Olivia Porter “The House Is Not a Home for the Buddha: The Tai Zawti Dhamma Altar in Myanmar”

This paper investigates the 350-year-old Tai Zawti Theravada tradition and its distinct lay practice of keeping Buddhist texts, rather than Buddha images, on a dhamma altar inside the home. Drawing on Zawti-authored texts as well as interviews with Tai Zawti monks and laity, it examines the rationale for the altar, its function and position in the home, the nature of the texts kept on the altar, and how this marker of distinction is blurred by new challenges. While the Zawti tradition offers important insights into the nature of pre-reform Burmese Buddhism and premodern Theravada more broadly, by focusing on the nature of the lik long texts kept on the Zawti dhamma altar, the paper demonstrates how the Tai Zawti are firmly situated within the wider Tai cultural context.

Keywords: Theravada Buddhism, Tai (Shan), Tai Buddhism, Tai Literature, Tai Zawti, lik long