Announcement: 13.03.2026 – Online Lecture by Roger Casas: "Worldly Engagements: Buddhist Monasticism and Masculinity among the Tai Lue of Southwest China"

13. März 2026, 14:00 Uhr, von AAI Webmaster

Foto: Collage of 2 photos by Roger Casas

We kindly invite you to this online lecture in English language on Friday, March 13th, 2026, at 14:00–16:00 h (CET/MEZ).

Topic:
    "Worldly Engagements: Buddhist Monasticism and Masculinity among the Tai Lue of Southwest China"

Speaker:
    Roger Casas (PhD)

Affiliation:
    Yunnan University's National Center for Studies of Borderland Ethnic Minorities in Kunming

Date/Time:
    March 13^th, 2026 (Friday), 14:00 – 16:00 (CET/MEZ)

Language:
    English

Zoom Link:
    https://uni-hamburg.zoom.us/j/64563521222?pwd=OEdSbENCOUV2Ynl5ZUdnNG5mM1pwQT09

Zoom Meeting-ID:
    645 6352 1222

Zoom Passcode:
    hgtlecture

About this lecture:

Following years of repression during the Maoist period, Buddhism among the Tai Lue of Sipsòng Panna, the largest community of Theravada Buddhists in China, recovered and even thrived in the 1980s. In recent decades, however, ever-growing global connectivity and online visibility have brought increased scrutiny. The participation of Tai Lue novices and monks in practices such as eating in the afternoon, drinking alcohol, having girlfriends, or competing in sports—behaviours considered unfitting for Buddhist monastics—has been cited as evidence of this minority community's supposed inadequacy and backwardness.

Based on long-term ethnographic research in Sipsòng Panna and earlier work conducted on mainland Southeast Asia, Worldly Engagements, the subject matter of this presentation places such alleged misconduct at the center of its enquiry. It argues that these practices do not mark a degraded Buddhism but reflect a monasticism traditionally prevalent in the region, an amphibious technology of self-mastery inextricably embedded in the mundane and the non-religious—that is, a vernacular discipline concerned mainly with making boys into men. The result is a rich, intimate and unprejudiced portray of the temple experience as a site where Tai Lue youths negotiate competing demands from families, religious superiors, peer pressure, national ideals of masculinity, and the strong presence of Thai Buddhism.

Brief profile:

Roger Casas earned his PhD in Anthropology from the Australian National University with a thesis on male monastic discipline among the Tai Lue of Sipsòng Panna, a region where he has lived and conducted extensive research since 2004. After obtaining his PhD, his work in this region has expanded beyond Buddhist monasticism to include social memory, language politics, economic transformation, and gender relations. He has held researcher and lecturer posts in academic institutions in Austria, China, Thailand, and Japan. His PhD-based book Worldly Engagements: Buddhist Monasticism and Masculinity among the Tai Lue of Southwest China, was published in November 2025 by the University of Hawai'i Press. He is currently a Distinguished Researcher at Yunnan University's National Center for Studies of Borderland Ethnic Minorities in Kunming.

We would like to thank the Hamburg Society for Thai Studies for the cooperation. 

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