, the social hierarchy of traditional kingdoms was relatively fixed and comprised hereditary social groups to whom the court assigned grades of privilege and obligations; see, for example, Thwin, Michael Aung, “Hierarchy and Order in Precolonial Burma”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 15, 2 (1984): 223–44Google Scholar. Similarly, the allegiance of lesser principalities to the court was affirmed by tribute payments and fluctuated with the degree to which the galactic polity was able to harness power at the centre and preempt oscillation and contestation by vassals or contenders in the periphery.

¹⁸ See Mendelson, 's Saṇgha and the StateGoogle Scholar; and Ferguson, John P., “The Symbolic Dimensions of the Burmese Sangha” (Ph.D. diss., 1975)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ In this regard, see Mendelson, 's Saṇgha and the StateGoogle Scholar; Aung Thwin's The Role of Sasana; Than, Tin Maung Maung, “The Sangha and Sasana in Socialist Burma, Sojourn 3, 1 (1988): 26–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Than, Tin Maung Maung, “Sangha Reforms and Renewal of Sasana in Myanmar: Historical Trends and Contemporary Practices”, in Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia, ed. Ling, Trevor, pp. 6–63Google Scholar; and Wyatt, David K., Thailand: A Short History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984) pp. 181–222Google Scholar

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²⁰ Among the most influential works shaping the study of Buddhism in Southeast Asian societies have been Heine-Geldern, , “Conceptions of State and Kingship”Google Scholar; Reynolds, , “Two Wheels”Google Scholar; and Tambiah, , World ConquerorGoogle Scholar. Excellent studies on the relationship between the king and the state are also found in Bechert, Heinz, Buddhismus, Staat, und Gesellschaft in den Ländern des Theravāda Buddhismus (Wiesbaden: Otto Harrowitz, 1967)Google Scholar, in Mendelson, 's Sangha and the StateGoogle Scholar, and in Smith, , (ed.), Religion and Legitimation of PowerGoogle Scholar.

²¹ See Kirsch, Thomas A., “Modernizing Implications of 19th-Century Reforms in the Thai Sangha”, in Contributions to Asian Studies 8 (1973): pp. 8–23Google Scholar and Mendelson, 's Saṇgha and the StateGoogle Scholar.

²² See O'Connor, Richard, “Interpreting Thai Religious Change: Temples, Sangha Reform and Social Change”, in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 24, 2 (1993): 330–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²³ Fragmentation due to monastic reforms or millennial movements in Buddhist Southeast Asia is treated extensively in the literature. Insightful essays include Herbert, , The Hsaya San RebellionGoogle Scholar; Keyes, Charles, “Buddhism and National Integration in Thailand”, in Journal of Asian Studies 30, 3 (1971): 551–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Keyes, Charles, “Millennialism, Theravada Buddhism, and Thai Society”, Journal of Asian Studies 36, 1 (1977): 283–302Google Scholar; and his essay on “Buddhist Economics and Buddhist Fundamentalism”; Kirsch, , “Modernizing Implications of 19th-Century Reforms”Google Scholar; in addition to his Saṇgha and the State, see Mendelson, E. Michael, “A Messianic Association in Upper Burma”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24 (1961): 560–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the same author's “Observations on a Tour in the Region of Mt. Poppa, Central Burma”, France-Asie 179 (1963): 786–807Google Scholar; and Sarkisyanz, , Buddhist BackgroundsGoogle Scholar.

²⁴ See Jackson, Peter, “The Hupphaasawan Movement: Millennial Buddhism among the Thai Political Elite”, in Sojourn 3, 2 (1988): 134–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sarkisyanz, , Buddhist BackgroundsGoogle Scholar; and Turton, Andrew and Tanabe, S. (eds.), History and Peasant Consciousness in Southeast Asia (Osaka: Send Ethnological Studies No. 13, National Museum of Ethnology, 1984)Google Scholar.

²⁵ Examples include the millennial movements described for Burma in Sarkisyanz, , Buddhist BackgroundsGoogle Scholar; Smith, Donald E., Religion and Politics in Burma (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1965)Google Scholar; Mendelson, , “A Messianic Association” and “Observations on a Tour”Google Scholar; for Thailand, see Keyes, “Millennialism”, Jackson, , “The Hupphaasawan Movement” and Buddhism, Legitimation, and ConflictGoogle Scholar, and Turton and Tanabe History and Peasant Consciousness.

²⁶ See Taylor, John L., Forest Monks and the Nation State (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1994)Google Scholar; Tambiah, The Buddhist Saints; and Jackson, , Buddhism, Legitimation, and ConflictGoogle Scholar.

²⁷ See Keyes, Charles, “Buddhist Economics and Buddhist Fundamentalism in Burma and Thailand”, in Fundamentalisms and the State, ed. Marty, and Appleby, , pp. 367–409Google Scholar; and also Swearer, Donald K., “Fundamentalistic Movements in Theravada Buddhism”, in Fundamentalisms Observed, ed. Marty, Martin and Appleby, Scott (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992), pp. 628–90Google Scholar.

