Purchasing power and pagodas: The Sima monastic boundary and consumer politics in Cambodia

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 38, Issue 2, 2007, Pages 335-354

  Kent, Alexandra ^a  

^a Nordic Institute of Asian Studies   (Denmark)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR; POLITICAL ECONOMY; PURCHASING POWER PARITY; RECONSTRUCTION; RURAL AREA;

ASIA; CAMBODIA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 34250834318     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463407000070     Document Type: Article

References (48)

1. T. Khlot, La Croyance Cambodgienne des Origines à nos Jours, Cambodia Report (Phnom Penh: Centre for Advanced Study, 1996), p. 6.
2. C. Hughes, The political economy of Cambodia's transition 1991-2001 (London: Routledge, Curzon, 2003).
3. V. Krishnamurthy, The impact of armed conflict on social capital (Phnom Penh: Social Services of Cambodia, 1999).
4. C. Hughes, 'The politics of gifts: Tradition and regimentation in contemporary Cambodia', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 37, 3 (2006): 469-489.
5. J. Ledgerwood and J. Vijghen, 'Decision making in rural Khmer villages', in Cambodia Emerges from the Past: Eight Essays, ed. J. Ledgerwood and J. Vijghen (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, 2002), 109-50.
6. See also E. Gottesman, Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge: Inside the politics of nation building (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003).
7. M. Douglas, Purity and danger (London: Routledge, 1966), p. 5.
8. The pagoda was traditionally a strong community centre that provided education for boys, a refuge for the elderly, redistribution of resources, rice and buffalo banks, library facilities and healing services.
9. A. Choulean, 'The place of animism within popular Buddhism in Cambodia: The example of the monastery', Asian Folklore Studies, 47 (1988): 35-41.
10. M. Giteau, Le Bornage Rituel des Temples Bouddhiques au Cambodge (Paris: École Francaise d'Extrême-Orient, 1969).
11. S. J. Tambiah, World conqueror: A study of Buddhism and polity in Thailand against a historical background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).
12. M. Stuart-Fox, 'Conflicting conceptions of the state: Siam, France and Vietnam in the late nineteenth century, Journal of the Siam Society 82, 2 (1994): 135-44.
13. B. Kapferer, Legends of people myths of state: Violence, intolerance, and political culture in Sri Lanka and Australia (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988). See introduction for clarification of 'logic of encompassment'.
14. I. Harris, ed., Buddhism and politics in twentieth century Asia (London: Continuum, 1999).
15. D. Chandler, Facing the Cambodian past (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996), p. 106. The sense of the term 'consume' here should not be confused with that of consumer culture. In this context it refers to the levying of revenue from the land by royalty or governors (David Chandler, personal communication. I am also grateful to Bruce Lockhart for pointing out the parallel with 'kin muang' in Thailand).
16. I. Harris, Cambodian Buddhism: History and practice (Honolulu, University of Hawai'i Press, 2005), p. 49 f 4. Also notes the similarity between the Cambodian and Thai connections between food and governance.
17. I. Harris, Cambodian Buddhism: History and practice (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005), p. 50.
18. M. Wright, 'Sacrifice and the underworld: Death and fertility in Siamese myth and ritual', Journal of the Siam Society, 78, 1 (1990): 43-54.
19. Ibid.
20. See Chandler, Facing the Cambodian past, p.77.
21. J. Schober, 'The Theravada Buddhist engagement with modernity in Southeast Asia: Whither the social paradigm of the Galactic polity?', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 26, 2 (1995): 307-25.
22. J. Marston, 'Democratic Kampuchea and the idea of modernity', in Cambodia emerges from the past, ed. J. Ledgerwood and J. Vijghen (DeKalb: Centre for Southeast Asia Publications, Northern Illinois University, 2002), pp. 38-59.
23. Chandler, Facing the Cambodian past
24. A. Thompson. 'The suffering of kings: Substitute bodies, healing, and justice in Cambodia', in History, Buddhism, and new religious movements in Cambodia, ed. J. Marston and E. Guthrie (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2005), 91-112.
25. E. Porée-Maspero, Cérémonies des douze mois: Fêtes annuelles Cambodgiennes (Paris: Centre de Documentation et de Recherche sur la Civilisation Khmere, 1985).
26. S. Bou, 'An athletic offering to the world of the spirits', Phnom Penh Post, Phnom Penh, 20 October 2001.
27. A. Choulean, 'La communauté rurale Khmère du point du vue du sacré, Journal Asiatique, 278, 1-2 (1990): 135-54.
28. A. Forest, Le Culte des Genies Protecteurs au Cambodge (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1992).
29. F. Bizot, Le figuier à cinq branches: Recherche sur le Bouddhisme Khmer (Paris: École Francaise D'Éxtrême-Orient, 1976).
30. Giteau, Le Bornage Rituel des Temple Bouddhiques au Cambodge.
31. See Hughes, 'The politics of gifts', who argues that 'patron-client relations', which were formerly relatively flexible and negotiable, have become fixed and immutable since today's patrons hold the menacing power to dispossess the poor.
32. D. Bertrand, 'A medium possession practice and its relationship with Cambodian Buddhism', in History, Buddhism, and new religious movements in Cambodia, ed. J. Marston and E. Guthrie (2005), pp. 150-69.
33. E. Guthrie, 'Buddhist temples and Cambodian politics', in People and the 1998 national elections in Cambodia, ed. J. Vijghen (Phnom Penh: Experts for Community Research, 2002), pp. 59-74.
34. S. Chea and J. Eckhardt, 'Activist monks dare to defy authorities', Phnom Penh Post, Phnom Penh, 20 July 1998.
35. L. McGrew, 'Buddhism and beatings', Phnom Penh Post, 22 July 1998
36. L. McGrew, 'Pagoda politics: A view from the temples', Phnom Penh Post, 22 July 1998
37. S. Pok and B. Moorthy, 'Monks walk a tightrope between peace and politics', Phnom Penh Post, 22 July 1998.
38. J. Frommer, 'Wat threatens pro-SRP monks', Phnom Penh Post, 21 December 2003.
39. Buddhism attaches great value to the notion of selfless giving, as exemplified in the Vessantara tale of one of the Buddha's previous lives, when the Buddha demonstrated his selflessness by giving away his wife and children.
40. A. Hansen, 'Khmer identity and Theravada Buddhism,' in History, Buddhism and new religious movements in Cambodia, ed. J. Marston and E. Guthrie (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2004), pp. 40-62.
41. A. L. Hinton, Why did they kill? Cambodia in the shadow of genocide (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005).
42. It is possible that the achar was deliberately playing on the ambiguity of the word khsae, which is also used to refer to 'strings' of influential, social relationships that can be mobilised for protection.
43. E. Guthrie, 'Buddhist temples and Cambodian politics', in People and the 1998 national elections in Cambodia, ed. J. Vijghen (Phnom Penh: Experts for Community Research, 2002), pp. 59-74.
44. Mary Douglas, Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo (New York: Praeger, 1966).
45. A. Kent, 'Divinity, miracles and charity in the Sathya Sai Baba movement of Malaysia', Ethnos 69, 1 (2004): 43-62.
46. J. Parry, 'On the moral perils of exchange', in Money and the morality of exchange, ed. J. Parry and M. Bloch (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 64-93.
47. Ibid., p.84.
48. P. D. Curtin, Cross-cultural trade in world history (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), p. 6.