Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand

Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand PDF Author: Craig J. Reynolds
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781760463168
Category : Police
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Thisbiographical study of an unusual southern policeman explores the relationshipbetween religion and power in Thailand during the early twentieth centurywhen parts of the country were remote and banditry was rife. Khun Phan(1898-2006), known as Lion Lawman, sometimes used rather too much lethalforce in carrying out his orders. He was the most famous graduate of amonastic academy in the mid-south, whose senior teachers imparted occultknowledge favoured by fighters on both sides of the law. Khun Phan imbibedthis knowledge to confront the risks and uncertainty that lay ahead andbolster his confidence and self-reliance for his struggle withadversaries. Against the background of national events, the story is rooted in themid-south where the policeman was born and died. Based on a wide range ofworks in Thai language, on field trips to the region and on interviews withlocal and regional scholars as well as the policeman's descendants, thisgenerously illustrated book, accompanied by short video clips, brings to lifethe distinctive environment of the lakes district on the Malay Peninsula.

Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand

Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand PDF Author: Craig J. Reynolds
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781760463168
Category : Police
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Get Book

Book Description
Thisbiographical study of an unusual southern policeman explores the relationshipbetween religion and power in Thailand during the early twentieth centurywhen parts of the country were remote and banditry was rife. Khun Phan(1898-2006), known as Lion Lawman, sometimes used rather too much lethalforce in carrying out his orders. He was the most famous graduate of amonastic academy in the mid-south, whose senior teachers imparted occultknowledge favoured by fighters on both sides of the law. Khun Phan imbibedthis knowledge to confront the risks and uncertainty that lay ahead andbolster his confidence and self-reliance for his struggle withadversaries. Against the background of national events, the story is rooted in themid-south where the policeman was born and died. Based on a wide range ofworks in Thai language, on field trips to the region and on interviews withlocal and regional scholars as well as the policeman's descendants, thisgenerously illustrated book, accompanied by short video clips, brings to lifethe distinctive environment of the lakes district on the Malay Peninsula.

Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand

Power, Protection and Magic in Thailand PDF Author: Craig J. Reynolds
Publisher: ANU Press
ISBN: 1760463175
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
This biographical study of an unusual southern policeman explores the relationship between religion and power in Thailand during the early twentieth century when parts of the country were remote and banditry was rife. Khun Phan (1898–2006), known as Lion Lawman, sometimes used rather too much lethal force in carrying out his orders. He was the most famous graduate of a monastic academy in the mid-south, whose senior teachers imparted occult knowledge favoured by fighters on both sides of the law. Khun Phan imbibed this knowledge to confront the risks and uncertainty that lay ahead and bolster his confidence and self-reliance for his struggle with adversaries. Against the background of national events, the story is rooted in the mid-south where the policeman was born and died. Based on a wide range of works in Thai language, on field trips to the region and on interviews with local and regional scholars as well as the policeman’s descendants, this generously illustrated book, accompanied by short video clips, brings to life the distinctive environment of the lakes district on the Malay Peninsula.

Culture-Bound Syndromes in Popular Culture

Culture-Bound Syndromes in Popular Culture PDF Author: Cringuta Irina Pelea
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1000982785
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
This volume explores culture-bound syndromes, defined as a pattern of symptoms (mental, physical, and/or relational) experienced only by members of a specific cultural group and recognized as a disorder by members of those groups, and their coverage in popular culture. Encompassing a wide range of popular culture genres and mediums – from film and TV to literature, graphic novels, and anime – the chapters offer a dynamic mix of approaches to analyze how popular culture has engaged with specific culture-bound syndromes such as hwabyung, hikikomori, taijin kyofusho, zou huo ru mo, sati, amok, Cuban hysteria, voodoo death, and others. Spanning a global and interdisciplinary remit, this first-of-its-kind anthology will allow scholars and students of popular culture, media and film studies, comparative literature, medical humanities, cultural psychiatry, and philosophy to explore simultaneously a diversity of popular cultures and culturally rooted mental health disorders.

Thailand’s Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries

Thailand’s Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries PDF Author: Marie-Sybille de Vienne
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000567583
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Based on two decades of fieldwork, including over a hundred interviews with various political and economic actors at different social levels, as well as documentary and media analysis, this volume presents an account of the Buddhist monarchy in Thailand, offering a sociology of elites, an analysis of the economic influence of the Crown and an examination of the magic and ritual dimension of kingship. An exploration of the role and status of the Palace over the last century, whether as a guarantor of democracy, a symbol of stability, a source of power or an object of popular discontent, Thailand’s Buddhist Kingship in the 20th and 21st Centuries will appeal to scholars of sociology and anthropology with interests in material religion, politics and Southeast Asian studies.

A History of Thailand

A History of Thailand PDF Author: Chris Baker
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1009014838
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
A History of Thailand offers a lively and accessible account of Thailand's political, economic, social, and cultural history.

Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia

Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia PDF Author: C. W. Watson
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824815158
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Witchcraft holds a perennial fascination for scholars and the public at large. In Southeast Asia malign magic and sorcery are part of the routine experience of villagers and urban dwellers alike, and stories appearing in the press from time to time bear witness to a persisting public concern. The essays presented in this volume describe what people believe and what actions result from those beliefs. Not surprisingly, given the range and variety of cultures, considerable differences exist in the region. Among some cultures, in Thailand and Indonesia for example, sorcerers are said to possess spirits that empower them to cause illness and misfortune. Elsewhere, in Malaysia and Sumatra, the power of the dukun derives from the accumulation of arcane knowledge and mystical practice. Contributors describe the witches and sorcerers they have met and suggest both how their societies look upon them and how we in turn should regard them. Understanding Witchcraft and Sorcery in Southeast Asia will appeal to scholars and students of social anthropology and comparative religion. Its substantial contribution to theoretical and comparative issues in a Southeast Asian context provides a fresh perspective on a stimulating topic.

The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk

The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk PDF Author: Justin Thomas McDaniel
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231153775
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Focusing on representations of a famous ghost and monk from the late eighteenth century to today, 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, drama, ritual, art, liturgy, film, television, and the Internet. Sourcing nuns, monks, laypeople, and royalty, McDaniel shows how relations with these figures have been instrumental in crafting histories and modernities, particularly local conceptions of being "Buddhist," and the formation and transmission of such identities across different venues and technologies.

Amulets

Amulets PDF Author: Sheila Paine
Publisher: Inner Traditions
ISBN: 9781594770258
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The first comprehensive illustrated study of the use of amulets around the world and throughout history • Explores not only the substances and symbolism from which amulets derive, but also the people and objects they protect • Explains the differences between and the purposes of amulets, talismans, charms, and fetishes All over the world and throughout history amulets have offered protection against negative forces, whether witchcraft, the evil eye, enemies, sickness, or accidents. Intricately beautiful or starkly simple, they come in an astonishing variety of guises: from stones, shells, and seeds, through animal tails, teeth, and claws, to beads, mirrors, needles, and bells. With over 400 lavish color photographs, this book explores amulets from every angle, including their symbolism and the diverse material used to craft them as well as the people and objects they protect. Sheila Paine traveled all over the world--from Afghanistan, Russia, and Albania, to Cameroon, Tunisia, and Mexico--to research the form, properties, and use of amulets, whether for health and safety or as channels for spiritual or magical powers. Worn as necklaces, sewn to clothing, painted on buildings, or hung in vehicles, amulets guard babies and brides; warriors, hunters, and travelers; livestock, crops, and homes through magical, not physical, means. Malign spirits and hobgoblins at crossroads have been feared since ancient times, but modern dangers--car crashes, new diseases, even cell phones--have ensured an abiding faith in the magical protection that amulets afford us that is still widely evident today.

The Buddha's Wizards

The Buddha's Wizards PDF Author: Thomas Nathan Patton
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231547374
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Wizards with magical powers to heal the sick, possess the bodies of their followers, and defend their tradition against outside threats are far from the typical picture of Buddhism. Yet belief in wizard-saints who protect their devotees and intervene in the world is widespread among Burmese Buddhists. The Buddha’s Wizards is a historically informed ethnographic study that explores the supernatural landscape of Buddhism in Myanmar to explain the persistence of wizardry as a form of lived religion in the modern era. Thomas Nathan Patton explains the world of wizards, spells, and supernatural powers in terms of both the broader social, political, and religious context and the intimate roles that wizards play in people’s everyday lives. He draws on affect theory, material and visual culture, long-term participant observation, and the testimonies of the devout to show how devotees perceive the protective power of wizard-saints. Patton considers beliefs and practices associated with wizards to be forms of defending Buddhist traditions from colonial and state power and culturally sanctioned responses to restrictive gender roles. The book also offers a new lens on the political struggles and social transformations that have taken place in Myanmar in recent years. Featuring close attention to the voices of individual wizard devotees and the wizards themselves, The Buddha’s Wizards provides a striking new look at a little-known aspect of Buddhist belief that helps expand our ways of thinking about the daily experience of lived religious practices.

Capitalism Magic Thailand

Capitalism Magic Thailand PDF Author: Peter A Jackson
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951978
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
By studying intersections among new cults of wealth, ritually empowered amulets and professional spirit mediumship—which have emerged together in Thailand’s dynamic religious field in recent decades—Capitalism Magic Thailand explores the conditions under which global modernity produces new varieties of enchantment. Bruno Latour’s account of modernity as a condition fractured between rationalizing ideology and hybridizing practice is expanded to explain the apparent paradox of new forms of magical ritual emerging alongside religious fundamentalism across a wide range of Asian societies. In Thailand, novel and increasingly popular varieties of ritual now form a symbolic complex in which originally distinct cults centred on Indian deities, Chinese gods and Thai religious and royal figures have merged in commercial spaces and media sites to sacralize the market and wealth production. Emerging within popular culture, this complex of cults of wealth, amulets and spirit mediumship is supported by all levels of Thai society, including those at the acme of economic and political power. New theoretical frameworks are presented in analyses that challenge the view that magic is a residue of premodernity, placing the dramatic transformations of cultic ritual centre stage in modern Thai history. It is concluded that modern enchantment arises at the confluence of three processes: neoliberal capitalism’s production of occult economies, the auraticizing effects of technologies of mass mediatization, and the performative force of ritual in religious fields where practice takes precedence over doctrine.