²⁸ See Adas, Michael, Prophets of Rebellion: Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1979)Google Scholar; Herbert, Patricia, The Hsaya San Rebellion (Melbourne: Monash University, 1983)Google Scholar; and Sarkisyanz, , Buddhist BackgroundsGoogle Scholar.

²⁹ See Schober, Juliane, “Religious Merit and Social Status among Burmese Lay Buddhist Organizations”, in Blessing and Merit in Mainland Southeast Asia, ed. Tannenbaum, Nicola and Kammerer, Cornelia (Yale University Southeast Asia Monograph Series, in press)Google Scholar.

³⁰ See Swearer, 's “Sulak Sivaraksa's Buddhist Vision”Google Scholar and also his “Fundamentalistic Movements in Theravada Buddhism”.

³¹ For a discussion of implication, see Tambiah, World Conqueror, pp. 472–514Google Scholar; Keyes, , “Buddhist Politics”, pp. 130ffGoogle Scholar, and his “Political Crisis and Militant Buddhism in Contemporary Thailand”, in Religion and Legitimation of Power, ed. Smith, , pp. 147–64Google Scholar; and Jackson, , Buddhism, Legitimation, and Conflict, pp. 65ffGoogle Scholar.

³² See Van der Mehden, Fred R., Religion and Modernization in Southeast Asia (Syracuse: Syracuse State University Press, 1986)Google Scholar; Marr, David, Vietnamese Traditions on Trial, 1920–1945 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981)Google Scholar; Oliver, Victor L., “Caodaism: A Vietnamese Socio-Religious Movement”, in Dynamic Religious Movements: Case Studies of Rapidly Growing Religious Movements around the World, ed. Hesselgrave, David J. (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1978), pp. 273–96Google Scholar; Yang, Sam, Khmer Buddhism and Politics, 1954–1984 (Newington: Khmer Studies Institute, 1987)Google Scholar; and Wyatt, David K. and Woodside, Alexander (eds.), Moral Order and the Question of Change: Essays on Southeast Asia (New Haven: Yale University Southeast Asian Studies, 1982)Google Scholar.

³³ See again Mendelson, , Saṇgha and the StateGoogle Scholar; Smith, , Religion and PoliticsGoogle Scholar; and Sarkisyanz, , Buddhist BackgroundsGoogle Scholar.

³⁴ See Bechert, Heinz, “Neue Buddhistische Orthodoxie: Bemerkungen zur Gliederung und zur Reform des Sangha in Birma”, in Numen 35 (1988): 24–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Maung, Tin Maung, “The Sangha and Sasana in Socialist Burma”Google Scholar and “Sangha Reforms and Renewal of Sasana in Myanmar”.

³⁵ See especially Matthews, Bruce, “Buddhism under a Military Regime: The Iron Heel in Burma”, in Asian Survey 33, 4 (1993): 408–423CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Myanmar's Agony: The Struggle for Democracy”, in The Round Table, The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs 325 (1993): 37–49Google Scholar.

³⁶ See Jackson, , Buddhism, Legitimation, and ConflictGoogle Scholar; Suksamran, , Political Buddhism in Southeast AsiaGoogle Scholar; and Gosling, David, “Visions of Salvation: A Thai Buddhist Experience of Ecumenism” [Modern Asian Studies 26, 1 (1992): 31–47]CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where he argues that the Thai monastic involvement in modernization serves as a successful model for rural and national development applicable to other culture areas.

³⁷ See Keyes, , “Buddhist Economics and Buddhist Fundamentalism”Google Scholar and Keyes, , et al. , “Contested Visions of Community”Google Scholar; Satha-Anand, Suwanna, “Religious Movements in Contemporary Thailand: Buddhist Struggles for Modern Relevance”, in Asian Survey 30, 4 (1990): 395–408CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Swearer, , “Sulak Sivaraksa's Buddhist Vision”Google Scholar and “Fundamentalistic Movements in Theravada Buddhism”.

³⁸ In a speech entitled “Empowerment for a Culture of Peace and Development” and read on her behalf by Corazon Aquino at a meeting of UNESCO's World Commission on Culture and Development in Manila, November 21, 1994, Aung San Suu Kyi engages the relationship between economic development, peace, human rights, democracy, and cultural pluralism.

³⁹ My observations are based on recent research conducted on the present Burmese Buddhist engagement with modernity. See also Matthews, “Buddhism under Military Rule” and “Myanmar's Agony”.

⁴⁰ My use of the term follows Turner, Victor, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 1969)Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Trevor Ling has stressed the increased prominence of Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist lay associations in Singapore, the only secular, modern nation in mainland Southeast Asia that did not inherit some form of institutionalized relationship between Buddhism and the state; see Ling, , “Singapore: Buddhist Development in a Secular State”, in Buddhist Trends in Southeast Asia, ed. Ling, Trevor, pp. 154–83Google Scholar.

⁴² See Keyes, , “Buddhist Economics”Google Scholar, and Swearer, , “Fundamentalistic Movements”Google Scholar.

