Buddhism By Other Means: Sacred Sites and Ritual Practice Among Sri Lankan Domestic Workers in Jordan
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 11; Issue: 3-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/14442213.2010.511629
ISSN1740-9314
Autores Tópico(s)Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography
ResumoAbstract The present article examines religious practice in the everyday lives of Sri Lankan women working in Jordan. As a minority in a predominantly Muslim country, Buddhist migrants lack some of the supernatural and social resources they may otherwise tap into in times of need. Rather than forgoing ritual activities during their sojourns, Buddhists and Roman Catholics alike use Christian churches as arenas for the making and fulfilling of ritual vows. Many Buddhists also attend Catholic and Pentecostal church groups. Yet, despite the adaptive use of Christian sites of worship by Buddhists, this is not a case of Buddhism transformed. These activities should be understood as Buddhism by other means, a further instance of a personalised and pluralist approach to the divine. This analysis emphasises the affective, emotional dimensions of religious practice. It shows how ritual activities and participation in church groups play important roles, both moral and material, for Sri Lankans in the diaspora. Keywords: Sri Lankan DiasporaTheravada BuddhismProtestant ConversionPopular ReligiosityDomestic WorkersLabour MigrationMiddle East Acknowledgements The research and writing of this article were supported by an Overseas Research Studentship, a London School of Economics Research Studentship, grants from the University of London Central Research Fund, the Council for British Research in the Levant (CBRL), an American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR)/Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) Postgraduate Fellowship in Jordan and a Fulbright Fellowship to Sri Lanka. Versions of this paper were presented at the conference 'Diasporic Encounters, Sacred Journeys: Gendered Migrants, Sociality and the Religious Imagination' (Keele University, June 2009) and in a panel on 'Sri Lanka and the Diaspora' at the annual South Asia Conference (Madison, WI) in October 2009. The author thanks the participants at these events for their comments. The author is particularly grateful to Maxim Bolt, Fenella Cannell, Mark Johnson, Martha Mundy, Jonathan Parry, Jeffrey Samuels, Pnina Werbner and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful advice and suggestions. Any shortcomings are, of course, the author's responsibility. Notes 1. The word bara is linked to the Tamil 'varam' and also conveys a wider meaning in Sinhala of putting one's self in the care of a superior (Goonasekera 2006 Goonasekera , S. 2006 'Bara: Buddhist vows at Kataragama,' in Dealing with Deities: the Ritual Vow in South Asia , S. Raj and W. Harman , State University of New York Press , New York , 107 255 . [Google Scholar], p. 108). 2. One source, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), liberally estimates that 20 per cent of the labour force in the Middle East, or 6 million people, are migrant domestic workers (ICFTU 2002 International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) 2002 Women Migrant Domestic Workers: Bringing the Sector into the Open, Trade Union World, Briefing Number 3, December 2002 . Available at: http://www.icftu.org/www/pdf/domestic_en.pdf, accessed 30 April 2010 [Google Scholar], p. 2). 3. These patterns were reported as widespread in several Arab states by Human Rights Watch (2007 Human Rights Watch 2007 'Exported and exposed: Abuses against Sri Lankan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates' , Human Rights Watch , 19 , no. 16c. Available at: http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/11/13/exported-and-exposed-1, accessed 30 April 2010 [Google Scholar]) and the ILO (Esim & Smith 2004 Esim , S. Smith , M. 2004 Gender and Migration in Arab States: The Case of Domestic Workers , Regional Office for Arab States , Beirut, ILO . [Google Scholar]). Of the domestic workers interviewed by the ILO, 90–100 per cent reported having their freedom of movement controlled and few were allowed to visit friends or go for a walk on their own (Esim & Smith 2004 Esim , S. Smith , M. 2004 Gender and Migration in Arab States: The Case of Domestic Workers , Regional Office for Arab States , Beirut, ILO . [Google Scholar], p. 19–20). 4. Discussions with informants indicated that Muslim and Hindu Sri Lankans also attend churches in Amman, but for several reasons I was unable to learn about the significance of these activities for them. The focus of my research was on Sinhala speakers. Most Sri Lankan Muslims and Hindus speak Tamil as their mother tongue, whereas Sinhala Catholics and Buddhists speak Sinhala. The ethnic polarisation that has occurred in the wake of nearly three decades of civil war in Sri Lanka extends to the diaspora in Jordan; Tamil- and Sinhala-speaking migrants generally maintain separate social groups. 5. I derived this estimate from an imprecise method of counting how many took the sacrament and how many did not. However, there are reasons why Catholics may not take the sacrament on a given day (e.g. if they failed to observe a fast or committed a sin they did not confess). 