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BUILDING THAI MODERNITY: The MahaDhammakaya CetiyaJudith SnodgrassPublished online: 28 Jul 2009.

To cite this article: Judith Snodgrass (2003) BUILDING THAI MODERNITY: The Maha DhammakayaCetiya , Architectural Theory Review, 8:2, 173-185, DOI: 10.1080/13264820309478494

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Vol. 8 No. 2, 2003

BUILDING THAI MODERNITY: The Maha Dhammakaya Cetiya

JUDITH SNODGRASS

In the lead up to the completion and consecration of the Dhammakaya Cetiya near Bangkok in May 2000, English language publications from this Thai Buddhist sect's international dit iston promoted it as a gesture for world peace: "In 2000 the world is going to calm down." The claim speaks to the overriding concern of the twenty first century and links the futuristic, hi-tech building with a Buddhist tradition ofstupa building dating back to the third century BC stupas of the King .\soka. Great Kings built great stupasfor the benefit and protection of the state, here, the people of a modem democracy were building a slupafor the benefit and protection of the world at large. This paper reads the building as a strategic statement in the discourses of modern Thai identity in an age of Western dominated globalisation and intra-Asian cultural flows. It aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion of the enduring Asian problem of how to express its modernity while still retaining cultural integrity, when being modern is popularly assumed to be a matter of measur­ing up with the West.

The .Maha Dhammakaya Cetiya. the central monument in the Worid Dhammakaya complex, stands in the Bangkok suburb of Pathum Thani, about 16 kilometres from the international airport. It is a futuristically designed dome surrounded by sloping terraces. 108 metres in diameter. The dome and its two levels "I terraces symbolise the unity of the Triple Gem in which all Buddhists take refuge, the inseparable unity of the Buddha, the Dharrna, and the sangba.1 The dome contains relics of the Buddha and a 4.5 metre high image of the Enlightenment Body of the Buddha (the dhammakaya. from which the sect takes its namei cast from \A tons of silver. The expanding layers of concentric terraces, which are. like the dome itself. coveted in myriad 18cm high Buddha images, symbolise the outward radiation of the dharrna from the stupa as centre, spreading peace to the beings of the world. (There are 300,000 images encrusted on the dome and top terrace. "00.000 more within the cetiya.) The outer terraces provide meditation space for up to 10.000 monks and novices during important religious ceremonies. The ground immediately surrounding the building forms another concentric ring and provides space for ritual circumambulator)' parades and sealing space for up to a million lay people to participate in meditation and other ceremonies (fig. 1).

Beside the cetiya is the Assembly Hall, a roofed structure covering 60 acres and capable of accommodating 300.000 people/ The Dhammakaya Foundation literature claims it to lx- the largest roofed structure in

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Figure I. wuw.dbammakaya.lbor/tour/cetiya3blm.

the world. It is used for Sunday meetings—which regularly attract 20.000 people—as well as for major ceremonies which have seen it filled to capacity. In Februan-1998.15,82-i young men were ordained at a mass gathering. In August of the same year 1-iO.OOO young women took novice ordination and performed meditation over three days, creating merit1 that was bestowed on the Queen for her birthday. On April 22.1999,100.000 monks ux)k pan in the Earth Day celebration. Close to half a million people attended the ceremony for the installation of the central Buddha image. The point in quoting these numbers is not only to indicate the popularity and immense following of the organization—I will return to this later—but to indicate the function of people as pan of the monument.'' It is a site for the performance of modem Thai Buddhist identity, and. as the continual flow of images of crowd scenes on the official website and in Dhammakaya Foundation publications suggests, a set for the production of media images (fig. 2).

The cetiya project began in Februan' 1994. when the Abbot Ven. Dhamiajayo Bhikkhu presented his brief to the team of architects and engineers. We are told that the design came to the abbot in meditation, but the key points of the brief were that it was to be a great celiva (this carries cenain parameters as we will see) that would last at least a thousand years, and that it include a million Buddha images. The architectural

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team was headed by a Thai architect internationally famous for his five star hotels. It included an engineer formerly employed in the NASA space program, and a lighting engineer freshly returned from working in London on Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage sets. Both were of Thai origin and typify the expatriate, internationally oriented, membership of the Dhammakava.

