Merit and misconduct: venerating the Bo tree at a Buddhist shrine

Abstract

This paper deals with an example of behavior in a religious context that seems to contradict the norms and values of the society and religious tradition. During a specific Theravada Buddhist merit‐making ceremony, the participants are permitted to express the non‐Buddhist themes of intoxication, aggression, and implied sexual license. The demonstration of these themes during the ceremony is interpreted as a symbolic expression of disordering, unpredictable social and natural forces that must be neutralized at an important transitional period between the old year and the new. The analysis proceeds from the assertion that the interpretation of anomalous behavior in a religious context requires attention to the spatial and temporal dimensions of the particular ceremony, the nature of its participants, and its place with regard to other similar ritual that occurs during the same period.