Perceiving Processions of Power: A Study of Royal Processions in Precolonial Myanmar

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1 Introduction Perceiving Processions of Power: A Study of Royal Processions in Precolonial Myanmar This is a study of the relationship between religion and politics through the practices and textual representations of Theravāda Buddhist court rituals. This paper focuses on the subject of royal processions in precolonial Myanmar. 1 Whether in France, Indonesia, or China, royal processions have received a great deal of attention in scholarship about religion and politics. In the Theravāda Buddhist world, the most frequently studied royal processions are those involving Buddhist relics such as the Asala Perahera in Sri Lanka or the recent tour of the Chinese Tooth Relic in Myanmar. Parading relics is of course just one of many possible occasions for a royal procession. In precolonial Myanmar, processions were assembled whenever persons of great import exited the palace compound. Even for simple visits to a monastery or inspections of a public works project, processions mobilized a massive congregation of musicians, soldiers, and members of the court. Royal processions have been predominantly understood in terms of what they display. 2 For the case of the Perahera in Sri Lanka, John Holt suggests that the procession provides an opportunity for citizens to engage in an act of darshan, an occasion of encountering a sacred person or object. 3 In her study of the Chinese Tooth Relic procession, Juliane Schober proposes that relic tours convey practical effects of legitimation and reinforce national integration through state lead acts of collective veneration. 4 HL Seneviratne argues that the highly organized structure of processions reinforces a normative statement about the hierarchical structure of the socio-cosmos. 5 Beyond these more formal arguments, royal processions are often casually explained as a demonstration of power. 1

2 Curiously, historical records of precolonial Myanmar indicate that royal processions were not events that were easily accessible to spectators. According to their design, pathways of procession were lined with barriers such as lattice fences that obscured observation from the outside. HG Wales reports the same procedure in Thailand up until the reign of Rama IV and also suggests its practice in Sri Lanka according to accounts of Robert Knox. 6 Recognition of these obstacles puts into question scholarly explanations that depend on the procession s visibility. 7 Is it safe to assume that royal processions were seen? If so, by whom? Deities? 8 If they were not to be seen by human spectators, how can we understand their meticulous design and documentation? Why erect lattice fences that contain openings and thus do not perfectly obstruct vision? If royal processions were to be seen, what is the political or religious significance of these conditions of observation? Attempting to answer these questions, I begin with an overview of precolonial sources that address royal processions in Myanmar. Reading them cross-sectionally, I reconstruct a generic royal procession and reflect on how their conditions of observation would have shaped a spectator s experience, or lack thereof. 9 I then consider the political implications of these circumstances of observation. I argue that spectators encountered royal processions in three phases: preparing, witnessing, and consolidating accounts. The procession was indeed seen, but always incompletely and through incremental clues. These clues incited intrigue as well as awareness of one s incapacity to fully discern them (i.e., status as an impaired observer). This awareness was joined with the recognition of imagined others with greater access to this order (i.e., authorities). Discrepancies of access are significant insofar as they tangibly reproduce social hierarchies governed by capacities of perception. Regularly encountering processions thus naturalized structures of social stratification that are organized by principles of perception. 2

3 Source Overview Processions appear in a wide range of source materials. Royal orders or decrees contain numerous instructions to prepare and deploy processions. Most orders are concisely written, simply instructing preparation of the procession for a particular person traveling at a specific time and location. For example, a Royal Order issued on June 16, 1785 states: Prepare the usual pageant on June, as the King is going to visit a monastery built on his behalf by his aunt and hand it over to some religious leaders. 10 Preparation can span a few days or even a month. 11 This range reflects variation in the scale of royal procession. Scale is determined by the occasion of travel. Auspicious events such as a royal coronation and the seizure of a white elephant would demand processions of the grandest scale. Visits to a local monastery or inspection of a construction site would be more modest. Also relevant are the members of the procession. The most impressive are reserved for the king himself. All others are scaled down in accordance with the status of the senior member of the procession within the socio-political hierarchy. 12 Royal processions are commonly featured in historical texts. Since the verb to royally process signifies the manner in which royalty move outside of the palace, processions appear as one of the most reoccurring practices of court ritual and kingship. Though limited to a mere phrase in chronicles, royal processions are elaborated in a dizzying degree of detail in event histories that either focus on the procession itself or include it as an element of a broader event such as a royal coronation. Assiduously documented are the numbers, types, and locations of members as well as physical objects of the procession. The form of presentation is either exhaustive lists or narrated captions attached to illustrated texts or temple murals. 13 For an example of the latter, consider this small excerpt from a white parabeik depicting King Mindon s Procession from the palace to the Kyauk-taw-gyi Buddha Image in 1865: 3

