Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand
Justin Thomas McDaniel
NUS Press: 2021
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I was first drawn to Buddhism in the early 1980s, when I was in my teens, because of David Bowie. There are quite a few references to Buddhism in his early songs. My interest was nurtured through his imagery of Tibet, Japan and all things Buddhist. There was something so ‘other’ about it, an otherness from my upbringing in suburban England. From Bowie I ended up in Thailand, taking with me some relatively straightforward ideas about the nature of Buddhism.

If we base our understanding of Buddhism on the Pāli texts, then we might be surprised by the actions and behaviour of Buddhists who live according to the traditional Buddhism of Thailand. Often the study of Buddhism is based on an array of doctrinal truisms which pervade our understanding. Buddhism adheres to a hierarchy of ideas in which detachment, the dangers of desire and craving, and a clear and meditative state of mind are at its centre. Buddhism is unencumbered, not messy—its unclutteredness being a defining feature. Justin McDaniel’s articles, collected in Wayward Distractions: Ornament, Emotion, Zombies and the Study of Buddhism in Thailand, written over twenty years, suggest that this oversimplification of Buddhism is, at best, misleading.

• Tags: Issue 29, Justin Thomas McDaniel, Paul Fuller, Yjailand