G
GHOSANANDA, MAHA
Maha Ghosananda (full title, Samdech Preah Maha Ghosananda) was, perhaps, the most significant Buddhist leader of the Theravada tradition in Cambodia in the second half of the twentieth century. As the Khmer Rouge (the Communist Party of Cambodia) seized control of the country in the 1970s and systematically targeted and assassinated Buddhist monks, the future of religion in that country itself was in serious jeopardy. In the face of continued violence, Maha Ghosananda and his followers preached the Buddhist values of reconciliation and compassion and urged the people to “remove the land mines of hatred” from their hearts. In the post-Communist transition period, he contributed tremendously to revive Cambodian Buddhism and to bring peace and normalcy in the society.
Born in the Takéo Province of Cambodia in 1929 in a farming community, from a young age Ghosananda showed a keen interest in religious matters. At the age of eight, he began his formal association with Buddhism as a temple boy. At 14, he was ordained as a novice, and he studied Pali, the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism, at a local school. He did his higher studies in Phnom Penh and Battambang and went on to do a doctorate in Pali at the Nalanda University in India.
Thefour years’ rule of Khmer Rouge in the country that led to the loss of approximately two million lives (due to political executions as well as starvation and diseases) led Maha Ghosananda to the realization that religion needed to be actively engaged in the real-life situations of the people. In order to bring peace and hope to a people ravaged by war and social injustice, he started “Dhammayietra,” an annual peace walk that crossed Cambodia from the Thai border and traveled all the way to Vietnam. In the last decade of his life, Maha Ghosananda turned his attention to the environmental devastation that was caused primarily by illegal logging in Cambodia. During this period, the theme of Dhammayietra turned to deforestation and illegal logging and the links between these and militarism and the ongoing civil war in the country. Trees were planted throughout the pilgrimage, and he reminded the villagers that protecting ourselves and protecting our environment is the “Dhamma of the Buddha.”
In recognition of his services, Maha Ghosananda was nominated by several organizations for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the recipient of the Rafto Prize (1992), which is a human rights award; the Niwano Prize (1998) for interreligious cooperation; and the Courage of Conscience Award (1998) that was instituted to promote the causes of peace, justice, nonviolence, and love. Maha Ghosananda died in Northampton, Massachusetts, on March 12, 2007.
Jesudas M. Athyal
See also: Buddhism; Cambodia; Communism; Dharma/Dhamma; Engaged Buddhism; Interreligious Relations and Dialogue; Khmer Buddhism; Religion and Society; Sivaraksha, Sulak; Thailand; Vietnam.
Further Reading
Bhikkhu, Santidhammo. Maha Ghosananda: The Buddha of the Battlefield. Thailand: S. R. Printing, 2009.
Ghosananda, Maha. Step by Step: Meditations on Wisdom and Compassion. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991.
Kraft, Kenneth, Maha Ghosananda, Tenzin Gyatso, and Sulak Sivaraksa. The Path of Compassion: Writing on Socially Engaged Buddhism. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1988.
GLOBALIZATION
Globalization, in the context of Southeast Asia, is a multidimensional phenomenon. It has economic, political, religious, and cultural dimensions. In its sweep, it affects all nations and peoples. Its direct impact is felt all over the world. Since the first appearance of the term in 1962, globalization has gone from jargon to cliché. The Economist has called it “the most abused word in the twentieth century.” Certainly no word in recent memory has meant so many different things to different people.
The Copenhagen Seminar for Social Progress (1997) in dealing with “globalization as a trend and as a political project,” distinguishes between globalization as a stage in the historical evolution of humanity, and globalization as a political project guiding the world in a particular direction. The “project” is global capitalism, or the application of the theory and practice of market economy to the world as a whole. It is actively pursued by a number of governments and by the economic and financial elites of the world.
