‘Well, what kind of Buddhism is that? That's simple: it's a kind of Burmese Buddhism’ (p. 226). This is the last sentence written by Steven Collins in the Postscript, which summarises the volume and makes us reconsider whether there is a need to treat the weikza phenomenon as something separate from the lived tradition of Burmese Buddhism. Champions of Buddhism is the result of a panel convened at the International Burma-Myanmar Studies Conference in 2010 and although most chapters have been published as journal articles, the compilation highlights the recent debates on weikza-hood. The volume is divided thematically into three parts, comprising a total of eight chapters in addition to an Introduction written by Kate Crosby and the Postscript. The editors' Foreword gives a good description of the study of weikza cults and outlines the theoretical context in which the discussions take place.

Patrick Pranke starts off by locating the weikza cults into the larger Burmese Buddhist landscape and compares the Theravāda trajectory of becoming an arahant with the esoteric ideal of weikza-hood. He identifies the aspirations of Burmese Buddhists who continue to seek alternative champions in the ‘supra-mundane’ salvation system, which Pranke views as ‘wholly in keeping with Theravāda orthodoxy’ (p. 17). Juliane Schober points out how weikza practices are often juxtaposed with the more conventional Buddhist practices endorsed by the modern Burmese state, but also acknowledges the ‘subversive powers’ of weikza masters at the periphery of a conventional field of merit (p. 34). While she challenges the assumption that their practices are ‘inherently millennial’, she also refers to cultural sites where weikzas are known to have congregated as they practised and waited for Metteyya, the Buddha-to-come. On the theme of Burmese millennial aspirations, Niklas Foxeus offers a fascinating account about modern royal esoteric congregations that uphold millenarian expectations about the arrival of Setkaya Min, the universal monarch who will restore the world order. He identifies people's millennial aspirations in the context of a Buddhist nationalism whose aim was to protect Buddhism from destructive external influences during the colonial era. After independence, however, a positional shift has taken place and their moral battle becomes more abstract in the context of modernity, whereby religious authority is subordinated to the nation-state and the discussion about millennialism becomes increasingly secular.

Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière offers a unique observation about an increasing convergence between spirit worship and the weikza cult while Mount Popa continues to be the site where the nat line of spirits and dat line of weikza engage with one another. This observation may challenge the traditional non-Buddhist/Buddhist opposition, but it seems that followers distinguish their respective practices while also jostling to harness the potency in the spirit field. She describes how figures in weikza cosmology mingle with spirits, and practitioners move from one to another as if they were on the same spectrum (pp. 59–60). And yet it is the weikza, in her observation, who commands supremacy. Céline Coderey also discusses this convergence in her examination of healing practices in Arakan state where local healers engage with weikzas as they grant them effectiveness in their treatment. While she questions the transferability of weikza phenomena to peripheral areas such as Arakan state, she also tries to locate it in the context of regional religious culture. Her finding is interesting because ‘weikza-related’ knowledge that is marginalised in mainland Burma seems to be given proper status in Thanwe. That is, local diviners gain respectability by combining Buddhist and non-Buddhist elements in their practices, and by so doing, become ‘efficacious’ in the eyes of their clients.

Keiko Tosa and Thomas Patton both contribute detailed descriptions of specialised forms of knowledge retained in certain weikza lineages. Tosa, by focusing her attention on the ritual process of pagoda building, refers to the procedural knowledge passed down in handling the Buddha relics, manipulating the four elements, and choosing the correct time, etc. The knowledge of weikza becomes especially relevant in the ritual process of eliciting the protective powers of the Buddha, gods and various guardian spirits, and when the procedure is conducted correctly, the dangerous and yet efficacious potential becomes embodied in the pagoda premises. Patton examines various mystical diagrams described as yantra that are widely used by weikza practitioners. He describes three yantra in particular, which are Bodhipakkhiyā concerning the 37 constituents of Buddhist enlightenment, candle yantra, and yok comprised of symbols of Buddhas and various saints. Patten describes how practitioners undergo personal transformation in initiation rituals and acquire supernatural powers through the manipulation of a chosen yantra. In the final chapter, Guillame Rozenberg focuses on the study of Shweyingyaw gaing, one of the most famous weikza congregations in the twentieth century, and describes how the congregation initiates its members, creates symbolic boundaries by endowing them with esoteric representations, and passes on its exorcising faculty by means of physically conferring it on its initiates. To unravel important features of Burmese exorcism, Rozenberg compares an exorcist with a possession specialist, shaman, and church priest, and ultimately draws attention to the ‘interfacing’ function in trafficking such knowledge.

To understand weikza cults, some of the authors draw on Burmese history and cultural resources, while others search for answers in the Pāli canonical tradition. However, the move by Collins to ‘de-center’ nirvana on the ‘spectrum of felicities’ (mentioned by Patton, p. 158) seems to suggest the ‘de-centering’ of canonical studies by means of acknowledging the important contribution made by empirical research on the ground. Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that the dichotomous framework of Buddhist/non-Buddhist is not something constructed by Buddhist scholars or bystanders, but Burmese themselves, especially educated, urban middle-class Buddhists, who are intent on redefining their Buddhism along modernist lines, and often distinguish weikza to be a ‘lesser kind’ of Buddhist practice. Nonetheless, the weikza phenomenon tells us about a ‘lived’ Buddhist tradition and the devotion of local Buddhists who aspire towards an ideal collective renewal in a world full of chaos and anxiety, and weikzas become more alive when Burmese themselves are resolute in their mission to fight moral decline and protect the inner sanctum of their Buddha sāsana.