The third fieldnote in our series takes us to Vientiane, the capital of Laos, where Patrice Ladwig is undertaking fieldwork this year. After a long period of isolation after the communist revolution in 1975, the politics of reform, and investments from neighboring countries have lead to substantial economic growth in urban areas during the last decade. In his research, Patrice traces the effects of the expanding economy onto the religious field, and especially rituals. He wants to analyze how and why specific actors channel parts of their new acquired wealth into Buddhist rituals, and thereby support temples and Buddhist institutions. Moreover, in the second phase of research he intends to explore how increasing inequalities in wealth are expressed in ritual, and how these developments are justified, criticized and morally evaluated by Buddhist practitioners.

When I first came to Laos for my PhD fieldwork in 2003, I asked the abbot of my monastery in central Vientiane for a copy the recent report of the yearly meeting of the Lao Buddhist Fellowship Organization. He replied that the resolutions and speeches had already been typed up, but that there was no funding to print the 200 page booklet. “This is the most important yearly meeting of the Lao Organization of Buddhists, and we don’t even have the money to print these booklets“. Displaying his usual good humor, he broke out into boisterous laughter. Visiting him and the monastery in February 2019, we discussed what had changed since 2003. Vientiane has become an utterly different city. Renovated temples, oversized billboards of Chinese companies, traffic jams with large SUVs, and endless building sites despite spiraling land prices are only the most visible signs of the economic boom. Laos’ economically much more powerful neighbors Vietnam and China have continuously been investing into infrastructure projects often linked to mining, dam building and large scale rubber plantations in the country. Economic growth rates of about 8 percent per year for the last decade might not reveal the complex reshuffling of the social fabric of, and the growing inequalities in the sprawling capital. From a general perspective, however, they attest to the fact that Laos – defined by the UN as one of the ‘Least Developed countries’ (LDC) in the world -, and especially its urban areas, are undergoing an economic boom.

Talking to old friends and colleagues from the Buddhist College at Vat Ong Toe confirmed that some parts of the growing wealth are also channeled into the Buddhist ritual economy. Achan Kham, who has been a teacher at the college for more than 25 years, greeted me when I drove my motorbike into the temple. After exchanging updates and talking about common friends, he showed me around the temple and the buildings of the Buddhist college. Renovated estates with new roofs and relatively modern classrooms had replaced the ramshackle rooms that were used when I was teaching there in 2005. Asking about what had changed in the last years, he explained: “I remember how things were when you first came here. With you and some other foreigners we tried to apply for some funding for buying books for the Buddhist college. How things have changed now! There is enough money around now, and the donations we receive are plenty.“ He pointed to the new buildings, and the big cars parking on the temple compound.

The projects that the Lao monastic order in Vientiane launched over a decade ago have since grown substantially: Projects that aim at spreading Buddhist morality and meditation for laypeople are very active now, and have extended to more remote and deprived provinces. Monks visit schools, teach Buddhist morality and provide pupils in poorer areas with educational equipment financed by donations from wealthy laypeople in Vientiane. Meditation classes for the emerging middle- and upper-class continue to attract an ever growing crowd of believers, but mainly only on week-ends. Economic growth has also introduced a new regime of time-discipline: Longer working hours, commuting time, and the need for employment of both parents in families to finance increasingly consumer oriented life-styles, leave little time for visiting temples on Buddhist holy days determined by the lunar calendar. Week-ends are now the time when people flock to urban monasteries, and engage in rituals of merit-making. With more cash being available in the rapidly expanding economy, individual and family-based ritual activity has also increased. Besides the festivals of the yearly ritual cycle, commemoration rituals for deceased relatives, and rites for purifying one’s karma, shedding bad luck, and for obtaining blessings have gained in prominence. Most of these prosperity enhancing rites are by no means inventions provoked by the evolving capitalist economy.  They have a long history, but at the moment flourish for very concrete reasons:  Due to the fact that the public and industrial employment sector remains rather small, and jobs are often reserved for those with the right connections, people tend to found small businesses and become self-employed. Competition, however, is fierce, and consequently, the ritual production of Buddhist merit, luck, and auspiciousness that might increase success in life and business are in high demand now. Visiting one temple specialized in karma purification in Vientiane with friends, I also tried to enhance my capacities for upcoming fieldwork tasks (Figure 1).  

Beyond these individual activities, some private companies now also hold large donation ceremonies and sponsor, for example, the renovation of older temples in the countryside around the capital Vientiane. One example for the evolvement of what could be called ‘Buddhist corporate responsibility’ is Mrs. Suchitra’s family business. Located on the outskirts of Vientiane, the company of the mid-40s business women produces and markets plastic pipes and other equipment for sanitary installations. Since its founding 10 years ago, the company has grown tremendously, and now employs about 100 workers. Last year, she already held a donation ceremony at her company (Figures 2 and 3).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here, propagation for a religious event and advertisement for the company went hand in hand. Suchitra’s parents were from the countryside close to Vientiane, and her deceased mother already donated a larger plot of land to a temple 80 km outside of Vientiane. In February, her family, friends, employees and the villagers held a large donation festival at this temple. Having a cup of tea with her in her office, she explained: “My mother died already two years ago. However, during several nights last year, she appeared in my dreams and asked me if it would be possible to further sponsor the temple”. Consulting the monks and local officials in the village, they explained that a proper road leading to the temple, a new entrance door and several Buddha statues were desperately needed. After some weeks of preparation, the ritual was held in February, and the assembled donor-group collected approximately 40.000 US$. Large banners in and outside the temple displaying the logo of the company, and its Facebook page were used to spread the message. (Figure 4).

Suchitra emphasized several times that she was not the only ‘main donor’, but that this was a collective act of giving benefitting the temple and producing merit for all participants. However, social hierarchies are also clearly mapped out at such occasions: Only the names of the main donors were enshrined in the new door leading into the temple. Talking to the workers in Suchitra’s business also revealed that she has a strong sense of responsibility for her employees. Ethnic minorities from far-away provinces work in her company, and are provided with rooms for living and a canteen.

Although larger companies like Lao Telecom have already sponsored similar activities, Suchitra’s business donation engagement is a rather new trend among small- and mid-scale enterprises in Laos. For Lao new year in April, the company has already invited a master of ceremonies (mo phoon) who will bless its employees and the production facilities for having a good and prosperous start into the new (business) year.

While in the eyes of many Western observers business, money and religion are a rather awkward mix, and subject to discussions on commodification and commercialization, all my Laos friends I asked about these sponsorship-rites found this a completely honest expression of faith and Buddhist values. In neighboring Thailand, in fact, the ritual economy has already reached a level of saturation that provokes critical comments on the mixture of Buddhism and business, and its potentially corrupting impact on monks. The expression phuttha phanit (‘commercialized Buddhism’) that evolved in the early 1990s in Thailand, however, has not yet reached Laos. Although some narratives regarding the apparent affluence of certain specific monks circulate, urban Lao Buddhism seems to be in the middle of a flowering period. Only time will tell if, when and how similar discourses will in the future also reach Laos.