Soteriological Inclusiveness and Religious Tourism in Modern Thai Buddhism: The Stūpa of Mae Chi Kaew Sianglam (1901–1991)

While numerous Thai male Buddhist monastics have been deeply and widely revered for their perceived attainment of full awakening/arahant-ship, the same recognition for Thai female practitioners together with the concomitant phenomena of veneration remain very limited, with only a few notable exceptions. Given the scarcity of acknowledged Thai female Buddhist arahants in comparison to the number of widely venerated male Thai arahants, it is unsurprising that while numerous sacred sites across the country are dedicated to male practitioners of modern Thai Buddhism, equivalent places for the veneration of female Buddhist practitioners are exceedingly rare. The Mae Chi Kaew Stūpa stands out due to its unique purpose: it was built for the memory and veneration of a female arahant of modern Thai Buddhism. Unlike most similar monuments dedicated to male monastic practitioners of modern Thai Buddhism who are believed to have achieved full awakening, this memorial is an unambiguous articulation of women’s potential to realise the summum bonum of Theravada Buddhist soteriology in current times. As we will show in this paper, the Mae Chi Kaew Stūpa has been strategically promoted as a religious tourism site across multiple levels: international, national, provincial, and local. Thus, our research focuses on the question of how tourism may help to effectively spread the message of what the Buddhist Studies scholar Alan Sponberg in relation to early Buddhism termed “soteriological inclusiveness.” Drawing on sustained ethnographic work at the Mae Chi Kaew Stūpa in Thailand’s northeastern province of Mukdahan, this paper aims to examine the interface between modern tourism and Thai Buddhist religiosity.