The building is the latest word in hi-tech and high cost (30,000 million baht). The in-ground plumbing pipes are of stainless steel. The concrete of the basic structure is of an amalgam especially formulated to meet the requirement of lasting at least a millennium. The Buddha images, which form the surface cladding of the dome and the upper terrace, are cast from a particularly durable silicon bronze alloy, which the official Dhammakaya Foundation website tells us. is normally used for submarine propellers (ww w.dlummakaya.ih.or lourceiiya.ilumi.Forthisapplication it has been given further resistance against the tropical sun and the acid rain of the polluted city through a plating of titanium and gold ion. a technique socially developed for the project. When I spoke to the team at design stage they were concerned that the images sin mid have a minimum expansion factor so that they could be spaced with knees touching to allow the How of an electric current for light effects at night, without being affected by the heat of the sun in the day. Though there is no mention of this on the present website, the resulting building resonates with this ideal olstretching capabilities. Simply making use of the latest technology was not enough. The demands of the project, particularly the tradition of the great stupa. pushed technology into the future.

The Stupa Tradition The Foundation's publications make it clear that the cetiya was to be in the tradition of the great cetiyas, the earliest surviving of which were built by Asoka. the Buddhist King of Mauryan India (circa third Century BC). As tradition has it. .Asoka built 8-1.000 stupas throughout his kingdom, which, in accord with brahmanic polity, assured the prosperity, welfare and peace of the state and all within it." Stupas were i ibjectS of worship and also objects I if power, each one a central pillar linking the realms and channelling the macrocusmic dharma into this world. They were also sites of instruction: the symbolism of their form and ornamentation embodied the Buddha's teaching," and on a practical level, each stupa was accompanied by a monastery and a nunnery, the central institutions of learning in the premodem world. Stupa sites were sues of empowerment, bringing knowledge (including knowledge of medicine, engineering and such things), as well as moral and spiritual instruction to the people. By building stupas kings displayed the righteous performance of their duty of protection and welfare.

In brahmanic polity, the gocxl of the worid depends on the interdependence of the king and the sangba (the community of religious specialists, i The duty of (he king is to preserve order and promote the welfare of the kingdom. Central to this is his support of the sangha. the religious specialists, whose duty it is to devote themselves 10 the production of dharma through meditation and other spiritual practices, for the general welfare. In this, the King performs his role as paradigmatic lay Buddhist, supporting ihcsangba in proportion to his wealth, power and field of merit. Great kings built great stupas. and many, such as those at Annuradhapura in Sri Lanka, Borobudor in Java. Shwedagon, the older stupas of Pagan (among others i have indeed have lasted over a thousand years. Significantly, each of these appears in the introductory scenes of the Dhammakaya Media Centre's fund-raising video.'1 The Dhammakaya Cetiya was to be in the lineage of these great monuments, but with one major difference. In a lime of democratic rule, the people would take on (he duly of building die stupa. and by building a siupa that would bring world peace and universal benefit: they announced themselves as citizens of the global community, not just of Thailand.

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The subscription appeal was open to all and advertised on the internet in English and other languages. International status in global times demands being able to make a contribution to the global good. There is of course also a protest here against the prevailing assumption that globalisation is a one-way process, the Americanization of the world.'' Buddhism is one area in which Asia can claim the reverse. Buddhism is Asia's gift to the world and one that carries a great deal of pride in the current climate of world interest in Buddhism. This claim toglobal identity isapparent in the fundraisingvideowhichopenedwithaprogression of images of the pyramids and sphinx of Egypt and the Great Wall of China. This was a project not just of Buddhist greatness, but of world significance.

The maternity of the Dhammakaya celiya is manifested in this ambition to great stupa status. As Denis Byrne writes, in Thailand stupa building occupies the highest rank in the graded hierarchy of meritorious acts. The founding and relative splendour of the building, repair, or embellishment of temples and stupas, constitutes an op|x>rtunity in which the status of an individual, a family, or a village can be negotiated. A key concept here is that the building not only creates merit, but affirms the donor's existing field of merit, i n order to maintain position and prestige in society, it is incumbent on the rich and |x>werful to undertake temple building projects.""' King Mongkut (r. 18S1-68) built the great stupa of Phra Pathom. Lay Buddhists of lesser wealth typically participate by embellishing an existing monument or image with gold leaf. The profusion of stupas of all sizes in temple grounds attests to the traditional practices at various levels of financial commitment. Mcxlernity—and it characteristic institutions which have created such changes as new avenues to wealth and power, systems of communications, financial management, community identity beyond the family and village—lias created the conditions of possibility for a vast number of Thai |ieople coming together to perform acts of merit-making of a magnitude formerly reserved for great kings.