From the perspective of Southeast Asia, the central element of globalization as a project is to focus on the promotion of liberal economic policies and the transformation of state-motivated national development efforts into neoliberal policies. The globalization project is linked in particular to the growing concentration of control over the global economy by a relatively small number of large, oligopolistic, transnational corporations that have emerged from merger-driven and technology-facilitated changes to the global political economy of the last few decades. The project is legitimized in the name of a free-enterprise and free-trade vision of the global economy.
There is a lot of evidence to show that economic globalization has produced injustice, inequality, poverty, and a spiritual crisis. Even leading proponents of globalization concede that in the failure to deliver a more just global economic order, globalization may hold within it the seeds of its own demise. The concern is not only about the unjust consequences of globalization, but the fact that the concept of justice is alien to globalization. We have an analytical deficit occasioned by the failure of economic globalization to assess the threat to its legitimacy emanating from its theoretical and practical myopia toward justice issues. The paradigm of development under globalization is only about growth. It does not include two important components in the ecumenical understanding of development: justice, and people’s participation.
An institution that has been profoundly transformed under globalization is the state. The language of globalization, especially in its neoliberalist guise, is about the managerialist capacity of the modern state. But it has failed to recognize the manner in which the internationalization of finance can exacerbate the “democratic deficit.” The Asian Development Bank, a key player in Southeast Asia, identifies as a major function of the state the provision of an appropriate enabling environment for private enterprise. The intervention in the market is in favor of capital; not labor, not people. The crisis of the welfare state consequent to globalization has caused misery to millions of people.
The globalization of recent decades has seldom been a democratic choice by the peoples of Southeast Asia—the process has been business-driven, by business strategies and tactics for business ends. Governments have helped, by incremental policy actions and by major actions that were often taken in secret, without national debate and discussion of where the entire project was leading. The undemocratic process, carried out within a democratic façade, is consistent with the distribution of benefits and costs of globalization, and the fact that globalization has been a tool serving elite interests.
Though the role of force in globalization was evident much before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the response of the United States of the declaration of the “War on Terror,” scholars of globalization had not explained the issue adequately. Globalization emerges out of earlier forms of global political changes, often brought about by military means and associated with Western imperialism and the internationalization of capital. The National Security Strategy of the USA (2001) made it clear that the opportunity of the War on Terror would be utilized to promote globalization. Globalization and militarism should be seen as the two sides of the same coin.
The Human Development Report (1999, 4–5) makes some important observations on globalization and culture under the heading “Cultural Insecurity”: “Globalization opens people’s lives to culture and all its creativity and to the flows of ideas and knowledge. But the new culture carried by expanding global markets is disquieting … Today’s flow of culture is unbalanced, heavily weighted in one direction, from rich countries to poor. … Such onslaught of foreign culture can put cultural diversity at risk and make people fear for their cultural identity.” With regard to regions like Southeast Asia, as a result of globalization, there is the emergence of an increasingly Western-dominated international culture, a trend that has sparked concerns about the erosion of national identities and traditional values.
Southeast Asia has been one of the main beneficiaries of globalization in the sense of open markets, trade, and capital flows. Almost all countries of the region have registered impressive growth. But since the paradigm of neoliberalism does not include distributive justice, the benefits have disproportionally gone to the rich. While new social welfare measures have not been initiated, traditional safety nets have been dissolved. The result has been increasing inequality and, for several sections of people, intensified poverty. This is the case even in China, where growth has been remarkable as a result of the Communist state embracing capitalist globalization.
The Asian financial crisis of 1997 was a turning point for the globalization project not only in Asia but throughout the world. Before the financial crisis, the East Asian economy was considered to be an exemplary model from which Western countries should learn. The stringent conditions imposed by the International Monetary Fund drove countries of the region into economic depression. The Asian financial crisis highlighted the inevitability of crisis under globalization in the midst of global overproduction and the speculative excesses of financial liberalization. The perils of globalization became evident.
