RT Article
T1 Ritual Tattooing and the Creation of New Buddhist Identities: An Inquiry into the Initiation Process in a Burmese Organization of Exorcists
JF Religion and society
VO 8
IS 1
SP 129
OP 144
A1 Brac de La Perrière, Bénédicte 1958-
LA English
YR 2017
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1567863906
AB The Manaw Seittokpad congregation, an organization of Burmese exorcists with headquarters in Bago, presents some unique features, such as a rigorous registration procedure during the initiation process. Exorcism is linked to superhuman figures, or weikza, at the center of a religious domain often characterized as a form of Buddhist esotericism. Based on observation of rituals during this congregation's annual conventions in Bago, the initiation process is analyzed with reference to an anthropological understanding of rites of passage and religious conversion. The article shows how undergoing these rites induces healed patients to enter a specific community formed by the members of the congregation. Furthermore, the acquisition of a new "truly" Buddhist identity is understood as a process equivalent to an "internal conversion". Finally, the contrastive use of ritualism is seen as a way to construct the practice of exorcism in the weikza domain as a specific "path" within the Burmese religious field.
K1 Burmese Buddhism
K1 Exorcism
K1 Initiation
K1 internal conversion
K1 Manaw Seittokpad
K1 Rituals
DO 10.3167/arrs.2017.080108