| This dissertation examines contemporary Buddhist discourses on monastic and lay wealth in Thailand, and links these discourses to evaluations and re-valuations of Buddhist ideals, practices, and authority in contemporary Thai society. Rather than classifying types of Buddhists based on valuations of wealth (elite versus popular) or identifying normative Buddhist views on wealth (orthodox versus heterodox), I examine the relationship between Buddhist piety and wealth as it is articulated within specific, historically-contingent fields of discourse and practice. I use the controversy over the Dhammakaya temple's wealth and marketing techniques which emerged in 1998 as a fulcrum for analyzing these discourses within the public sphere. I argue that current debates over the relationship between wealth and piety reflect differing conceptions of Buddhist identity and practice within a sphere of contested religious authority and within a global consumer culture. I suggest that the critique of the Dhammakaya temple as commercialized or materialistic is not a self-evident evaluation of the temple's motives nor its goals, but rather a critique which stems from a particular reading of the tradition in a specific historical context. |