6. As Ventura (1992 Ventura, R. 1992. Underground in Japan, London: Jonathan Cape. [Google Scholar]), p. 65) writes, for Filipinos in Japan, church provides a respite from work, a chance to remember friends and family back home, a focal point for Filipino social life and a key site for conspicuous consumption. 7. Many Sri Lankan women in Jordan operate their own informal revolving credit schemes (seetu in Sinhala), whereby members make monthly contributions towards a common fund. Each month, one of the members takes her turn in receiving the entire amount. 8. Wesak is a holiday marking the birth, enlightenment and passing of Lord Buddha. In Sri Lanka, on this day Buddhists traditionally make offerings at temples and listen to sermons by monks. 9. Most Sri Lankan women migrate to Jordan alone, leaving their families behind, but a minority find ways of bringing their husbands and children to Jordan. A small number—most of whom are freelancers—marry fellow migrants and start families abroad or have children out of wedlock. 10. On demonic possession and exorcism among Sinhala Buddhists in Sri Lanka, see Kapferer (1983 Kapferer, B. 1983. A Celebration of Demons: Exorcism and the Aesthetics of Healing in Sri Lanka, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]). 11. There is a wide literature on the therapeutic appeal of evangelical Christian denominations. One example is Erzen's (2006 Erzen, T. 2006. Straight to Jesus: Sexual and Christian Conversions in the Ex-Gay Movement, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) work on a Protestant ministry in the US with a 'healing culture' that provides a sense of intimacy and belonging for those seeking to renounce long-term same-sex relationships. Another is Greenfield's (1992) account of Brazilian spirit healing groups, in which African and Amerindian religious practices find consonance with Christianity, and vulnerable and distraught people from middle and lower-middle class backgrounds in urban Brazil are drawn to church groups for healing treatments. As Greenfield (1992 Greenfield, S. 1992. 'Spirits and spiritist therapy in southern Brazil: A case study of an innovative, syncretic healing group'. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 16: 23–51. [Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), p. 42) points out, spiritualist healers and patients do not need to share a common belief system in order for patients to be cured effectively. 12. Some Evangelical groups, such as the Assemblies of God, have been active in Sri Lanka for more than a century, but most have been in operation only since the 1970s (Perera 1998 Perera, S. 1998. New Evangelical Movements and Conflict in South Asia: Sri Lanka and Nepal in Perspective, Colombo: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. [Google Scholar], p. 49). The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL), an umbrella group for five Christian denominations, says it represents 200,000 evangelical Christians in Sri Lanka (NCEASL 2010 National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) 2010 'About NCEASL' (website) . Available at: http://www.nceasl.org/NCEASL/aboutus/aboutnceasl.php, accessed 30 April 2010 [Google Scholar]). Other groups have reported that there are between 300 and 350 evangelical church and para-church organisations throughout the island (Perera 1998 Perera, S. 1998. New Evangelical Movements and Conflict in South Asia: Sri Lanka and Nepal in Perspective, Colombo: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. [Google Scholar], p. 52). 13. Since 2002, violent attacks against Christian churches and pastors have increased. Much of the violence was orchestrated to stir up support for an anti-Conversion bill supported by the Buddhist monks' party, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). The Bill was eventually shelved, but animosity against such groups continues. Evangelical groups reached out to tsunami survivors to provide relief and assistance and this, combined with proselytising activities in poor communities, has agitated some Buddhists who view such groups as a divisive force. 14. Live-in domestic workers' passports and residence permits are almost always kept by their employers or recruitment agencies. Should a domestic worker run away, she would usually have to leave these items behind. 15. How these practices fit logically with the nibbanic and kammatic doctrines of Buddhism in the minds of lay believers is discussed by Spiro (1982 Spiro, M. 1982. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), Ch. 6). Canonical Buddhism is principally concerned with otherworldly affairs, nirvana and rebirth. One achieves salvation through right moral conduct, charity and meditation, with no assistance from a supernatural being (Spiro 1982 Spiro, M. 1982. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 140). Within this framework, there is no mechanism to cope with immediate human pain and, because it is difficult to attribute all present forms suffering into the karmic model, magic rituals have been incorporated as legitimate forms of action (Spiro 1982 Spiro, M. 1982. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 142–3). This includes 'instrumental rituals', of which vow performance is one, for the achievement of short-term goals (Spiro 1982 Spiro, M. 1982. Buddhism and Society: A Great Tradition and its Burmese Vicissitudes, Berkeley: University of California Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar], p. 192). 16. For examples from other regions, see important research by Cannell (1999 Cannell, F. 1999. Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]) on the role of 'promesas' among Christians in the Philippines and Christian (1989 Christian, W. 1989. Person and God in a Spanish Valley, revised edition, Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), p. 118–35) on 'instrumental prayers' in northern Spain. In an Arab context, Nabti (1998 Nabti, P. M. 1998. Contractual prayer of Christians and Muslims in Lebanon'. Islam and Christian Muslim Relations, 9(1): 65–82. [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]) has described the practice of 'contractual prayers', or 'nidrin', by Sunni and Shi'a Muslims and Maronite and Orthodox Christians in Lebanon, noting sect-specific differences with respect to the supernatural entities enlisted for assistance and the types of payments offered by petitioners. 17. Busby (2006 Busby , C. 2006 'Renewable icons: Concepts of religious power in a fishing village in south India' , in The Anthropology of Christianity , F. Cannell , Duke University Press , Durham and London , 77 98 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), p. 82–5), in writing of Christians in the predominantly Hindu Indian state of Kerala, has described the central importance of Mary, who was thought to possess shakti (divine power) and was considered a deity akin to Hindu goddesses. But in contrast with Hindu deities, Mary was not seen as having a hostile or vindictive character and her power was exerted only for good. 18. The church in Salt was a site where Sri Lankans made vows to the Virgin Mary and Saint George. But, unlike the Madaba church, it was also used for the practice of magic, including protection spells to avert evil, cure an illness or lessen negative planetary influences, sorcerous spells (kodiwina) and retributive charms to exact revenge for sorcery (paligahanawa). According to local legend, the church in Salt marks the spot where a local shepherd was sleeping one night when Saint George appeared before him on his horse and asked him to build a church. Local residents say that when the church is shut at night, the sounds of Saint George's horse's footsteps can be heard from outside, alerting people to the fact that the church remains active with the presence of the saint. My Sri Lankan informants say that the cave marks the spot where Saint George killed the dragon and this is what gives it 'anuhas', or influence or power to grant wishes. For Sri Lankans, the church has a mixture of positive and negative energy. Positive for the good works that Saint George has performed, but also negative because it is associated with the dragon he slayed, and this lends it dangerous, violent potency. 19. Several scholars have written about the particular importance vows hold for women and marginalised groups. Uddin (2006 Uddin , S. 2006 'In the company of Pirs: Making vows, receiving favors at Bangladeshi Sufi Shrines' , in Dealing with Deities: the Ritual Vow in South Asia , S. Raj and W. Harman , State University of New York Press , New York , 87 106 . [Google Scholar]), p. 94) describes sex workers in Bangladesh who, as a stigmatised group, are excluded from most formal religious practices in mosques and instead visit saints' tombs to make vows. As Harman (2006 Harman , W. 2006 'Negotiating relationships with the goddess,' in Dealing with Deities: the Ritual Vow in South Asia , S. Raj and W. Harman , State University of New York Press , New York , 25 42 . [Google Scholar]), p. 29) writes, women in south Asia often take vows for the sake of family harmony, for example to maintain good married life, for fertility or for the health of their relatives. 20. Saint Anthony's Church in Kochchikade had become so popular for the performance of vows that, on a visit in the spring of 2008, I noticed a section explicitly marked 'Vows'. Nearby, a nun sat in a cubicle giving instructions and counselling Hindus, Buddhists and Muslims how to perform them. She told me that she welcomed people of all faiths because Saint Anthony helps everyone. Tuesday was the most popular day to come to the church, but Hindus more commonly came on Fridays after visiting a nearby kovil. 21. It is not uncommon for religious clergy to disapprove of the performance of vows. This has been documented, for example, among Catholic bishops in Tamil Nadu by Raj (2006), p. 62). Stirrat (1981 Stirrat, R. L. 1981. The shrine of Saint Sebastian at Mirisgama: An aspect of the cult of the saints in Catholic Sri Lanka'. Man, 16(2): 183–200. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) has described the competition that developed between priests and cults to the saints in Sri Lanka with specific reference to a cult surrounding Saint Sebastian at Mirisgama. In another vein, in his work on South Indian Catholics, David Mosse (2006 Mosse , D. 2006 'Possession and confession: Affliction and sacred power in colonial and contemporary Catholic south India' , in The Anthropology of Christianity , F. Cannell , Duke University Press , Durham and London , 99 133 .[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) has written of how specific cultural practices relating to possession, exorcism and sorcery were regarded by Jesuit priests as non-Christian corrosive influences. Additional informationNotes on contributorsElizabeth FrantzElizabeth Frantz is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Anthropology, London School of Economics
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