Flgurei -"«.« meditation

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Performing Mcxlern Buddhism: The stupa of a democratic consumer society Followers of ihe Dhammakaya participated in ihe various stages of ihe creation of ihe monument. Before construction began ihe site was consecrated by mass meditation (fig. 3)- Thousands of people, each provided with a mat, a mosquito net and lamp, meditated on the cleared site for five days, consecrating not only the ground itself, but the earth Mow and the space above. The centre of the prepared site—and in stllpa symbolism, the hub of the world—was marked by a dome of sand formed from the accumulated offerings from the home places of devotees throughout Thailand, carried to the site in small silk bags. As the large central pile of the massive structure was driven into ihe ground by appropriately heavy machinery, thousands of followers, seated in the characieristically orderly lines of Dhammakaya crowds, marked out the space of the dome and shared in this act of foundation by hammering 3.333 individual piles into the ground." Volunteers laid the stainless steel plumbing pi|X?s which are inscribed with their names to record their merit. Even casual visitors could participate by smoothing gold leaf onto the panels of metal cladding that were to receive the silicon bronze images, housed for this purpose in the Foundation's merchandising centre. Many participated by contributing money—ihe project was funded by donation—and the names of donors are inscribed on the bases of the Buddha images ihai adorn the dome and are housed within the central chamber. Through these opportunities to take pan in the performance of building the stupa. ihe people could perform the Thai Theravada tradition of merit-making, and as they did this, they were give a sense of community and ownership. It was clear from the people 1 Spoke IO thai they had a strong sense that this was indeed iheir celiya: it was built by them. The building project mediated the formation of ihe community as well as the field of merit.

Dhammakaya: Modern Buddhism in Thailand The monument and the processes of its making speak of the nature of the Dhammakaya movement. Ii is a Thai manifestation of a much more general movement that Donald Lo|x?. has recently named Mcxlern Buddhism.'1^! term that refers to a loose grouping of Buddhist practices around the world that share certain features that mark them as mtxlem. Modern Buddhism includes the beliefs and practices of most Western Buddhists and of many Western-educated Asian elites. It is itself a pnxluct of transculiur.il intersections, owing much to the Western orientalist scholarship of the late nineieenth century thai created an image of Buddhism asa humanist philosophy.|( Its lineage includes the adoption of Zen as a iransculiural Spirituality. and consequently of meditation as the primary spiritual practice. Ii also includes the more recent associations of Buddhism with the great issues of world peace, international harmony and protection of ihe environment that have emerged with ihe Free Tibet movement around Tibetan Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. The Dhammakaya was one of several new movements in Thai Buddhism io emerge in ihe last decades of the twentieth century in response io swial change, and in ihe case of the Dhammakaya. to ihe need for a fomi of Buddhism in keeping with the needs of the newly emergent middle classes.1''

Tradition Transformed Sanitsuda Ekachai attributes the success of the Dhammakaya. at least in pan. to its application of modern marketing methods and financial systems to its fundraising campaign. "Urban Thai culture is ruled by consumer culture, and the Dhammakaya movement-by integrating ii into its Structure—has become popular with contemporary urban Thais who equate efficiency, orderliness, cleanliness, grandeur, spectacle, competition, and material success with goodness."1. The methods used in the fundraising were extremely controversial, but the principle of making merit by donation nevertheless has a precedent in tradition.

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Buddhist images from the earliest times are inscribed with the names of donors.1" In the past this was the preserve of royal dynasties and the aristocracy. In late twentieth century Thailand, modem financial systems made it accessible to members of the public who were encouraged to put aside a little each week. It is a transformation of traditional practices in line with the fundamental appropriation of the stupa tradition by a democratic society, and also apparent in the design and production of the building itself. Modernity is defined by its difference from the past even as Buddhist identity is claimed through the repetition of tradition.

Tradition Appropriated A rather different relationship with the past is apparent in the Dhammakaya meditation practices. For a start the Dhammakaya teach a unique form of meditation and its difference from the mainstream has caused considerable controversy—the Founder is credited with rediscovering this form of meditation that had been performed in the time of the Buddha but had long since died out. a return to origins that is a familiar trope in modem Buddhism. More significant in this context is that it is taught to and performed by lay people. As mentioned above, in the symbiotic vision of Buddhist polity, monks renounced the social world and its material trappings in ordertodevotethemselvestotheprcKluctionofdharma through meditation and study, for the general welfare. The duty of lay people was to support this activity through donation, dana. giving. It was a division of labour for mutual benefit. In the Dhammakaya. as in most modem Buddhist movements, meditation has become the central lay practice,1 but in forms that appropriate monastic practice. The umbrella with attached mosquito net used in the outdoor meditation practices of the Dhammakaya art-inspired by those used by wondering forest monks. Thai Buddhist ascetics. The forest monks are believed to possess supernatural powers achieved during meditation, powers that in the interdependent Buddhist polity briefly mentioned above, are closely related with the welfare of the state and the legitimacy of rule.Is

Though it Is not given a lot of coverage in its English language publications, the distinctive Dhammakaya form of meditation offers spiritual attainment through supernatural or miraculous experiences which are taken as the signs of the attainment of wisdom.19 To quote Jackson.

