Spirits, Mortal Dread, and Ontological Security: Prosperity and Saving Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar

Abstract

Following the global spread of capitalism and increasing impact of cultural globalization since the 1990s, prosperity religion, nationalist movements, and religious fundamentalism have emerged throughout the world. This article argues that such global tendencies intersect in certain forms of “prosperity Buddhism” that have emerged in recent years in Burma/Myanmar. As this article demonstrates, a novel Buddhist imaginary linked to prosperity Buddhism has evolved that represents a transformation of previous notions. The article argues that it can serve as a resource mainly for women to get success in business and can provide them with a way to negotiate Buddhist identity and acquire a sense of ontological security in rapidly changing urban areas. It can also serve as a means for social control and maintaining hegemonic power relations. For ritual specialists, these novel cults serve as the recurrent strategy of saving the Buddha’s dispensation in the face of rapid change. DURING RECENT FIELDWORK in Burma/Myanmar, I interviewed hundreds of people, predominantly women, and found something I did not expect: the majority of them claimed to have a thaik-hsek, a “connection to the treasure trove” based on a previous existence, something they had learned from a diversity of ritual specialists. Most of them were devotees of a variety of novel, individualistic, and noninstitutionalized cults of prosperity Buddhism, especially the cult of the spirits guarding underground treasure troves. Having such a connection to these spirits has long been “diagnosed” by exorcists from esoteric Buddhist congregations (see Foxeus 2016c) as a potentially dangerous source of health problems, and even a mortal danger. For that reason, it has been treated with exorcism. Today this connection has been positively revalued and tends to be regarded less as a problem than as a resource that can give success in business and bring wealth through opportunities that have emerged in the evolving market economy. It also serves to resolve personal crises and issues of modern and urban identity and to preserve Buddhism in society in the face of the rapid changes Burma is currently undergoing.

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