ENGLISH

Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand

By Jane Bunnag

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
1973
ISBN
9780511557576, 0521085918, 0521040647, 0511557574, 9780521040648, 9780521085915
LCC
BQ6160.T42 P462
Language
english
Format
DJVU
Filesize
2 MB (1719889 bytes)
Series
Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology
Pages
231\228
Topic
Education
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

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.

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