Organizer and Chair: Nicola Tannenbaum, Lehigh University
Discussant: Steven Collins, University of Chicago
Rebirth and the recycling of soul stuff maintains
relationships among the living and the dead. In mainland Southeast Asia, ideas
of rebirth are primarily associated with the practice of Theravada Buddhism.
However, this concept is not limited to Buddhism but is more widespread. In
this panel we explore ideas about rebirth among four groups: Burmese (Brac
de la Perrière), Khmer
(Davis), Shan in northwestern Thailand (Tannenbaum), and Hmong in Thailand
(Symonds). While Burmese, Shan, and Khmer are all Buddhists, their practices
and understandings are localized and differ. Adding the non-Buddhist Hmong
will help us understand the regional play of ideas that cross both lowland
and upland groups.
Our papers focus on two interrelated aspects of rebirth: what is it that is
actually reborn and why is this reborn aspect born when and where it is? In
particular, we examine local ideas about what is reborn and what is not reborn.
In the Theravada Buddhist context, it is normatively said that people who make
merit together are reborn together. But why are particular people reborn into
the households and communities that they are? How can the living tell who is
reborn among them and how do the relationships in previous lives affect where
a person is born? How is this similar to and different from the ways in which
Hmong conceptualize re-birth?
The panelists bring their ethnographic experience to explore and analyze rebirth
from a lived religion perspective. To counterbalance and contextualize our ethnographic
analyses, Steven Collins is our discussant.
Erik W. Davis, University of Chicago
Textual Buddhism denies “personal continuity”, while most Buddhists
accept personal continuity as a simple fact of life (and death). This disjunction
can lead to the apparently bizarre experience of listening to the Khmer Rouge’s “Brother
Number Two,” Nuon Chea, espousing a more “orthodox” view than
devout Buddhists.
Rebirth takes place according to the laws of karma, across all possible types
of existence (gods, angels, humans, animals, ghosts, hell beings). However,
the vast majority of observable rebirths seem to take place within family lines.
Jataka tales confirm this notion: although they rarely deal with family lines,
they deal almost universally with the intertwined karma of individuals across
multiple births. This leads to a communal and transmigratory karmic narrative.
This presentation takes the apparent antitheses presented by textual and “fieldwork” Buddhism
and proposes a way of conceptualizing rebirth in terms of relationship rather
than identity. Drawing especially on interviews with children recognized
as specific rebirths and their families, I suggest that this way of conceptualizing
rebirth beliefs not only helps resolve the textual- practical divide on this
matter, but also has very concrete expressions in terms of childrearing and
family.
Benedicte Brac de la Perriere, EFEO
Beliefs in the Nats are a part of the Burmese Buddhist religious system.
Nats are supposed to be spirits left over by violent death. According to
the Buddhist karmic theory, nats are anomalous since they have not escaped the
cycle of life yet they are dead that will not be reborn. As beings, they are
the product of the transformation of a leïppya - the component of the being giving
him identity and life, often translated as “soul” - that has not
been processed adequately to disappear after the death. Left over, they are
not mere ghosts since they have been settled as tutelary spirits in the communities
where they were born. As disincarnated beings they are looking for humans they
take as a “spouse” (natkadaw) or mediums, to serve them as temporary
incarnation bodies.
The nats are not the only anomalous beings of the Burmese representations.
Weikzas are supposed to have escaped the cycle of rebirths without disappearing
from this world. Interestingly enough, they also may have a temporary incarnation
by possessing human mediums. Yet, in the Burmese ordering of beings they are
on the opposite ends, nats being the result of bad death while weikzas are not
conceived of as dead. The paper will compare the two cases in order to highlight
what these anomalies mean from the point of view of rebirth.
Patricia V. Symonds, Brown University
While upland and lowland groups are often seen as having little in common,
nonetheless there are some commonalities, including the idea of rebirth. In
Theravada Buddhism, the notion of karma, that actions have consequences, underlies
the idea of rebirth. Individuals are reborn in better or worse states, based
on their actions, until they realize that life is suffering and they can escape
this cycle of rebirth. While the fact of rebirth is the same, the question is
how do these other groups understand rebirth and how is it similar to or different
from Theravada Buddhist understandings.
In this paper, I explore how life, death, and rebirth are inter twined in
the cosmology of the Hmong, a minority group who live in the northern mountains
of Thailand where I conducted my research over the past years. I explore
the following dimensions: is the ultimate goal for Hmong escape from the cycle
of rebirth? Does one’s actions during the previous lives affect one’s
rebirth? What part of the “self” is recycled into this life in order
to continue on the circle for birth into the Land of Light and eventually
death and the guided journey to the Land of Darkness? In conclusion, I discuss
the important elements which account for the recycling and are specific rituals
integral to rebirth.
Nicola Tannenbaum, Lehigh University
In the Shan community of Thongmakhsan, northwestern Thailand, where I have
done most of my ethnographic research, children are identified as so-and-so
who was reborn. These identifications are based on appearance, personal proclivities,
and dreams around the time the child was born. The cultural cliché that
people who make merit together are reborn together provides an insight into
the nature of communities and the ways in which they are populated through time.
People tend to be re-born in their immediate community or with near kin. This
generates ties that, potentially, link individuals across households as well
as creating a community of the same persons through time in the same place.
Counterbalancing the continuity through transformation with rebirth are particular
individuals who retain the power to protect their descendents regardless of
their rebirth status. At its broadest, these include powerful beings such as
the Buddha and the lord of the land spirits who protect and take care of their
followers through long periods of time. At its narrowest, these are a person’s
parents who continue to protect their own offspring.
In this paper, I explore how ideas of particular people being reborn create
the continuity of the community through time. I then shift my focus to notions
of continuity of individuals regardless of rebirth status. I draw on these apparently
contradictory ideas of rebirth and individual continuity to further develop
the contours of Shan Buddhism.
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