Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T01:19:27.940Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Keeping Monks in Their Place?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Tomas LARSSON
Tomas LARSSON*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay explores the extent to which Thailand’s secular legal system reinforces the imagined divide, common in Thai Buddhist conceptions of society, between a “worldly” sphere and the “religious” sphere of the sangha (order of monks). It asks: How far does secular Thai law exclude clergy from the “unmonkly” domains of politics and commerce? It shows that there is a striking discrepancy between the systematic way in which secular Thai law has kept monks from formally participating in “politics” and the rather more permissive way in which it has facilitated participation by the monkhood in the sphere of “commerce.” The essay concludes with some reflections on this finding and the questions it raises.

Keywords

Buddhism and lawmonkhoodpolitical participationreligious economyThailand
Type
Buddhism and Law
Information
Asian Journal of Law and Society , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , May 2016 , pp. 17 - 28
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press and KoGuan Law School, Shanghai Jiao Tong University 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Tomas Larsson is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, and Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge. Correspondence to Tomas Larsson, St John’s College, Cambridge CB2 1TP, United Kingdom. E-mail address: [email protected]. The author wishes to thank Puli Fuwongcharoen for excellent research assistance and Tom Ginsburg, Jacques Leider, and Benjamin Schonthal for helpful comments.

References

Areerat, Kongpob (2015) “Junta to Pass Law Banning Homosexuals From Monkhood,” Prachathai, 10 March.Google Scholar
Chansom, Nada (2012) Kanborihan Kanngoen Khong Wat Nai Prathet Thai, Bangkok: Samnak Wichai Sathaban Bandit Phatthana Borihansat.Google Scholar
Heikkilä-Horn, Marja-Leena (2010) “Santi Asoke Buddhism and the Occupation of Bangkok International Airport.” 3 Austrian Journal of South-East Asian Studies 31–47.Google Scholar
Hongladarom, Soraj & Hongladarom, Krisadawan (2011) “Cyber-Buddhism: Fundamentalism, the Internet and the Public Sphere in Thailand,” in U. Mårtensson, J. Bailey, P. Ringrose & A. Dyrendal, eds., Fundamentalism in the Modern World, Vol. 2. Fundamentalism and Communication: Culture, Media and the Public Sphere, London: IB Taurus, 216–236.Google Scholar
Kitiarsa, Pattana (2007) “Buddha Phanit: Thailand’s Prosperity Religion and Its Commodifying Tactics,” in P. Kitiarsa, ed., Religious Commodification in Asia: Marketing Gods, Abingdon: Routledge, 120–143.Google Scholar
Kulabkaew, Katewadee (2013) “In Defense of Buddhism: Thai Sangha’s Social Movement in the Twenty-First Century,” PhD Dissertation, Waseda University.Google Scholar
Larsson, Tomas (2015) “Monkish Politics in Southeast Asia: Religious Disenfranchisement in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective.” 49 Modern Asian Studies 40–82.Google Scholar
Larsson, Tomas (2016) “The Buddha or the Ballot: The Buddhist Exception to Universal Suffrage in Contemporary Asia,” in H. Kawanami, ed., Buddhism and the Political Process, New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 78–96.Google Scholar
Lindberg-Falk, Monica (2007) Making Fields of Merit: Buddhist Female Ascetics and Gendered Orders in Thailand, Copenhagen: NIAS Press.Google Scholar
