Recordings

TNTS Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgafRZh86BSPecFoc4pnF-Q

16 July 2021

Tony Scott (University of Toronto)

The Milindapañha and the Fifth and Sixth Councils in Myanmar

• The Milindapañha (Questions of King Milinda) is a seminal but enigmatic text in Theravada Buddhist history, considered part of the Tipiṭaka only in Myanmar. This talk will explore how the Milindapañha was interpreted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of South and Southeast Asia as Theravada Buddhists were trying to reconcile their textual corpus with competing colonial worldviews. At the same time, this very textual corpus was being transformed from a more open ‘Tipiṭaka’ in the centuries prior to a closed ‘canon.’ Hence the place of the Milindapañha in the Fifth and Sixth Councils in Myanmar will be examined to shed light on what was at stake in this transformation.
• Tony Scott is a PhD Candidate at the University of Toronto’s Department for the Study of Religion. His research interests lie in South and Southeast Asian religious commentary and its intersection with communities of practice and twentieth-century Buddhist statecraft. His dissertation focuses on the Milindapañha-aṭṭhakathā, a controversial Pali commentary on the Questions of King Milinda (circa 1st century B.C.E.) composed by a Burmese pioneer of insight (vipassanā) meditation, the Mūla Mingun Jetavan Sayadaw (1868-1955).

18 June 2021

Olivia Porter (King’s College London)

Hidden in Plain Sight: The Tai Zawti of the Myanmar-China border

• The Tai Zawti Theravada Buddhist tradition has been mentioned enigmatically in scholarship since the 19th century, yet little is known of their history and religious practices outside of the group itself. After their exile into the Shan Hills in the 18th century, the Zawti remained underground, enjoying relative obscurity until the 1980s when they were absorbed into the Thudhammā gaing (Pali: gaṇa) during the sangha reforms imposed by the Burmese State Sanghamahanayaka Committee. Labelled as ‘heretical’ by missionaries and scholars on account of their austere monastic and lay practices, the Zawti have remained peripheral in scholarship and among the wider Shan community. Although the Zawti remain marginal, Zawti zares (lay practitioners skilled in traditional Shan lik long poetic texts) who have trained at the headquarters and subsequently disrobed, are thought of as some of the most skilled and revered composers of lik long literature by the wider Shan community.
• Who are the Zawti and how did they manage to remain under the radar for so long? Despite being seemingly ‘underground’, Zawti communities are found throughout Myanmar and across the border in Dehong, China. Using an ethnographic account of the triannual sang long novice ordination ceremony as a starting point, this talk aims to provide and introduction to the Zawti tradition as it is practiced in contemporary Myanmar.
• Olivia Porter is a PhD candidate at King’s College London. She completed her undergraduate degree in Sanskrit with Pali at the University of Oxford and her master’s degree in Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She has conducted fieldwork in Shan State, Kachin State and Yangon, combining ethnographic approaches with textual study. She is particularly interested in lay ritual practice, vernacular texts and identity making.

21 May 2021

M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati (California State University, Sacramento)

Reflections on the Boundary Markers and the New Buddhist Lineage: the Mahā-sīmā at Wat Rajapradit Sathitmahasimaram by King Rama IV (r. 1851–1868)

• After 27 years in the monkhood before King Mongkut (Rama IV) came to the throne, he initiated a new Buddhist sect called the Dhammayuttika (Thai: Thammayut nikaya) that paid strong attention to the Buddhist disciplines (vinaya). The king was concerned about the procedure and demarcation of sīmā stones in temples. As a result, he had a revered monk, Somdet Phra Wannarat (Dang), write instructions and descriptions of how to erect sīmā stones and classify different types of sīmā in sīmāgatha. This article focuses on the new development of concepts and forms of sīmā stones during the King Mongkut (r. 1851-1868) and King Chulalongkorn periods (r. 1868-1910). It will include symbols, types, and functions of different categories of sīmā (i.e., baddhasima, abaddhasima, khandasima, mahasima and visunggamasima).
• M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati is an art historian who specializes in Buddhist art and Southeast Asian art visual cultures. She received her Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Art History and Southeast Asian Studies at Cornell University. She has published extensively on ancient Buddhist art (e.g., Votive Tablets in Thailand: Origin, Styles, and Uses (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Divination Au Royaume De Siam: Le corps, la guerre, le destine (Presses Universitaires de France, 2011). She co-curated two major art exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco entitled The Kingdom of Siam: Art from Central Thailand (1530–1800) and Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma (1775–1950). She is a faculty member in the Art Department and former Director and Vice Director of the Asian Studies Program at California State University, Sacramento. She is also former Head of Studies, Division of Arts and Humanities at Yale-NUS College (Singapore).

