Abstract
This paper explores the interweaving of Buddhist practice, old age and women's gendered roles in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Given Vietnamese gendered norms that empha- sise women's lifelong attachment and responsiblity to their families, this paper shows that Buddhist practice is a way of life in old age for women. Old age is a time in life when one continues to hone relational personhood and negotiate between gendered roles at home and individual self-culti- vating practice. Inspired by Sarah Lamb's (White Saris and Sweet Mangoes: Aging, Gender, and Body in North India. Berkeley: University of California Press; 2000) discus- sion on entanglement and disentanglement in West Bengali women's old age, this paper shows that Vietnamese women draw on the Buddhist notion of 'karmic debt' to define the boundary of their household duties. With the Buddhist Way, old age is not merely a continuing devotion to the family, it is a time marked by both self- and family-nurturing.