Buddhist Orthodoxy or Ritual Excess in a Shan Novice Ordination

Author: Ferguson, Jane

Source: Contemporary Buddhism, Volume 10, Number 1, May 2009 , pp. 65-73(9)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

Key:

- Free Content

- New Content

- Subscribed Content

- Free Trial Content

Abstract:

Based on an ethnography of a Shan Buddhist novice ordination in a community of former Shan insurgents and their affiliates, this article discusses the ways in which social conditions push the signification of the ritual beyond the expectations of its orthodox intent. As I argue, it is in the ritual's juxtaposition of sober merit-making with rock music revelry that creates a kind of syncopation which gives the event greater force and social meaning in the social milieu of marginalized Shan people, pushed back by two larger nation-states.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/14639940902968921

The full text electronic article is available for purchase. You will be able to download the full text electronic article after payment.

$38.49 plus tax Refund Policy