2.1. Popular Buddhism in Thailand: Activities

To gain any true insight into the culture and character of Thailand, it is necessary to learn something of their religion, for religion is the mainspring of behaviour as manifested by the people. The national religion of Thailand is Buddhism, technically known as Hinayana or Theravada Buddhism. It is the religion, as generally professed, of Ceylon and the nations on the mainland of Southeast Asia (with the exception of Vietnam, with adheres to Buddhism of the Northern School or Mahayana, as professed by China and Japan)

Buddhism in essence is a religion of ethics and philosophy rather than a religion in the strict sense of the world. In Buddhism, “man is as he has made himself; man will be as he makes himself'; the’individual has to strive by himself to the pure of heart and deed for his own salvation without the intervention of God or any other divine being. This is the gist of Buddhism. But the Buddhism of the people, as a result of almost inseparable accretions through long popular practice, is otherwise^[1].

In Thailand, as in the other Buddhist nations of Southeast Asia, the countryside is dotted with Buddhist temples and monasteries popularly called wat (wad) in Thailand. The Wat is divided into two sections: the first comprises the temple with its chapel, called ‘Bote’^[2] in Thailand, where the monks assemble for their religious duties, together with the ‘Vihan’^[3] (vihara in Sanskrit) where the Buddha images are housed; the second consists of the monastery building where the monks live. This is the usual arrangement of the Wat in its bare outline. Most Wat also include a number of stupas or pagodas of various size, called ‘Phra jedi’^[4] in Thailand. They are roughly pyramidal in form, tempering to a plain or decorated tip and supported by a round or square base; bigger ones may rise from a terrace added for circumambulatory purposes. Originally a ‘Phra jedi’ was a tumulus containing relics of the Buddha, but the smaller ones in many instances have been built to contain the cremated bones of some deceased persons. It is the Buddhist Thai custom that a corpse be cremated and the incinerated bones and ashes deposited in a ‘Phra jedi’ or elsewhere within the precinct of the Wat.

In every Wat there is also an open hall called ‘Sala’^[5] where the congregation meets to hear sermons or to make merit, as occasion demands. The ‘Sala’ may be utilized as a rest house for wayfarers; or, in a bigger wat, it may be used as a place of religious instruction. In such a case it is called in Thai a ‘sala kaan parian’^[6] or the hall of learning. A Wat also contains a bell tower and sometimes a drum tower as well. If there is no tower for the purpose, the drum is hung somewhere in the monastery. The bell or drum is used to summon the monks or the congregation to their religious devotions, or to assemble them for other purposes. Some of the bigger Wats have a library to house the Tripitaka or Buddhist scriptures. Occasionally the library building is built in the middle of a pond to prevent insects, especially white ants, from getting access to the library.

As to the monastery where the monks live, it is divided into groups of house, if the monastery is a bigger one. In each group there is usually an open hall surrounded on all four sides by the monks’ cells, each separated by narrow open spaces. This hall is used as the dining place by the monks occupying the cells around it, as the recitation hall where monks chant their evening devotions, and sometimes also as a schoolroom where a monk-preceptor teaches boys of the monastery a rudimentary knowledge of reading and writing. A monk’s kitchen is attached to teach group of cells. For the purpose of saying sometimes about Thai life in connection with the Wat.