4 At the eastern side is a gong called Dominating Golden Capital. While listening to and serving as ornaments to that leading gong, three other gongs [play] to four directions. The Governor of the City, the Jail Superintendent, the Town-clerk, and the Jail-clerk having supervised the instruction and positioning of the gongs headed the procession with their attendants at a distance 200 feet in front of a unit of troops. Next is a band of cannoneers: The cannon officers and ministers waving canon implements followed while supervising 50 foreign cannoneers, 100 canon-pullers, and 10 canons bearing the titles: the whirling cakkavatti, the Yattharujetha, the Arrival of the Appointed Military Division, and the Destroyer of the realm of Enemies. Next is the cavalry: Four cavalry officers followed, while supervising 1000 marching attendants and 500 horsemen of the Red-thet, Enemy-Conquers of the capital, Shan, Laotian, Khasi, Manipuri, Twice-pourers, Taung-tha-man, and Sagaing. 14 Having such prominent public visibility, it is unsurprising that royal processes were documented by nearly all foreign emissaries to the Burmese court. Capital Hiram Cox of the East India Company writes in journal entry dated to June 8, 1797: About half-past ten, the head of the procession began to pass by first, a string of his majesty's elephants; next, a body of foot soldiers, each with a rusty musket on his shoulder, clothed like the common people of the country; they marched, or rather walked, in two Indian files, without any regularity; next followed the king's grandson, on a very lofty elephant; he sat on the neck of the elephant, and held the guiding-hook himself, but in fact the animal required no guiding. A well-dressed mohaut sat behind him, and supported him in his arms. The young prince was naked from his waist upwards, having on only a silk lungee, and an embroidered handkerchief on his head, gold bangles on his ancles and wrists, and several chains set with stones, etc., on his neck. After him came several gilt palkees, with women of the palace, etc.; at a distance behind him followed a son of the king's by a favourite concubine, on a small elephant, which he guided himself; after him followed five of the king's elephants, with war-howdahs, having large shields on each side of the howdah, painted red and gilt; then followed his majesty's troopers in their war-dress, but very shabby, and on wretched, half-starved, small horses, of these there might be sixty or eighty; then several gilt, brass three-pounders, on field-carriages, drawn by men, with several red-painted and gilt ammunition carts, drawn by two horses each; on each side after these marched foot soldiers, armed and clothed as those before mentioned; then followed the carriage I brought, drawn by men ; and immediately after it, his majesty with the first queen in his old carriage, drawn by four led horses; the blinds down. 15 Cox s comprehensive account seems to suggest that barriers did not significantly impede observation. However, it is important to recall that such colonial visitors were received as honored guests and therefore deliberately given privilege positions from which to view the procession. 4

5 (1) Reconstructing the Practice and Observation of Royal Processions: Preparing No single source should be held as the most reliable or accurate representation of a royal procession. Constituted by a wide range of interests and usages that are quite different from our own purposes here, each source introduces distinct insights about how this ritual was enacted or conceptualized. Yet, their depictions of royal processions do share a number of features, which opens up the possibility of comparing them cross-sectionally to develop a more comprehensive account of a royal procession. What follows is an attempt to reconstruct a generic royal procession as well as an imagined experience of its encounter in light of the barriers to observation. This reconstruction is divided into three phases: preparing, witnessing, and consolidating accounts. Processions were initiated through the issuing of royal orders calling for preparation. Some were sent to officials at the capital who were ordered to directly participate or to assemble required materials such as animals, vehicles, and clothing. Others were disseminated to local officials 16 responsible for territories along the procession s path. These officials were ordered to prepare the royal road. A royal order issued on September 26, 1807 outlines this procedure in four steps: first, the road is cleared of debris; 17 second, the surface is flattened and coated with an even layer of white sand; 18 third, the road is enclosed by a white lattice fence called a Yazamat; 19 and fourth, the fence is covered with various decorations such as flags, flowers, banana and sugar cane plants, gold and silver gilded urns, etc. 20 Where the road passes through populated centers, these decorations extend to the buildings proximate to the road. 21 Just as the scale of the procession varied according to the nature of the trip and the status of its participants, the preparation of the road too must be appropriately calibrated. As a general principle, the value of space constituted by the total value of all decorations was to be balanced with the status of the procession. The construction process was orchestrated by the abovementioned local 5

6 officials, who mobilized the manual labor comprised of whichever man, woman, or child was under the official s jurisdiction. Turning to the imagined experience of those involved in preparation, initial notification of the procession arrives as an interruption. Local officials are directed to suspend all responsibilities and to urgently mobilize a large-scale collaboration of local labor. These recruits are similarly displaced from their everyday routines, potentially assigned to duties incongruent with their abilities. The task of preparation could be received with resentment due to the unwelcome disruption or even enthusiasm for the forthcoming spectacle. In either case, the intrusiveness of the abrupt interruption, not to mention the ardor of manual labor, hardly escapes notice. The procession s observation, albeit an indirect one, begins as early as this phase. Since royal processions were not infrequent, laborers were likely aware that royal parties travel for a range of purposes. Some are visits to monasteries to consult monks or to temples to make merit, essentially mundane affairs. Others can have more momentous consequences, such as the discovery of a precious relic or even a military exercise that could escalate to war. The mere announcement of a procession therefore signaled the possibility of a significantly positive or negative impending event, likely rousing attention or even stirring anxiety. Despite not knowing the procession s purpose, recruits were not powerless in the face of this uncertainty. Recall that the preparation of the procession corresponds to its status. Those preparing and witnessing the procession are likely to recognize that the procession s arrangement is not random. Flowers are to adorn the lattice fence because such objects of beauty are suitable to the passing persons of esteem. Objects of taboo such as undergarments are nowhere in sight because they are absolutely incommensurate with those of high status. While these basic principles of decoration are likely to be known by everyone, most subtle details were likely unknown. For 6

