Geographies of Intertextuality : Buddhist Literature in Pre-modern Siam

Abstract

Geographies of Intertextuality : Buddhist Literature in Pre-modern Siam. Peter Skilling. Far from being marginal or provincial, Southeast Asia— this land "between India and China"— was a cultural crossroads, with intricate links by land and sea with the wider world. In the geographic imagination, Southeast Asia was located in Jambudvīpa, the "Southern Continent" of Buddhist cosmology. The article examines the Buddhist literature of the region, in particular the Pāli and vernacular literature of Siam. It hopes to show that Siam was part of a wider textual and cultural community, which was in constant dialogue with the Indian Ocean region and beyond. It proposes that vibrant cultural exchange was the norm rather than the exception, and that this exchange contributed to the exuberant creativity of Siamese and Tai literature. It suggests that we should look more closely at literary production in order to understand the intellectual and social history of Siam in broader transregional contexts.