Center for the Study of Hindu Traditions

A lecture by Nathan McGovern (University of California, Santa Barbara).

In this presentation, Nathan McGovern will argue that our knowledge of Asian religions is still framed by colonial and Euro-centric ideas of “religion” that obscure our understanding of Hinduism and Buddhism in subtle yet profound ways. He will discuss the worship of Brahma in Thailand, the ways in which Buddhists worship a “Hindu” creator deity, and show how this phenomenon is especially apt for exposing the limitations of Western understandings of religion.

Nathan McGovern received his BA in Physics and Religious Studies from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He now is a fourth-year graduate student in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studies South Asian religions and Thai Buddhism. His major interests include the history of Indian Buddhism, early Buddhist canonical literature, Theravada Buddhism, and the relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism in South Asia. Nathan’s recent research focused on “Brahma Worship in Thailand: The Erawan Shrine in its Social and Historical Context,” in which he explores issues of syncretism and Indianization in Southeast Asia using the contemporary Thai worship of Brahma as a focal point. Nathan is now conducting further research on Thai religion comparing the roles that Brahmanical and Buddhist monastic lineages have played in Thai history, especially with respect to Thai monarchical institutions.