7 example, why must flags be placed six inches from draped bamboo leaves? Why use jasmine and not lotuses? Since these unknown elements are organized in the same deliberate manner as those which are known, they were likely experienced as meaningful with regard to the identity of the forthcoming procession. Discerning these meanings was, of course, no simple task for those untrained in court rituals. Yet, I suspect that this difficulty did not intimidate efforts since much could be at stake in identifying the procession. Interpretations were likely tenuous and multiple, stoking speculation, contestation, and rumor. Whether overhearing or joining in this chatter, repeated exposure to energetic exchanges about the procession further intensified salience of the event. (2) Reconstructing the Practice and Observation of Royal Processions: Witnessing The second phase of encounter was the arrival of the procession itself. The presence of the procession was first detected by a cacophony of drums, gongs, or firearms. According to colonial observations, such sounds consistently evoked dramatic responses, causing masses to descend upon the road. Since the white lattice fence stood between the procession and spectators, uninterrupted sight occurred only at the small apertures of the fence that remained uncovered by the cascade of ornaments attached to and surrounding the structure. This degree of proximity to the procession required maintenance of proper decorum, which was enforced by members of the procession patrolling the edges who brandished elongated rods to strike transgressors. 22 The crowd remained silent, collapsing into a squat and keeping themselves out of sight. 23 The extent to which the spectators were permitted to peer through the fence is somewhat ambiguous. They were to avert their gaze in the presence of those of the highest status, which implies permission to observe all other participants such as soldiers or musicians. However, with neither a clear view of the 7

8 procession nor knowledge of its organization, knowing when persons of high status had arrived was far from obvious. Despite these physical barriers and prohibitions of seeing, colonial observers reported scores of teeming spectators fixated on the procession. Cox recounts: the sides of the road were lined with gazers, who, from our slow marching, had ample time to gratify their curiosity. 24 James Scott too remarks: No one is supposed even to look through the little diamond-shaped holes. As a matter of fact they do; but by way of condoning for the offence, they render it more difficult by planting flowering shrubs between the bamboo houses and the latticework The people are no doubt all there we speak as those who know crouching on their stomachs and peeping as best they can through yazamat and leaves of the bushes and legs of the soldiers that line the royal path all the way, striving their utmost to get a glimpse of the king and the splendour of his retinue; but they are not to be seen, and no one so much as sneezes. 25 Thus was the spectator s encounter with the royal procession traveling over land. Circumstances were no doubt different for those traveling along river routes, but the manner of observation was strikingly similar. The procession s arrival was announced by an eruption of sound. Locals gathered at the shore, gazing upon the royal fleet. While artificial barriers were absent, sight of the procession was similarly obscured by sheer distance. Broad contours of the vessels were visible and perhaps even the heads of mythological animals that adorned the ships bows. The beauty of details and identification of the procession largely remained beyond perceptual range. Like preparation, the procession s arrival is initially experienced as an intrusion of sound. For those distant from the road, the procession is unseen, but perceived through booming sounds. Curiosity roused from the preceding uncertainty and speculation urges the spectacle s witness. Nearing the road, eyes do not meet the procession, but the very fruits of their labor the decorated lattice fence. Flashes of movement at the fence s small openings entice further approach. Peering through the openings at the edge of the fence, visual impediments are overcome. Yet, the procession is still not in clear view. At a distance of mere feet from the outer column, one meets a succession 8

9 of flashing parts. One moment s view of an elephant s legs is suddenly displaced by studded jewels on the edges of a raised palanquin and then insignia on waving banners. As one proximate body shifts to another, gaps occasionally appear, revealing inner marching columns that were previously concealed. Incidentally, these inner columns are where one finds the highest-ranking participants or royal regalia, the most important clues to discerning the identity of the procession. Vision of the center would only be momentary before the unwelcomed return of the outer column. The trial of piecing together fractured observations is further complicated by the threat of the guards rods. Spectators may feel emboldened to peer as long as their gazes retract at the appropriate moment. Similar to the decorations, this moment could be theoretically discerned through accurate reading of ornamentation. In short, gazing through the fence involves the duel challenge of making sense out of burgeoning amalgamation of sights an oversaturation of detail and avoiding lashes through awareness of guards and the potential stage of the procession. Under such conditions, the procession s discernment becomes a thrilling game of spectatorship and even a form of play. (3) Reconstructing the Practice and Observation of Royal Processions: Consolidating Accounts Viewing the procession s preparative decorations and flashes of its component parts was unlikely to yield a full picture to any single spectator. Yet, fractured observations were certainly sufficient to support conversation. The co-existence of multiple incomplete observations allows for the possibility of sharing and comparing notes in an attempt to consolidate a more complete account. This collaboration could easily devolve into contestation. Reports of unexpected sights could provoke accusations of misperception or deliberate misrepresentation. 26 The identification of particular objects or their relative locations within the procession could be a subject of debate. Such 9

