Embodiment, nation and religio-politics in Thailand

Abstract

In the Thai Buddhist monastic order, the Sangha/state confluence, religion and politics constitute an intertwined body/corpus as nation. The body in this context is consistently controlled and organized by religious discourse in the creation of religious technologies of the body. This paper examines the exuberance of two contemporary Thai religio-political articulations in relation to the body metaphor, both responses to the amoral and impersonal forces of globalization. The first is monastic saint Luang Taa Mahaa Bua’s nationalistic campaign to save the nation, known as ‘Thais help Thais’; and the second, the machinations of the hyper-modern urban religious movement, Thammakaai.