3. Buddhism in Contemporary Thailand

[Note: Cf. Phra Dhammapitaka (P.A. Payutto), Thai Buddhism in the Buddhist World., pp.80-81.]

Buddhism in Thailand reached the modern period under the warm support of the king and the people, without interruption of persecution or suppression. Side by side with the people, the monks came into encounter with Western civilization. Hand in hand with government, the monkhood started on modernization.

Under King Chulalongkorn (Rama V; 1868-1910) or (B.E.2411-2453), the structure of the secular government was changed to adopt a new pattern, and a modern Western system of public education was introduced. With the assistance of the King’s half-brother, the monk-prince Vajirananavarorasa, who later became a supreme patriarch, an important role in public education was assigned to the monks, a new form of ecclesiastical government was established, and a foundation was laid for the modernization of ecclesiastical education.

Thailand was credited with the publication of the first complete set of the Pali Canon, known as the Royal Siamese Tripitaka^[1]. A royal library was erected for the preservation of Buddhist sacred books and rare scripture. Two royal Buddhist academies, Mahamamakut and Mahachulalongkorn, were founded with to a plan to functioning due course as Sangha colleges or universities providing for monks and novices advanced Buddhist studies along with modern higher education.

1. The Beginning of A Separation in the Period of Modernization

With the end of reign of King Chulalongkorn, things changed for the worse. The process of modernization continued on the part of the secular sector, but on the ecclesiastical side it was kept going for only a short period of time and then waned. The monkhood was put in a losing position. Monks were retired from their role in the public education though most of the public schools were still housed in monastery compounds and the monks still collected donations for the building of these schools. Preliminary arrangements for modern higher Buddhist education were set aside and the plans were not undertaken. Without open suppression, there was no urge to activity. The monks fell into inactivity and became attached to traditionalism. Being deprived of their deserved responsibility, they became underutilized and many developed the habit of idleness, living only on the rich inheritance of traditional popular support.

2. Some Efforts to Fill the Gap and to Restore the Monks’s Worthy Roles

In the meantime, however, strict traditionalism on the part of the Sangha and Thai society as a whole has both directly and indirectly caused reactions, conflicts and new developments in private sectors. A number of Elders, in an effort to respond to the long-felt but ignored need to produce Buddhist monks equipped with modern knowledge relevant to the contemporary world, revived the plan for Buddhist higher education. Then Mahamakut and Mahachula came back to life as the two Buddhist Universities of Thailand in 1946 (B.E.2489) and 1947 (B.E. 2490)^[2], respectively. Some lay intellectuals found interest in Buddhist thought through their independent study or casual reading of writings on Buddhism by Western scholars. Some of them have helped in the attempt to connect Buddhist thought and culture with modern scientific, intellectual and social developments.

A number of monks undoubtedly few, through their independent study, gained insight into a new meaning of the Buddha-Dharma through their own interpretation. They give Buddhism a new appeal, a vitality that has made accessible to the intellectuals and university students. They have helped to reduce the widening gap between the monkhood and the modern intellectuals, and have paved the way for the regaining of the monks’ spiritual leadership. Among these monks the best known was Bhikkhu Buddhadasa of Chaiya in southern Thailand, who was claimed to be the most outstanding Buddhist thinker in the country and also a figure in international Buddhism.

Another important development in Thai Buddhism is monks’ involvement in community development. Some monks have been concerned about the problems of the relevancy to the contemporary changing society. To these monks, and to a number of layman Buddhists, the monks ‘s loss of leadership in the modern westernized communities, has affected the stability of the religion and partly account for the misdirected development of the society. In the westernized society, monks play no role of real importance or unquestionable value, and the society has reached the current stage of development without their claim to help or guidance.

Modern Thailand is, however, often branded with modernization without development or with misguided development. The lack of the monk's share in the process of development must have been a factor in this undesirable result^[3]. It may be too late for the monks to take up their responsibility in such an extremely secularized society and it will be difficult even to regain their status, though many monks are now much concerned about this task.

In rural areas, by contrast, monastic leadership is still strong and the real people still recognize their responsibility to the Buddhist institutions. Modernization has, however, started to run its course there and the monks, with their traditional roles of leadership, are far from prepared to apply the effectiveness of their leadership to the problems of modernization, that is, to help the rural people towards proper adjustment in the process of development. The rural monks are recruited from among the rural people, more specificially the villagers, with a very disadvantaged educational background and with experiences limited to village situations. Lacking knowledge of modern society, its problems and the gap to fill, they themselves are subject to misdirected development. They are just as the monks in the modernized sector once were and still mostly are. There is a fear that the story will repeat itself.