10 sustained lively exchanges not only underscored the incompleteness of information, but served as a means of augmenting salience of the event s significance. Thus far, the historical practice and a possible spectatorial experience of royal processions have been constructed based on a cross-sectional reading of various textual genres. While readings of historical sources typically stop here, perhaps it is worth considering the reverse relationship, namely how such a reconstruction could serve as a context for understanding the circumstances in which texts were produced and received. In this case, texts about processions may have meaningfully participated in the consolidation of procession experiences, which were uncertain and even contested. To consider how such a context could help us rethink textual sources, I will now revisit the abovementioned account of King Mindon s procession an illustrated representation with captions in light of these circumstances. Figure 1: King Mindon s Procession from his Palace to the Kyaut-taw-gyi Buddha Image in Mandalay (1865) 27 The text contains 12 panels, each illustrating a distinct segment of the procession. The captions, appearing beneath each image, organize groups of participants in narrative, detailing their types, numbers, and relationships. In contrast with witnessing the procession, the text is strikingly still. 10

11 Instead of juggling an unwieldy onslaught of partial peeks, one now controls the pace at which the scene is perused. Fleeting glimpses of ornaments, vehicles, and body parts can be traced back to their origins. While this text s stillness is obvious to any viewer, this quality easily escapes attention without the contrast of the encounter at the fence. Also contrasting is the position of observation. The text displays the procession from a vantage point that is both within and above. Just as the nuisance of fences, outer columns, and striking rods are left behind, so too is the struggle of peering inward. The point of observation occurs at a greater distance. Reducing the intensity of detail and widening the frame, the procession comes into full view. It is now possible to situate previously disaggregated observations. Sights of clothing, equipment, and ornaments are linked to particular persons, animals, and vehicles. The procession, as a whole, is now revealed to have a shape and properties of symmetry. The caption contains a series of sentences, guiding our observation of the overall picture. Each addresses a group within the illustration, featuring its general classification (e.g., drummer, infantry, etc.), its leader, and those under the leader s direction. Exceptional figures are named and other participants distinguished by type and total number. Hierarchies become apparent through specification of leaders and agents of supervision. For those who have incompletely experienced a royal procession, textual representations such as that of King Mindon reveal much of what was once concealed. The stillness of movement, the absence of barriers, the widening of frame, and the identifications in the captions allows a fuller or more complete observation. What was once disaggregated becomes properly organized. In this sense, these texts had the potential to resolve doubts and consolidate observations. Yet, the discernment enabled by such texts was not limited to only the specific event they represent. Instead of reading a text against an event that has already occurred, it could serve as a 11

12 means of conceptualizing a procession in general terms or of a specific type. Memory of its organization could guide interpretation of future processions and structure its formulation when sharing it with others. Dissemination of texts about processions thus had the capacity to educate discernment of clues about a procession s identity and strategies of its narration. Despite displaying a relatively more complete picture, the text actually gestures to its status of incompleteness. For example, the illustration and its caption do not coincide. Features of the image are not mentioned in the text. Numbers stated in caption do not match those found in illustration. Such inconsistencies signal the incompleteness of the illustration, the caption, or perhaps both. The text thus further develops, but does not ultimately resolve the procession s observation. Royal Processions and the Power of Perception I introduced the topic of royal processions in relation to its privilege place in the study of religion and politics. How are these processes of observing processions relevant for better understanding the operation of political power in this Theravāda Buddhist context? Scholarly accounts of power in precolonial Myanmar and much of the Theravāda world predominantly narrate and explain the history of institutions of power through normative ideals of kingship. Derived from traditional or orthodox Theravāda Buddhism, such ideals are said to include adherence to disciplinary practices like the ten rājadhamma or the polity s supervision over a moral economy of merit governed by cosmological forces of karma. 28 General principles of power and social hierarchy are rationalized in terms of discrepancies in karmic status. This terminology is almost always at the heart of Theravāda discourses about power. However, these terms are less stable concepts emergent from Theravāda traditions than underdetermined discursive signs that have the capacity to contain an array of meanings and significances across 12

