Despite the pervasive influence of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity in Asian societies, these classical religious traditions rarely, if ever, appear in “pure” form in ordinary social life.
Law and society scholars make a distinction between “law on the books” and “law in action,” and the same could be said of religion in Asia and elsewhere. Religion on the books differs greatly from religion as practiced in the villages and urban neighborhoods of Asian peoples.
Although concepts and images drawn from the so-called world religions are ubiquitous, people are just as concerned - sometimes far more concerned - with spirits, ghosts, signs and portents, the stars, and countless other supernatural or magical phenomena that are not mentioned or approved in the literatures of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. This is what we might call religion in action, and it merges seamlessly with the classical religious traditions. As Fernanda Pirie (2006:177) has observed of the landscape of sacred practices in Ladakh:In most villagers’ eyes there is no real divide between Buddhism and other forms of ritual practice. Their cosmological concerns are dominated by the practical need to ensure physical fortune, fertility, and the biological continuity of the community. Local monks perform many exorcist rituals, and the onpos consider these practices to be part of their religious activities. The villagers regard the Buddhist deities as supreme cosmological beings with the greatest power to deal effectively with their troublesome evil spirits.
Religion in action has enormous significance for legal behavior and institutions, since it guides the everyday practices of ordinary people as they navigate their way through agreements and disputes, family relationships, issues of birth and death, political authority and legitimacy, and the like. It constitutes a form of customary law that is deeply familiar to ordinary people and influences their engagement - if any - with the more distant and unfamiliar institutions of state law. The following selection illustrates some of the interconnections between law and the broader landscape of sacred practices in Asia.
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