The Road Less Travelled: From Landways to Seaways in the Study of Therav ā da Buddhism

Although Charles Hallisey ’ s seminal 1995 essay is primarily concerned with the ways European colonial scholars approached Therav ā da Buddhism in majority Therav āda contexts, its emphasis on two key topics — the importance of ritual and the dynamics of the “ local production of meaning ”— laid the foundation for a range of recent studies that explore the history and contemporary developments of Theravāda Buddhist communities in the Malay Archipelago. This article charts how the neglected topics Hallisey urged scholars to attend to have opened new pathways for the study of Therav āda minority communities. Drawing on recent studies of Theravāda Buddhist communities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, I discuss how Theravāda Buddhists established institutions, participated in rituals, and relied on vernacular and non-canonical texts to preserve their sense of diasporic identity and ensure the survival of Buddhism as a minority religion.

1 For studies on Chinese Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia, see, for instance, Chen (2004), Chia (2020), Tan (2020), and Xu ( Charles Hallisey's seminal 1995 essay is primarily concerned with the ways European colonial scholars approached Theravāda Buddhism in majority Theravāda contexts, namely in late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century Burma, Cambodia, Ceylon, and Siam. As such, Hallisey's piece does not deal directly with the study of Theravāda Buddhism as a minority religion in maritime Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, Hallisey's emphasis on two key topics-the importance of ritual and the dynamics of the "local production of meaning"-laid the foundation for a range of recent studies that explore the history and contemporary developments of Theravāda Buddhist communities in the Malay Archipelago (1995: 47-51). I argue that Hallisey's call to explore rituals and texts produced in local circumstances has provided the framework of salient topics necessary for studying Theravāda Buddhism as a minority religion in this Muslim-majority region.
The present essay charts how the neglected topics Hallisey urged scholars to attend to have opened new pathways for the study of Theravāda minority communities. In the sections that follow, I emphasize the ways in which attention to both rituals and local texts has informed work on Theravāda Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia by Anne Blackburn (2012), Andrew Johnson (2016), Irving Johnson (2013, Pattana Kitiarsa (2010), Jeffrey Samuels (2011;, and myself (2018).
Although these scholars did not conceive their projects as direct responses to Hallisey's concerns, their work nevertheless fruitfully extends the framework of "Roads Taken and Not Taken" to minority communities in the Southeast Asian archipelago. These scholars show us how Theravāda Buddhists established institutions, participated in rituals, and relied on vernacular and noncanonical texts to preserve their sense of diasporic identity and ensure the survival of Buddhism as a minority religion.
2 Anne Blackburn prefers to use the term "Southern Asian Buddhism" to refer to Buddhists and practices oriented towards Pali-language liturgy and scripture, as the use of the term "Theravāda" only became more common from the 1930s onward. See Blackburn (2012: 5).
3 For a study of interactions between Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhists, see Zhang (2018). Buddhists whose Buddhist heritage owed more to Chinese-language texts for their ritual needs (Blackburn 2012: 17).
Ceylonese also migrated to colonial Malaya and set up Theravāda Buddhist temples in the Muslim-majority country. Jeffrey Samuels illustrates that Sri Lankan Buddhist temples are important diasporic institutions for the celebration of calendrical rites, rituals, and festivals, as well as the operation of religious and language schools. 5 He argues that Sri Lankan temples in Malaysia provide Sri Lankan Buddhists with the "social context" and reproduce the devotees' "social memory" of Sri Lanka, allowing the community in Malaysia to maintain their own collective identity as Sri Lankans living in the diaspora. In other words, Buddhist temples serve a significant function for the Sri Lankan diaspora, preserving the community's cultural identity through religion and language (Samuels 2013: 121-122). Moreover, Samuels notices that growing interest in Theravāda Buddhism among Chinese Malaysian Buddhists has altered Sri Lankan monastic culture in Malaysia. Some Sinhalese Buddhists lament that their Theravāda temples subsequently became exposed to Chinese Buddhist The collective attention to minority Theravāda Buddhist communities reveals that Chinese Mahāyānists are interested in, and sought to participate, in rituals, acquiring objects, and engaging with "nonhuman beings" (as discussed by Alexandra Kaloyanides) of their Theravādin counterparts.

