Tai-Burmese-Lao Buddhisms in the ‘Modernizing’ of Ban Thawai (Bangkok): The Dynamic Interaction Between Ethnic Minority Religion and British–Siamese Centralization in the Late Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Centuries

Drawing on extensive Thai literary and oral history sources this article sets out to explain the complex social, political, ethnic and religious framework within which the opening by ‘the Irish Buddhist’ U Dhammaloka of a free, bilingual and multi-ethnic Buddhist school at Wat Ban Thawai, Bangkok in May 1903 acquires a broader and deeper significance. The article documents the mutual relationships between the local Buddhisms of Tai, Burmese and Lao ethnic minorities and the politics of British-Siamese alliance in the period before and during the First World War. It examines the British-Siamese support of these Buddhist communities in Bangkok and explores the British-Siamese use of their diplomatic relationship with the Tai, Burmese and Lao ethnic minorities in Ban Thawai and elsewhere (i.e. across the borders between Siam and Burma) in order to centralize power. It also discusses the anomalous effect of British and French influence in Ban Thawai which allowed local resistance to Siamese centralization and sa?gha reform.     

Political Buddhism and the Modernisation of Thai Monastic Education: From Wachirayan to Phimonlatham (1880s–1960s)

This article focuses on the transformation of monastic education in Thailand through its modernisation from the 1880s to the 1960s. During this period two of the country's most prominent monks rose to power: Wachirayan of the Thammayut (Dhammayutika) branch of the Sangha and Phimonlatham of the Mahanikay (Mahānikāya) branch. The former was at the height of power in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century and the latter in the mid twentieth century. Through my examination of monastic education during these two periods, taking the influence of these two important monks as case studies, I argue that Sangha education is not just the inherited knowledge transmitted down the generations to monastic learners for religious ends and the preservation of Buddhism. Rather I show how political discourse can transform monastic education. Temporal and ecclesiastical politics have shaped, dominated and reformed Thai monastic education. This process has altered expectations—on the part of Thai Sangha as well as the laity at elite and popular levels—of what should be learned by monks. Here we shall see how Pali, vinaya (monastic discipline), abhidhamma (Buddhist philosophy and metaphysics), meditation and modern Western-derived subjects became prominent in Thai monastic education at different periods in the broader national and international contexts. This means that both the scope and arena for critical thinking are heavily determined by factors that are not solely religious by nature. Put another way, critical thinking has not been a priority in an intellectual arena dominated by political agendas and has been strongly curtailed by those agendas.     

Nimitta and visual methods in Siamese and Lao meditation traditions from the 17th century to the present day

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on a range of meditation practices in Siam and Laos from the early sixteenth century to the present, using primarily published materials from the early twentieth century, especially a survey of traditional or boran meditation published in 1936 by the Thammayut monk Phramahachoti Jai Yasothararat (1897–1963). The works he compiled stem from high-ranking Lao and Siamese clerics including three Supreme Patriarchs: Sivisuddhisom (Laos; sixteenth century), Suk (Siam; 1733–1822) and Don (Siam; 1771–1852). All are examples of what might be called the boran kammatthan, i.e. a traditional and somewhat technical form of meditation that had flourished widely prior to the encroachment of monastic and social reforms, eventually losing out to Burmese Vipassana and Thai Forest tradition meditation techniques. To facilitate the comparison, the study focuses on nimitta and other visual aspects of meditation in the systems, revealing considerable diversity even within boran kammatthan. Continuities with contemporary meditation systems amongst three living traditions are then explored. These include meditation lineages at Wat Ratchasittharam, Wat Pradusongtham and the network of temples that adopt Sodh Candasaro’s (1884–1959) Dhammakaya meditation method.