Description

The prominent Cambodian Buddhist monk Khieu Chum (1907-75) was one of a small group of plotters who successfully ousted Norodom Sihanouk from power in early 1970. An active and well-connected figure during the successor Khmer Republic period (1970-75), Khieu Chum was the author of a number of works that provided a Buddhist justification for the overthrow of the Cambodian monarchy. This paper analyses his literary output and seeks to situate his ideas within a wider current of Therav?da Buddhist discourse on acceptable forms of governance.

Ian Harris is Tun Lin Kok Yuen Visiting Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto Scarborough with interests including the modern and contemporary history of Cambodia, Buddhism and politics in Southeast Asia, Buddhist environmentalism, and landscape aesthetics. His most recent books are Cambodian Buddhism: History and Practice (2005), Buddhism Under Pol Pot (2007), and an edited volume entitled Buddhism, Power and Politics in Southeast Asia (2007). A new work, Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks under the Khmer Rouge, will appear in early 2012. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Cumbria and has held previous visiting positions at the University of Oxford, the University of British Columbia, the National University of Singapore, and the Documentary Center of Cambodia in Phnom Penh.