19 March 2021

Sarou Long (Australian National University)

Buddhism and environmental protection in Cambodia

• Sarou is going to speak about his experience working with NGOs in Cambodia, who are trying to link Buddhist concepts with the conservation ideas and forest protection. He provides an overview on how and when the concept of Buddhism and environmental conservation emerged in Cambodia, then considers the challenges and opportunities of applying these ideas at the community level.
• Sarou Long is currently a PhD student at the Australian National University (ANU). His PhD research project focuses on indigenous land rights in Cambodia. Before coming to ANU, he had many years of experience in natural resource management and renewable energy projects with various local and international organizations, where he worked with local governments and communities in the development and implementation of various projects such as forestry management, land management, renewable energy in agri-food sector, and other environmental education programs.

19 February 2021

Charya Samarakoon (Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo)

A Talk by Charya Samarakoon on Conflict-related Sexual Violence and Buddhist Principles

• Conflict Related Sexual Violence (CRSV) against combatants and civilians remains a reality of war despite global efforts to address it. In armed conflict, the objectives of power and dominance often manifest in the form of sexual violence, making both men and women vulnerable. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) unequivocally condemns CRSV and there are specific measures addressing this issue in IHL. However, many measures of IHL have not achieved their maximum potential with regard to protection and accountability for CRSV. It is proposed here that the willingness to hold perpetrators accountable can be achieved through integrating the rules of IHL into the moral fabric of society, in this case Buddhist principles and values. The realization of the Buddhist doctrine of anattā together with meditation training is a practical means of creating awareness and fostering compassionate behaviour towards others. The conceptions of gender created by socio-cultural elements which exacerbate CRSV are essentially bound up with the ‘self’ which Buddhist doctrine recognizes as a mere illusion. The Buddhist practice of meditation, as brought to light by recent neurological research, lessens this ‘self’ focused outlook and increases the capacity for compassion, active empathy and resilience to peer pressure. Training in Buddhist meditation, supported by explanation of doctrine, may therefore significantly reduce the cultural and individual attitudes that cause CRSV and develop prosociality, active compassion and resilience, while maintaining effective military functioning of the combatant.
• Charya is a researcher with the Research and Advocacy team of the Centre for Policy Alternatives, Colombo. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Colombo. She has engaged in research for publications, advocacy activities and public interest litigation conducted by the Research and Advocacy team since October 2018. Her research interests include International Humanitarian Law, Human Rights Law and Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL).
• This talk is co-hosted with the International Association of Buddhist Universities, International Association of Theravada Buddhist Universities and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
• Video (on ICRC’s website): https://blogs.icrc.org/religion-humanitarianprinciples/webinar-conflict-related-sexual-violence-and-buddhist-principles/

15 January 2021

Thomas Borchert (University of Vermont) 

Governing Thai Monks in Contemporary Thailand: The Appearance of Centralization and Legal Pluralism