13 space and time. 29 This diversity is fueled not only by the ways in which Buddhists have always creatively reconfigured these terms throughout shifting political landscapes, but also through the historical fact that institutional memory was a huge problem in precolonial history, especially in Myanmar. The collapse of a dynasty or even a turbulent transition between kings had significant implications for the preservation of court knowledge and communities of expertise. 30 Newly minted kings regularly found themselves in the position of needing to recover and often in the process reinvent administrative practices and underlying kingship principles that gave them integrity. 31 To approach a possible interpretation of the royal procession s effects of concealment, I turn to a literary figure who has written extensively on the subject of perception in relation to power, Ñāṇābhivaṃsa or First Maung Daung Sayadaw. Ñāṇābhivaṃsa is perhaps the most prolific Burmese monk of the late 18 th and early 19 th century. He not only played a leading role in King Bodawpaya s administration, but also orchestrated major reforms of kingship practices and court procedures starting from his very first assignment a renovation of the coronation ritual. These reforms cemented practices of kingship that were adopted by all remaining Burmese monarchs and even persist into the present. 32 When addressing matters of political administration, Ñāṇābhivaṃsa articulates notions of power through metaphors of light and perception. 33 As a specific example, he describes King Mahāsāmatha the original architect of kingship customs as well as the founding figure of the royal lineage that culminates in the Konbaung Dynasty as the eye of the world and a member of the solar race. King Mahāsāmatha s reign is summarized as radiation of light that emanates from his good qualities and dispels darkness like a second sun. Ñāṇābhivaṃsa s general notion of kingship is formulated as a set of three practices, each cast in terms of light. First is the establishment of sovereignty whereby the king conquers or pacifies his 13

14 kingdom s domain. The king s violence is characterized as a blaze of radiating light and his weapon (i.e., the wheel of power or the āṇācakka) dazzles with splendor like 1000 rays of sunlight. His successes are attributed to the ways in which this light stuns his enemies and grants him extraordinary abilities of perception. Second is the disciplinary practice of kingship duties. The king s governance is analogized to a parasol, which shields the intensity of the sun, cooling and delivering comfort and security to his kingdom. Like the parasol, governance does not extinguish the king s light, but reduces its otherwise blinding intensity. This middle-degree of light is the condition that enables his subjects to comfortably see the world. The third practice of kingship is the world s ornamentation, beautification, and prosperity. This aesthetic enhancement is expressed through the metaphor of a fragrant lotus that attracts through its pleasing qualities of sight and scent. As to the lotus, the king s radiance both nurtures and is a necessary condition for its growth. 34 This quality of radiance empowering the king to enact violence, to perceive/know omnisciently, and to cause others to see is what separates the king from his people. Importantly, this distinction is not one of kind, but degree. In other words, radiance is not uniquely associated with the king. All people exhibit some level of radiance and the king simply has the most his defining quality. Appointments of officials and monastics are guided by the king s superior capacity to discern the radiance of others. Radiance is thus the organizing principle of the socio-political hierarchy and one s hierarchical position reflects one s capacities to enact violence, to perceive well, and to cause others to see. 35 Ñāṇābhivaṃsa s notion of power allows us to better understand how these encounters with royal processions may have been implicated in processes of power. The above reconstruction traces the ways in which royal processions were gradually revealed to spectators through phases of preparation, witness, and post facto consolidation of accounts. At each step, spectators were able to 14

15 ascertain some degree of information, but were also aware of the limits of their capacities of discernment, their statuses as compromised perceivers. This occurs through the experience of observing signs that are not known but sensed as meaningful due to their deliberate arrangement. Awareness of impaired perception thus emerges from the expectation of meaningfulness combined with the failure to ascertain this meaning. Beyond the self, spectators become aware of the existence of knowledgeable experts, those with greater capacities of discernment. This is evoked through observation of the consistently systematic arrangements of the procession s preparation, performance, and textual representations. This combined awareness make tangible human differences based on capacities of perception and knowledge, which translate into hierarchical interrelations insofar as these differences are measurable. Regularly perceiving oneself and others in this manner naturalizes principles of social stratification, which occurs in three domains for those residing along the royal road. First is augmentation of difference between those lacking knowledge in this locality and those with relatively more knowledge in the capital. Denizens of the capital exhibit greater access to knowledge because they disseminate instructions for the procession s preparation, order the procession with their bodies, and produce textual representations that display this order. Hierarchical differences among persons of the center and periphery transfers spatially. Since proximity to the capital corresponds to hierarchical status, this layout reflects a mandala-like structure of differences, congruent with the structures of a galactic polity. The capital does not own all experts. Through their libraries and services of education, monasteries are local concentrations of knowledge. Insofar as many of the organizing principles of decoration were rooted in Pāli literature, monks and monastic education were potential resources for discerning events such as royal processions. It is even plausible that textual representations of royal 15

16 processions were housed at or circulated through such monasteries. 36 In addition to onsite resources, monasteries were embedded in broader monastic networks, which in some cases were linked to the court through patronage relationships. 37 Monastic networks cut across and therefore add complexity to the spatial hierarchies of the galactic polity. Beyond these authoritative institutions, hierarchies of knowledge were negotiated locally through lay transactions. Knowledge hierarchies can be mapped onto social hierarchies organized by difference such as gender and age. For example, village elders may evoke their seniority to affirm or reject particular forms of consolidation. However, instances of contestation certainly need not always coincide with conventions of social hierarchy, encounters with processions therefore yielding opportunities to renegotiate status differences. Overall, by eliciting attention to and participation in hierarchies of these three domains, incomplete encounters with royal processions reaffirm the salience of social stratification and their organizing principles, which ultimately supports their naturalization. In other words, spectators feel themselves subjects to be ruled while simultaneously internalizing what authority looks like. 38 Conclusion This account of royal processions involves two historical reconstructions. First is a representation of its general procedure, which is derived from cross-sectional source comparison. The second is an account of how a generic spectator might have experienced a royal procession based on historically verifiable circumstances of its performance. I demonstrate that the administrative procedures of processions obscured observation to the point of rendering nearly impossible discernment of its embodied social order, its display of military might, or its possession of sacred objects that could theoretically legitimate. Though ultimately incomplete, the gradual 16

