The Buddha's Wizards

In this path breaking and richly textured study, Patton presents a much needed revision of the literature on Burmese Buddhist practices. His comprehensive study accounts of the ways in which many lay Buddhists in Myanmar form affective relations with wizards like Bo Min Gaung in dreams, visions and through their material embodiments of power. Buddhist wizards and the stories about them transcend not only time and space; they also help devotees or fight the threat of Buddhist decline while giving voice to traditional Theravada sentiments. The reader will leave this book with a nuanced understanding of Theravada Buddhist practices as lived religion and its imaginaries that goes far beyond monolithic depictions of Buddhist institutions or texts by showing the reader how followers of the Buddha's wizards make sense of the world around them. Anthropologists of religion and scholars of Buddhism, Southeast Asia and especially Myanmar will want to introduce their students to Patton's wonderful book.--Juliane Schober, author of Modern Buddhist Conjunctures in Myanmar: Cultural Narratives, Colonial Legacies, and Civil Society In The Buddha's Wizards, the prose sparkles--the writing is crisp without being dry and evocative without being flowery--and Patton has achieved a nice balance between personal stories, primary research, and secondary source citations. He puts the voices of actual Burmese weizza and practitioners (both female and male) first and foremost, while also drawing upon a plethora of Burmese language sources.--Justin Thomas McDaniel, author of The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk