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The Immortals - Faces of the Incredible in Buddhist Burma (Paperback)
Loot Price: R818
Discovery Miles 8 180
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The Immortals - Faces of the Incredible in Buddhist Burma (Paperback)
Series: Topics in Contemporary Buddhism
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In 1952 a twenty-six-year-old man living in a village in Central
Burma was possessed by weikza - humans with extraordinary powers,
including immortality. Key figures inBurmese Buddhism, weikza do
not die but live on in an invisible realm. From there they re-enter
the world through possession to care for people’s temporal and
spiritual needs while protecting and propagating Buddhism. A cult
quickly formed around the young peasant, the chosen medium for four
weikza ranging in age from 150 to 1000 years. In addition, these
weikza appeared regularly in the flesh. The Immortals plunges us
into the midst of this cult, which continues to attract followers
from all over the country who seek to pay homage to the weikza,
receive their teaching, and benefi t from their power. The cult of
the four weikza raises a number of classic anthropological issues,
particularly for the anthropology of religion: the nature of the
supernatural and of belief; the relations among religion, magic,
and science; the experience of possession. It also provides a
window on contemporary Burmese society. To contemplate both, the
author adopts an unconventional approach, which itself reflects
representation in anthropology, or, more precisely, how
anthropology uses description and the interpretations description
occasions to make sense of what it studies. The writing makes clear
both the indigenous take on reality and the work of anthropological
understanding as it is being elaborated, along with the ties that
connect the latter to the former. Mixing narration of the
incredible with reflection on the forms religious experience takes,
The Immortals offers us a way to accompany the author into the
field and to grasp - to take up and make our own - the
anthropologist’s interpretations and the realities to which they
pertain.
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