Sounding the Center
History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance
Sounding the Center is an in-depth look at the power behind classical music and dance in Bangkok, the capital and sacred center of Buddhist Thailand. Focusing on the ritual honoring teachers of music and dance, Deborah Wong reveals a complex network of connections among kings, teachers, knowledge, and performance that underlies the classical court arts.
Drawing on her extensive fieldwork, Wong lays out the ritual in detail: the way it is enacted, the foods and objects involved, and the people who perform it, emphasizing the way the performers themselves discuss and construct aspects of the ceremony.
Drawing on her extensive fieldwork, Wong lays out the ritual in detail: the way it is enacted, the foods and objects involved, and the people who perform it, emphasizing the way the performers themselves discuss and construct aspects of the ceremony.
336 pages | 63 halftones, 1 line drawing, 1 table, 1 compact disc | 6 x 9 | © 2001
Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology
Anthropology: Cultural and Social Anthropology
Asian Studies: Southeast Asia and Australia
History: Asian History
Music: Ethnomusicology
Religion: South and East Asian Religions
Reviews
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Preface: Attending a Ritual, Thinking about Ritual
Acknowledgments
Conventions and Orthography
1. Men Who Become the Deity: The Thai Body in Performance, The Thai Body as History
2. Performing Wai Khruu Ritual
3. Knowledge and Power in Thai Culture: Teachers as Hermits
4. Sounding the Sacred
5. Inscribing the Wai Khruu Ritual: Two Written Accounts
6. Inheritance and Nationalism: The Social Construction of Wai Khruu Rituals in Bangkok
7. The Wai Khruu as a Gendered Cultural System
8. Conclusions: Thoughts on Change
Appendixes
A. Glossary of Terms Used
B. List of the Naa Phaat Repertoire Used in the Wai Khruu Ritual
C. The Deities of Thai Court Performance
D. Thai Instruments Mentioned in the Text
E. CD Contents
F. Guide to Commercial Recordings
Notes
References
Index
Preface: Attending a Ritual, Thinking about Ritual
Acknowledgments
Conventions and Orthography
1. Men Who Become the Deity: The Thai Body in Performance, The Thai Body as History
2. Performing Wai Khruu Ritual
3. Knowledge and Power in Thai Culture: Teachers as Hermits
4. Sounding the Sacred
5. Inscribing the Wai Khruu Ritual: Two Written Accounts
6. Inheritance and Nationalism: The Social Construction of Wai Khruu Rituals in Bangkok
7. The Wai Khruu as a Gendered Cultural System
8. Conclusions: Thoughts on Change
Appendixes
A. Glossary of Terms Used
B. List of the Naa Phaat Repertoire Used in the Wai Khruu Ritual
C. The Deities of Thai Court Performance
D. Thai Instruments Mentioned in the Text
E. CD Contents
F. Guide to Commercial Recordings
Notes
References
Index