Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman

A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand

Jane Bunnag (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

232 Seiten

2007
Cambridge University Press (Verlag)
978-0-521-04064-8 (ISBN)

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Most anthropological and sociological studies of Buddhism have concentrated on village and rural Buddhism. This is a systematic anthropological study of monastic organization and monk-layman interaction in a purely urban context in the countries where Theravada Buddhism is practised, namely, Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, Laos and Thailand. The material presented is based on fieldwork carried out in Ayutthaya, Central Thailand. Dr Bunnag describes and analyses the socio-economic and ritual relations existing between the monk and the lay community, and she demonstrates the way in which the role of the monk is used by some men, wittingly or otherwise, as a social stepping-stone, in that for the son of a farmer a period in the monkhood can provide the education and contacts necessary to facilitate his assimilation into the urban lay community at a social and economic level which would otherwise have been impossible. Finally, Dr Bunnag places the material presented in a broader theoretical context by reviewing it in relation to anthropological discussions concerning the nature of Thai society as a whole.

List of tables; List of illustrations; Preface; Introduction: the Thai social system; 1. 'The way of the monk'; 2. The monk and the lay community; 3. The wat community; 4. The wat and its social matrix; 5. The role of the Buddhist layman; 6. The loosely structured social system: red herring or rara avis?; Appendixes; Bibliography; Index.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	17.9.2007
Reihe/Serie	Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Zusatzinfo	Worked examples or Exercises
Verlagsort	Cambridge
Sprache	englisch
Maße	153 x 229 mm
Gewicht	353 g
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Buddhismus
ISBN-10	0-521-04064-7 / 0521040647
ISBN-13	978-0-521-04064-8 / 9780521040648
Zustand	Neuware