Wherever there is a village of reasonable size, there is always at least one Wat. The village folk regard the building of a Wat as their first duty, unless one exists already. The act of building a wat is regarded as highly meritorious and as a praiseworthy sacrifice of time, labor, and wealth; so it was if we go back to the old days, when communal activities and the attractions of life were centered in the wat. Religious and social gatherings as well as most artistic and educational activities were to be found nowhere except in the precincts of the wat. The Thai rite de passage of life from birth to death has been inseparable from the wat. It was the desire of every Thai people, from the King down to the common people, accordingly to his means to build a wat, either individually or cooperatively, in order to gain the great merit accruing from such an undertaking and to gain the approval of his compatriots. A Wat is also sometimes built to commemorate some great achievement or success in life. A victorious general on his return from a war must, if possible, build a wat to commemorate his achievement and no doubt also to atone for having deprived a number of human beings of life, which is deemed a great sin in Buddhism. One may wonder why there are a number of wats left in ruins-why, instead of repairing them, people has continued to build new wats. Before King Vajiravudh’s time^[7], every king had built a number of wats, King Vajirabudh himself did not build a royal wat, gibing as his reason that there were already a more than sufficient number and that making repairs to certain old deserted wats that were in ruins would surely bring as great religious merit as the building of a new one.

But the popular belief persisted that merit for the repair of a wat would accrue to the original owner, so that the only way to gain merit for oneself was to build a new wat or one’s own. Although the selfishness of this reasoning might seem all but to preclude the repairing of wat, there have been many cases where an old site has been restored and renamed as a new wat. Today there is seldom a newly built wat in Bangkok (with the exception of Wat Phra Sri Maha Dhat near the Bangkok Aerodome which was built nearly two decades aho) but in the provinces the building of a new wat by an indibidual, or by a group in cooperation, is controlled and sanctioned by a faculty from the Buddhist Council of Elders.

In Thailand, a person desirous of making merit on behalf of deceased relatives may assign some of his immovable property to a wat. Such property may be a piece of land, a rice field or an orchard garden, or a piece of vacant land with or without buildings. In the old days such assigned lands were worked by a class of people called ‘Wat slaves’ under the supervision of a wat supervisor who ministered to the wants of the monks. Wat slaves, or in other words pagoda slaves, were household slaves or prisoners of war whose owner, as an act of merit, had transferred them to the wat as a religious offering. The status of wat slaves was in no way different from that of household slaves, but perhaps they fared better in some cases than the latter in their manner of living for they were treated tolerantly and not as outcasts.

The institution of wat slaves was based on traditional custom; and though slavery was abolished by King Chulalonkorn nearly a century ago, the institution survived implicitly by the consent of the people in certain parts of the country. It came to an end automatically in 1932 with the commencement of the present regime.

When a wat has been built and consecrated, monks from another wat or perhaps several wats are invited to take up their abode in it as a nucleus for the new wat. The monk who is going to be the abbot of the wat is usually selected by the villagers but in some case will be sent by the church. The abbot-designate is usually a monk with at least ten years’ standing in the monkhood who has thus earned the right to be called “Thera” or elder. He is a man of learning in religious matters and if possible a man of sanctity with a knowledge of traditional lore such as is needed in a typical small community. A monk who has some knowledge of the healing art, or exorcizing and incantations, is always in demand by the villagers.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Ibid, p.97.

[2]:

Ubosoth or Bote (Thai:) -the Ordination Hall and most sacred area of a Wat. Eight Sema stones (Bai Sema, Thai:) mark the consecrated area.

[3]:

Viharn (Thai:) -in Thai temples this designates a shrine hall that contains the principal Buddha images; it is the assembly hall where monks and believers congregate.

[4]:

Chedi (Thai:) -also known as a stupa, it is mostly seen in the form of a bellshaped tower, often accessible and covered with gold leaf, containing a relic chamber.

[5]:

Sala (Thai:) -an open pavilion providing shade and a place to rest.

[6]:

Sala Kan Prian (Thai:) -a large, open hall where lay people can hear sermons or receive religious education. It literally means "Hall, in which monks study for their Prian exam" and is used for saying afternoon prayers.

[7]:

Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha Vajiravudh Phra Mongkut Klao Chao Yu Hua, or Rama VI (1 January 1880–25 November 1925), was the sixth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1910 until his death. King Vajiravudh is known for his efforts to create and promote Siamese nationalism. His reign was characterized by Siam's movement further towards democracy and minimal participation in World War I.For more details: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vajiravudh.