Monograph #59

Yale Southeast Asia Studies Monograph #59

RENUNCIATION AND POWER:  The Quest for Sainthood in Contemporary Burma

by Guillaume Rozenberg
translated by Jessica Hackett
 

This monograph explores the identity of a seemingly paradoxical figure: the Burmese Buddhist saint, who departs for the forest to combine harsh asceticism with radical world renunciation, yet also seeks active involvement in the affairs of society. Examining the trajectory and work of eight living monks committed to the quest for salvation, Rozenberg contradicts representations of Theravada Buddhist saints as single-minded pursuers of nirvana. On the contrary, he shows how work for the temporal welfare and spiritual advancement of all is integral to a Burmese saint's identity. The saint predicts winning lottery numbers, redistributes goods donated to him, and develops building complexes essential to the spread of Buddhism. Throughout the book, otherwise obscure notions of spiritual power are reconsidered and explicated in a Burmese context.

Guillaume Rozenberg has been a researcher with the French National Center of Scientific Research since 2004, and is a member of the Center of Social Anthropology (LISST) in Toulouse, France. His research focuses on figures of Buddhist sainthood and related cults in contemporary Burma.

180pp
>Paper $20.00; ISBN 978-0-938692-92-8
 *Cloth $35.00; ISBN 978-0-938692-93-5

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