The Buddha Side: Gender, Power, and Buddhist Practice in Vietnam

Acknowledgments

acknowledgments There is a long list of people who deserve my thanks for the part that they played in the creation of this work. my wife’s family has supported me and helped me in a myriad of ways since we first met during my fieldwork in hanoi. Thank you, Bố, mẹ, em hương, em hà, em hùng, and em khánh. also thanks to em hòa and Chú Đại. you made vietnam a home rather than a field site. There are many people who helped me extensively in vietnam, without whom my research would have gone nowhere. professor phan huy lê and the Center for vietnamese and intercultural studies were very helpful in getting me the necessary papers, orienting me, and providing me with excellent vietnamese lessons in 1997–1998. my teacher Cô lan did far more for me than teach vietnamese language: she offered advice when i ran into sticky situations and gave me useful information. The secretary of the Center, anh hùng, was also very helpful. of course, there were many others who became good friends and helped make hanoi a home: em khánh, em mai, em Thiện, anh don, em Tâm, em hà, em Thủ, em Tuần, hùng, em hợp, em mỹ, em hoa, hải, em phương, anh hùng, Chị Thu, em ngọc, em hồng, em lãnh, em Ánh, em lan hương, em ngọc hương, em huyền, em Tương anh, em ha, em Trung, em vân; Ông Châu, Ông lâm, anh anh, Thầy Trung, Thầy Bình, Thầy Thịnh, Thầy hùng, Ông dũng, Cô Định, Bà Thảo, Cô Chính, Chị hương, Cô phương, em Qùynh, Ông Thang, Chú ký, Ông Cừ, Cô Đài, em nhung, Ông linh, and Bà duyên. my ph.d. supervisor, kathryn robinson, was a patient, supportive, and constructive mentor. david marr and his family (especially michael and huyền) helped me prepare for vietnam and gave me very useful guidance and friendship after returning. andrew kipnis gave me helpful comments, intellectual stimulation , and a great deal of encouragement in my project. jim fox offered intellectual and logistical support that made my stay in Canberra a great deal more comfortable than it would have been if he were not around. Thank you for all of your support. lisa law, peter raftos, and andrew Walker all helped by reading drafts at an earlier stage. i would like to thank them all from the bottom of my heart. Tim Curtis, Đỗ Thiện, kevin ormes, phạm Thu Thủy, and ian scales helped me with a number of details, for which i express my gratitude. philip Taylor has always x • acknowledgments been a strong supporter and his encouragement at a crucial time brought me back to academia when i thought i had no chance to continue. his words and help have played a pivotal role in the trajectory of my life. my colleagues at saint mary’s university have been a great support. Thank you, paul, anne-marie, magi, nancie, and Bill. all of the people that i encountered during my studies at Concordia university in montreal encouraged me to pursue my doctorate. principally, david miller has been a long-time friend and mentor. Without his encouragement and advice, in a range of matters, i would certainlynothavecontinuedstudyingreligion.leslieorrandsheilamcdonough were both helpful along the way and i thank them for all they did. Two anonymous readers looked at this manuscript when it was first sent to the university of hawai‘i press. Both clearly took great care and thought in examining it and offered very valuable advice for its revision. i would like to express my deepest appreciation for the assistance of these anonymous reviewers. The research could not have been done without the financial assistance of the social sciences and humanities research Council of Canada, the australian national university, saint mary’s university, and the logistical support of professor phan huy lê and the Center for vietnamese and intercultural studies. earlier versions of some parts of this book have been published elsewhere. fragments of Chapter 3 appear in the essays “masculinities and Buddhist symbolism in vietnam,” published in Playing the Man: New Approaches to Masculinity (soucy 1999) and in “The problem with key informants,” in Anthropological Forum (soucy 2000). parts of Chapters 4 and 5 appear in “Consuming...