2008_Book_Review_New_Buddhist_Movements.pdf

s’ or ‘ceramics’. While the vast ocean is an entity defined by physical conditions, its numerous various segments are distinguished by cultures and histories of exchange. The segmentation recorded in texts of the Song Period (960–1281) is apparently based on Arab categorization. European advances connecting the Asian, Atlantic and Pacific regions of the globe confine the time frame of this presentation. Through an essay rather than an introduction, the author offers a discourse of the Mediterranean model by Fernand Braudel (La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II), a seminal work that has reinforced interest in historical research into maritime relations elsewhere. Though triggered by this academic stimulus, the Asian physical, geo-graphical factors require a distinctively different approach, coupled with a perspective originating from the East. In great detail, ocean and drift currents as well as wind directions are described in relation to challenges posed by reefs and atolls, and examples given of the time required for certain sea passages. Research findings are presented in chronological order, however, in an east-west direction, to probe how and in which way the sub-regions traversed by the ‘maritime silk road’ grew to-gether, which structures emerged, which changes occurred, and what particular perceptions were kept on record. The maritime space covered by this book encompasses Asia’s eastern oceans 244ReviewsJournal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96with the Gulf of Bohai, the Yellow Sea, and the East China Sea; the South China Sea and Sulu Sea; the East Indonesian Seas; the Melaka Straits, the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Bengal; the Arabian Sea and the coast of East Africa; and the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Likening this maritime space to an (oriental) tapestry carpet, the author traces what evolved from the early beginnings to the turn of the present era AD, with foci on East Asia’s coasts into the Han Period (206 BC–220 AD); the virtually terra incognita of Southeast Asia; the underrated South Asia; and the seemingly known coasts of West Asia and East Africa. Han sources describe vessels designed, built and used in warfare, implying technical expertise, knowledge of logistics, and navigation skills (p. 60). After all, the settling of migrants from present-day Indonesia on Madagascar did, in all likelihood, depend on proven navigation skills, suitable vessels, and rigid organization (p. 62). The growing together, ca. 1–600 AD, of the ‘Eastern Ocean’ (Dongyang) and the ‘Southern Ocean’ (Nanyang), followed by the unfolding of the West-ern Ocean (Xiyang), as recorded in Chinese annals, and encompassing in the Western Ocean, first, the Eastern Indic / Indian Ocean and, then, linking-up to the Western Indic / Indian Ocean, complete with the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, resulted in what the author para-phrases as the Mare Euro-Asiaticum. During the span of time of the Tang Empire in China (ca. 600–950/1000) and the Caliphate of the Sassanids, followed by the Omayyads, then Abbasids, Asia’s eastern oceans were dominated by the Tang. Seaborne trade reinforced the spread of Buddhism towards the east, while the South China Sea became the scenario of encounters between Southeast Asians, Chinese and ‘Persians’. Also, across the Eastern Indic / Indian Ocean trade and cultural transfer between India and Southeast Asia intensified. From the west, Islam spread across the lands bordering the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, from where it reached out into the Western Indic /Indian Ocean region (p. 138). Around 950/1000, the maritime space became absorbed by the pull of the Far East, which held sway until 1350, under the leadership of the Song and Yuan, initially in Asia’s eastern oceans and expanding across the South China Sea and the East Indonesian Seas, and then reaching further east. At the same time, trade links were extended across the Eastern Indic/Indian Ocean and beyond into the Western Indic/ Indian Ocean, as far as the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, within the coordinates of Aden and Hormuz, Gujarat and Kerala, as depicted on the Jiuling shouling tu, a map dated 1125 (p. 170). Period sources report on improvements of the compass and inventions for navigating. For the Song economy, profits from overseas trade were substantial. Its pull effect made Hangzhou probably the biggest maritime entrepôt worldwide. The use of Song coins in Southeast Asia sig-nals the start of monetization (p. 165). 