Christian Lammerts’ research examines the legal, literary, social, and intellectual histories of Buddhism in Burma/Myanmar and Southeast Asia. He is particularly interested in the intersection of Buddhist legal culture and textual practice, and in the development and reception of regional vernacular and Pali Buddhist literature. Lammerts is currently writing a book on the history of a distinctive Buddhist legal genre and jurisprudence in Burma between 1200-1900 C.E., as well as preparing a critical edition, translation, and study of a mid-17th century treatise on Buddhist law. His work is grounded in the close reading and analysis of Southeast Asian Buddhist texts in their manuscript contexts, and he has related interests in manuscript studies, textual criticism, and book history.

Lammerts’ teaching deals broadly with the history and literature of Buddhism in Southeast Asia and across premodern and modern Asia, as well as with topics in comparative religion and law. He is especially interested to work with undergraduate and graduate students who would like to pursue studies in these or related areas, or in the history of religions in Southeast Asia. Prospective students are encouraged to contact him.

CV

• Ph.D. and M.A. Cornell University
• M.A. School of Oriental and African Studies
• B.A. Williams College

• Buddhism in Southeast Asia
• Buddhism and Law
• Pali, Burmese, and Thai Buddhist Literature
• Burma/Myanmar Studies
• Southeast Asian Religions

•  Buddhist Dynamics in Pre-modern and Early Modern Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian
  Studies, forthcoming.

• "Narratives of Buddhist Legislation:  Textual Authority and Legal Heterodoxy in 17th-19th Century
  Burma." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 44,1 (Feb. 2013):  118-144.
• "Genres and Jurisdictions:  Laws Governing Monastic Inheritance in Late Pre-modern Burma."
  In Buddhism and Law: An Introduction, edited by Rebecca R. French and Mark A. Nathan. 
  Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
• "Notes on Burmese Manuscripts: Text and Image." Journal of Burma Studies 14 (2010): 229-253.
• "The Authorship of the Dhammavilasa Dhammathat." In Myanmar Historical Commission Conference
  Proceedings, Part Two, edited by the Golden Jubilee Publication Committee, 190-214. Yangon:
  Myanmar Historical Commission, 2005.

• “Buddhist Manuscript Culture and History in Southeast Asia.” Review of Daniel M. Veidlinger, Spreading the
  Dhamma: Writing, Orality, and Textual Transmission in Buddhist Northern Thailand (University of Hawaii
  Press, 2006). H-Buddhism (May 2011, http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=30596).

• Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Lauriston Sharp Dissertation Prize (2010 [2012])
• Teaching Research Fellowship, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (2011/2012).
• Research Fellowship, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (2010/2011)
• Fulbright-Hays Fellowship (2008/9)
• Toyota Foundation, Special Subjects Research Grant for the Preservation, Compilation, and Annotation
  of Indigenous Documents in Peripheral Regions of Asia (2006/07, 2007/08)
• Blakemore Freeman Fellowship (2005/06)