Forest Monks and the Nation-state

Book excerpt: This book is a detailed study on the ascetic forest monk tradition in the Lao-speaking provinces of northeastern Thailand in the wake of the early twentieth century politico-religious reforms. The narrative alternates between the periphery and the capital, dealing with historic transformations and persistencies in the social field of wandering forest monks as well as the contemporary impact of this monastic tradition in the wider social and political milieu. The writer uses original ethnographic materials and provides a rare insight into the formation of monastic lineages and the local politico-religious histories of present-day northeastern Thailand.