In a seminal essay Wyatt (1966) discussed the evidence for the thesis that the Buddhist monkhood was an avenue of social mobility or, to put it differently, that sons of farmers and peasants were able to enter the ranks of government service via the channels of religious education.

In Chapter 11 we have cited evidence that during the Ayutthaya era religious examinations were periodically held and that ranks and positions were given the learned monks. In fact the educated monks were favored with higher sakdina that paralleled the grading of secular positions in the king's service. We also remarked that it was conceived as a royal duty not only to authorize the holding of examinations but also to ensure that monks did assiduously engage in learning rather than find in the robe an excuse for indolence and a refuge from royal service.

Wat education included not only dhamma and Pali studies but also instruction in astrology, medicine, law. Wyatt surmises that wat education provided the stepping stone to employment in the king's service in the Department of Royal Astrologers, Department of Physicians, Department of Royal Scribes, and other departments dealing with religious and legal affairs.

We are on firmer ground later, in the Bangkok period, to follow the pattern of conversion from monkhood to advantageous lay status. As Tej Bunnag puts it: Traditional education “was based on the Buddhist clergy in provincial and metropolitan monasteries and on the corp of scribes under royal patronage.”