Secularisation of the Theravada Buddhist Societies of Southeast Asia

There is a widely accepted understanding of secularisation in the Christian West yet knowledge of this phenomenon in Buddhist-majority countries is weak. This project will produce a modern history of secularisation in the Theravada Buddhist societies of mainland Southeast Asia: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, It expects to generate new knowledge about how key elements of the secularisation process such as the separation of religion and state, religious tolerance, intellectual freedom, and the advancement of democracy and human rights, have developed in Buddhist-majority societies. The outcome will broaden our historical understanding of how these states have managed the place of religion in the public sphere during the modern period.