Review of John Holt: Spirits of the Place (2010)

Review Reviewed Work(s): SPIRITS OF THE PLACE: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture by John Clifford Holt Review by: Patrice Ladwig Source: Pacific Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 4 (DECEMBER 2010), pp. 825-826 Published by: Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25766525 Accessed: 04-02-2019 14:18 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Pacific Affairs, University of British Columbia is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Pacific Affairs This content downloaded from 115.84.115.73 on Mon, 04 Feb 2019 14:18:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Book Reviews SPIRITS OF THE PLACE: Buddhism and Lao Religious Culture. By John Clifford Holt Honolulu: University of HawaVi Press, 2009. xiii 348 pp. (Tables, maps, BdfW and coloured photos.) US$58.00, cloth. ISBN 978-0-8248 3327-5. We have been waiting for almost four decades for a study exclusively dedicated to Lao Buddhism. When we define "Lao" as being contained by the borders of the current nation-state of the Lao PDR, the last major work on the topic was Marcel Zago's excellent Rites et Ceremonies en Milieu Bouddhiste Lao from 1972. Like Zago, John Holt focuses on Luang Prabang, but also situates his study in a wider Lao and Southeast Asian context, especially with reference to Buddhism in the ethnically Lao Northeastern part of Thailand. Moreover, he draws on very interesting "contrast material" from Sri Lanka, on which he has published extensively. Given the fact that there has been a large gap in the study of Lao Buddhism, Holt faces the daunting task of drawing diverse materials together, but he elegantly manages to put them into a coherent framework spanning from the early history of Buddhism to contemporary religious change in Luang Prabang. Holt starts his study with a very good discussion of Paul Mus' concept of "cadastral cults" and thereby fleshes out one of the main themes of the book: the spirits of the place and the indigenous substratum that has been influencing the development of Buddhism in Laos for hundreds of years. He then unravels the history of Lao Buddhism as being marked by the interaction of Tai-Kadai concepts of social organization (baan-mueang) and Buddhist concepts of power and kingship (mandala). Holt argues that despite the complex and seemingly hegemonic interaction of Buddhism, spirit cults (phi) and indigenous ontologies (such as the belief in khwan), both of the latter have remained vital for Lao religious culture until today. He proposes that they have been less rationalized and buddhicized than in many neighbouring Theravada areas. I largely agree with his argument and find the general framework of the discussion appealing as it helps us to understand what is specific about Lao Buddhism. However, here also the general drawback of the bbok becomes obvious: the textual and ethnographic material used to discuss these points does sometimes not fulfill the expectations raised. As often, the devil is in the ethnographic and textual detail. Although Holt clearly states the modest aims and limitations of his study (x-xii), some findings related to the main topic of the book should have been cpntextualized in the rich material that can be drawn, for example, from comparative Tai-Kadai studies. Local cults, their cosmologies and their position in Buddhist thought and practice can only then be fully understood. Holt clearly goes beyond Tambiah's structural account of the relationship of Buddhism and spirit cults and provides thought-provoking ideas on the topic. However, postulating "that the ontologies of Buddhism and the spirit cult are separate but complementary" (255) is in my opinion 825 This content downloaded from 115.84.115.73 on Mon, 04 Feb 2019 14:18:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Pacific Affairs: Volume 83, No. 4 - December 2010. not always valid. Besides more suitable ethnographic and textual material, it would have been useful to include the latest theoretical discussions on syncretism and hybridity, beyond Paul Mus' piece from 1933. This would allow the reader to grasp the complexity of the interactions of the various strata of Lao religion. In chapters 2 and 3 Holt strays away from his main argument and presents a concise historical account of Lao Buddhism before and after the communist revolution of 1975. Here he brings together a lot of material that before was scattered in articles and adds important observations to them. He admits that "some sections of the book are clearly synthetic" (xi) and indeed the length and number of quotes in these chapters, largely drawn from the work of Grant Evans and Martin Stuart-Fox, is at times irritating. However, despite the almost exclusive reliance on Western secondary sources, he manages to present a very comprehensive picture of the rather complex religious and political dynamics in these periods. In my opinion the best part of the book shows that Holt is a very good and sensitive fieldworker: chapter 4 on the transformation of the religious landscape, ritual dynamics and the life of novices in Luang Prabang provides excellent material. Here his comparative observations clearly profit from his outstanding scholarship on Sri Lankan Buddhism. Holt's study is clearly structured, well-written and provides a very good overview of the long-term and recent developments in Lao Buddhism. In the eyes of some researchers, the days of such non-specialized "survey studies" are over. In some sense Holt has written such a piece, but here we again have to recall that before Spirits of the Place there were only single articles and outdated books on the topic. Perhaps Holt has given us exactly what students and other researchers with an interest in Laos at the moment need. Writing such a book after decades of standstill in research is challenging and the outcome can hardly satisfy everyone. Despite some reservations concerning the sources on which the study is based, I think that students and other researchers will profit tremendously from Holt's elegantly and timely written book. Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle/Salle, Germany Patrice Lad wig ACROSS THE CAUSEWAY: A Multi-Dimensional Study of Malaysia Singapore Relations. Edited by Takashi Shiraishi. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009. x, 276 pp. (Tables.) US$29.90, paper. ISBN 978-9-812-30783-5. Across the Causeway is focused on highlighting and analyzing the content and contours of Malaysia-Singapore relations, then and now. A perennial challenge confronting editors of a scholarly volume devoted to any given 826 This content downloaded from 115.84.115.73 on Mon, 04 Feb 2019 14:18:44 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms