272 pp. March 2007
cloth, ISBN 978-0-8248-3032-8, $60.00
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Keywords: |
Southeast Asia
religion
Buddhism
history |
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How to Behave: Buddhism and Modernity in Colonial Cambodia, 1860–1930
by Anne Ruth Hansen
Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory
“In lucid prose accessible to specialists and non-specialists alike, Hansen provides a sophisticated and multifaceted account of the early twentieth-century transformation of Buddhist discourse and pedagogical practices that should be of interest to any scholar or student of religious modernism.” —Journal of the American Academy of Religion (December 2008)
“Engaging and clearly written, this book was a joy read, and I will place it within easy reach for years to come. Anne Hansen’s volume tells the compelling story of Cambodian Buddhist Modernism, the elite, clerical reform movement that began to transform what it meant to worship the Buddha by reimagining what Buddhism ought to be.” —Pacific Affairs (81:1, spring 2008)
“Judging by the high level of scholarship and the revealing insights provided by this book, Cambodian studies is in good hands.” —IIAS Newsletter (46, winter 2008)
“Remarkable. . . . [Hansen’s] refreshing and provocative approach to the study of ethics in history will surely change the field in general. . . . As readers, we can only look forward to future studies that, if anything like this book, will change the way we understand ethics and its place in national memory and political and social reform.” —Journal of Religion (January 2008)
“It has become increasingly clear that the rational and ethical religion called Buddhism is as much a product of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as it is of the time of the Buddha, more than two millennia ago. What remain to be determined are the specific ways in which this Buddhism was produced within and among the cultures of Asia. In this fascinating study, Anne Hansen examines the case of Cambodia, combining extensive research with insightful analysis to both contextualize and complicate the category of modern Buddhism.”—Donald S. Lopez, Jr., University of Michigan “A remarkable characteristic of this book is the deftness with which the author moves between the intellectual currents of Buddhist studies and Southeast Asian history, drawing analyses of textual practice, regionalism, nation-building, and colonial experience into fruitful conversation.”—Anne M. Blackburn, Cornell University
This ambitious cross-disciplinary study of Buddhist modernism in colonial Cambodia breaks new ground in understanding the history and development of religion and colonialism in Southeast Asia.
Anne Ruth Hansen is associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and a faculty member in the Comparative Study of Religion Program.
Read the introduction (PDF).
table of contents
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