245ReviewsJournal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96Among the travellers and geographers was Wang Dayuan who, in the 1330s, reported in his Daoyi zhilüe about a Chinese pagoda built in 1267, during the Song Period, near Nagapattinam on India’s Coromandel Coast (pp. 191–192). Towards the end of the thirteenth and early in the fourteenth centuries, when the Mongols ruled over China and Persia, the coasts of East Asia and Iran were under the control of one and the same power. Early in the fourteenth cen-tury, there were virtually no obstacles to maritime traffic between Quanzhou and the ports of West Asia (p. 204). The following 150 years are char-acterized as an epoch of turning points in the course of fragmentation after the end of the Mongol domination (ca. 1350–1400). Of great significance was the Ming state-run seafaring, beginning early in the fifteenth century, upon the ascension of Emperor Zhu Di, known as the Yongle Emperor, in 1403, and the start of an enormous ship-build-ing programme, resulting in numerous fleets, complete with ‘treasure vessels’ (baochuan) (p. 234). Among several admirals, Zheng He and Wang Jinghong gained lasting fame. Zeng He com-manded seven large fleets across the ‘Western Ocean’ (Xi yang), 1405–1433. Most probably, priority was given to trade and diplomacy, with occasional military interventions of secondary importance. This is substantiated by the surge in tributary embassies received by Emperor Yongle, which characteristi-cally also entailed private transactions. The author highlights innovations created by that first-ever statal might ruling the seas of Asia, including political interventions far away from the power base, logistics, control of rear links, and state-run depots called ‘official places’ (guanchang) in such locations as Palembang, Kalikut or Melaka, or ‘official islands’ (guanxu) (pp. 241–242).While the first to fourth decades of the fifteenth century saw the grand and mighty seaborne missions of the Ming crossing the oceans and calling on ports near and far, other seafarers also plied the various maritime segments from early in the fifteenth century onward. Increasingly, the Ryukyu Islands and Ayutthaya gained in importance. A conspectus highlights two distinc-tive though related matters: the funda-mental trends germane to Asians and Portuguese in the maritime world after 1500, and a comparison of the Ming state-run seafaring with the Estado da Índia of the Portuguese. Virtually contravening the author’s resolve to highlight the whole, pre-cisely because it is more than the sum of its parts, a few salient points with a focus on the part of Southeast Asia that eventually constituted early Siam are highlighted here. The Gulf of Siam was probably one of the busiest maritime trading zones for several centuries (p. 36). Chinese texts report on sea links across the ‘Little Western Ocean’ (Xiao Xiyang) with the east coast of the Malay Peninsu-la and onward via overland connections to its west coast, reasoning that vessels 246ReviewsJournal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96from China could not directly navigate around its southern tip, owing to equa-torial calms (pp. 38–39, 46). The Nan Yue Kingdom was in contact with the Malay Peninsula via seagoing vessels (p. 61). Han sources relate trade with Southeast Asia. References to the tanned seafarers of Southeast Asia (Kunlun ren) in Chinese texts attest to early Chinese scholars’ interest in the maritime world and seaborne exchange (p. 65). Chinese records contain intensive references to Srivijaya from the end of the seventh century (p. 122). Srivijaya re-activated older tributary contacts with China in the Early Song Period (p. 126). Song sources report on tribute embassies from Srivijaya during the tenth and eleventh centuries (p. 175). Zhu Yuanzhang sent delegations and re-ceived embassies from Zhenla, Angkor and Xianluo, the latter identical with the central region of present-day Thailand (pp. 221–222). These delegations pre-sented sapan wood, elephants, ivory and spices, among other items (p. 222). In 1390, an embassy from Xianluo arrived with 80 tons of ‘aromatic substances’ presented as tribute, not including the huge volume of commodities for private transaction (p. 222). This book is elegantly written and presented. Its content is structured for ease of comprehension of the enormous-ly complex subject matter. Thematic maps focusing on essentials elucidate routes, linkages, activities and events, supplemented by attractive reproduc-tions of illustrative historical maps. Pictures and sketches of boats, ships, or vessels enhance the reader’s perception. Two appendixes enrich the presentation, one describing