Remembering with Respect: History, Social Memory and the Cross-Border Journeys of a Charismatic Lue Monk

Abstract

For over three decades, people's mobility in the borderlands of the upper Mekong region has been reactivated, but simultaneously regulated, by changing state policy. Since the 1990s greater regional cooperation between China and mainland southeast Asian countries in trade and development has resulted in massive and accelerated flows of culture, commodities, capital and information across the borders. This article traces the cross-border movements of one charismatic Buddhist monk, Phra Khru Weruwanpithak (1929–2005), which took place over two decades from the early 1980s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. I argue that this monk's journeys played a significant role in Theravada revivalism in the localities he visited, both in his hometown in northern Thailand, and in other Lue communities in the eastern Shan state of Burma and in Sipsong Panna in southwest China. The practical, religious and architectural activities undertaken by this border-crossing monk not only restored Theravada Buddhist sites in the region, but also created a new sense of place and belonging among the Lue, who have long lived across national borders in the upper Mekong region.

Keywords:

• Lue Diaspora
• Theravada Buddhism
• Social Memory
• Cross-Border Mobility
• Upper Mekong

Acknowledgements

The writing of this article is based on collaborative research with Phra Sapawut Aphisit. The research was part of Mekong Ethnography of Cross Border Culture (MECC), funded by the Princess Sirindorn Anthropology Centre, Bangkok. Fieldworks were conducted from March 2007 to May 2009, in Pa Sang District, Mae Sai/Tachilek border towns in northern Thailand, Muang Yong in eastern Shan state and Xishuangbanna in southwest China. The article was first presented at the Joint Conference for the AAS and ICAS, Celebrating 70 years of Asian Studies, Honolulu, Hawai'i, 31 March–4 April 2011. The revised version was also presented at the Friday Forum, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin–Madison. Here I would like to thank Professor Charles F. Keyes, Professor Katherine Bowie, Professor Nicholas Tapp, Associate Professor Paul T. Cohen and the two anonymous readers for their valuable comments.

Notes

1. According to the Sipsong Panna Chronicle, the title of the Lue petty states called Sipsong Panna was first mentioned in the mid sixteenth Century, during the Golden Age of Lan Na kingdom.

2. Despite this, the Pa Sang Sangha still paid him the highest respect by appointing him to be an Honorary District Governor, a position he held until his death.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Wasan Panyagaew

Wasan Panyagaew is a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Chiang Mai University