By undertaking ascetic dbutanga practices in intensive meditation sessions and thereby attaining supernatural experiences, lay followers of Wat Phra Thammakaay [Dhammakaya] internalise and appropriate for themselves the spiritual power and legitimacy which has traditionally been attributed to forest monks.20

The laity has taken on the prerogatives of the religious Specialists in practising meditation. This is in keeping with both the emphasis on the individual and on public performances that are characteristics of modernity. Dharma production has been individualised and democratised; followers of the Dhammakaya have formed a 'lay sangha.' The aim is. as Dhammakaya literature puts it, "World Peace Through Inner Peace."21

Modernity Prefigured: Asoka in Modern Buddhism The Dhammakaya promotional materials expressly link the celiya with the stupas of Asoka. This is more than simply a reference to the stupa tradition. Over the last century Asoki has come to be the ground of Modem Buddhist identity throughout .Asia, and the stupas built by him. its icons.22 Though .Asoka was indeed an historical figure, the only surviving knowledge of him until the nineteenth century was through Buddhist legend. His actual existence was only established when English colonial scholars identified Devanampiyatissa. the author of edicts caned into stone throughout the Indian subcontinent, with the

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legendary king of Buddhist literature/' The discovery and translation of Asoka's edicts coincided with the construction of Buddhism in Orientalist scholarship, and their emphasis on religious tolerance, non­violence, compassion and mutual respect continued the humanist ideal of ()rientalist scholarship.-'' Asokan humanism, equated with Buddhism, presented an imageof Asian greatness—of Asian priority in the creation of a society based on humanist principles—that was seized u|wn by Asian Buddhists at a time of unrelenting missii inary criticism. Buddhist nationalists could quote such Western luminaries as H. G. Wells to claim that Asoka was the greatest monarch of all time and all places. Asoka also provided the model for one of the characteristics of Modem Buddhism: its emphasis on philanthropic works. The edicts present an image of Asoka so thoroughly tolerant and humanist that Hindu nationalists installed him as the paradigm of their secular democratic nation. Asoka's lion capital became the insignia of the secular state of Independent India. Lutyens refers to his stupa in the dome on Parliament House. New Delhi. The pan-Asian Buddhist iconic value of this Indian building is seen in Japan in the Tokyo headquarters of the Nishi Honganji. built in 1931. This was a time when Buddhist nationalists in Japan were presenting a trans-sectarian Japanese Buddhism as the culmination of Asokan ideals, an argument that was. among other things, directed towards Japan's bid for a place among the world powers.2" Liter, it signalled pan-Buddhist Asian unity as Japan took a position of leadership in Asia. Most recently, it is referred to in the hall of Hanazono University, the /en Buddhist I Diversity in Kyoto which houses the International Institute for Zen Buddhism | fig. 11. Throughout the twentieth century the Asokan stupa has signalled the international prestige and humanist values of iiKxIern Buddhism.

Reference to the Asokan stupa by the fundraising committee of the Dhammakaya Foundation therefore signals both legitimacy and modernity. To return to the Buddhism of Asoka is to return to the pure origin that is more modern than the existing popular practice of contemporary Thailand—which, as reform rhetoric has it. his become degraded through the accretions of folk practice—and claims the building that not a few people saw as 'a space ship' (to quote the Bangkok Post) to be nothing less than a contemporary manifestation of enduring tradition.

What Does Being Modern Mean? In times past being modem—in the mode—was commonly assumed to be a matter of keeping up with London, Paris. New York or wherever was setting the trend. In Asia this implied wearing Western clothes. |KTha|Xsc^tingWestemfo(xI.butcenainlyhaWng'Westem'plumbing.tran.s|X)naiulc()mmunications\'sienis. These are pan of what Carol Gluck. writing of Japanese modernity, calls the "'necessary modern,"r things adopted for reasons of international recognition, as an essential basis of economic growth and development, or in the pursuit of progress. The necessary modem is apparent in the high-rise city of Bangkok. Thai participation in global capitalism, anil the general characteristics of modernity! public education, mass communications, public entities, international financial systems, among other things. It is also manifested in the formation of the Dhammakaya. which has a strong following among the middle classes and the establishment. Thais \\ IK I have benefited from global capitalism. It is apparent, t(X). in those practices that bring most criticism to it. such as its financial, marketing and media practices. Though scholars attack it as a distortion and commercialisation of Buddhism, these practices are also the basis of its popularity. As Sanitsuda Ekachai writes, Dhammakaya offers, "a capitalist version of Buddhism aimed at urban Thais who are used to comfort, convenience, and the instant gratification found in consumer si x iei\."-'"

