Michael K. Jerryson
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199793235
- eISBN:
- 9780199897438
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199793235.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
For many people, the concept of Buddhist violence is an oxymoron. The image of a Buddhist monk holding a handgun or the view of a militarized Buddhist monastery challenges our popular images of ...
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For many people, the concept of Buddhist violence is an oxymoron. The image of a Buddhist monk holding a handgun or the view of a militarized Buddhist monastery challenges our popular images of Buddhism. However, these sights actually exist in southern Thailand. One of the lesser known but longest running conflicts of Southeast Asia is in Thailand’s southernmost provinces. Among the various causes of the conflict is religious division. Although Thailand’s population is 92% Buddhist, over 85% of the people in the southernmost provinces are Muslim. Since 2004, the Thai government has imposed martial law over the three provinces in this territory and fought with a grassroots militant Malay Muslim insurgency. Buddhist Fury examines five different Buddhist dimensions of the conflict and places them within a global context. Through fieldwork conducted in the conflict area, the book follows the southern Thai Buddhist monks and their practices in Thailand’s deep south. Many Buddhist practices remain unchanged. Buddhist monks continue to chant, counsel the laity, and accrue merit. Yet at the same time, some monks zealously advocate Buddhist nationalism, act as covert military officers, and equip themselves with guns. The book examines the methods by which religion alters the nature of the conflict and the dangers inherent in this transformation.Less
For many people, the concept of Buddhist violence is an oxymoron. The image of a Buddhist monk holding a handgun or the view of a militarized Buddhist monastery challenges our popular images of Buddhism. However, these sights actually exist in southern Thailand. One of the lesser known but longest running conflicts of Southeast Asia is in Thailand’s southernmost provinces. Among the various causes of the conflict is religious division. Although Thailand’s population is 92% Buddhist, over 85% of the people in the southernmost provinces are Muslim. Since 2004, the Thai government has imposed martial law over the three provinces in this territory and fought with a grassroots militant Malay Muslim insurgency. Buddhist Fury examines five different Buddhist dimensions of the conflict and places them within a global context. Through fieldwork conducted in the conflict area, the book follows the southern Thai Buddhist monks and their practices in Thailand’s deep south. Many Buddhist practices remain unchanged. Buddhist monks continue to chant, counsel the laity, and accrue merit. Yet at the same time, some monks zealously advocate Buddhist nationalism, act as covert military officers, and equip themselves with guns. The book examines the methods by which religion alters the nature of the conflict and the dangers inherent in this transformation.
Joseph Chinyong Liow
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832803
- eISBN:
- 9780824868970
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832803.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter provides a historiography of modern education in Thailand's Muslim society. The study focuses on the Malay-Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, where the vast majority of ...
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This chapter provides a historiography of modern education in Thailand's Muslim society. The study focuses on the Malay-Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, where the vast majority of Thai Muslims reside and where issues related to Islamic education are most challenging. It is argued that the Malay-Muslim community has increasingly exercised agency in its attempt to navigate between pressures generated by the need to preserve culture, knowledge, and identity on the one hand, and the demands of modernization and nationalism on the other. One consequence of this attempt to transform Islamic education, however, has been the emergence of contestations within the structures of Islamic education, creating cleavages that mirror general changes in Thailand's Muslim society.Less
This chapter provides a historiography of modern education in Thailand's Muslim society. The study focuses on the Malay-Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat, where the vast majority of Thai Muslims reside and where issues related to Islamic education are most challenging. It is argued that the Malay-Muslim community has increasingly exercised agency in its attempt to navigate between pressures generated by the need to preserve culture, knowledge, and identity on the one hand, and the demands of modernization and nationalism on the other. One consequence of this attempt to transform Islamic education, however, has been the emergence of contestations within the structures of Islamic education, creating cleavages that mirror general changes in Thailand's Muslim society.
Geoff Ashton
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824847593
- eISBN:
- 9780824868215
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824847593.003.0046
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter focuses on the efficacy of Buddhist spiritual practices for Westerners attending a Buddhist meditation retreat in Southern Thailand. At the same time it shows how the introspective ...
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This chapter focuses on the efficacy of Buddhist spiritual practices for Westerners attending a Buddhist meditation retreat in Southern Thailand. At the same time it shows how the introspective self-study involved in Buddhist meditation enacts a form of ethnographic research. The retreat in question had initially limited the options for the author to conduct his research, as it was structured to quiet the mind and draw attention to the immediacy of the moment. Despite initial setbacks, however, it became possible to conduct research through direct observation and limited interviews. Moreover, the author was able to employ a methodology to which Buddhist mindfulness training is particularly amenable through its emphasis upon introspective awareness: self-analysis.Less
This chapter focuses on the efficacy of Buddhist spiritual practices for Westerners attending a Buddhist meditation retreat in Southern Thailand. At the same time it shows how the introspective self-study involved in Buddhist meditation enacts a form of ethnographic research. The retreat in question had initially limited the options for the author to conduct his research, as it was structured to quiet the mind and draw attention to the immediacy of the moment. Despite initial setbacks, however, it became possible to conduct research through direct observation and limited interviews. Moreover, the author was able to employ a methodology to which Buddhist mindfulness training is particularly amenable through its emphasis upon introspective awareness: self-analysis.
Francis R. Bradley
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824851613
- eISBN:
- 9780824868093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824851613.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
The introduction places this book in the fields of social history, Southeast Asian Islamic scholarly traditions, Islamic revivalism, and the history of Patani and the contested Malay-Thai border ...
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The introduction places this book in the fields of social history, Southeast Asian Islamic scholarly traditions, Islamic revivalism, and the history of Patani and the contested Malay-Thai border zone. It outlines the theoretical and historiographical underpinnings of the work. Chapter one also notes the contemporary relevance of the work on a regionLess
The introduction places this book in the fields of social history, Southeast Asian Islamic scholarly traditions, Islamic revivalism, and the history of Patani and the contested Malay-Thai border zone. It outlines the theoretical and historiographical underpinnings of the work. Chapter one also notes the contemporary relevance of the work on a region