commodities in great detail, and another introducing various types of ships and ship-building, com-plete with illustrations. Commodities discussed in extenso include cloves, nutmeg, camphor, various woods, spices, precious stones, animals, and many more. The reference literature (pp. 334–351) is categorized into larger regions and epochs, and compendia on themes or regions such as commodi-ties and geographic areas. An elaborate index (pp. 355–368) listing topo-graphical names, individuals, dynasties, empires, commodities and select subjects makes for a well-rounded presentation. This is a superb book. It deserves to be translated into English for a certainly keen and large readership of scholars and interested lay persons.Karl E. Weber 247ReviewsJournal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96Ian Harris, ed., Buddhism, Power and Political Order. London and New York, Routledge, 2007, 237 pp.Ian Harris should be congratulated for his efforts to bring together a collection of fresh and thoughtful essays written by nine leading scholars working on Thera-vada Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia. Given the ongoing political crises in several Theravada Buddhist states, especially Burma, Cambodia, and Thai-land, the release of this publication is intellectually relevant and timely. This edited volume is the product of an intensive multidisciplinary sympo-sium on the interface between religion and politics in Theravada South and Southeast Asia, which Harris organized in mid-April 2004 while serving as a senior scholar at the Becket Institute, St Hugh’s College, Oxford University. The central theme of the volume deals with how and to what extent Theravada Bud-dhism has, as a religious institution and culture, interacted and negotiated with political and other forces of moderniza-tion, such as secular education, forms of governance, kingship, and post-colonial politics in mainland Southeast Asian countries (excluding Vietnam) since the late pre-modern period. It particularly focuses on the ways Theravada Bud-dhism has defined and redefined “a general concept of power conceived from a political perspective”. (p.3) Essays in this volume cover diverse subjects and different periods in politi-cal history of four modern nation-states. The quality of the contributions is rather uneven. Although they are brought together under the common theme of Buddhism, power, and political order, individual authors discuss Theravada Buddhism from different entry points, historical periods, and disciplinary angles. It is difficult to pinpoint the central arguments in the volume, which begins with a discussion on compara-tive monastic education in Burma and Thailand. In Chapter One, “Idealism and Pragmatism: A Dilemma in the Current Monastic Education Systems of Burma and Thailand”, Ven. Khammai Dham-masami discusses some common dilem-mas of monastic education in Burma and Thailand, such as whether or not the Sangha should embrace secular West-ern subjects, which are denoted by the derogatory term of “animal sciences” (tiracchanavija), in their monastic cur-ricula. Idealistic and pragmatic stances have emerged in both the Burmese and Thai Sangha regarding the goals and contents of monastic education. This dilemma is indicative of how Buddhist orders in both countries have been strug-gling to make themselves relevant in the modern world. Burmese Buddhism and its role in politics are the contents in the next two chapters. In Chapter Two, “Rajad-hamma Confronts Leviathan: Burmese Political Theory in the 1870s”, Andrew Huxley provides an account of Burma’s Buddhist political theory through works by U Kyaw Htun and U Hpo Hlaing. Huxley’s essay is well documented and thoughtful. His attempts to recon-struct an unfinished work on traditional 248ReviewsJournal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96Buddhist kingship written by leading Burmese Buddhist scholars demonstrate his own original scholarship. Through a careful reading of these indigenous scholars, Huxley argues that Burmese Buddhist scholars, at least in the nine-teenth century, were highly conscious of radical political and economic changes in the modern world. Juliane Schober, in Chapter Three: “Colonial Knowledge and Buddhist Education in Burma”, demonstrates how monastic education has been politicized by the government in Burma and how modern knowledge was incorporated into Buddhist cur-ricula. Schober shows the consistent government manipulation of monastic education, as well as its attempts to reorient its purpose to serve the politi-cal status quo. Monastic education and Sangha affairs were always included as key elements in a national