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Urban Thai society is ruled by consumer culture, and the Dhammakaya movement—by integrating capitalism into its structure—his become popular with contemporary urban Thais who equate efficiency, orderliness, cleanliness, elegance, grandeur, spectacle, competition, and material success with goodness.29

The Dhammakaya provides a rationalised, humanist, lay-centred alternative to the traditional religion, with practices that fit with the lifestyles of modem professionals, and more than this, with their current values. Modem values are symbolised in the temple and its environs. In deliberate contrast to many traditional temples in Thailand, it is clean, ordered and set in quiet, landscaped gardens. And in the behaviour of the monks, all of whom have a university degree and study the scriptures on computers. "There are no traditional country style events like boxing or gambling, no stray dogs or lazy monks."*' he says, reflecting some of the criticisms of older schools. As a social phenomenon, the Dhammakaya provides an alternate network of power and privilege within the hierarchical Thai society, in which status remains based on royal patronage.31

The Dhammakaya's strong following among women and young people might be seen as a consequence of this 'necessary modem.' As in Taiwan and Korea, many women of the present generation still feel the constraints of a patriarchal tradition that limits female activity beyond the home. For educated middle class women, the philanthropic work of new Buddhist movements providean opportunity forsocial participation, public position and personal fulfilment.*2 Young people seem to appreciate its distinctively new and modem practices, its holiday camps, and—through its professional networks—access to professional employment in a tight job market."Thai industry and theestablishmcnt (which includes the military establishment) support the organization because of the moral and ethical training it provides. Student members are rewarded with Upward mobility and access to elite jobs. For its pan. the establishment is assured of employees selected for theireducation i only universitygraduates can undertake ordination), loyalty and conservative establishment values.94 The Dhammakaya is a product of the boom years of Thailand's participation in the global economy, and its membership is very largely drawn from this internationally focussed elite.

The history of various pans of Asia over the last century or so reveals a constant tension between the need for modernisation, which frequently meant adopting from the West, and reaction agaiast the lass of cultural integrity this entailed. This was explicit in the Buddhist nationalism of Meiji Japan which looked to the past to find something in indigenous heritage that would contribute to the modem nation—the national modem—and, preferably. IK- something that could be Japan's gift to the world The strong give to the weak, nationalist leaders argued, so only by making a contribution to international well being could they win recognition and respect. Buddhism, which was enjoying a vogue in the West at that time, satisfied both requirements. The point was to be modem in an indigenous idiom, and to present the indigenous religion in a manner acceptable to Western educated elites.

The process might beencompassed by Tessa Morris Suzuki's word-processing metaphor of reformatting," which, briefly summarized, sees the creation of local modernities as a matter of reorganising cultural fomis according to a set of rules that define the modern. The process is apparent in the prcxluction and publication of edited editions of the canon-the sacred books of Buddhism submitted to the rules of Western academic scholarship—and more recently in the mass publication and sale of these fxx>ks that were once the preserve of monastic scholars, in CD versions available for sale to the general public. It is also apparent in the adoption of the social roles of protestant Christianity, the youth groups. Sunday

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si hook VMIJA. prison visits, greater lay participation, particularly in lay proselytising, activities that are characteristics not only of the Dhammakaya. but of mcxlern schools of Buddhism in general. Reformatting might also encompass a cetiya built of the latest materials by a world famous architect, an unquestionably modern building that nevertheless preserves enduring cultural and religious practices. While there is admittedly a certain fit. the idea of reformatting doesn't accommodate the disruptions to tradition that are also apparent in the cetiya project.

I li m useful then is 1 lobsbawm and Banger's familiar concept of'invented tradition.' aconcept which may refer less to an actual invention than to the use of the past as a repository providing elements of a cultural vocabulary that—to use the metaphor of language—can be strung together to create new statements within a current discourse?*" Without doubt the past provides an elaborate language of symbolic practice to construct new-cultural forms. Thus metaphor is something of an inverse of reformatting, which tends to imply a fundamental continuity of culture that is repackaged.' 'updated' by following new rules. Invented traditions aim to give the appearance of a long heritage to new institutions that emerge in response to new situations. To give just one example from the building of the Dhammakaya cetiya, we see how the Buddhist practice oUlana persists, but has been given a new context, new (XKsibilities of expression. Its rewards, too, have been brought into line with the expectations of consumer society. The lay appropriation of the symbols of the practices of forest ascetics referred to previously is perhaps an even closer fit with this scheme of invented tradition. While the Dhammakaya and its cetiya project are inescapably a consequence of late twentieth century Thai society, and exhibit aspects of both 'reformatted' and Invented1 tradition, the problem with Ixith metaphors is their tendency to ftxus on the opposition between present practice and some past reality' that it is measured against. They do not adequately account for the |X'iformance aspects of the building of the cetiya.

