On the utility of the category of ‘Hinduism’ in Thailand

Although earlier scholarship on Southeast Asia focused on the legacy of Hinduism in that region, the recent turn away from models of syncretism and toward explaining Buddhism in terms of the ‘Pali imaginaire’ has led to a sharp de-emphasis of ‘Hinduism’ as a valid category for understanding religion in Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia such as Thailand. In this article, I argue that ‘Hinduism’ still has a utility for the study of religion in Thailand as long as it is used correctly—that is, not to label something as ‘non-Buddhist’. I argue that we must study Theravāda Buddhism and the Pali imaginaire as embedded in a broader world context that includes Hinduism within it. In particular, certain historical continuities between the Sanskrit Cosmopolis that once reigned over Southern Asia and the Pali Cosmpolis that formed in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia after the former's collapse have resulted in a space for Hinduism to have ongoing agency within Pali Buddhism.