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Imitations of Buddhist Statecraft
The Patronage of Lao Buddhism and the Reconstruction of Relic Shrines and Temples in Colonial French Indochina
in Social Analysis
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Abstract
From 1893 onward, French colonialism sponsored and restructured Lao and Khmer Buddhism in order to create an ‘Indochinese Buddhism’. Over a span of several decades, the French promoted monastic education, reconstructed the major temples in Vientiane, and renovated the That Luang, the most important Buddhist relic shrine of Laos. This article explores the motivations and strategies for this endeavor, specifically focusing on French efforts to ‘re-materialize’ Lao Buddhism’s religious architecture. I argue that the renovation of these monuments as symbols and centers of power under the auspices of the École française d’Extrême-Orient was based on mimetic processes that should be understood as a form of ceremonial governmentality and colonial politics of affect, whose goal was to win the ‘sympathies’ of the colonized.
Contributor Notes
Patrice Ladwig studied social anthropology and sociology and obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge. He has worked at the University of Bristol, the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, and the University of Zurich. His work focuses on the anthropology of Buddhism (Laos and Thailand), death and funeral cultures, colonialism, the link of religion to communist movements, and general social theory. He currently works at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and carries out research on economic modernization, religion, and ethics in the context of the Max Planck Cambridge Centre for the Study of Ethics, Human Economy and Social Change. E-mail: ladwig@mmg.mpg.de