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Thailand The Sangha
The sangha comprises two sects or schools, the
Mahanikaya and the Dhammayuttika. The first has far more members
than the second, but the Dhammayuttika--exercising a more
rigorous discipline, having a reputation for scholarship in the
doctrine, and having a close connection to royalty--continues to
wield influence beyond its numbers among intellectuals and in
sangha administration. Both schools are included in the
same ecclesiastical hierarchy, which is very closely tied to the
government. The strengthening of those ties began in the
nineteenth century, ostensibly to deal with problems of internal
disorganization in the sangha but also so that the
sangha could be used to help integrate a government that
was just beginning to extend and strengthen its administrative
control over the North and Northeast. Each of these regions in
effect had had its own sangha, and the unification of the
sangha was seen as an important step toward the
unification of Thailand. The pattern of legislative and other
steps culminating in the Sangha Act of 1963 tended to tighten
government control of the sangha; there was no significant
resistance to this control from the monks. Conflicts existed
between the two schools, however, over issues such as position in
the hierarchy.
In spite of a long tradition of monkhood in Thailand, the
great majority of males did not become monks. Those who did
usually entered in their early twenties but did not necessarily
remain monks for a long time. During the three-month holy season
Khao (Phansa), sometimes referred to as the Buddhist Lent, monks
go into retreat, and more attention than usual is given to the
study of dharma. In the mid-1980s, Thai male civil servants were
given three months leave with full pay if they spent the Lenten
period as monks. It has been estimated that the proportion of
temporary monks during this period varies between 25 and 40
percent of the total. The motivation for monkhood of such short
duration is complex, but even the temporary status, for those who
are unable or unwilling to commit themselves to the discipline
for life, brings merit, not only to the monk but also to his
parents, particularly to his mother. (Some Buddhist women live as
nuns, but they enjoy lower status than monks do.) Whether
temporary or permanent, a monk in principle is subject to the 227
rules of conduct embodied in that portion (basket) of the
Tipitaka devoted to the sangha.
Aside from the religious motivation of those who enter and
remain in the sangha, another inducement for many is the
chance to pursue the contemplative life within the monastic
community. Other reasons in modern Thailand include the
opportunity for education at one of the two Buddhist universities
and the chance, particularly for monks of rural origin, to gain
social status.
Thai villagers expect monks to be pious and to adhere to the
rules. Beyond that, monks are expected to provide services to
individual members of the laity and local communities by
performing various ceremonies and chanting appropriate passages
from the Buddhist scriptures on important occasions. The presence
of monks is believed to result in the accrual of merit to lay
participants.
Thai Buddhists generally do not expect monks to be directly
involved in the working world; the monks' sustenance is provided
by the members of the community in which the monks live. Their
contribution to community life, besides their religious and
ceremonial functions, is primarily educational. Beginning in the
late 1960s, the government encouraged monks to engage in
missionary activity in the remote, less developed provinces,
particularly among the hill peoples, as part of the effort to
integrate these groups into the polity. Leaders at the Buddhist
universities have taken the stand that monks owe something to
society in return for the support given them and that, in
addition to the advanced study of Buddhism, the universities
ought to include secular subjects conducive to the enrichment of
the nation.
Data as of September 1987
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