Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to illustrate how elderly lay women conceptualize their old age through Buddhist beliefs.

Paper long abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic data collected from a fieldwork among elderly lay Buddhist women in Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), this paper aims to illustrate how elderly lay women conceptualize their old age through Buddhist beliefs. Collecting life stories of my informants, I notice that they often called the time when they were young and entangled in family duties and responsibilities as 'the inside realm of life' (trong đời), as opposed to 'the outside realm of life' (ngoài đời) as the time when they are old, leave household duties to their progenies, and can spend enormous time on religious practices.

Being entangled in household duties in young age is conceptualized by elderly laywomen as way to pay the 'karmic debt' they had with their families from previous lives. If one has paid off this 'debt', one can enjoy a well-earned rest in old age, and thus get to the 'outside' realm of life. The 'outside' is conceptualized as the old age when one can spend time to cultivate virtues and good merit in religious practices, for the benefit of one's family and also for one's good death and rebirth. I argue that Buddhism provides elderly women an alternative narrative for their old age, breaking from the dominant notions of Vietnamese womanhood revolving around traditional household roles.

Buddhism not only expands the territory of elderly women's everyday activities, but also extends the temporal conceptualization of old age not just as a life stage of biological decline, but rather of active social engagement and self-cultivation.