Andrew Johnson further investigates the popularity of Thai Buddhism among Chinese Singaporean
Buddhists. His research reveals how many Singaporeans considered Thai Buddhist objects as "older" and "more powerful" sources of potency than Chinese religious products (Johnson 2016: 447). As Johnson points out, Thai Theravāda Buddhism becomes mobilized in "a new, hybrid form," as demonstrated by his respondents' interchangeable use of "Thai Buddhist," "voodoo," and "occult" along with "Thai barang" (2016: 449). The most fascinating discovery in Johnson's research is the commodification and consumption of so-called Theravāda "Thai barang," such as corpse oil and roasted fetuses, among the Chinese in Singapore (2016: 450). Chinese Singaporean Buddhists consider them as sacred Buddhist objects and seek Thai monks to consecrate these religious artifacts. These two studies by Pattana Kitiarsa and Andrew Johnson are concerned not only with ritual, but also with the dynamics Hallisey calls "the local production of meaning." Taken together, their works reveal that ritual ceremonies and religious objects in the Singaporean context have much more to do with the popularization of Thai Theravāda Buddhism than with canonical knowledge or texts. Once again, following Hallisey's attention to ritual and local meaning-making helps illuminate how Theravāda Buddhism functions as a minority religion in a Muslim-majority region.

When Theravāda Meets Mahāyāna
My recent work looks at how Indonesian Chinese monk Ashin Jinarakkhita  sought to make Buddhism less Chinese and more indigenous to ensure the survival of the religion in Muslimmajority Indonesia (Chia, 2018). Born as Tee Boon An, Ashin Jinarakkhita was first ordained as a Chinese Mahāyāna monk in Indonesia before receiving his higher ordination in the Theravāda tradition in Burma under the tutelage of Mahāsi Sayādaw. Subsequently, he founded the Indonesian Buddhayāna movement to promote an indigenous "Indonesian Buddhism" for a culturally and linguistically diverse Indonesia. Dressed in a Theravāda saffron robe and wearing a beard in the Chinese Mahāyāna style, Ashin Jinarakkhita considered himself neither a Mahāyāna nor a Theravāda monk, but a combination of both.
My approach to the Buddhayāna movement reinforces the importance of Hallisey's call to "expect meaning to be produced in local circumstances rather than in the origins of the tradition" Following the 1965 coup and Suharto's rise to power, Suharto's anticommunist authoritarian regime promulgated new laws to assimilate the Chinese Indonesian population and sought to use religion as a tool to counter communism. Ashin Jinarakkhita was quick to adjust his strategies to ensure the survival of Buddhism during the New Order period . He introduced the concept of Sang Hyang Adi-Buddha as the Buddhist version of "God Almighty" to make Buddhism compatible with the Pancasila principle of "belief in the one Almighty God." 6 The monk strategically claimed that the concept of Sang Hyang Adi-Buddha could be found in the Sang Hyang Kamahāyānikan, a non-canonical text produced during the reign of King Mpu Sindok, the founder of the Isyana dynasty in Java, during the tenth-century. In the 1970s, Buddhayāna's texts, such as The God in Buddhism (Ketuhanan dalam Agama Buddha), compiled by Ashin Jinarakkhita's disciple, Upi Dhammavadi, introduced the devotional salutation "Namo Sang Hyang Adi-Buddhaya," which was to be recited before the usual Pali salutation "Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammāsambuddhassa" (Chia 2018: 53-56). Nevertheless, Sang Hyang Adi-Buddha was a double-edged sword for Ashin Jinarakkhita and his Buddhayāna movement. On the one hand, the non-canonical concept was accepted by Suharto's government, thus ensuring that Buddhism continued to be one of the recognized religions in Indonesia. On the other hand, it was met with criticism from Theravāda monastics, which eventually led to a schism in the Sangha in Indonesia (Chia 2018: 57-60).

Concluding Thoughts
Buddhist minorities in Southeast Asia, and in Asia more generally, are a lesser-studied group. Even though Hallisey's essay does not directly highlight this phenomenon, it raises questions that can help us consider the evolution and dynamics of minority Buddhist communities. As Hallisey convincingly suggests, Buddhism should be studied and contextualized as part of the "intellectual and cultural history" of the locale (1995: 46). His recommendation still rings true a quarter-century later. As we have seen in this article, recent studies on Theravāda Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia have offered a window of understanding on how Theravāda Buddhists lived as religious minorities vis-àvis Muslims and Christians, as well as Chinese Buddhists, Taoists, and folk religionists within local contexts. Hallisey's call to focus on ritual and the local production of meaning have been echoed by many scholars working on Theravāda Buddhism in maritime Southeast Asia. This burgeoning body of scholarship, which shifts the usual geographical focus away from Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, is beginning to tell us how Theravāda Buddhists have to constantly negotiate and adjust their strategy of engagements and interactions based on the specific local conditions.

The differing historical and social realities of Theravādin communities in maritime Southeast
Asia comprise an understudied area that deserves more scholarly attention. Further studies on the Theravādin minority can contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics between majority and minority religions and how such interactions play into the political, social, and cultural landscape of Southeast Asia. They can also help us reimagine the region in ways that notions of nation states and majority religions have obscured. 6 Pancasila refers to the five philosophical principles of the Indonesian nation.