Most people in the field of Thai studies already know the author Peter A. Jackson. His books and articles in the fields of Thai religion, queer studies, and cultural studies have long been important references. This book is a compilation of Jackson’s Thai religious studies writings, with a focus on what he calls ‘the cults of wealth’ or ‘the prosperity cults’. Extending one of his earlier studies on the related phenomenon of the renowned magic monk, Luang Phor Khoon Parisuttho, this book presents a comprehensive study of a rich variety of human figures and deities, including the spirit of King Chulalongkorn, of Jao Mae Kuan Im, of magic monks in the lineage of Thai Theravada tradition, and of Hindu deities, such as Brahma and Ganesh, whose rituals and amulets are generally believed to magically enhance the wealth and prosperity of the devotees. Not only does this book examine some of the most popular cases, but it also proposes a conceptual framework for work towards an understanding of Thai people’s enthusiasm for rituals and items of religious connotation that are expected to bring magical transformation to their lives. It presents an overall view that is valuable to anyone setting out to understand the profusion of prosperity cults of contemporary Thailand.

Most valuable to me is this book’s approach to a theoretical understanding of the profusion of magical religions in Thailand. Just as the author discusses in Part Two of the book, Thailand is flooded with a great number of manufactured images and icons that people respect for their sacred nature, particularly their promise of wealth and prosperity. Chapter Three was particularly interesting, as it introduced me to some of the key notions from related academic literatures that the author consulted extensively. For example, the model of ‘polyontologism’, distinct from such notions such as syncretism and hybridity, suggests that religious plurality can be interpreted as unblended juxtaposition. To explain the characteristic of the Thai religious field in which people worship and conduct rituals for sacred beings from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese, and other beings (e.g. King Chulalongkorn), without blending those rituals into a broader category of religion where the originals lose their form, the author employs the metallurgy term, ‘amalgam’, which indicates ‘an inhomogeneous mixture of dissimilar metals’ or, in this case, an inhomogeneous mixture of rituals which coexist. The author looks at what Justin McDaniel calls ‘religious repertoires’, a list of deities and religious figures from various different religions, to whom individual worshippers turn in order to fulfil their wishes. Depending on the occasions and the kind of wishes, individual worshippers select a certain deity and conduct the ritual required by the deity. The author indicates that while people are uninformed of, or uninterested in, the doctrine or belief (orthodoxy) related to each deity, they do place emphasis on correct ritual practice (orthopraxy). I think that these notions help explain the complexity of so-called cults of wealth in Thailand.

In addition, Chapter Seven presents another interesting theoretical examination of magical enchantment in the context of modern capitalism. This chapter is an extension of an earlier part of the book, in which the author argues that contemporary Thai magic is not a residue of premodern tradition; rather it is a contemporary phenomenon. It engages with the questions of why and how magical religion developed alongside capitalist modernity. Referring to Jean and John Comaroff (‘Millennial capitalism: First thoughts on a second coming’, Public Culture 12, 2 (2000): 291–301) and Rosalind Morris (In the place of origins: Modernity and its mediums in northern Thailand (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000)), the author highlights significant changes that have taken place in the post-Cold War society. He suggests that Thai prosperity cults have emerged in a society where the state has retreated, people’s social and cultural lives have commodified and mediatized. With a help of new visual media that can create the ‘uncanny’, a reformed magicality is incited. Together with premodern and late-modern cultural trends, the author points out the significance of ritual for the modern magical enchantment. Stanley J. Tambiah (‘The cosmological and performative significance of a Thai cult of healing through mediation’, Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 1(1977): 97–132) insightful sentence quoted in the book said, ‘The enactment of the ritual is a ‘doing’ in itself and an instrumental attainment of a new state.’ I appreciate this book’s highlighting of key notions that enable us to comprehend modern magic.

To conclude this review, I would like to pose a few questions that occurred to me during my reading of this book. The first question is, where are the people who actually turn to magical enchantment? Modernization and globalization provide an important socio-historical context that can be examined for an understanding of the recent boom of the cults of wealth, but at the same time, people’s insatiable curiosity about and commitment to these magical religions may also be concerned with the efficacy of religious items and rituals. The absence of people in this book’s discussion could be a topic for anthropological research that engages more closely with people in their fieldwork.

Second, I note the author’s strong critical attitude toward doctrinal or reformist Buddhism, a major force that is often critical of people’s devotion to magic. Looking at contemporary Thai religions, it is prosperity religion that predominates over doctrinal Buddhism, not the other way around as the author argues. Doctrinal Buddhism has indeed been a critical force in admonishing consumerism and commodification in Thai religion, but it has lost the momentum it once had in the early 2000s. Recently, it appears that the majority of Thai people have turned to prosperity cults, and the voice of doctrinal Buddhism is scarcely heard in Thai society. The impact of modernity alone is not sufficient to explain this phenomenon, since both magical religions and doctrinal Buddhism share certain ‘modern’ ideological features. Buddhism possesses a coherent doctrine that aligns with modern enlightenment, drawing on notions such as rationality and causality. At the same time, magical religions also display aspects compatible with modern capitalism, such as their emphasis on profit enhancement, which they claim can be achieved through mythical transformation — a method incompatible with modern enlightenment thought. It is unlikely that the ‘modern’ characteristics of doctrinal Buddhism are equivalent to state-based rationalizing political power and the homogenizing influence that might suppress magical religions. While I agree with the author that modernity exerts a strong impact on Thai religions, I think an approach that accounts for the variety of religious aspirations coexisting in contemporary Thai society is needed, and to dive more deeply into how has the current situation been created.