Such being the case, the monks and lay Buddhists who have been awakened to the problems direct their attention to rural society. With the purpose of awakening rural monastic leaders to the same problems and helping them to adapt their leadership to the modern process of development, monastic social programs for social welfare and rural uplift have been established by the Buddhist universities and other monastic institutions. Courses in the practical aspects of community development have been included along with training for the propagation of Buddhism.

Some of these programs have been criticized for secularization and some even for politicalization. Apart from programs for rural monks, the two Buddhist universities annually send a number of their graduates to take teaching positions and participate in local development programs and other social, educational and Buddhist activities. It is hoped that through these programs monks will be made effective in realizing the Buddhist ideal of "going for the welfare and happiness of the many" by helping and guiding the people through a process of right and real development, and their place of leadership will also be maintained.

In fact, these Buddhists are concerned not only about the maintenance of the monk's status in the changing traditional society, but also about the restoration of the monks to their proper place as leaders in modern society. The Buddhist Sunday School movement begun by Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University in 1958 (B.E.2501) represents an attempt to revive Buddhist education for the younger generation and to achieve welfare and happiness both for the modernized society and for the society under the process of modernization.

In the last decade, there has been, in many parts of the country, especially in the central region, where the secular government education has been made accessible to the villagers, a sharp decrease in the number of boys entering the monasteries to study in the monastic traditional system of education. There are now, therefore, very few novices or none at all in most of the monasteries in the more developed areas of the country. Simultaneously, on the other hand, students in the secular government and private schools have been criticized for being alienated from their religious and cultural tradition and lacking adequate emotional training. As a response to this situation, many monasteries and organizations throughout the country have turned to the new practice of temporary summer group-ordination or temporary hot-season group-admission to novicehood (or monkhood), now in vogue, providing the youths with religious, cultural and moral training for a short period of time, mostly for one month, during their annual long vacation.^[4] Although this practice cannot be an answer to the problem of the shortage of monastic man power in the long run, it is hoped that it will be help in the solution of the urgent problems of juvenile delinquency and cultural alienation.

In spite of all these efforts, however, the Buddhist reformers must always bear in mind one thing: in order for Buddhism to be really relevant to the rapidly changing world in the long run they must discover which demands of such a world should be the prime concern of Buddhism, the demands that no other realm of human endeavor can treat, and be prepared to apply the Buddhist answers towards the satistaction of these demands.

3. International Eyes on Thai Buddhism

As reaction against the insufficiency of the current system of ecclesiastical education and as an answer to the needs not met by the same, there has been during the last two decades a rapid increase in the number of young monks going, mostly on a private basis, to further their studies for modern degrees abroad, especially in Indian universities. In the same period of time, there has been a considerable expansion of Buddhist propagation abroad.

The first Thai monastery (popularly called Wat Thai) in the West^[5] was officially established when His Majesty the King of Thailand presided over the opening ceremony of the Buddhapadipa Monastery at Christchurch Street in London on August 1, 1966 (B.E.2509), the monastery was moved to the present site at 14 Calone Road, Wimbledon Parkside, on November 17, 1975 (B.E.2518). Now Thai monks can be found residing, mostly on temporary mission, in India, Indonesia, Australia, England, the Netherlands and, most remarkably, in the United States, where the number of Thai monasteries has grown much more than elsewhere and, where most of the monasteries function mainly as religious and cultural centers for the Thai communities. In Malaysia and Singapore there are a number of Thai-style monasteries, where Thai monks or local monks of Thai origin are in residence.

In the opposite direction, a large number of Western people have come to Thailand to study and practice Buddhism during recent years. Many of them are scholars or university students who are studying or carrying out research on the Buddhist impact on Thai culture and society. They travel and live among the rural people in upcountry villages seeking first-hand knowledge. Others are Western young people who, on rejecting the religious tradition and social values of the West and in their quest for a meaningful life, have developed an active interest in Buddhism and gained some knowledge of it through reading and independent study or taking courses in Buddhism at a college or university. Having come to Thailand to get into direct contact with the Buddhist life and to live it themselves through practice, most of them enter the monkhood and live under meditation teachers at various meditation centers in Bangkok and, for a greater number, in the forests of the far provinces.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Sujip Punyanubhap,Tipitaka for people, pp.42-46.

[2]:

Sangharaja Kromphraya Pavaresvariyalongkorn, “A Brief Account of King Mongkut (Rama IV): from the time of his ordination as a bhikkhu until his passing-away”, pp.87-89.

[3]:

Venerable Phra Rajadhammanidesa (Rabaeb Thitannano), Great Reply to Global Questions, pp.260-261.

[4]:

Ibid., p.266.

[5]:

Wat Buddhapadipa (Thai: Wat Phutthapathip;) is a Thai Buddhist temple in Wimbledon. It was the first such temple to be built in the United Kingdom. It is home to monks and nuns, but welcomes visitors of any faith to view the grounds and temple as long as they are respectful.