National University of Singapore Press
Pursuing Morality
Buddhism and Everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar
9789813252691
Distributed for National University of Singapore Press
Pursuing Morality
Buddhism and Everyday Ethics in Southeastern Myanmar
A deeply human portrait of a region defined by conflict and military dictatorship.
Pursuing Morality is an in-depth and fascinating study of ordinary life in Myanmar’s southeast through a unique ethnographic focus on Buddhist Plong (Pwo) Karen. Based on extensive in-depth fieldwork in the small city of Hpa-an, the capital of Karen State, Justine Chambers shines a new light on Plong Buddhists’ lives and the many ways they broker, traverse, enact, cultivate, defend, and pursue moral lives.
This is the first ethnographic study of Myanmar to add to a growing body of anthropological scholarship that is referred to as the “moral turn.” Each chapter examines the lives of Plong Buddhists from different vantage points, calling into question many assumptions about Southeast Asian values and the nature of Buddhist Theravada practice. Critiquing the notion that moral coherence is necessary for ethical selfhood, Chambers demonstrates how the pursuit of morality is varied, performative, and embedded in an affective notion of the self as a moral agent in a relationship with wider structural political forces. This vivid account of everyday life in Myanmar complements existing scholarship on the region and offers a deeper understanding of Buddhism, moral anthropology, and ethics in Southeast Asia.
Pursuing Morality is an in-depth and fascinating study of ordinary life in Myanmar’s southeast through a unique ethnographic focus on Buddhist Plong (Pwo) Karen. Based on extensive in-depth fieldwork in the small city of Hpa-an, the capital of Karen State, Justine Chambers shines a new light on Plong Buddhists’ lives and the many ways they broker, traverse, enact, cultivate, defend, and pursue moral lives.
This is the first ethnographic study of Myanmar to add to a growing body of anthropological scholarship that is referred to as the “moral turn.” Each chapter examines the lives of Plong Buddhists from different vantage points, calling into question many assumptions about Southeast Asian values and the nature of Buddhist Theravada practice. Critiquing the notion that moral coherence is necessary for ethical selfhood, Chambers demonstrates how the pursuit of morality is varied, performative, and embedded in an affective notion of the self as a moral agent in a relationship with wider structural political forces. This vivid account of everyday life in Myanmar complements existing scholarship on the region and offers a deeper understanding of Buddhism, moral anthropology, and ethics in Southeast Asia.
304 pages | 13 halftones, 2 maps | 5.98 x 9.02 | © 2024
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Religion: Philosophy of Religion, Theology, and Ethics, South and East Asian Religions
Table of Contents
LIST OF FIGURES
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ACRONYMS
LANGUAGE AND TERMINOLOGY
GLOSSARY
PRELUDE
INTRODUCTION
Studying Morality as an Outsider in a Hospitable Land
Chapter Outline
CHAPTER ONE
KAREN: A MORAL PEOPLE IN A CONFLICT STATE
Conflict in Southeast Myanmar: The Moral Karen and the Struggle for Kawthoolei
Introducing Hpa-An: A Centre for Militarised Buddhist Authority
Karen Unity Amid Division: Coming Together in the Karen Wrist Tying Ceremony
Competing Moral Projects of Power and Statehood in a Time of Change
CHAPTER TWO
BROKERING MORALITY IN THE BUDDHIST ‘MORAL UNIVERSE’
A Charismatic Monk, his Daga and the ‘Merit-Power’ Nexus
The Buddhist ‘Moral Universe’
A Buddhist Strongman: The Moral Consequences of Unclean Business
Morality Without Faith? Keeping Thout Kyar as A Plong Ideal
Reflections on Brokering Morality in a Power-Laden Landscape
CHAPTER THREE
TRAVERSING MORALITY IN A CHANGING WORLD
Hpa-An’s Changing Social Landscape
Aspiring Subjects: Searching for a ‘Life Of Curry’
The Limits Of Moral Agency
Reflections on Traversing Morality in a Changing World
CHAPTER FOUR
ENACTING MORALITY: COMING OF AGE ON SHIFTING MORAL GROUND
Coming of Age as a Young Plong Woman
Transgressing Morality? Playing with Different Selves during Thingyan
Reflections on Pursuing Morality as a Young Woman ‘Coming Of Age’
CHAPTER FIVE
CULTIVATING MORALITY IN AN AGE OF DECLINE
Hpu Takit’s Plong Nationality Village
Hpu Takit: The Embodiment of a Charismatic Moral Authority
The Revitalisation of a Plong Buddhist Universe
Cultivating Morality within the Constraints of the Life Course
Reflections on Cultivating Morality in an Age Of Decline
CHAPTER SIX
DEFENDING MORAL COMMUNITY: BUDDHIST NATIONALISM AND PLONG MORAL IDENTITY
Plong Buddhist Morality and its Other
Violence in the Name of Protecting the Sasana
Reflections on Defending Moral Community
CHAPTER SEVEN
PURSUING MORALITY IN THE MIDST OF A CRISIS
Research Among Plong Buddhists and its Significance
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ACRONYMS
LANGUAGE AND TERMINOLOGY
GLOSSARY
PRELUDE
INTRODUCTION
Studying Morality as an Outsider in a Hospitable Land
Chapter Outline
CHAPTER ONE
KAREN: A MORAL PEOPLE IN A CONFLICT STATE
Conflict in Southeast Myanmar: The Moral Karen and the Struggle for Kawthoolei
Introducing Hpa-An: A Centre for Militarised Buddhist Authority
Karen Unity Amid Division: Coming Together in the Karen Wrist Tying Ceremony
Competing Moral Projects of Power and Statehood in a Time of Change
CHAPTER TWO
BROKERING MORALITY IN THE BUDDHIST ‘MORAL UNIVERSE’
A Charismatic Monk, his Daga and the ‘Merit-Power’ Nexus
The Buddhist ‘Moral Universe’
A Buddhist Strongman: The Moral Consequences of Unclean Business
Morality Without Faith? Keeping Thout Kyar as A Plong Ideal
Reflections on Brokering Morality in a Power-Laden Landscape
CHAPTER THREE
TRAVERSING MORALITY IN A CHANGING WORLD
Hpa-An’s Changing Social Landscape
Aspiring Subjects: Searching for a ‘Life Of Curry’
The Limits Of Moral Agency
Reflections on Traversing Morality in a Changing World
CHAPTER FOUR
ENACTING MORALITY: COMING OF AGE ON SHIFTING MORAL GROUND
Coming of Age as a Young Plong Woman
Transgressing Morality? Playing with Different Selves during Thingyan
Reflections on Pursuing Morality as a Young Woman ‘Coming Of Age’
CHAPTER FIVE
CULTIVATING MORALITY IN AN AGE OF DECLINE
Hpu Takit’s Plong Nationality Village
Hpu Takit: The Embodiment of a Charismatic Moral Authority
The Revitalisation of a Plong Buddhist Universe
Cultivating Morality within the Constraints of the Life Course
Reflections on Cultivating Morality in an Age Of Decline
CHAPTER SIX
DEFENDING MORAL COMMUNITY: BUDDHIST NATIONALISM AND PLONG MORAL IDENTITY
Plong Buddhist Morality and its Other
Violence in the Name of Protecting the Sasana
Reflections on Defending Moral Community
CHAPTER SEVEN
PURSUING MORALITY IN THE MIDST OF A CRISIS
Research Among Plong Buddhists and its Significance
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX