LE Hoang Anh Thu
   Department   Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University  College of Asia Pacific Studies
   Position   Associate Professor
Language English
Publication Date 2020/11/15
Type Research paper (Academic/Professional Journal)
Peer Review Peer reviewed
Title Buddhist Way of Old age and Women’s Lifecourse in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)
Contribution Type Single Work
Journal The Australian Journal of Anthropology
Journal TypeAnother Country
Publisher The Australian Anthropological Society
Volume, Issue, Page 31(3),pp.319-332
Total page number 14
Author and coauthor LE Hoang Anh Thu
Details Abstract
This paper explores the interweaving of Buddhist practice, old age and women's gendered roles in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Given Vietnamese gendered norms that empha- sise women's lifelong attachment and responsiblity to their families, this paper shows that Buddhist practice is a way of life in old age for women. Old age is a time in life when one continues to hone relational personhood and negotiate between gendered roles at home and individual self-culti- vating practice. Inspired by Sarah Lamb's (White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in North India. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2000) discus- sion on entanglement and disentanglement in West Bengali women's old age, this paper shows that Vietnamese women draw on the Buddhist notion of 'karmic debt' to define the boundary of their household duties. With the Buddhist Way, old age is not merely a continuing devotion to the family, it is a time marked by both self- and family-nurturing.
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/taja.12373
ISBN 1035-8811
URL for researchmap https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/taja.12373