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kMNt´ cMNaM 157
Table of Contents
Preface 07
Chapter 1: Localizing the Universal: Women, Motherhood and the Appeal of early Theravada Buddhism 09
Introduction 11
The position of women in Southeast Asian Buddhism 13
Women and Dana in early Theravada Buddhism 17
The maternal metaphor in early Buddhism 22
The power of mother’s milk 27
Buddhism, motherhood and royal exemplars 30
Conclusion 35
Chapter 2: Ambiguous Gender: Male Initiation in a Northern Thai Buddhist Society 39
Introduction 41
The Monkly Ideal 42
The male Child in Buddhist Northern Thailand 44
Gender Ambiguity during Candidacy for Ordination 46
Maleness Transformed through Ordination 50
World Renounced, World Restored 54
The Buddhist Problem of Male Gender 57
Chapter 3: Books of Search: The invention of traditional Lao Literature as a subject of study 63
Traditional Lao Literature and its role in Lao society 66
Knowledge of Lao versification prior to the mid-twentieth century 67
The modernization of Laos and Northeast Thailand and the transformation and decline of
Traditional literature 68
Printing technology and its effect on traditional Lao literature 69
The invention of traditional Lao literature as a subject of study: The work of Sila Viravong 73
The study of traditional Lao literature and Lao-Thai cultural politics 73
The life and career of Sila Viravong 74
Sila’s study of Lao versification 76
The political use of traditional literature in the revolutionary movement of the Lao patriotic front 84