• Every once in a while, there are stories in the Thai press about monks behaving badly. Some of these stories are minor infractions that only have local consequences, such as monks drinking alcohol, and then driving. Others are national stories, such as the 2018 arrest of a group of handful of prominent monks, including some members of the Supreme Sangha Council, the body responsible for managing the Thai Sangha. While these stories are clear about the infraction – drinking alcohol or embezzlement – they are often vague about the legal framework under which Thai monks are managed and governed. They may refer to the Vinaya, but rarely to ecclesiastical rules that govern monastic life. In part this is because the institutional aspects of the Thai Sangha, its lines of authority and the rules and regulations that govern it, are not very well understood. I want to suggest that the Thai Sangha looks like a highly centralized organization with the Supreme Patriarch at its head, but is in fact highly decentralized, and Thai monks are subject to multiple different legal systems: vinaya, ecclesiastical, and state law. In this paper, I shall discuss institutional aspects of the Thai Sangha, with attention to the way that legal pluralism complicates the governance of Thai monks.
• Thomas Borchert is a Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont. His research is focused on contemporary monasticism in Theravada communities, with a focus on Buddhist education, Buddhism and nationalism, and dynamics of secularism and Theravada Buddhism. He has conducted research among Theravada Buddhists in China and Singapore, and on the Sangha in Thailand. He is the author of Educating Monks: Minority Buddhists on China’s Southwest Border (University of Hawai’i Press, 2017) and the editor of Theravada Buddhism in Colonial Contexts (Routledge, 2018).
• Video: To come

18 Dec 2020: Rachelle Saruya (University of Toronto)

Learning Directions: Myanmar-Burmese Buddhist Nuns’ Education Trajectories, the Siṅgālovāda Sutta, and the Importance of Responsibility

• This talk looks at my recent article and research that engages with nine Myanmar-Burmese Buddhist nuns (thilashin) from three different nunneries in Sagaing, Myanmar, and examines their experiences with the monastic examinations. As the nuns’ voices are frequently omitted from studies on monastic education, this presentation includes some of these perspectives and highlights a few of the factors that contribute to the thilashin’s success in their monastic endeavors. In my research, I find that responsibility, gratitude, and the Burmese concept of kyezusat, or the return of gratitude to those who have taken care of them, all play a key role. I examine the nuns’ networks and “interlocking relationships” between teachers and students, and additionally explore the active role that the thilashin play in maneuvering their monastic kin into the different education systems that result in affective notions of kyezusat, and the responsibility for the monk or nun to want to return the gratitude to the one that took care of them. Furthermore, I encourage looking at the Siṅgālovādasutta, Ledi Sayadaw’s version of this sutta, the Sukumāramaggadīpanī, and the suttas within the Mahāvagga in the Vinaya that focus on reciprocity, with the students taking care of their teachers, and the teachers taking care of their students that help influence lived Buddhism, and is important in the understanding of monastics and their education, as well as Myanmar Buddhist society.
• Rachelle Saruya is a PhD Candidate in the Department for the Study of Religion at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include: Abhidhamma, Myanmar-Burmese Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist nuns, monasticism, gender and Buddhism, religious education, and the Burmese diaspora in the US. Her dissertation is an ethnography of one “non-teaching nunnery” in Sagaing, Myanmar, but which allows for an examination of the networks and connections that this nunnery has with “teaching nunneries” and monasteries in the area. Her work focuses on fourteen Buddhist nuns, their experiences with education and monastic training, and their spaces of choice and convenience that help mediate these practices.

20 Nov 2020: Trent Walker, Ho Center for Buddhist Studies Postdoctoral Fellow and lecturer in Religious Studies, Stanford University

Bilingual Theravada Scholasticism: Pali-Vernacular Bitexts and the Indic Commentarial Tradition

• Theravada communities across South and Southeast Asia have long used interlinear and interphrasal Pali-vernacular bitexts for language instruction, exegetical analysis, public preaching, and literary composition. Known by the terms nissaya, sannaya, and other names in local languages, bitexts reveal the intellectual sophistication and linguistic prowess of premodern authors across the Theravada world. Drawing on a variety of Tai and Khmer sources, this talk will highlight the complexity and innovation of Pali-vernacular bitexts from the perspective of the Indic commentarial tradition, including both Pali and Sanskrit scholastic practices.

23 Oct 2020: Mark Allon, Professor of South Asian Buddhist Studies, University of Sydney

Research on the Kuthodaw Pagoda marble-stelae recension of the Pali canon in Mandalay, Myanmar

• Between 1860-1868 King Mindon (1853-1878), the second last king of Burma/Myanmar, had the complete Theravāda Pali Buddhist canon carved onto 729 marble stelae which were then housed at the specially constructed Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay, Myanmar. Although Myanmar kings, like other Theravāda kings, had long fulfilled one of their religious duties by commissioning sets of the canon to be written on palm leaf manuscripts, this was the first time that the entire canon had been carved on stone. To some extent, Mindon’s doing so may have been prompted by the annexation of lower Myanmar by the British in 1852. These inscriptions preserve a complete and unified recension of the Pali canon which is a unique textual witness of the Theravāda manuscript tradition of Myanmar well outside the reach of Western textual methods and practices. This presentation reports on an ongoing project to conserve, photograph and study these previously underutilised inscriptions in an attempt to clarify how the texts as inscribed relate to earlier manuscript traditions and to subsequent printed versions of the canon from Myanmar.

