The Relocalization of Buddhism in Thailand

Michael J. G. Parnwell · Martin Seeger

21 citations0/0 files storedThe Journal of Buddhist Ethics

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Indian and Buddhist Studies Study and Philosophy of Religion Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies

Abstract

This paper probes beneath the surface of the revitalized religiosity and thriving “civic Buddhism” that is identifiable in parts of Thailand’s rural periphery today as a result of grassroots processes of change. It exemplifies Phra Phaisan Visalo’s assertion (1999:10) that Thai Buddhism is “returning to diversity” and “returning again to the hands of the people.” Using in-depth case studies of three influential local monks in the northeastern province of Yasothon, it develops three cross-cutting themes that are of significance not only as evidence of a process we term “relocalization” but also as issues that lie at the heart of contemporary Thai Theravāda Buddhism. The paper explores how the teachings and specific hermeneutics of influential Buddhist thinkers like Buddhadāsa Bhikkhu, Phra Payutto and Samana Phothirak have been communicated, interpreted, adjusted and implemented by local monks in order to suit specific local realities and needs. Added to this localization of ideas is the localization of practice, wherein the three case studies reveal the quite different approaches and stances adopted by a “folk monk” (Phra Khruu Suphajarawat), a “forest monk” (Phra Mahathongsuk) and what might loosely be termed a “fundamentalist monk” (Phra Phromma Suphattho) at the interface of monastery and village, or the spiritual (supramunDepartment of East Asian Studies, University of Leeds. Email: M.J.G.Parnwell@leeds.ac.uk; M.Seeger@leeds.ac.uk Parnwell, Seeger, Relocalization of Buddhism in Thailand 80 dane) and social (mundane) worlds. This articulation of Buddhism and localism in turn feeds the debate concerning the appropriateness or otherwise of social engagement and activism in connection with a monk’s individual spiritual development and the normative function of the monk in modern Thai society.

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References

1989Buddhism transformed: religious change in Sri Lanka 1992The Nature of Buddhist Ethics 1978Sherpas through their Rituals 1997The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia 2005beyond syncretism: hybridization of popular religion in contemporary thailand 2007Religious Commodifications in Asia 1999Royal Spirits, Chinese Gods, and Magic Monks: Thailand's Boom-Time Religions of Prosperity 2004Becoming the Buddha: The Ritual of Image Consecration in Thailand

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