Religious Donations, Ritual Offerings, and Humanitarian Aid: Fields of Practice According to Forms of Giving in Burma

Abstract

In this paper, the religious donation-meaning oriented interactions that occur between a lay donor and his or her monastic recipient or between laypeople and religious institutions as a whole-is first examined in the Burmese Buddhist context, in regard to the Maussian theory of the gift. The formal analysis of 'serving rice' to monks during their daily alms tour, the main form of religious donation, demonstrates that it is in keeping with the definition of a free gift rather than involving reciprocity, although it is supposed to be rewarded by merit through an impersonal process. Then, moving from a formal analysis of the ethnography of religious donation (ahlu) to the contextual analysis of the differentiated uses of various forms of giving in contemporary Burma, the discussion aims at highlighting differences with practices of 'ritual offering' (kadaw bwe) and 'humanitarian aid'(ke hse yay) showing how these different forms of interaction shape contrasted fields of practice. The transaction occurring in religious donations then emerges as setting into motion a crucial social process, the enactment and reproduction of the difference in status between monastics and laypeople that is one of the main social processes contributing to the differentiation of a Buddhist-defined 'religious field'.

Compassion without pity: Buddhist dāna as charity, humanitarianism, and altruism

“…The Sanskrit and Pali word dāna means “giving.” However, scholars have translated this term in different ways to highlight its subtler implications. Dāna has been defined as “generosity practices” (Caple, 2017, p. 146), “gift‐giving” (Hibbets, 1999, p. 438), “charity” (Simpson, 2004, p. 842), and “religious donations” (de la Perrière, 2015, p. 386). This abundance of translations reveals how dāna functions dynamically across different historical and cultural contexts.…”

“…Alternatively, contemporary interpretations of dāna have also extended past monastery settings in response to corruption scandals among monks, as in Thailand and Myanmar. Instead of giving to monasteries, some lay Buddhists in these regions have called for one another to practice dāna by volunteering with nonreligious charities and disaster relief programs (Chaisinthop, 2014, p. 403; de la Perrière, 2015, pp. 396–397).…”

The wheel-turning king and the lucky lottery: perspectives new and old on wealth and merriment within Buddhism

“…Epigraphic sources, both past and present, demonstrate the importance of Buddhist donations and their associations with conviviality. By investigating an ethnographic example in the light of historical sources we contribute to contemporary research that investigates Buddhist and non-Buddhist practices of dāna (Abrahms-Kavunenko 2015; Bowie 1998;Brac de la Perrière 2015;Caple 2015;Cook 2010;Gravers 2012;Fisher 2008;Laidlaw 2000;Parry 1986;Samuels 2007;Smyer Yü 2012). The activities in which we participated, by centralising donation and plenty at Buddhism's most important pilgrimage site, represent an attempt to mobilise the centripetal forces of the holy town to gain higher status for the donors within Buddhist hierarchies.…”