Millennialism, Charisma and Utopia: Revolutionary Potentialities in Pre-modern Lao and Thai Theravāda Buddhism

Abstract

With reference to (mainly Pali) textual imaginaries and historical data on outbreaks of millennial movements in southern Laos and parts of Thailand around the turn of the twentieth century, this essay discusses the revolutionary potentialities embedded in Theravada Buddhist thought and its localised cosmologies. The essay begins with an examination of the various sources of charisma and the roles of charismatic leaders in these movements, focusing on the tension between institutionalised state Buddhism and peripheral figures such as lay ascetics, holy men or forest monks who are more likely to be involved in millennial movements. Next, eschatological visions of the decline of the dhamma, utopian imaginaries of renewal and the (re-)instantiation of righteous kingship are discussed. I argue that many of these movements can be understood as forms of 'restorative millennialism'. In order to better understand the rebellious and revolutionary features of the cases presented, in the final section I discuss theories relating to potentialities and messianic time, and suggest that the activation and actualization of millennial imaginaries are -despite failure and disenchantmentalways immanent to society and reflect the friction between its actual and virtual dimensions.The very idea that the dawn of the millennial kingdom on earth always contained a revolutionizing tendency, and the church made every effort to paralyze this situationally transcendent idea with all means at its command.

Affective Futures and Relative Eschatology in American Tibetan Buddhism

“…There have been a few studies of Buddhist movements of this sort that describe the rare appearance of fringe messiahs in Buddhist countries. See, for example, Malalgoda (1970) and Ladwig (2014). 8.…”

Introduction

“…In the Pali sources that influenced Therava ¯da Buddhist thought, for example, one finds a distinction between the "wheel of the dharma" (dhamma-cakka) and the "wheel of power" (a ¯_ na ¯-cakka), both of which were necessary for a well-functioning society, but which monks and kings were imagined to embody respectively (Gokhale 1969;Reynolds 1972). 17 Similar distinctionsfor example, between the "orders of the king" and the "orders of the Buddha"were also taken up throughout Southern Asian polities over time, often in the context of discussions about righteous rulers (Ladwig andKourilsky 2017-2018;Larsson 2016;Schonthal 2021a). Two of the most common terms of praise ascribed to rulers -"wheel turner" (cakravartin) and "righteous king" (dharmara ¯ja)only make sense because they fuse otherwise juxtaposed notions of temporal and otherworldly authority, royal power, and moral restraint.…”

“…Critics and reformers may also appeal to the laws of dharma to call for political change (Bowie 2014;Ladwig 2014). Sulak Sivaraksa (2007), for example, has invoked dharma as a source of principles of justice to guide judges and as a grounding for substantive freedoms of thought, speech, and action, as well as the notion of equality before the law.…”

Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law

“…In the Pali sources that influenced Therava ¯da Buddhist thought, for example, one finds a distinction between the "wheel of the dharma" (dhamma-cakka) and the "wheel of power" (a ¯_ na ¯-cakka), both of which were necessary for a well-functioning society, but which monks and kings were imagined to embody respectively (Gokhale 1969;. 17 Similar distinctionsfor example, between the "orders of the king" and the "orders of the Buddha"were also taken up throughout Southern Asian polities over time, often in the context of discussions about righteous rulers (Ladwig andKourilsky 2017-2018;Larsson 2016;Schonthal 2021a). Two of the most common terms of praise ascribed to rulers -"wheel turner" (cakravartin) and "righteous king" (dharmara ¯ja)only make sense because they fuse otherwise juxtaposed notions of temporal and otherworldly authority, royal power, and moral restraint.…”