Performing modernity, embodying tradition As Dipesh Chakrabarty observes, no invention of tradition is effective without a simultaneous invocation of affect, of sentiments, emotions and other embodied practices. "Ideas acquire materiality through a history of Ixxlily practices."37 There can be no doubt of the effectiveness of the cetiya for the people I spoke to who were associated with it. It is clear also that the public participation in (he building process embodied the new tradition in them even as it was being created. They were taught the meaning and significance of the monument, and given a personal sense of commitment to the project as they purified the site, marked out the ritually potent centre, mimetically hammered in the central pillar. These rituals were newly created to accommodate new males of making merit through the time-honoured performance of stupa building in a new swial context and in a time of new modes of construction.> But many of the processes, such as gilding the covering plates for the attachment of the images, called upon long-standing tradition even as they embodied the new. Temples all over southeast Asia testify to the practice of rubbing gold leaf onto an object of veneration. It is pan of a res< inant vocabulary of Buddhist performance. As Chakrabarty puts it, the modem subject embodies a rich, and complex history of "die training of the senses" (his term), a histi >ry t hat goes back a long way. The project of building the Dhammakaya cetiya called u|x in this memory even as it made its statements of modernity and acted out millennial visions of global participate Hi at the highest levels of wealth and technology; even world leadership in the project of peace.

Millennial modernity: an Asian modernity in an age of globalisation The metaphors of I lobskiwm and.Morris Su/.ukiderivefromstudiesof nation formation in the late nineteenth

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century. The aim in that context was to create citizens for the newly formed nation state, the space within the political borders that were at that time still being drawn: of creating imagined communities out of the disparate groups of people that were found within them. Nations, as Benedict Anderson explains, are not natural categories, and the process at that stage was to create the sense of being so.-*'' While these processes continue to be relevant, if perhaps most active and noticeable in minority communities within nations, the context in which the Dhammakaya cetiya was built was different. At the turn of the century the concern is less to create citizens than for the already self-conscious members of nations to negotiate their place in reference to a global community, When we were first introduced to the cetiya project in 199" there many were signs of the organization's desire for global presence—English language publications, calls for international panicipaiion. and a well developed English language website—but it was a matter of projection rather than fact, pointing to the importance of the international in modem Thai identity.1" The building (the built form and the process of creating it) offered the opportunity for people of the world at large to create merit (expressed as an opportunity to bring about world peace and obtain personal benefit) through donation. By inviting international donations the Dhammakaya claimed status as a world religion, and regardless of how much the international community did actually take up this opportunity, the [possibility of international participation created the organization's global identity and fostered a local sense of global citizenship.

The condition of possibility of the Dhammakaya sect of Buddhism is Thai participation in a global capitalist world, and though thus is reflected in the Maha Dhammakaya celiya from the inception of the plan of the building, the building is more than simply an expression of modern Thai identity. The building—the built form and the process of achieving it—created the opportunity for the performance and embodiment of Thai modernity. Though modernity defines itself by difference from what went before—apparent here in the futuristic design of the building—[he celiya's function facilitates an engagement with the past in various ways, so that even while enacting newly created rit uals with t he aid (if t he latest technology, the performance resonates with long held cultural memory, and localises this modernity within Thai tradition. The cetiya is the site for the enactment and embodiment of a modern Thai Buddhist identity in a global context.

Notes As explained below, the Dhammakaya is a sect of Thai Buddhism that emerged in the late twentieth century. For an official history, overview of its teachings and activities, visit their website at www.dhammakaya.th.or/ The website is richly illustrated with views and plans of the buildings of the complex, and images of recent events. I have relied on this website and various Dhammakaya Foundation publications for the information used in this introduction. The organisation is known in Thai as Thammakai (or Thammakaay). Cetin in English is stupa.'

: The dharma (Pali: elbamma | is the Buddha's teachings: the sangha. the ordained community. For a plan of the set of three buildings that constitute the precinct, see www.dhammakaya.th.or/tour/ cetiyal.htm Monastic quarters, the temple, and landscaped gardens adjoin this.

