Merit-Making Activities and the Latent Ideal of the Buddhist Wat in Southwestern Cambodia

O'Lemmon, Matthew

Merit-Making Activities and the Latent Ideal of the Buddhist Wat in Southwestern Cambodia

Matthew O'Lemmon ()

Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 2014, vol. 33, issue 2, 27-57

Abstract: The divergent experiences surrounding merit-making acts represent the distinct backgrounds of individuals and communities that have emerged in postwar Cambodia. This article examines merit-making activities in two Buddhist temples in southwestern Cambodia and the influence of political patronage on temple–community relationships. This influence elicits images of a latent ideal of the Buddhist monastery that are used by local communities to form a social critique both of such political involvement within temples and of the destabilising effect it has on local people’s merit-making activities. This ideal also reflected the political economies and social networks created within the temples that comprised two different models of patronage and means of accessing resources.

Keywords: Cambodia; Theravada Buddhism; merit-making; political economy; social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-10
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