This book is based on Thomas Nathan Patton's extensive fieldwork among the Buddhist population of Myanmar on the world of wizards or weizzā, as they are known locally, in his quest to understand their widespread appeal. He provides a rich in-depth ethnography and intimate examination of the weizzā cult in its broader historical, sociopolitical, and religious contexts, drawing on affect theory, material and visual culture, and testimonies in devotional literature, along with participant observation and interviews to understand how people come to believe in the powers of wizards.
The term weizzā refers to wisdom or knowledge and specifically points to someone who has mastery of alchemy, medicine, astrology, spells and incantations, or sacred diagrams. Patton states that weizzā could be considered a ‘third category’ (p. 15), between the monastic and lay worlds, as their status is neither other-worldly nor this-worldly, and they are endowed with magical powers that allow them to transcend time and prolong their lives until the arrival of the next Buddha Metteyya. Despite being shunned by Buddhist purists and monastic authorities, weizzā are believed to affect the world and bring benefits to the living, heal the sick, and provide hope to those living under political oppression or difficult personal circumstances.
The Buddha's wizards comprises of five chapters organised thematically and chronologically. Patton describes how people's relationships with weizzā transformed alongside sociopolitical changes in Burma between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Chapter 1 starts by building a general image of weizzā by drawing on historical and literary accounts, and their own visual and oral representations. The role of weizzā is also described in the contexts in which they have manifested themselves to protect and defend the Buddha sāsana during historical junctures when there have been perceptions of imminent external threats.
Chapter 2 focuses on Bo Min Gaung, the most popular exemplar of the weizzā cult, who became revered as the ‘chief weizzā’ and continues to inspire and command respect. Patton unravels many personal stories circulated by Bo's followers about their special relationships with the wizard to understand how he came to such prominence.
Further details about people's relationships with weizzā are explored in chapter 3, including the various means by which they communicate with their devotees through possessions and dreams, by evoking visions or through spirit mediumship. Special attention is paid to the experiences of female devotees who are healed from various illnesses and who then channel the ‘energy’ of weizzā to heal others themselves. The beliefs and practices associated with this healing practice is described by Patton as a ‘culturally sanctioned response’ (p. 90) to the gender roles in a repressive society. The spirit possession experiences are seen as a channel through which poor and vulnerable women express their needs and desires, and eventually become empowered and valued as healers or clairvoyants. Spirit possession of women at the margins of society has been a central theme in the anthropology of religion; however, there has also been a re-evaluation of such ‘deprivation theories’ from a feminist perspective, since men and transgender persons may also resort to such experiences. Patton does not explore the difference between possession by weizzā and other types of possession experiences by nats (spirits), witches or sorcerers, also common in Myanmar, except for his mention of the differences in terminology. In fact, the experience for the possessed might not differ much whether one is possessed by a nat or weizzā, but it is made specific in the devotee's justification of the relationship in order to make sense of the extraordinary experience, and also to acknowledge the weizzā's authority in the spiritual hierarchy accepted by many in a Buddhist culture.
Drawing on the case of the first weizzā pagoda constructed in 1958 in Allegany, New York, chapter 4 goes over some of the main themes described in the previous chapters, for example, on the role of weizzā in protecting and propagating the sāsana. It re-examines their specific position in the lives of Myanmarese in the diaspora, who continue to worship Bo Min Gaung and spread Buddhist sites that harness weizzā power further afield. Patton also situates weizzā in an era after the sangha reforms of the 1980s, followed by the state policy of the 1990s, propagating the sāsana for the legitimation of the military government.
In the final chapter, Patton takes up the issue of the weizzā cult's marginality and explores why some Myanmarese publicly disparage those referred to as bodaw or weizzā and why their practices are criticised as ‘not Buddhist’. Patton states that even his interlocutors were worried that his book on the weizzā cult might give his foreign readers a distorted impression of Myanmar's Buddhism (p. 116). Thus, there is a disjunction between the Theravada Buddhist orthodoxy propagated in Myanmar and the popular localised practice of weizzā; exemplified in the hostile public rhetoric and private adherence to the weizzā cult. Meanwhile, the lifting of censorship and popularity of social media under the former NLD government seems to have revived an interest in weizzā, especially amongst the affluent urban population as well as people in other Asian countries who are constructing weizzā pagodas and installing statues of Bo Min Gaung. In this respect, the book also offers a different perspective on the recent transformation of Myanmar society, especially when the world is presented through the lens of people's lived religious experiences.
Patton travelled around the country for a decade, collecting stories and testimonies from people whose lives have been touched by wizards and usually changed for the better. He has woven together events and stories of devotees from magazine articles, devotional literature, patients’ reports and testimonials, and built up a comprehensive image of the weizzā. Their narrated stories seem to take a life of their own and continue to spread weizzā mystique in the popular media. And yet, Myanmar's wizards remain as elusive as ever, especially to those who do not share the affective or emotive experiences of their devotees.