The impact of globalization on Asia’s security is complex. In some ways the impact has been positive: economic integration has reduced the potential for conflict, particularly in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, globalization may give rise to new security concerns and aggravate existing tensions. There are new transnational threats, and regional institutions have weakened.
Ninan Koshy
See also: Engaged Buddhism; Freedom of Religion; Fundamentalism; Secularism.
Further Reading
Berger, Mark T. The Battle for Asia, From Decolonization to Globalization. Oxford: Routledge Curzon, 2004.
Held, David, Anthony G. McGrew, David Goldblatt, and Jonathan Perraton. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.
Human Development Report 1999. Published for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999. http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/reports/260/hdr_1999_en_nostats.pdf (accessed October 22, 2014).
Nissanke, Machiko, and Erik Thorbecke, eds. The Poor under Globalization in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Stiglitz, Joseph E. Globalization and Its Discontents. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003.
GODDESS TRADITIONS
The scope and antiquity of goddess traditions are remarkable. Female sacred images are associated with some of the oldest archaeological evidence of religious expression and yet still have efficacy in the contemporary world. Goddess images are depicted in a wide range of forms, from symbolic or suggestive representations, such as abstract reproductive organs, to fully elaborated icons decorated with the finery of royalty. They are linked to all major aspects of life, including birth, initiation, marriage, reproduction, and death. They display the elaborate variegation of religious experiences in different cultural contexts. Indeed, theories about goddess worship have been advanced ever since the emergence of the social science disciplines in the nineteenth century. Religion specialists in the fields of anthropology, sociology, folklore, psychology, and comparative mythology have contributed numerous theories to explain the phenomenon of goddess worship.
While there are no universal characteristics of goddess traditions, certain common themes, such as nurturing or punishing mothers, protectors of community, images of national identity, symbols of virginity and purity, the origins of the fertility of crops and human beings, demonstrate how deeply rooted goddess veneration is within human experience.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam, where the goddess tradition, Đạo Mẫu is the oldest religious tradition in the region, predating even the Chinese occupation, offers a good example. Veneration of goddesses, once dismissed as superstition by the Communist government, has recently grown in popularity and is now accepted and widely practiced in Vietnam and in Vietnamese communities overseas.
Goddesses are considered to control everything that happens on earth, and their veneration addresses concerns of daily life and desires for good health. Goddesses protect and support, and they bring good fortune and strength to overcome misfortune. They are generally approached for help with issues considered to be connected with femininity, such as fertility, marriage, or female sickness.
In most temples and other places of worship, in northern Vietnam particularly, a trinity of goddesses are represented: the Goddesses of Heaven (white), Water (red), and Mountains and Forests (green). However, in many texts, four goddesses will be represented, including the Goddess of Earth (yellow). The colors for Water and Heaven are often the other way around.
As in many goddess traditions the world over, Vietnamese goddesses are embodied on earth to perform good deeds or miracles, in a different guise each time to avoid recognition. Faithful devotees will know all the incarnations of the different goddesses and believe that they coexist in spirit.
If a devotee desires to call on the goddess for help—particularly if their goals in life are not being met—they will often visit a shaman, a spirit medium. The problem will be explained to the medium, and they will know which incarnation, or incarnations, to call upon. The medium and entourage will be paid and a ceremony arranged at a temple—more likely a small local temple rather than a grand major one—for everyone involved.
