Date & Time: November 9th (Thursday), 2023, 15:00-
Venue: Tonantei (Room 201), 2nd floor, Inamori Foundation Memorial Building

Program:
15:00-16:00
Talk (1): Transnationalizing Buddhism: Cambodian Temples, Student Monks and Pilgrims in Sri Lanka and India

Prof. John Marston (El Colegio de México/Center for Khmer Studies)

16:00-17:00
Talk(2): Emerging New Type Buddhist Lay Leaders in Rural Cambodian “vat”: Modernity, Knowledge Transmission, “Putthichak”

Prof. Satoru Kobayashi (CSEAS, Kyoto University)

17:00-  Discussion

Abstract (1):
In this paper I explore different ways in which Sri Lanka and India have become a locus of attention and activity for Cambodian Buddhists.  I look at three interrelated phenomena: Cambodian monks going to study in the countries, pilgrimage/tourist groups visiting sacred sites, and the building of Cambodian-style temples. These pilgrimages, the financial support of student monks, and fund-raising for temple projects, all involve, not only Cambodians from Cambodia proper, but the wider diaspora community in Europe, the United States, and Australia, so the transnationalism of the phenomena has its own triangular complexities. I attempt to understand how this developed and what, in social terms, it implies.

About the speaker:
John A. Marston is a professor-researcher at the Center for Asian and African Studies of El Colegio de México in Mexico City, and is currently a Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Khmer Studies in Siem Reap, Cambodia. He completed a doctorate in anthropology at University of Washington in 1997.  He has published three edited volumes on Cambodia and the anthropology of Southeast Asia: History, Buddhism and New Religious Movements in Cambodia (University of Hawaii Press), Anthropology and Community in Cambodia (Monash University Press), and Ethnicity, Borders, and the Grassroots Interface with the State (Silkworm Books), and his book Budismo y Sociedad en el sureste de Asia was published in 2020 by El Colegio de Mèxico. He has numerous articles in books and scholarly journals.

Abstract (2):
This paper explores the recent change in Buddhist practice in rural Cambodia. Cambodian Buddhism suffered discontinuity during the Pol Pot period but started reconstruction at the beginning of the 1980s. It has enjoyed rapid development since the 1990s, too. Buddhist lay leaders called “achar” have always been central to this historical process and significantly contributed to reconfiguring Buddhist activities in its society. However, based on the research in a province, a new type of “achar” started to emerge in rural “vat.” The paper explores this phenomenon’s background for understanding Cambodian　Buddhism’s contemporary transformation.

Contact: kobasa[at]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp