John A. Marston

John Marston and Elizabeth Guthrie have assembled a fascinating collection of essays on Cambodian religion, nationalism, and identity. While the volume's title is somewhat ungraceful, the essays taken together constitute a virtual treasure trove of information on Khmer Buddhism in all its many facets. Cambodian religion has been vastly understudied in modern times, even considering the important contributions of Bizot, de Bernon, Forest, and Ang in French. In the last year we have been show more presented with three new books in the field in English: Ian Harris' work on the history of Cambodian Buddhism, Stephen Asma's account of a personal journey through lived Theravada Buddhism, and this collection by Marston and Guthrie. While the first is a valuable new synthetic contribution and the second a fun ride, as an anthropologist I find the Marston/Guthrie volume exciting in its scope.[Judy Ledgerwood] show less