Lingat, Robert (1937) “Vinaya Et Droit Laïque: Etudes Sur Les Conflits De La Loi Religieuse Et De La Loi Laïque Dans l’Indochine Hinayaniste.” 37 Bulletin De L’Ecole Française D’Extrême-Orient 415–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahathera Samakhom (2007) “Mati Mahathera Samakhom Khrang Thi 20/2550,” 20 September, online <http://mahathera.org/uploaded_pdf/CCF01592551_00012d.pdf> (last accessed 3 May 2015).+(last+accessed+3+May+2015).>Google Scholar
Mahathera Samakhom (2014) “Sarup Kanprachum Mahathera Samakhom Khrang Thi 27/2557,” 11 December, online <http://www.mahathera.org/detail.php?module=news&id=184&title=02> (last accessed 3 May 2015).+(last+accessed+3+May+2015).>Google Scholar
Matichon (2013) “Thammai ‘Mae Chi Chak Santi Asok’ Chai Sitthi Lueak Tang Mai Day?” [“Why Can’t ‘Nuns From Santi Asoke’ Exercise the Right to Vote?”], 3 March, online <http://www.matichon.co.th/news_detail.php?newsid=1362295307&grpid=01&catid=01> (last accessed 20 June 2013).+(last+accessed+20+June+2013).>Google Scholar
McCargo, Duncan (1997) Chamlong Srimuang and the New Thai Politics, London: Hurst.Google Scholar
Orlandini, Barbara (2003) “Consuming ‘Good Governance’ in Thailand.” 15 European Journal of Development Research 16–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panich, Vichak (2015) Rat-Tham-Nua, Bangkok: Matichon.Google Scholar
Phasuthanchat, Phiphat (2010) Rat Kap Satsana: Botkhwam Wa Duay Anachak Satsanachak Lae Seriphap, Bangkok: Siam.Google Scholar
Poonyarat, Chayanit (2002) “Thai Nuns Fight for Rights,” Asia Times Online, 19 September.Google Scholar
Prasertponkrung, Jeerapong, & Osathanon, Praphasri (2015) “Uproar Over NRC Panel and Buddhist Reform,” The Nation, 25 February.Google Scholar
Reynolds, Frank E. (1972) “The Two Wheels of Dhamma: A Study of Early Buddhism,” in G. Obeyesekere, F.E. Reynolds & B.L. Smith, eds., The Two Wheels of Dhamma: Essays on the Theravada Tradition, Chambersburg: American Academy of Religion, 6–30.Google Scholar
Satha-anand, Suwanna (1990) “Religious Movements in Contemporary Thailand: Buddhist Struggles for Modern Relevance.” 30 Asian Survey 395–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Satha-anand, Suwanna (2003) “Buddhist Pluralism and Religious Tolerance in Democratizing Thailand,” in P. Can, ed., Philosophy, Democracy, and Education, Seoul: Korean National Commission for UNESCO, 193–213.Google Scholar
Scott, Rachelle M. (2009) Nirvana for Sale? Buddhism, Wealth, and the Dhammakaya Temple in Contemporary Thailand, Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Sezgin, Yüksel & Künkler, Mirjam (2014) “Regulation of ‘Religion’ and the ‘Religious’: The Politics of Judicialization and Bureaucratization in India and Indonesia.” 56 Comparative Studies in Society and History 448–478.Google Scholar
Streckfuss, David (2010) Truth on Trial in Thailand: Defamation, Treason, and Lèse-Majesté, London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suwannathat-Pian, Kobkua (2003) Kings, Country and Constitutions: Thailand’s Political Development, 1932–2000, London: Routledge/Curzon.Google Scholar
Thai PBS English News (2013) “AMLO Seizes Defrocked Monk’s Assets,” 20 September, online <http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/amlo-seizes-defrocked-monks-assets> (last accessed 2 December 2015).+(last+accessed+2+December+2015).>Google Scholar
Thai Rath (2011) “Mae Chi Woy! Mi Ray Chue Tae Khet Dusit Mai Hai Lueak Tang” [“Nuns Cry Out! Have Names on Register but Dusit District Does Not Allow Vote”], 3 July, online <http://www.thairath.co.th/content/pol/183582> (last accessed 20 June 2013).+(last+accessed+20+June+2013).>Google Scholar
Visalo, Phra Phaisan (2003) Phutthasatsana Thai Nai Anakhot: Naewnom Lae Thang Ok Chak Wikrit, Bangkok: Munithi Sotsi-Saritwong.Google Scholar