⁴³ It is interesting to note that Bruce Lawrence's definition of fundamentalism among Muslim groups employs very similar criteria, including the relatively low level of religious education compared to high pietistic zeal and secular education; see Lawrence, Bruce, Defenders of God: the Fundamentalist Revolt against the Modern Age (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1989)Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ This concept was employed to describe their mediation practice and instruction in Zehner, Edwin, “Reform Symbolism of a Thai Middle-Class Sect: The Growth and Appeal of the Thammakai Movement”, in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 21, 2 (1990): 402–426CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁴⁵ See Taylor, John L., “Contemporary Urban Buddhist ‘Cults’ and the Socio-Political Order in Thailand”, in Mankind 19, 2 (1989): 112–37, specifically pp. 115–16Google Scholar; and Zehner, “Reform Symbolism”, p. 414Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ See Taylor, John L., “New Buddhist Movements In Thailand: An ‘Individualistic Revolution’, Reform and Political Dissonance”, in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 21, 1 (1990): 135–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor, , “Contemporary Urban Buddhist ‘Cults’”Google Scholar; and Zehner, , “Reform Symbolism”Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ See Zehner, , “Reform Symbolism”, especially p. 421Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ This fact was reported in Swearer, , “Fundamentalists Movements”Google Scholar and Zehner, , “Reform Symbolism”Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ This is noted in Taylor, , “New Buddhist Movements”Google Scholar and Zehner, , “Reform Symbolism”Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ See especially Swearer, , “Fundamentalistic Movements”, p. 670ffGoogle Scholar.

⁵¹ See in particular Taylor, , “Contemporary Urban Buddhist ‘Cults’”, pp. 117–18Google Scholar.

⁵² See Taylor, , “Contemporary Urban Buddhist ‘Cults’”Google Scholar and Satha-Anand, , “Religious Movements”Google Scholar.

⁵³ See especially Taylor, , “Contemporary Urban Buddhist ‘Cults’”, p. 118Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ Satha-Anand, , “Religious Movements”, p. 404Google Scholar.

⁵⁵ Taylor, , “Contemporary Urban Buddhist ‘Cults’”, p. 114Google Scholar.

⁵⁶ Taylor, , “New Buddhist Movements”, p. 150Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Swearer, , “Fundamentalist Movements”, p. 672Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Taylor, , “Contemporary Urban Buddhist‘Cults’”, p. 121Google Scholar.

⁵⁹ Satha-Anand, , “Religious Movements”, p. 405Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ See Keyes, Charles, “Buddhist Politics and Their Revolutionary Origins in Thailand”, in Structure and History 10, 2 (1989): 121–42Google Scholar, special issue of International Political Science Review (ed. Eisenstadt, S.N.)Google Scholar.

⁶¹ See Santikaro, Bhikkhu, “Buddhadasa Bhikkhu”, in Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8, 1 (1993): 125–30Google Scholar.

⁶² See Swearer, Donald K., Buddhism and Society in Southeast Asia (Chambersburg: Anima Books, 1981), pp. 58–59Google Scholar.

⁶³ Satha-Anand, , “Religious Movements”, p. 398Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ Swearer, , Buddhism and Society, p. 59Google Scholar.

⁶⁵ Santikaro, , “Buddhadasa”, p. 129Google Scholar, and Buddhadasa, Bhikkhu, Dhammic Socialism, ed. Swearer, Donald K. (Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development, 1986)Google Scholar.

⁶⁶ Satha-Anand, , “Religious Movements”, p. 398Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Swearer, , “Sulak Sivaraksa's Buddhist Vision”, p. 27Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ Ibid., pp. 33–39.

⁶⁹ See Sivaraksa, Sulak, “Buddhist Ethics and Modern Politics: A Theravada Viewpoint”, in Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society, ed. Fu, Charles Wei-hsun and Wawrytko, Sandra A. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1991), pp. 159–66Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ In addition to “Buddhist Ethics and Modern Politics”, see also Sivaraksa, Sulak, A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society (Bangkok: Thai Watana Panchi Co., 1981)Google Scholar and A Socially Engaged Buddhism (Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development, 1988)Google ScholarPubMed.

⁷¹ See Kabilsingh, Chatsumarn, Thai Women in Buddhism (Berkeley: Parallax Press, 1991)Google Scholar, and also “The Religious Position of Buddhist Women in Thailand”, in Buddhist Ethics and Modern Society, ed. Fu, Charles Wei-Hsun and Wawrytko, Sandra A.Google Scholar.

⁷² See Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism (London, New York: Verso, 1991)Google Scholar.

⁷³ See Marty, Martin and Appleby, Scott, “Conclusion: Remaking the State; The Limits of the Fundamentalist Imagination”, in Fundamentalisms and the State, ed. Marty, and Appleby, , pp. 620–43Google Scholar; and Mark, Juergensmeyer, The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

⁷⁴ The claim that modern religious trends in Southeast Asia largely retain their traditionalist and syncretic character is articulated in Stange, Paul, “Religious Change in Contemporary Southeast Asia”, in The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, ed. Nicholas, Tarling (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), vol. 2, pp. 532–84Google Scholar.