1 (August "-9.1998). Creating merit through practice or propagation of the dharma is a fundamental practice in Theravada Buddhism. Meritorious practices include meditation, reciting the sutras. giving (dana) to sup­port the sangba, supporting the publication of Buddhist texts, and most particularly, building or restoring temples and stupas. Merit earned may be transferred to another. See R. C. Amore, The Role of Merit in Theravada Buddhism," in .Anita Beltran Chen (ed). Contemporary and Historical Perspectives in Southeast ASM. Ottawa: Carieton University Printshop. pp. 28-38; L. M. Hanks. 'Merit and Power in the Thai Social Order." American tiilhropologist. (H. 6 (1962): Dp, 1247-61 Though what 1 have in mind here is a bit different. Denis Byrne comments on the traditional Interdepend-

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ence (>f a stupa wuh die sangfkl and the local community: '"The state of a temple's merit is determined by a dynamic relationship between the Stupa, the monks, and the community.... While a stupa renowned for its power and efficacy in granting favours will enhance the prestige of a temple and its monks, the fate of the stupa is in turn dependent upon the sanctity of the abbot and monks, as perceived by the communit\ The simple fact of a stupa being a sacred object is not in itself enough to ensure its physical continuity.. ." Dennis Byrne, 'Buddhist Stupa and Thai Social Practice." World Archaeology, 2". 2 (199u p. 2~2. See S. J. Tambiali. World Conqueror. World Renouncer. A Study of Buddhism in Thailand against a Historical Background Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1976, on Brahmanic polity, the Asokan paradigm, and its application in twentieth century Thailand. John S. Strong. The Legend of King Asoka, Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1983 gives an excellent introduction to the history of Asoka and to the Buddhist texts that present his life as paradigm. The classic text on the subject is Adrian Siiodgrass.Svwfotow of the Stupa. Ithaca: Cornell Universitv Press. 1985. Untitlecl. no date. My thanks to the Venerable Phra Palad Sudham Suddhammo of Dhammakaya Founda-tii m Australia, for presenting me with this. Images courtesy of the Venerable Sudham Suddhammo of the Dhammakaya Foundation Australia. For recent work on this see Koichi Iwabuchi. Recenteriug Globalization. Durham: Duke University Press. 2002; Harumi Befu. "Globalisation for the Bottom Up."Japanese Studies. 23:1 (May 2003). 1-22.

10 Byrne. "Buddhist Stupa and Thai Social Practice." p. 272. " This is a symbolically significant number representing the infinite repetition of the triple jewel. Personal

communication from Venerable Saddam Saddharmo. '- Donald Lopez ted). A Modern liuddhist Bible: Essential Readings from East and West. Boston: Beacon

Press. 2002. See Judith Snodgrass, Presenting Japanese Buddhism to the West: Orientalism. Occidentalism and the Columbian Exposition, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 2003. especially Ch. -i.

u The official history of the Dhammakaya is on the website. For academic perspectives see also Peter Jackson. Buddhism. Legitimation, andConJIia. Tlx'Political Tunctionsof I rban Thai Buddhism. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989; J. L. Taylor. "New Buddhist Movements in Thailand: An 'Individualistic Revolution". Reform and Political Dissonance."JournalojSoutheast Asian Studies.il. 1 (March 1990), pp, 135-154; Edwin Zehner. "Reform Symbolism of a Thai Middle Class Sect: The Growth and Appeal of the Th;\mmaka\Sea"Journ(dofSouilh-asi.\uan Studies. 21.2 (September 1990). pp. 402-426; David L. Gosling. Urban Thai Buddhist Attitudes to Developmeni.'7oMrw//o/rf« Siam Society. 84,2 (1996), pp. 103-120.

" Sanitsuda Ekachai, "Phra Dhammakaya Temple Controversy." Bangkok Post. December 21. 1998. wAw.hangkokpust.net/issues/temple/featl/html. Panels on the Sanchi gateway from the second century BCE are inscribed with the names of donors. Given the size and social status of its membership, it should lie no surprise that the Dhammakaya accumulated considerable wealth. In 199-* a statue of the founder. Luang Por Wat Paknam. one and a half times life size, was cast, the website tells us. from "pure, solid gold" The Buddha image in the dome was also to lie of gold, but the unforeseen contingency of economic downturn resulted in a gilded solid silver image instead.

1 This is also so for the other major global sects, the Fo Kuang Shan from Taiwan, the Soka Gakkai Interna­tional from Japan, and of course. Tibetan and Zen Buddhism. Whether the recent emphasis on meditatu >n is a reverse How from the influence of Western Buddhist practice which largely equates meditation with Buddhism, or a consequence of modern urban life and the shared need for techniques of coping with it. is a question for further research.

1S Jackson, Buddhism. Conflict and Legitimation, pp. 206-7. On Buddhist polity and the Interdependence of the rightful ruler and religious socialists as producers of dharma. see Tambiali. World Conqueror. World Renouncer. Gananath Obeyesekere. Frank E. Reynolds, and Bardwell L Smith (eds). The Tito Wheels of the Dharma. Chambersburg: American Academv of Religion. 1972.

