Abstract
U Thuzana is a Karen monk from Myanmar who has been constructing many pagodas on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border. His pagoda construction is made possible by donations from political, economic, and military leaders, on the one hand, and through the labor and devotion by local followers, especially among the Karen, on the other. This paper analyzes the dynamic process of this saintly leadership, followers' devotion, and pagoda construction, which must be understood in the context of the layered religious practices found in this cross-border region since the nineteenth century. In Myanmar, U Thuzana has become involved in ethnic politics even as he claims to maintain political neutrality. In Thailand, he is entering into a terrain where the khruba tradition is still alive with expectant followers.
The paper examines three issues: firstly, it questions foregoing discussion that understands millennialistic religious movements and saintly monks enterprises as resistance to the state, and reexamines categorical understanding such as non-Buddhist versus Buddhist, hill versus valley, or resistance versus accommodation. Rather than explain the movements in relation to states, as in previous studies, this paper will look at these movements from its own logic. Secondly, it examines the dynamics that constitute charismatic power of the saints through pagoda construction by focusing on the relationship between the saintly figures and their followers, of which there are two major types: the donors and the devotees. Thirdly, it situates this process in the construction of sacred space in the modern state territory.