16 October 2020: Chotima Chaturawong, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Silpakorn University

Wihan at Wat Traphang Thong Lang, Sukhothai: Cultural Linkages with Sri Lanka and Myanmar

• Wat Traphang Thong Lang [Monastery of the Coral-tree Pond] is located outside the historical town of Sukhothai to the east and probably belonged to a forest–dwelling order. Its sacred quadrangle simply contained a wihan referring to an assembly hall where people are gathered to practice ceremonies and listen to dharma preaching. Wihan at Wat Traphang Thong Lang perhaps represented the Sudhammasala in the Tavatimsa Heaven as the term Thong Lang [coral tree] is equivalent to Paricchattaka in Pali. The Paricchattaka is the sacred tree that grew in Nandanavana of the Tavatimsa Heaven and its foot is the Pandukambalasilasana [Pandukambala stone] where the Buddha was seated and taught Abhidhamma [higher doctrine] for three months to his former mother, who was reborn as a deva, and other devas and brahmas. The stucco reliefs of the image chamber and the image throne had inspiration from those in Sri Lanka and Myanmar and reflected cultural linkages among the three countries.
• This talk draws on Dr. Chaturawong’s latest book, วิหารพระพุทธรูป สถาปัตยกรรมเปรียบเทียบของไทย เมียนมา และศรีลังกา [Buddha Shrines: An Architectural Comparison of Thailand, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka].

9 October 2020: Richard Gombrich, Emeritus Boden Professor of Sanskrit, University of Oxford

The importance of the so-called ‘transfer of merit’ for understanding the history of Buddhism

• In studying Buddhist history I have mostly worked on its earliest period — the time of the Buddha himself. Recently, however, I have become interested in Chinese Buddhism, although alas I do not know Chinese. In 2005 I spent a month teaching at the Buddhism Centre of the University of Hong Kong, and there learnt from colleagues about Tai Xu, the Chinese monk who between the two World Wars invented what he called “Humanistic Buddhism” and Thich Nhat Hanh renamed “Engaged Buddhism” — which has since conquered most of the Western world. Tai Xu took off from the fact that the Buddhism around him, Chinese Mahayana, was primarily concerned with rituals for the dead. He deplored this morbid obsession. Then I realised what a vital role rituals for the dead played in the Buddha’s own environment. This short talk will carry the story further. 

2 October 2020: Ven. Dr. Devindabhipala, Lecturer in Buddhist Sociology, Shan State Buddhist University

Individual Enlightenment and Social Responsibility:
Reinterpreting Theravada Holy Monks from a Buddhist Sociological Perspective

• This talk focuses on the relationship between a spiritual leader and his followers within the tradition of Theravāda Buddhism. Much of the older sociological interpretations of Theravāda Buddhism focuses on its individualistic character centred on individual enlightenment. Holy monks or arahants are considered to be detached from their followers. These misunderstandings are the result of various secular sociological interpretations of Buddhism. This research demonstrates that there is a defining bind between individual enlightenment and social responsibility, and that the Buddhist concept of perfections (pāramī) is at the core of any charismatic authority. I draw on the socio-communal relationships that charismatic spiritual masters of the Shan have with the contemporary society, particularly Venerable Khruba Boonchum, to argue against the secular sociological misinterpretations which see the authority of such leaders as having millenarian and utopian characteristics.

• The powerpoint presentation is available here.

• An article by the speaker that is related the subject of this talk is: Dayweinda Yeehsai and John Giordano, “Individual Englightenment and Social Responsibility: On the Sociological Interpretations of the Holy Monk Khruba Boonchum,” Prajñā Vihāra, Vol 19, No 2, July-December 2018, 93-115. It is available for free download on the journal’s website.

30 September 2020: Olivia Porter (King’s College London)

interviews

Sam Van Schaik, author of Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enlightenment Through the Ages

• Listen to the New Books Network Buddhist Studies podcast here.

25 September 2020: Tilman Frasch, Reader in Asian History, Manchester Metropolitan University

Pali at Bagan: The lingua franca of the Theravada Buddhist Ecumene

• For more than 250 years, between c. 1050 and 1300 CE, Bagan was the capital of kingdom by and large and congruent with modern Myanmar. More than 2500 religous monuments – the vast majority of them Buddhist temples, stupas and monasteries – still attest to the former importance and glory of the city and the generosity of its citizens. At the same time, the city was a cosmopolitan centre of Theravada Buddhism – perhaps its single most important centre during the 13th century – where monks and pilgrims from all over Asia met, studied and held religious ceremonies such as recitations (sangiti) and ordinations. As this presentation will show, the Pali language served this transnational community as a lingua franca, facilitating communication and collaboration. In fact, Bagan may have produced the largest number of major (long) Pali inscriptions of any Buddhist site in Asia, including a number of recent finds. A survey of this body of texts will shed fresh light on the formation and composition of the Buddhist community at Bagan, for instance its connections with Angkor and the Malay world. The presentation will introduce these hitherto overlooked works of Pali scholarship and discuss their implications.

19 August – 23 September 2020: A Short Introduction to the Kaccāyana Pali Grammar: Its Background, Techniques and Terminology

An Online Course Taught by Aleix Ruiz-Falqués (Head of the Department of Pali and Languages, Shan State Buddhist University)

• Class 1, Part 1 (19 August 2020): What is the Kaccāyana Pali Grammar?

https://youtu.be/KNbezPBaQA0

• Class 1, Part 2 (19 August 2020): What is the Kaccāyana Pali Grammar?

https://youtu.be/EkNjwguLVLg

• Class 2 (26 August 2020): Sutta “rule” and vutti “gloss”

https://youtu.be/vowVedfpdA8

• Class 3 (2 September 2020): Anuvutti “recurrence” and vikappa “optionality”

https://youtu.be/QPa4JjMcS7k

• Class 4 (9 September 2020): Metarules and megarules

https://youtu.be/RevO9H4DFCY

• Class 5 (16 September 2020): Rūpasiddhi “complete derivation”

https://youtu.be/-ITDTVzi1GA

• Class 6: (23 September 2020): Case Study

https://youtu.be/zacV9iX3h8A

18 September 2020: Rebecca Nelson

Thai Buddhism and the Problem of Single-Use Plastic

• This talk will introduce the problem of plastic pollution and its relationship to traditional and modern Buddhist Ethics. We will discuss single-use plastic’s place in the Thai economy and daily life, looking at the consequences of this for the environment, especially wildlife as highlighted last year by the headline news in Thailand of the death of the beloved baby dugong Marium. We will then examine the extent to which Thai Buddhism exacerbates single-use plastic consumption  through the way dāna is performed and recent Buddhist responses to address the problem. The talk finishes with suggestions of how Buddhist Ethics may also offer solutions to this crisis. 

11 September 2020: Steven Kemper, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Bates College

A Larger Buddhism: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Enfranchising of Laypeople in late 19^th-century Sri Lanka

• In the late nineteenth century and onwards Buddhism became larger in several ways. In Sri Lanka that process included absorbing (or reabsorbing) people who had become converted Christians, revitalizing the religion and making people take it more seriously, and converting Westerners. I am interested in a part of the process that is less straightforward—enfranchising laypeople, especially laymen, and insisting that they had responsibilities as “Buddhists.” It is impossible to approach this process without thinking about the role of Anagarika Dharmapala, but he neither laicized Buddhism nor did he think the religion was one and the same for everyone. In opposing the hegemony of Christian Sri Lankans, he publicized causes—dress reform, temperance, and Sinhala privilege—and established Buddhist lay organizations to pursue them.

