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005 20250609112020.0
008 250609b |||||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020 _a9789971694296
040 _aPMNP
_beng
_cKutubkhanah Diraja
082 _a959.3035092
100 _93524
_aStengs, Irene
245 _aWorshipping the Great Moderniser:
_bKing Chulalongkorn, Patron Saint of the Thai Middle Class /
_cIrene Stengs
260 _aSingapore
_bNUS Press Publication
_c2009
300 _a316
_b229mm x 153mm
520 _aIn Thailand the globalizing urban culture associated with the economic boom of the 1980s and 1990s gave rise to an alienating anomie. In the slipstream of this boom, an immense cult took shape around King Chulalongkorn the Great (r.1868-1910) that reworked the idea of Buddhist kingship, making it the pivot of the modern Thai social cosmos and creating a new foundation for Thai identity. Worshipping the Great Moderniser explores the contemporary appeal of King Chulalongkorn and considers what this ruler's unprecendented popularity says about present-day Thai society. Arguing that the exalted expectations of modern Buddhist kingship are a product of the ambitions and anxieties of Thailand's expanding middle class, Irene Stengs compares the popular image of King Chulalongkorn with that of the present king, the highly venerated King Bhumibol Adulyadej, to show that while modern Buddhist kingship and current ideas of Thainess draw on traditional idioms, they are highly modern. This examination of the social imaginary surrounding Thai kingship and Thainess during the past century and a half yields an intriguing amalgam of ideas concerning popular religion, Buddhist kingship, nationalism, and material culture.
650 0 _92762
_aMonarchy
942 _2ddc
_cBK
_n0
999 _c3335
_d3335