agenda and drew serious attention from the coun-try’s pre-modern and modern leaders. The next two chapters deal with Bud-dhism and politics in postcolonial Cam-bodia. In Chapter Four, “Reconstruct-ing the Cambodian Polity: Buddhism, Kingship and the Quest for Legitimacy”, Peter Gyallay-Pap skillfully draws some theoretical implications out of case stud-ies of Khmer Buddhist political culture and tries to understand why Western lib-eral or representative politics continue to be elusive in postcolonial Cambodia. He argues that any attempts to under-stand the political culture in Cambodia must include the Buddhist monarchy, the Sangha, and village-based society. In a way, Cambodia’s model could provide a criticism of the Western-centric para-digm of a liberal representative polity. John Marston, in Chapter Five, “The Cambodian Hospital for Monks”, tells a story of how a Cambodian hospital for monks was built “at the moment of the country’s independence” (p.104). He points out that the construction of a hospital was indeed a modern project embedded in Cambodia’s traditional/pre-modern cultures and institutions of kingship and Buddhism. It serves as an example of how reformed Buddhism is consistent with specific visions of modernity in the country.The volume includes two chapters on Lao Buddhism, which is usually a neglected area in the world of Theravada studies. Both chapters are concerned with the pre-modern Laos Buddhist kingship and prophetic literature of the Lao people residing on both sides of the Mekong. In Chapter Six, “Buddhism, Power, and Political Order in Pre-Twen-tieth Century Laos”, Volker Grabowsky examines when and how Theravada Buddhism became the dominant re-ligion and how it shaped the concep-tions of kingship in pre-colonial Laos. He believes that Laos fully entered the Theravada world later than most neighboring polities. Rulers and elite had embraced the religion around the mid-fifteenth century. Lao kings took the concepts of righteous king (dham-maraja) and universal ruler (cakkavat-tin) seriously and the royal domains of land and manpower were crucial in the pre-colonial Lao Buddhist polity. In the following chapter, “Past, Present and 249ReviewsJournal of the Siam Society 2008 Vol. 96Future in Buddhist Prophetic Literature of the Lao”, Peter Koret deals with Lao prophetic Buddhist literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and considers how Buddhist Lao anticipated modernization and its consequences through prophetic literature. He argues that prophetic literature describing the decline of Buddhism illustrates the historical, cultural, and literary dimen-sions of the meaning of the future as prophesied in the past. This chapter is written more like a preliminary study and its analysis needs expansion.The two final chapters consider topics on Thai Buddhist cultures from widely separated spectra. They discuss subjects as diverse as a contemporary cult of a Buddhist earth deity with fertility power and legal literature in pre-modern Siam. Elizabeth Guthrie in Chapter Eight, “In Defence of the Nation: The Cult of Nang Thoranee in Northeast Thailand”, argues that the beliefs and practices surrounding the cult of Nang Thoranee are embedded in contemporary Thai political and economic realities. The cult can be seen as one of many emerg-ing nationalist cults in the midst of the country’s economic crisis and the Thais’ psychological despair at takeovers by foreign financial interests. This chap-ter is descriptive by nature with less illustrative theoretical and ethnographic analysis. The place of the cult of Nang Thoranee in the northeastern Thai popular religion is debatable, and so is its modern political significance. The final chapter, “King, Sangha and Brahmans: Ideology, Ritual and Power in Pre-modern Siam”, by Peter Skilling, presents a textual analysis of pre-mod-ern Siamese ideals of political super-structure. He uses the model of the ritual state to explain how political ideologies of kinship, Buddhist monastic order, and Brahmans formed the hybrid complex cosmology for the Siamese ruling class. He argues that these combinations were distinctively Thai. Skilling includes the Brahmans into what otherwise is gener-ally known as Buddhist polity and criti-cizes the concept of legitimizing power. His reading of Thai-language sources provides many new insights. While one can admire the overall contributions in this volume to the field of Theravada Buddhist studies, it should be noted that the book has its disadvantages. The essays are not neatly tied together, and seem to be arranged rather by countries or bounded Bud-dhist traditions rather than scholarly themes. The related th