Stories centering on the lovelorn ghost (Mae Nak) and the magical
monk (Somdet To) are central to Thai Buddhism. Historically
important and emotionally resonant, these characters appeal to
every class of follower. Metaphorically and rhetorically powerful,
they invite constant reimagining across time. Focusing on
representations of the ghost and monk from the late eighteenth
century to the present, Justin Thomas McDaniel builds a case for
interpreting modern Thai Buddhist practice through the movements of
these transformative figures. He follows embodiments of the ghost
and monk in a variety of genres and media, including biography,
film, television, drama, ritual, art, liturgy, and the Internet.
Sourcing nuns, monks, laypeople, and royalty, he shows how
relations with these figures have been instrumental in crafting
histories and modernities. McDaniel is especially interested in
local conceptions of being "Buddhist" and the formation and
transmission of such identities across different venues and
technologies. Establishing an individual's "religious repertoire"
as a valid category of study, McDaniel explores the performance of
Buddhist thought and ritual through practices of magic,
prognostication, image production, sacred protection, and deity and
ghost worship, and clarifies the meaning of multiple cultural
configurations. Listening to popular Thai Buddhist ghost stories,
visiting crowded shrines and temples, he finds concepts of
attachment, love, wealth, beauty, entertainment, graciousness,
security, and nationalism all spring from engagement with the ghost
and the monk and are as vital to the making of Thai Buddhism as
venerating the Buddha himself.
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