In fact, the tradition draws together fairly disparate beliefs and practices. These include the veneration of goddesses such as the Lady of the Realm, the Lady of the Storehouse, and Princess Liễu Hạnh. Legendary figures such as the Trung Sisters and Lady Trieu, as well as the cult of the Four Palaces, also have their devotees. Further, as was mentioned above, the goddess tradition is commonly associated with spirit medium rituals, much as practiced in other parts of Asia such as Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Of these, the Lady of the Realm, Bà Chúa Xú’, provides a useful and interesting case study. Popular folklore regarding the discovery of the goddess begins with the appearance of a stone image on the peak of an island as the water level in the Mekong Delta receded. Local lore is divided about the explanation. Either her image was placed there in some primeval time, or she emerged extraordinarily from the rock. Another account has the Lady of the Realm possessing a young village girl and revealing herself to the villagers who reside on the summit of Sam Mountain. In order to be more conveniently located so her devotees could readily venerate her, 40 sturdy young men tried but failed to transport her down the mountain. Finally, the Lady of the Realm reappeared to inform the people that nine virgins were sufficient to bring her down the mountain, where her temple is located to this day, at the base of Sam Mountain in the Mekong Delta village of Vĩnh T
.
The Lady of the Realm is among the goddesses who have attained popularity in southern Vietnam. Portrayed as a statue made of stone and cement, she presides over a massive shrine decorated with offerings made to her by devotees. Her annual festival takes placed at the commencement of the monsoon season, when she is bathed and vested with a new robe by postmenopausal women of the village. Pivotal is a succession of sacrifices, including a large pig for roasting. Following an invocation of the goddess for peace and prosperity, a program of operatic performances is provided. All this takes place in a festive atmosphere around the shrine, the most popular religious site in southern Vietnam, where visitors can expect to witness such things as beauty queen contests, a house of horrors, karate competitions, magicians plying their art, gambling, and numerous places to feast
Responding to the pleas of her devotees, the goddess assists them in such matters as success in commerce, health, fecundity, domestic harmony, studies, and even foretelling the future. In return, the devotee is obligated to keep the promises he or she has made to the goddess. Having sought the gracious assistance of the goddess, the devotee is required to keep promises made and to express gratitude for her aid. Indeed, she is well known for her retaliation against those who recompense her. Pilgrimage is a significant means of repaying the Lady of the Realm for her favors. Indeed, the often onerous act of making a pilgrimage to the shrine in Vĩnh T is regarded as an act of thankful recompense. Significantly, by far the largest number of pilgrims are women, of all ages.
Having gone into some detail in considering the case study of the Lady of the Realm, it is important to remember that, as we have previously noted, there is in Southeast Asia a vast array of types of goddess veneration linked to all major aspects of life, including birth, initiation, marriage, reproduction, and death.
Space permits only a brief concluding description of an example of another, quite different goddess tradition, the Thai Rice Goddess. In most rice-growing countries in Asia, rice is not merely a crop; it is the very essence of life, the spirit of rice residing in the Rice Mother, or the Rice Goddess. Nurturing Thailand’s cultural roots as well as its people’s bodies, rice is believed to be a female deity, named Mae Phosop. Since time immemorial, Thai folk have considered rice to be indispensable to their well-being; indeed, to their very survival. Cultivators perform a variety of rites throughout the growing season to express their profound respect for and gratitude to the Rice Goddess for the prosperity and wealth they believe she will bring. Failure in this, it is believed, will result in hunger, sickness, and poverty.
So it is that the range, antiquity, and array of goddess traditions in Southeast Asia, as in the world over, constitute a remarkably continuous phenomenon in the history of the human race.
David C. Scott
See also: Ancestor Worship; Pilgrimage; Ritual Dynamics; Shamanism, Spirit Mediumship; Thailand; Vietnam; Women.
Further Reading
Bachofen, J. J. Myth, Religion and Mother Right. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1967.
Eliade, Mircea. Patterns in Comparative Religion. Translated by Mary Sheed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 (originally published 1958).
Encyclopedia Britannica. 1985 ed. S.v. “God and Goddess.”
Neumann, Erich. The Great Mother: An Analysis of the Archetype. 2nd ed. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963.
Paul, Diana. “Kuan-Yin: Savior and Savioress in Pure Land Buddhism.” In The Book of the Goddess Past and Present, edited by Carl Olson, 161–75. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1983.
Preston, James J., ed. Mother Worship, Theme and Variations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1982.