The secular/religious construction of neighbourhoods in Mandalay, Myanmar: Dhamma-youns and wards

Abstract

This article examines the entangled secular/religious construction of neighbourhoods in Mandalay as dynamic, people-based and relational processes that are centred in dhamma-youns (dhamma halls) which work within and across administrative ward boundaries. Cities in Myanmar have not followed the trajectories of urbanisation documented in the global North and its socio-spatial relationships are inextricably bound to the Theravadin Buddhist lifeworld. This entanglement requires attention because international development aid promoted purely secular forms of urban governance between 2011 and 2021, and Buddhist morality remains salient after the February 2021 military coup d'état.