Lao Religious Culture

This chapter discusses the elements and dynamics of religious culture in Laos historically with an emphasis on how the ancient and culturally bedrock propitiation of spirits has inflected Lao understandings of key Buddhist concepts and practices. It proceeds to trace out the manner in which these unique Lao understandings, derived from a dialectical process between these two distinct religious orientations, impacted Lao articulations of political power including kingship, the practice of veneration of stupa s and the worship of the Buddha. It then traces how colonial and post-revolutionary political authorities sought to transform or suppress fundamental aspects of constitutive Lao religious culture for political purposes.