Offers a unique comparative approach to understanding Buddhism: it examines popular rituals of central importance in the predominantly Theravada Buddhist cultures of Laos, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia. John Holt tries to ascertain how important changes, or shifts, in the trajectories of the political economies of societies have impacted the character of religious cultures.

John Clifford Holt is William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor Emeritus of Humanities in Religion and Asian Studies at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.