4 September 2020: Naomi Appleton, Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions, University of Edinburgh

Jātakas in and beyond Pali Literature

• This talk will introduce some key questions, and some new perspectives, the history and role of jātakas (stories of the Buddha’s past lives). Although most famous in the Pali collection of more than five hundred stories, the genre has a lively presence across other literatures, as well as in visual arts from at least the first century BCE. I will explore some of the key sources, including a recent database project that seeks to draw together some of the textual and visual evidence.

28 August 2020: Asanga Tilakaratne, Professor Emeritus, University of Colombo

Buddhism and International Humanitarian Law: Exploring the shared grounds

• International Humanitarian Law (IHL) aims at reducing suffering in war. This assumes the possibility of war which many would take to go against the peace-loving character of Buddhism. This presentation questions the popular assumption and explores possible shared grounds between IHL and Buddhism.

21 August 2020: Justin McDaniel, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania

The editing process and engagement with Wisdom as a Way of Life: Theravada Buddhism Reimagined, the last book of Steven Collins (1951-2018)

• Collins details the insights of Buddhist texts and practices that promote the ideal of active and engaged learning, offering an expansive and lyrical reflection on Theravāda approaches to meditation, asceticism, and physical training. He explores views of monastic life and contemplative practices as complementing and reinforcing textual learning, and argues that the Buddhist tenet that the study of philosophy and ethics involves both rigorous reading and an ascetic lifestyle has striking resonance with modern and postmodern ideas. Justin McDaniel, the editor of this posthumous book that Collins was unable to finish because of his untimely death, will discuss the editing process and the impact he believes the book will have.

14 August 2020: Wei-Yi Cheng, Associate Professor, Fo Guang University

Theravada Buddhism in Taiwan

• This talk will introduce how Theravada Buddhism being transmitted, navigated and localized in Taiwan, which is traditionally dominated by Chinese Buddhism. Although mainstream Buddhists in Taiwan still follow a variety of Chinese Mahayana traditions, the growing diversity of Buddhism being practiced in Taiwan challenges the traditional divide of Theravada and Mahayana cultures.

13 August 2020: Olivia Porter (King’s College London)

interviews

Naomi Appleton, author of Many Buddhas, One Buddha: A Study and Translation of Avadānaśataka 1-40

• Listen to the New Books Network Buddhist Studies podcast here

7 August 2020: Alastair Gornall, Assistant Professor, Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) 

Pali Literature and Monastic Reform in Sri Lanka, 1157–1270

• In this talk, I will discuss the main arguments of my recently published book Rewriting Buddhism, which is freely available to download at uclpress.com/buddhism. The book explores one of the most significant periods in premodern Sri Lanka’s cultural and religious history. This era of monastic reform was distinguished in particular by the production of a vast amount of Pali literature that reshaped monastic intellectual life in Sri Lanka and later in Southeast Asia too.

31 July 2020: Ven. Paññādīpa Tan Bhikkhu, Lecturer, Shan State Buddhist University 

How Meditation Heals the Body: From Medical Research to Ancient Pāli Scriptures

• Collaboration in scientific research between Buddhist meditation practitioners and scientists has intensified in recent years with accumulating evidence demonstrating the myriad health benefits of meditation. In this talk, I will highlight what the cumulative medical (clinical) research has to say about Buddhist meditation, especially regarding its role against psychosomatic and chronic diseases. To compare with these scientific reports, I will draw your attention to important ancient Pali suttanta texts which report therapeutic effects of meditation, along with the caveats and drawbacks facing today’s scientific research in addressing the effects of meditation.

24 July 2020: Laurence Cox, Associate Professor, National University of Ireland Maynooth, and Brian Bocking, Professor Emeritus, University College Cork

Forgotten and remembered: U Dhammaloka the Irish Buddhist monk

• This talk introduces one of the first western Buddhist monks, his remarkable life (including his dramatic adventures in Burma and his travels with the Saopha of Kengtung). How and why was he forgotten – and what does this tell us about memory, lineage and history in Buddhism? And why does remembering U Dhammaloka make a difference?

20 July 2020: Olivia Porter (King’s College London)

interviews

Angela S. Chiu, author of The Buddha in Lanna: Art, Lineage, Power, and Place in Northern Thailand

• Listen to the New Books Network Buddhist Studies podcast here