19 }3ckson.Buddhism,ConjliclandLwtimation.p\x2M.2\2.Theor%mm^ focus more on this-vvorldly benefits such as career success, wealth and prosperity, purity and radiance of

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mind. "Claim your own inner refuge for eternity"! 19%). By 1999 the focus is even more globally acceptable, speaking of "inner peace through conscious ethics."

20 Jackson. Buddhism. Conflict and Legitimation, p. 206. 21 Cf. New Buddhism in Meiji Japan where Buddhist reformers called upon intellectuals to study Buddhism for

the good of Japan, for the good of Asia and for the gtxxl of the world; called upon lay people to take on the duty of ihesangba in a rationalised Buddhist practice. The aim here was to insert Buddhism as the basis of national identity in a time ofemergingJapane.se modernitv. Snodgrass. Presenting Japanese linddbism to the West. pp. 149-152.

" 1 use capitals here in reference to Lopez's work. y For an account of this see the intnxluction to Strong, The Legend o/Asoka. -'' Naresh Prasad Rastogi led). Edicts of'Asoka, Varanasi: Choukhamba Sanskrit Series. 1990. 15 Edict XXX for example, speaks of planting medicinal herbs, plantingshade trees along roads, etc. See Dham-

makaya website for details of its humanitarian and philanthropic activities. -'" Japan led the way in creating a national modem Buddhism, beguiling the movement in the late 1880s. See.

Chs. 5 and 6 in Snodgrass, Presentingjapanese Buddhism to the West. " Carol duck, "Japan's Modernities, 1850s- 1990s." in Ainslie T. Embree and Carol Gluck. | eds),.\sia in Western

andWorld History; 199", pp. 561-593. 'The Invention of Edo' in Stephen Vlastos (ed). Mirror ofModernity: Invented Traditions in Modern Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1998. pp. 262-284.

m Sanitsuda Ekachai. "Phra Dhammakaya Temple Controversy." 29 Sanitsuda Ekachai. "Phra Dhammakaya Temple Controversy." ' Jeffrey Bowers, quoted in Far Eastern Economic Renew. February 11,1999, p. 39.

" This is well covered in Jackson. Buddhism. Legitimation and Conflict. 32 Julia Chang, "Merit and mothering: Women and Saial Welfare in Taiwanese Buddhism. "Journal of Asian

Studies.57, 2 (May 1998). pp. 379-396; Judith Nagata, The Globalisation of Buddhism and the Emergence of Religious Civil Society," Communal Plural. ~2 (October 1999). pp. 231-248. As one expression of its global presence, the Dhammakaya has a formal association with the Fo Kuang Shan (Taiwan), known in Australia for the Nan Tien temple south of Wollongong. The Fo Kuang Shan, a Mahayana Buddhist sect, has ordained women from the Theravada countries of Thailand and Sri Lanka which deny women full ordination. This was mentioned by several of our contacts. The employees of members of the Celiya committee tended to be members of the Dhammakaya. It should be rememlx'red that it is still customary for all young Thais to take lay ordination and spend some time in a monastery. It is more a question of which one to enter than w hether one will do so, and does not necessarily equate with a widespread spiritual search among the youth of Thailand.

M Jackson. Buddhism, legitimation and Conflict, pp. 21+5. Tessa Morris-Suzuki. Re-inventingjapan. Space, Time. Nation, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds), The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Di))esh Chakrabarty. "Afterword," in Stephen Vlastos (ed). Mirror of Modernity. Invented Traditions of Moileni Japan. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1998. pp. 29-4-5.

•ta 1 need to do further research to see what exactly were the possibilities for public participation in earlier times. Japanese records from the eight century speak of the participation of donors in the ceremony of consecrating the Buddha image in Tcxlaiji in Nara: a long string attached to the end of the brush was held by prominent donors who thereby symbolically t<x>k pan in the ritual. The mimetic pile driving seems to be in this tradition. Benedict Anderson. Imagined Communities: Reflection on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Umdon-. Verso, 1983. Fora brilliant account of the creation of modem citizens in Meiji Japan through the use of built form, city planning, monuments, pageantry, public holidays and other such processes, sec Takeshi Fujitani. Splendid Monarchy: Power and'Pageantry in Modern Japan. Berkeley: California University Press. 1996.

10 There were two Dhammakaya monks in the United States at that time. The mission in Sydney lx;gan injune

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1998 with one resident monk attending to the spiritual needs of a small group of expatriate business people, Students, and the Thai spouses of mixed marriages. The presence lias grown dramatically. Dhammakaya groups around the world are now linked by simultaneous broadcasts in Dharma time" so that followers around the globe unite in mass meditation guided by the intoned instructions of the .Abbot at the home base, employing technology to enact their unity and the global presence of the organization.

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