Of Beggars and Buddhas - Katherine A. Bowie

Of Beggars and Buddhas

The Politics of Humor in the Vessantara Jataka in Thailand
Buch | Hardcover
264 Seiten
2017
University of Wisconsin Press (Verlag)
978-0-299-30950-3 (ISBN)
79,95 inkl. MwSt
The 547 Buddhist jatakas, or verse parables, recount the Buddha’s lives in previous incarnations. In his penultimate and most famous incarnation, he appears as the Prince Vessantara, perfecting the virtue of generosity by giving away all his possessions, his wife, and his children to the beggar Jujaka. Taking an anthropological approach to this two-thousand-year-old morality tale, Katherine A. Bowie highlights significant local variations in its interpretations and public performances across three regions of Thailand over 150 years.

The Vessantara Jataka has served both monastic and royal interests, encouraging parents to give their sons to religious orders and intimating that kings are future Buddhas. But, as Bowie shows, characterizations of the beggar Jujaka in various regions and eras have also brought ribald humor and sly antiroyalist themes to the story. Historically, these subversive performances appealed to popular audiences even as they worried the conservative Bangkok court. The monarchy sporadically sought to suppress the comedic recitations. As Thailand has changed from a feudal to a capitalist society, this famous story about giving away possessions is paradoxically being employed to promote tourism and wealth.

Katherine A. Bowie is a professor of anthropology and the director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She is the author of Rituals of National Loyalty: An Anthropology of the State and the Village Scout Movement in Thailand.

Erscheinungsdatum
Reihe/Serie New Perspectives in Southeast Asian Studies
Zusatzinfo 21 black & white illustrations
Verlagsort Wisconsin
Sprache englisch
Maße 152 x 229 mm
Gewicht 643 g
Themenwelt Sachbuch/Ratgeber Geschichte / Politik Allgemeines / Lexika
Geisteswissenschaften Geschichte Regional- / Ländergeschichte
Geschichte Teilgebiete der Geschichte Religionsgeschichte
Geisteswissenschaften Religion / Theologie Buddhismus
Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie
Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie
ISBN-10 0-299-30950-9 / 0299309509
ISBN-13 978-0-299-30950-3 / 9780299309503
Zustand Neuware
Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt?
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
Von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart

von Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson; Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson …

Buch | Hardcover (2022)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
34,00
Heilsgeschichte und Weltpolitik

von Otto Kallscheuer

Buch | Hardcover (2024)
Matthes & Seitz (Verlag)
44,00