17 revealing of the procession stoked interest through its effects of interruption, extraction of labor, teasing with piecemeal clues, and provocation of collective discussions. Drawing on notions of power theorized by Ñāṇābhivaṃsa, I argue that the procession s concealment is relevant to the operation of power in precolonial Myanmar by calling attention to one s own perceptual limits relative to figures authority within the capital, monasteries, or even one s own locality. This awareness affirms and naturalizes structures of social stratification and their organizing principles based on differences of perceptual capacity. By juxtaposing this general procedure and imagined spectator experience, I am not arguing that royal processions were intentionally designed to generate these effects. Royal orders about processions make no direct reference to perception and specify no intended purposes other than transportation. This silence is also maintained in all other textual genres that address processions. In fact, colonial witnesses interpreted barriers of concealment as a strategy of enforcing respect by preventing direct observation of the king. 39 While this interpretation should certainly be taken seriously, it is undoubtedly speculation about intentions. Yet, even if such speculations could be confirmed, it would be wrong to reduce royal processions to their intended purposes alone. Like texts, rituals and events always have the capacity to produce effects that exceed their intended objectives. In other words, conditions for the emergence of this perceptual experience are inherent to this procedure regardless of the intentions of design. My account of the imagined experience of the spectator may strike some readers as an irresponsible engagement with historical evidence. History is always an act of imagined reconstruction and I would not characterize this approach as more, but differently imaginative. The imaginative work predominating pre-colonial Theravāda history is the presumption that widespread cultural or Theravāda Buddhist beliefs explain why political or so-called secular persons 17

18 and practices of the past were entangled with religion. I caution against the notion that historical, and even contemporary, persons consistently adhered to a set of beliefs or values that shaped behaviors or interest. This is not to say that beliefs are completely irrelevant. Rather, the choice to rely on some notion of belief should be recognized as an act of imagination that requires justification. I encourage more attention to the ways in which feelings of interest or significance emerge from the conditions of historical practices. Beliefs find traction in their power to organize or make sense of human experiences. As I attempt to illustrate through this example, the importance of processions did not merely reside in preexisting attitudes, but was created through the embodied practices and experiences shaped by its design. Ñāṇābhivaṃsa s metaphors about perception are compelling to those living in a world where perception is experienced as a problem. 1 The Burmese term for royal procession is ထ က တ မ). 2 One interpretation of the royal procession that does not rely on its display is formulated by GC Godakumbura He argues that the perahara reenacts or mimics rites of the gods with the aim of generating benefits in the world, specifically the conjuring rain. The success of this ritual does not depend on its observation by human spectators. ( Sinhalese Festivals: Their Symbolism, Origins and Proceedings. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (Ceylon Branch) 14, 1970, ). 3 This is just one of the many arguments that Holt presents in his overview in Asala Perahara: Powers of the Buddha s Tooth-Relic in Sri Lanka (Theravada Traditions: Buddhist Ritual Cultures in Contemporary Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, 2017). Following Seneviratne and Godakumbura, he stresses the importance of the perahara as a normative statement about cosmological order and as a means of achieving prosperous for an agricultural society. 4 For a full account of Schober s argument, see Buddhist Just Rule and Burmese National Culture: State Patronage of the Chinese Tooth Relic in Myanma, History of Religions 36 (February 1997). 5 Seneviratne writes: [t]he status system of the society based on criteria of office, occupation, caste, and landholding were given expression in the Perahara. It seemed to sum up the kingdom s social, political, economic and religious systems (112). For more, see Rituals of the Kandyan State (1978). 6 Wales writes: Until the rule was abolished by King Rama IV, it was prohibited for any person to watch a royal procession. Lattice fences were erected along the route in front of the houses of the people, and the populace was obliged to keep out of sight behind them. They were not even supposed to peep through the interstices of the fences, although such minor breeches of the law 18

19 were winked at because they served the valuable purpose of allowing the people to be impressed by the majesty of royalty-from a safe distance. But any loiterers who were so unfortunate as to be caught by the lictors were summarily chastised with bamboos, and Europeans were usually informed well in advance, and advised to take a side street in order to avoid unpleasantness (Wales, Siamese State Ceremonies, 35). 7 This feature of precolonial processions in Myanmar does not invalidate the scholarly arguments mentioned above. The cases they consider do not appear to deploy barriers in the same manner. 8 Temples of South and Southeast Asia exhibit the peculiar feature of placing murals in locations that were not accessible to temple visitors. Some art historians have interpreted this phenomena to suggest that the indended audiences of temple murals were the gods. 9 By cross-sectional comparison, I mean reading these sources horizontally, bearing in mind that discrepancies of recorded details are often reflective of their disparate purposes. When texts with radically different interests record consistent observations, this can be taken as relatively reliable evidence that such observations were likely based on actual events. 10 Burmese citation: ဒ" တ ယ ဝ ဆ % လဆန ၁၂ ရက ၂ လ န န နက ၄ ခ က တ က ၂ န ရ ပ တ ပည ၆ ဗ ဇန ၄ ပန ခရ ပည တ င အခ တ ၇ "က င ( င ပည $ တ ( က စ ဆက သ င သည အတ / င ထ က တင လ% တ မ) သည စ ရင ခင စ ရင သ ယ + သမ/က 1 ပက% န အ င စ ရင 11 As an example, consider a royal order dated to August 31, 1787: Prepare the Pageant for a Royal Visit to Nanda Wun Garden on 31 September သက#ရ ဇ ၁၁၄၉ ခ" တ သလင လ ပည က ရရက န န'(ဝန ဥယဥ တ သ ) ရ #က င ထ က တ မ) မည စ ရင ရန ' သမ,က.!ပ ပ အ င စ ရင 12 A few royal orders illustrate such detail. For instance, on September 1, 1787, we find specific instructions regarding who should participate: Taung Daway, Myauk Daway, Mingala Thay Nat - South Tavoy, North Tavoy, and Mingala Gunners, shall accompany as guards in the coming Royal Procession. (သက#ရ ဇ ၁၁၄၉ ခ" တ သလင လ ပည က ၇ ရက န လ ပ သဘင ထ က စ တ မ+ မည မ မ. တ မတ တ တ 1 လ က မ က '!မ ဝန စ ရင နဏ ရပ စ. က က စ. သ တ. က. ခန လ &ပ င စ). Objects of value to be included such as texts of the Pāli canon, relics, or royal regalia (သက#ရ ဇ ၁၁၈၅ ခ" တ ပ င လဆန ၄ ရက ၄ ဟ" န န နက. ရတန ပ& ရ ()*မ တ /က သ 4 "#စက တ မတ ဖန တ မ& ရ အခ တ ရ )က င - င ပည $ တ ( က! ခ % သ တ ဦ တင သည အခ တ အတ ) င တ ပ င လဆန အမရပ% ရ&မ တ က ရတန ပ& ရ ()*မ တ /က သ 3 ထ က စ တ မ+ မည မ လ" ၃ ပ တ & အထ တ အထ ပ ဖစ တ မ) သ ဘ" ရ ရတန န က ပ ဋကတ တ "#စ စ&! င သ ရ ပ* တ,ရ! င မဂ(လ န ရဟ# $ အ' င မတ တ /! င တက သမ# တ သ ဃ တ မ က # " ဦ " ဖ!ကသ စ)ပ လ-င တရန ၃ ပ တည ဟ( သ တရ ထ ဖ က, ဆ က မ ( တ မ+ ထ က စ တ မ+ မည " ၆ တပ န က ၆ တပ အစ အစဥ အခင အက င ဝင က ' ယ ရ တ!ကည တပ ရတပ မ စ ခန ထ စ ရင ရန! သည မယ က,!ပ ပ အ င စ ရင စ ရင က * လည သ င ၁၁၈၅ ခ" တပ $ တ လ ပည က ၁၃ ရက န န ခ နမ ရ ဇ ဇယသ% တ င ပန ) 13 Processions commonly appear in temple murals when illustrating movements of kings from Jātaka narratives. 14 Duroiselle, The Pageant of King Mindon, Cox, Journal of a Residence in the Burmhan Empire, The Burmese term for this official is Ta-seh-ein-khaung (တဆယ အ မ ခ င ). 19

