Buddhist Legal Pluralism in Laos: A Socio-Legal Ethnographic Study
(2025) SOLM02 20251Department of Sociology of Law
- Abstract
- Theravāda Buddhist monks live within a plural legal world: the monastic law codes (Vinaya), state laws, and the normative expectations and judgments of laypeople. The aim of this thesis is to, from the perspective of the sociology of law, explore the underlying factors behind Buddhist monastics’ behavior in Vientiane, Laos, and to offer methodological insights for socio-legal ethnographic research. Ethnographic fieldwork revealed that, regardless of the precepts of the Vinaya, monks in Vientiane adjust their behavior in response to the expectations and potential criticism of laypeople. It also uncovered that each temple to which monks belong possesses a certain degree of autonomy and has its own practices regarding interactions with... (More)
- Theravāda Buddhist monks live within a plural legal world: the monastic law codes (Vinaya), state laws, and the normative expectations and judgments of laypeople. The aim of this thesis is to, from the perspective of the sociology of law, explore the underlying factors behind Buddhist monastics’ behavior in Vientiane, Laos, and to offer methodological insights for socio-legal ethnographic research. Ethnographic fieldwork revealed that, regardless of the precepts of the Vinaya, monks in Vientiane adjust their behavior in response to the expectations and potential criticism of laypeople. It also uncovered that each temple to which monks belong possesses a certain degree of autonomy and has its own practices regarding interactions with laypeople. By analyzing the data through the lens of Moore’s concept of the semi-autonomous social field, this study argues that monks in Vientiane generate coercive rules within the temple while simultaneously being subject to normative forces emanating from the surrounding Lao society. It is further suggested that meaningful socio-legal ethnographic research can be conducted even in the absence of standard conditions by closely attending to people’s everyday social behavior and interpreting the meanings embedded within it. This study is distinctive in that it shifts scholarly focus to Laos—a country that has received comparatively less academic attention than other Theravāda contexts—and conceptualizes the temple as a semi-autonomous social field that is connected to the larger society. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9194086
- author
- Yukita, Kanako LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SOLM02 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Theravāda, Laos, monk, Vinaya, legal pluralism, semi-autonomous social field, ethnography
- language
- English
- id
- 9194086
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-23 09:30:53
- date last changed
- 2025-06-23 09:30:53
@misc{9194086,
abstract = {{Theravāda Buddhist monks live within a plural legal world: the monastic law codes (Vinaya), state laws, and the normative expectations and judgments of laypeople. The aim of this thesis is to, from the perspective of the sociology of law, explore the underlying factors behind Buddhist monastics’ behavior in Vientiane, Laos, and to offer methodological insights for socio-legal ethnographic research. Ethnographic fieldwork revealed that, regardless of the precepts of the Vinaya, monks in Vientiane adjust their behavior in response to the expectations and potential criticism of laypeople. It also uncovered that each temple to which monks belong possesses a certain degree of autonomy and has its own practices regarding interactions with laypeople. By analyzing the data through the lens of Moore’s concept of the semi-autonomous social field, this study argues that monks in Vientiane generate coercive rules within the temple while simultaneously being subject to normative forces emanating from the surrounding Lao society. It is further suggested that meaningful socio-legal ethnographic research can be conducted even in the absence of standard conditions by closely attending to people’s everyday social behavior and interpreting the meanings embedded within it. This study is distinctive in that it shifts scholarly focus to Laos—a country that has received comparatively less academic attention than other Theravāda contexts—and conceptualizes the temple as a semi-autonomous social field that is connected to the larger society.}},
author = {{Yukita, Kanako}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Buddhist Legal Pluralism in Laos: A Socio-Legal Ethnographic Study}},
year = {{2025}},
}