2018/01/10 by Alicia Turner · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Asian Studies and History
paper · doi:10.1017/s0021911817001292
openalex publication_date 2018/01/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Why are histories of colonialism and religious transformation in Southeast Asia so often told as inextricably interrelated? Why were Buddhist movements identified as both the locus for resistance to colonialism and the central means of constructing colonial modernity? Part of the reason lies in how religion served as both a European technique of colonial governmentality and a local repository of techniques for comprehending and responding to change. More than this, religion seems to have offered a multivalent medium for a variety of innovations. Pali examinations were central to Buddhist reform in colonial Burma at the turn of the twentieth century but also fomented conflicts between the colonial state and monastic factions over the purpose of language study. However, beyond such conflicts, Pali examinations proved fertile grounds for Buddhist laypeople to experiment with multiple interpretations of what Buddhist modernity might mean in Burma.