20 17 Burmese citation:!မ တ င!မ ပင လမ သ လမ မ ရပ စ% ထ က စ% မ မ သ ယ အ င တ မတ တလင သ" တ သင & င လင စ 18 Burmese citation: သ မ 'က စ 19 The Burmese term for this fence is ရ ဇမ တ. 20 Burmese citation: ရ ဇမ တ က တ ခ န က( က) မ( လ ပ ရခ မ အ # ရ ပည ပန စ # က လ" ပ ဆ င တည ထ စ င က ပ ပင )က ပင စ - က စ 21 James Scott offers a visual account of this wall within the capital: The yazamat, or king's fence, was a kind of lattice-paling put up in every street in the walled town, and in any of those in the suburbs through which the king was likely at any time to pass. It was formed of thick diagonal spars made into hurdles, which were lashed to heavy posts sunk in the ground at regular intervals. The whole was whitewashed, and often flower-pots stood on the top of the posts to enliven the structure a little; and it certainly wanted enlivening a good deal. The lattice-fence undoubtedly looked very neat and tidy, as a long, straight road lined with Lombardy poplars does; but it became terribly tiresome, when you found all the streets looking exactly the same, with this six-foot-high heavy wood fence standing within a couple of feet or so of the walls of the houses, and shutting out all view of these wooden structures. (Scott, The Burman, 256) 22 Symes notes that these blows humanely avoided hurting any one, generally directing the blow to the ground close to those whom they intended to remove (Symes, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, 166). 23 Symes remarks on the scene: what rendered the scene most remarkable was, the posture which the multitude preserved; every person, as soon as we came in sight, squatted on his hams, and continued in that attitude until we had passed by: this was an indication of high respect. Throughout the crowd there was no disturbance or any extraordinary noise (Symes, An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, 166). 24 Cox, Scott, Why misrepresent or be accused of misrepresenting? What one is capable of observing reflects one s status as a good perceiver. To perceive something exceptional that was not seen by anyone else would mark one s relative superiority or worthiness. 27 Image extracted from Duroiselle, The Pageant of King Mindon, The ten aspects of the rājadhamma are charity (dānaṃ), moral discipline (sīlaṃ), self-sacrifice (pariccāgaṃ), honesty (ājjavaṃ), gentleness (maddavaṃ), religious austerity (tapaṃ), non-anger (akkodaṃ), non-violence (avihimsaṃ), patience (khantiṃ), and agreeableness (avirodhanaṃ). 29 For a more elaborate critique of the application of traditional Buddhism to precolonial contexts, see Anne Blackburn s Buddhist Learning and Textual Practice in Eighteenth-Century Lankan Monastic Culture (5-9). 30 One reason for poor institutional memory was that communities of experts and their bodies of knowledge were often tied to particular political figures as opposed to independent institutions. When one king s reign comes to an end, presiding specialists are vulnerable to not only losing their positions, but being persecuted, depending on the nature of the succession process. 31 An excellent example of such efforts of recovery is Thiri Uzana s Lokabyuha kyan, a text compiled to recover Nyaungyan rituals for a fledgling Konbaung administration with no history of conducting court rituals. 20

21 32 In the case of the procession of the tooth relic, Schober documents instances of Konbaung models being explored by military government: Ministers and other high-placed officials at multiple coordination meetings developed a protocol for the conveyance of the Sacred Tooth that was selfconsciously modeled after Burmese traditional proscriptions for the procession of royalty and celestial beings. Their discussions considered such things as arrangements for the relic's itinerary, the artists progress in building its encasement and throne, reports on the physical condition of the elephant that was to carry the sacred object in procession from the airport to its temporary residence at Kaba Aye, the closure of major traffic routes due to huge-scale dress rehearsals in anticipation of its arrival, and provisions for security, crowd management, and health emergencies (Schober, 1997, 226). 33 Relevant texts of Ñāṇābhivaṃsa include royal eulogies such as the Rājādhirāja Vilāsini, ritual manuals such as the Muddhābhiseka Dīpanī, or question-answer texts that address various dimensions political administration such as Ame-daw-pye. 34 The three-part practice is imagined sequentially and cyclically. Fulfillment one sequence yields another. The same procedure is followed for the subsequent sequence; however, what is different is the expansion of the king s power. Here power is signified by the term splendor (i.e., vilāsa), sustaining the metaphor of light. 35 Ñāṇābhivaṃsa s representation of kingship certainly does not contradict or exclude features of meritorious power or karma. Rather, they are incorporated into the overarching metaphor and redefined in the process. The king s karma, for instance, certainly continues to undergird this conception of kingship. But Ñāṇābhivaṃsa is interested in explicating kingship in ways that are tangible to its audience, as opposed to the mechanics of karma, which are imperceptible, at least directly. 36 Such texts are seldom found in contemporary monastic collections. The absence of contemporary evidence, however, does not prove its historical non-existence. Texts are always vulnerable to decay and their survival often depends on sustained efforts of preservation. Materials connected to the court had little use after the collapse of the Konbaung Dynasty, which decreased likelihood of their care and recopying. Illustrated texts, in particular, were often stolen by or sold to private collectors. Much of the surviving white parabeik manuscripts can be found in the museum and library collections of the UK, which were assembled by donations of families of deceased colonial officers. 37 By housing such texts, monastic institutions could mark themselves as having items of interest, which could attract prestige, patronage, and even young talent. Since these texts were often produced at the court and circulated to monasteries within the court s network, they may have been a means of rewarding association with the court as well as promoting the benefits of royal patronage. The production of these texts could therefore be understood through the politics of networks between the court and monasteries. 38 This process of naturalizing social stratification does not presume that spectators accept these ideas passively or with open arms. Rather, the repetition of practices that evoke these hierarchies simply makes these social structures seem normal, self-evident, and a quality of the status quo. 39 For instance, Captain Henry Yule writes: This arrangement is called Yaja-mat or King's Fence, and is supposed to be put up wherever the King is likely to pass, in order to prevent the crowd from encroaching on him disrespectfully. Indeed they are expected not even to stare at him, for in Burma the right of a cat to look at a king is not well established. (Yule, The Court of Ava, 138) 21