Buddhism in its Thai Context

Thailand (formerly known as Siam, prior to 1934) has been a Buddhist kingdom for 700 years, when Theravada Buddhist monks brought the faith to Thailand from the regions of India and Sri Lanka. 90% of Thailand's inhabitants are Theravada Buddhist. Buddhism has within it three major divisions: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana. The Theravada tradition (the tradition of the elders) is the oldest tradition. This tradition is known, among other particular qualities, for its large volume of scripture known as the Tripitaka, for its estimation of the Buddha as a human and not a divine figure, and for its allowance of enlightenment only among ordained monks who have attained a very refined state of being: the arahat. Theravada Buddhists do not recognize other forms of Buddhism as legitimate forms. This fact becomes particularly relevant in the arguments for the revival of the Bhikkhuni order (female monks) in Thailand. Since the female order of monks died out in the 13th century, and because a group of male AND female Theravadin monks are required in order to ordain a female monk, it is impossible, according to the current interpretation of the Buddhist council in Thailand, for a Thai woman to be ordained as a monk. That is not stopping them from trying, however. (click here for information about Thailand's first female monk)

The King of Thailand is known as the defender of the faith and, by law, must be Buddhist. No longer an absolute monarchy, but, rather, a constitutional one, the current King of Thailand, King Bhumipol (the longest reigning monarch in history) still wields a great deal of symbolic and practical power within the nation of Thailand. (click here for more about the King). An edict of religious tolerance, passed in Thailand in the late 1800's, gives freedom to all religions in Thailand as long as they are not disruptive of the social order or national security. The Thai flag, with its red, white, and blue stripes, represents the three main pillars of Thai society: monarchy, religion, and nation. Thus, while 90% of the people are Buddhist, there are other, much smaller and very vibrant religious communities in Thailand. Moreover, when Buddhism first came to Thailand, it blended itself with traditional practices that are often termed "animistic" or "shamanistic." As a result, it is difficult to find anything that looks like "pure Buddhism" in Thailand. It is, for instance, not unusual to find people wearing amulets that depict powerful monks, in order to ward off evil or to promote healing and longevity. Moreover, Thai Buddhism has also been deeply influenced by what is often termed "Brahmanical" religion, the religion of the higher, priestly class of Indian society. Many people point, by way of example, to the kind of hierarchy that is embedded within Thai society and religion--particularly with regard to male/female relations and to the status given to the King of Thailand as an avatar of the Hindu God Visnu--as indications of the influence of the Brahmins.

Second to Buddhism, one will find a relatively large Muslim population, 8%, mostly in the southern "Malay" region that borders the largely Muslim state of Malaysia. Christians remain a small minority, mostly Roman Catholic, along with the Christian Church of Thailand that tends to mirror Presbyterian polity and doctrine, and the more evangelical or Pentecostal strands of Christianity that come into Thailand mainly by way of Korean converts to Christianity. Though Christians are a very small percentage of the Thai population, their influence in society is somewhat disproportional, as most of the major hospitals and the most prestigious boarding schools have been founded by Christians. The Thai people tend not to convert to Christianity. People cite one reason for this in relation to a kind of rugged Thai individualism and their unwillingness to reject Buddhism in the process of converting to Christianity. I was told that Thai Buddhism is very much like Thai food: it is all blended together in one bowl. Thus, to accept a particular Christian message of the one truth, exclusive of all others, has tended to be in opposition to basic ways of Thai thought and practice. For the most part, relations among Christians and Buddhists have been quite civil since the first Christians came to Thailand in the 1800's. Part of this may be due to the fact that Thailand is one of the few Southeast Asian countries that have not been colonized by predominantly Christian nations. Christianity, therefore, has not been as directly linked to the religion of the colonizer as it has say, for instance, in Vietnam.

Recently, however, some people cite growing tensions between the leadership of the Buddhist council in Thailand and Christianity. At a November 2001 meeting of Buddhist leaders and educators at Chulalonkorn University in Thailand who were discussing "Threats to Buddhism in Thailand," some leading Buddhists identified Christianity as the major threat. For the Buddhists who wish to reform Buddhism in the direction of more social engagement, this came as a surprise, as they would tend to identify consumerism and structural violence as the major threats to Thai Buddhism. In the major cities of Bangkok and Chiangmai in Thailand, The Mall has become the new city center, the new Wat (temple) around which daily life revolves. Educators and activists such as Ajaan Parichart (click here for more information on her views) maintain that it is not Christianity that is the threat but the Thai people's ignorance of their own traditions and the mistrust and lack of dialogue between Buddhists and people of other faiths. Others suggest that the decline of Buddhism in Thailand is related to rising secularism, the increasing lack of relevance of the Thai Sangha (community of Buddhist monks) to the larger Thai society, and, in some cases, the blatant corruption of the monks.

