With his latest book Spirits of the Place, the renowned Buddhologist John Clifford Holt delivers a fine piece of scholarship on a marginal sector of Asian Buddhist studies: Lao Buddhism. It has indeed been almost four decades since Marcel Zago presented his comprehensive study of the Lao religious domain (Rites et ceremonies en milieu bouddhiste lao, Rome: Università Gregoriana, 1972). After that, publications were limited to individual specialized articles or works on the Lao minority in Thailand. Holt's bold project analyzes the current complex religious dynamics in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. He not only tackles canonical questions and makes keen observations on the subject of ritual, he engages political history, state-religion relations, and modern phenomena such as heritage tourism and their relationship to Lao Buddhist practice. Some parts of the book will sound familiar to experts on Laos, and the different chapters cohere to provide an overview of the history of Lao Buddhism from the old kingdom of Lan Sang and the French colonial period to the disturbances of the communist revolution and present globalizing tendencies. It is to Holt's credit that he has gathered all of the scattered material on Lao religious culture into a concise account and has given a comprehensive analysis of Buddhism and its animistic aspects in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. His expertise on Singhalese Buddhism endows him with a lens to look at the manifold aspects of Lao religious practice, especially with respect to the complex relationship between Theravada Buddhist doctrine and local spirit cults. Parallel to his profound knowledge of Buddhist cosmology, Holt keeps a keen interest and unbiased position vis-à-vis the particularities of Lao Buddhism—an openness that compensates for some of the limitations Holt himself acknowledges as a relative outsider in the field of Lao studies.
Demonstrating sensitivity for local culture, Holt regards the veneration of spirits (phi) not as atavistic belief but as an integral part of the Lao religious system. In his first chapter, he discusses indigenous animist ontologies, drawing on Paul Mus’ classic work on “cadastral deities” and territorial spirituality. What Holt describes as “Spirits of the Place” refers to an ontology of localized power that is “ambivalent in nature, and less morally informed or engendered” (p. 20) in comparison to orthodox Buddhism. This cosmology is integral to the Tai-Lao ban-müang system, a hierarchical sociopolitical structure reflected by a stratified spiritual hierarchy. Holt argues that although this system was subordinated by Buddhist cosmology and ethics since the late 15th century in the Lao kingdom of Lan Sang, the spirit cults and the corresponding mythology never ceased to play a key role in Lao popular belief and continue to inform interpretations of Buddhist concepts of power.
Chapters 2 and 3 provide detailed accounts of the transformations the Lao religious field witnessed under Thai and French domination, during the “American War,” and, finally, under socialism. Like the first chapter, these mainly rely on Western secondary sources such as the influential works of Martin Stuart-Fox, Grant Evans, and Vatthana Pholsena. Holt shows how Thai and French attempts to purify or rationalize Lao Buddhism had been only partially successful in a few urban centers, while the rural areas remained largely unaffected by Buddhist orthodoxy. Instead, the spirit cults demonstrated a persistent vitality. Buddhism as the state religion was even further weakened during the civil war so that little religious control occurred in Laos compared to neighboring Thailand, with its large ethnic Lao minority. Even the short period of orthodox socialism in Laos (1975–86) only partially erased “superstitions” that were merely relegated to the private realm. Yet, Buddhism came under considerable pressure since the communist movement—backed by non-Buddhist upland minorities—was directed against lowland Lao cultural nationalism. At the same time the movement was jockeying the Buddhist sangha as a tool for social control. Unfortunately, non-Western discussions of the relationship between socialism and Buddhism are missing in this volume, in particular, the work would benefit if it included a careful reading of the writings of leading party ideologue Phoumi Vongvichit, who gives a Lao Marxist perspective on what “correct” Buddhism entails.
In Chapter 4, Holt analyzes the religious life in the old sacred center of Laos, the UNESCO world heritage town of Luang Prabang. In this chapter, he returns to his earlier discussions of alternative ontologies with the presentation of the famous Buddha statue Phra Bang and its association with the spiritual powers of place. Holt provides an illuminating discussion of the impact of heritage politics, the tourism industry, and urban lifestyle on the hundreds of novices with their largely rural origins. He analyzes Buddhist festivals such as the Lao New Year, with its unique mixture of Buddhist ceremonial and spiritual aspects of fertility and vitality combined with excessive partying. As a conclusion, Holt states that the bifocal ontology of Lao religious culture persists in the ritual Buddhist cycle. In contrast to Thailand, he identifies religious practice in Laos as “inspirited” Buddhism instead of “Buddhacized” spirit cults (pp. 233, 257). Unfortunately, the intricate entanglements of Buddhist doctrine and phi cults in Lao ritual life remain diffuse and lack ethnographic detail—of particular concern is the superficial treatment of the 32 khwan (life essences) and the key role of the principle of khwan in Lao cosmology.
Spirits of the Place is an accessible and comprehensive study that comprises different disciplines such as religious studies, history, anthropology, and culture politics. With his well-informed book, John C. Holt puts Laos on the map of Buddhist studies and provides an indispensable work of reference for both students and scholars of Lao history and culture and of Southeast Asian religions in general.