Thai Buddhism appears to be, as it enters the next millennium, at a crossroads. Khun Sanitsuda Ekichai (feature writer for the Bangkok Post) (click here for more information about her work) has published a recent collection of the previous ten years' worth of articles on religion in Thailand. The book is entitled Keeping the Faith: Thai Buddhism at the Crossroads. As Thai Buddhism approaches nearly 800 years of existence, the nation is inundated with calls to reform the Sangha so that it is more accountable and relevant to the life of the people. Scandals among monks involving embezzlement and unchastity, the reformist teachings of Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, (click here for info on Buddhadasa Bhikkhu) the continued prominence of mainstream Buddhists such as Ajaan Sulak Sivaraksa and Phra Paisal and the related NGO's whose work focuses on nonviolent reform from within the system itself (click here to learn more about their work), and the sprouting of alternative Buddhist movements such as Santi Asoke, Dhammagaya, and the Chinese Mahayana Order of Kuanyin (Chinese goddess) are all evidence of the dynamic nature of Thai Buddhism in its present state. The Santi Asoke practitioners (click here for more information on Asoke) seek to purify Thai Buddhism to its core (through strict vegetarian practice, for instance) and have been, in the process, deemed "heretical" by the Thai Sangha and officially ousted from any official religious authority. The Dhammagaya Movement, which has many adherents within the official Buddhist leadership, appears to combine more "evangelical" techniques of mass marketing with a call to restore a Buddhist civil religion as it becomes a controlling influence in the Buddhist Association of most major Thai universities. The Chinese Order of Kuanyin, offers a Chinese goddess who is increasingly seen by many lay Buddhists as a merciful and present voice of compassion within an increasingly competitive, technological and industrialized society where the roots of family and land are increasingly being torn from the individual Thai experience.

While the middle class work to reform Buddhism the majority of Thai people remain poor and disenfranchised. The bottom 10% of the population enjoys only 1% of the land while the top 10% of the populations controls ½ of the land. In 1995, the top 20% of the population earned 87% of the national income and the lowest 20% earned 1.6% of the income. There are 15 million poor, dispossessed peasants, unskilled urban workers, and slum dwellers. This is one fourth of the total Thai population. Two million people are infected with AIDS, nearly 20,000,000 with the HIV virus, threatening within the next ten years to destroy the Thai labor force, as most of those infected are within the 25-35 year old range. Pollution and environmental degradation are common as most of the northeastern forests have been clear cut. Monocrop agriculture has replaced earlier more diverse small farming practices and has led to the widespread need for pesticides and the concomitant poisoning of streams and water sources through the run off of pesticides. Bangkok is home to 3/4ths of the nation's factories. In the first 50 years of King Bhumipol's reign, the number of registered vehicles in Bangkok has grown from 12,750 to 1.75 million. Dangerous levels of carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen monoxide are found in the air and rivers such as the Chao Phraya River have a mercury contamination level between seven to ten times the accepted level. Furthermore, the younger generation of Thai youth are not finding the same meaning within Buddhism as did their parents. Without the religious system as a valid form of social connection and support, the younger generations are increasingly turning to valium, alcohol and other drugs to cope with loss of personal confidence and their sense of anonymity within an increasingly urban Thai experience. As agricultural work is moved father from the family farm, more people are fleeing to the city, causing crowding such as is found in Bangkok's most infamous slum, Klong Toey. For Thai Buddhism to be relevant to Thai society, it must also include the voices of the poor masses of Thai people, the suffering of the earth itself, and the ennui and angst of a new generation of Thai youth.

Thai Buddhism, though it may indeed be on the decline in its more traditional form, is, in my opinion, not on its way out. It is just struggling to discover which of the competing voices will become the primary shaper of its future. As Donald Swearer suggests in his book, Buddhist in Transition, the future of Buddhism appears to be headed down one of two roads:

1) A rationalized, culturally denuded Buddhism taught by philosophers and sloganized by politics with little meaning to real-life people in Southeast Asia

2) Buddhism overwhelmed by commercialization of culture, a Buddhism devoid of the power and challenge to define a community's moral ability or to transform individual lives spiritually.

Those who wish to reform Thai Buddhism hope for neither of these options. They realize that the fate of Buddhism is inextricably tied up with the fate of their society. To transform religion is to tamper with the ways a society finds order in the universe, how it determines what sort of authority is most acceptable, and what sorts of actions by individuals make sense in the world, because religions suggest what reality is in ultimate terms (Swearer, 1970). The individuals I met with in Thailand seek to make Buddhism relevant to the people without buying into the dominant consumerist ideology that seems to be replacing Buddhist principles. They are not ready to say that Buddhism is not capable of providing a viable, sustainable system through which individual and social structures can be understood. Buddhism, like Christianity, is a soteriological religion: it directs humanity toward a transformed existence, known in Buddhism as nirvana, in Christianity as anastasis (resurrection to new life), on earth as it is in heaven. Thai Buddhists are not content to think that this nirvana is only the prerogative of the elite few. Those who have the ability to reach the enlightened state of the arahat, far from taking themselves out of the world, have the responsibility to lead the world toward the Buddha image whose mirrors face outward toward those who look toward it to find meaning. It is possible even to see Buddhism as a prophetic tradition--a title usually reserved for the monotheistic, Abrahamic religions-for this mirror reveals to us our own true nature and the true nature of the world in which we live. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu describes this function of Buddhism:

Buddhism is an organized practical system designed to reveal to us what is what. Once we have seen things as they really are we no longer need anyone to teach or guide us. (Buddhadasa in Me and Mine, Swearer translation, 1989)

If a religion can function to reveal to us "what is what" it will be difficult to maintain that this system is an escapist, or world denying tradition. In the articles and photos that follow, you will explore the ways that contemporary Thai Buddhist reformers are utilizing Buddhist teachings and practice to expose the true nature of a suffering Thai society.