Author:- Soumya Ranjan Mohapatra
Thailand is the world’s most heavily Buddhist country. About 93.6 percent of all the people in Thailand are Buddhists (nearly all of them Theravada Buddhists). You will see Wats (Buddhist temples) and saffron robed monks everywhere. About 4.6 percent of the population is Muslim. They are mostly Malays who live in southern Thailand but there are also some in the north and other parts of Thailand. Many hill tribe members are animists or relatively recent converts to Christianity. Christians make up 0.9 percent of the population; Hindus, 0.1 percent; and Sikhs, Baha’i Faith, and others, 0.6 percent. Buddhism originated in India in the 6th century BC, founded by Prince Siddhartha, who eventually achieved the ultimate goal of enlightenment. After 49 days of meditating under a bodhi tree, he became Buddha, or the “Awakened One.” Buddhism later arrived in Thailand from Sri Lanka. It became the dominant religion in both Thailand and Laos in the 12th century. Buddhism is a key component to the identities of many Thais. Many will give daily offerings to things like spirit houses. Others will sporadically feed the many soi (street) dogs to make merit. By making and gaining merit, many Thais believe they will live longer and happier lives. Some people will also wear Buddhist amulets in order to protect themselves.
History of Buddhism in Thailand ::
The details of the history of Buddhism in Thailand from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century are obscure, in part because few historical records or religious texts survived the Burmese destruction of Ayutthaya, the capital city of the kingdom, in 1767. The anthropologist-historian S.J. Tambiah, however, has suggested a general pattern for that era, at least with respect to the relations between Buddhism and the sangha on the one hand and the king on the other hand. In Thailand, as in other Theravada Buddhist kingdoms, the king was in principle thought of as patron and protector of the religion (sasana) and the sangha, while sasana and the sangha were considered in turn the treasures of the polity and the signs of its legitimacy. Religion and polity, however, remained separate domains, and in ordinary times the organizational links between the sangha and the king were not close. Among the chief characteristics of Thai kingdoms and principalities in the centuries before 1800 were the tendency to expand and contract, problems of succession, and the changing scope of the king’s authority. In effect, some Thai kings had greater power over larger territories, others less, and almost invariably a king who sought successfully to expand his power also exercised greater control over the sangha. That control was coupled with greater support and patronage of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. When a king was weak, however, protection and supervision of the sangha also weakened, and the sangha declined. This fluctuating pattern appears to have continued until the emergence of the Chakkri Dynasty in the last quarter of the eighteenth century. [Ibid] . By the nineteenth century, and especially with the coming to power in 1851 of King Mongkut, who had been a monk himself for twenty-seven years, the sangha, like the kingdom, became steadily more centralized and hierarchical in nature and its links to the state more institutionalized. As a monk, Mongkut was a distinguished scholar of Pali Buddhist scripture. Moreover, at that time the immigration of numbers of Mon from Burma was introducing the more rigorous discipline characteristic of the Mon sangha. Influenced by the Mon and guided by his own understanding of the Tipitaka, Mongkut began a reform movement that later became the basis for the Dhammayuttika order of monks. Under the reform, all practices having no authority other than custom were to be abandoned, canonical regulations were to be followed not mechanically but in spirit, and acts intended to improve an individual’s standing on the road to nirvana but having no social value were rejected. This more rigorous discipline was adopted in its entirety by only a small minority of monasteries and monks. In any case, Mongkut was in a position to regularize and tighten the relations between monarchy and sangha at a time when the monarchy was expanding its control over the country in general and developing the kind of bureaucracy necessary to such control. [Ibid] . The administrative and sangha reforms that Mongkut started were continued by his successor. In 1902 King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910) made the new sangha hierarchy formal and permanent through the Sangha Law of 1902, which remained the foundation of sangha administration in modern Thailand.
Article 73 of the That constitution states: “The State shall patronize and protect Buddhism” Thailand has a Religious Affairs Department. The Sangha Supreme Council is Thailand’s highest religious governing body. All Thai Buddhist males generally get ordained at some point in their lives, though most often in their teenage years and sometimes earlier.
Alms to Go
Kamonwan Makarun wrote in The Nation: “Down from the catwalks, one of Thailand’s top models, Natasha Coffman, is enjoying a new business venture based on a unique idea that she calls “Sung Ka Tarn (offering to monks) Delivery”. Such a service has never been offered before, with all the personal items for monks wrapped in a modern, artistic way and delivered to customers. [Source: Kamonwan Makarun, The Nation, June 5, 2007] . “Natasha, or Ple, has long been known in the world of high fashion, but few people know that after her busy on-stage schedules, she enjoys practising dhamma and making merit. This has led to the opening of her Sala Dharma shop in Patanakarn with the new Sung Ka Tarn service offered as a unique additional feature. “I have been giving alms since I was young,” she says. “I hope in and out of Sung Ka Tarn shops very often. It has always been on my mind that I should own this kind of shop one day, so when the chance came, with a good business location, I decided to try it.” Under her concept, Sala Dharma is a shopping place for merit-making. “From my own experience, ready-to-buy Sung Ka Tarn items are not okay. Most of them are cheap and of low quality. I would rather buy and wrap the items up by myself.” As a result, all items from Sala Dharma are of premium quality and are clearly marked with expiry dates “If any items are near expiry, we won’t offer them for sale. It is not like purchasing ready-to-buy packages from other shops. Sala Dharma also offers a wider variety of packages, to suit the objectives of customers’ merit-making.” Currently, the shop has a range of 20 to 30 Sung Ka Tarn packages covering almost all religious ceremonies from New Year to birthdays, as well as the Songkran festival. The higher quality brings a higher price, but Natasha is confident that her customers will be willing to buy. The prices range from hundreds to thousands of baht. Personal items for monks aside, Sala Dharma also sells dhamma-related CDs and books. The shop also has a dhamma corner to serve the needs of all customers. Looking ahead, Natasha says Sala Dharma may also serve Thais living abroad. “We are not officially open for foreign markets yet, but we’ve received some phone calls and e-mails from this group. Some have already placed orders with us,” she says. Using her organising experience to supplement the business concept of Sala Dharma, Natasha says the shop now offers to organise all religious ceremonies. “We offer a full-fledged service from inviting monks and preparing food to Sung Ka Tarn, fresh flowers and souvenirs,” she explains. The organising service is currently offered only in Bangkok and its peripheral areas but will be expanded to provincial areas in the future. Natasha is not worried about rivals, as her business is based on faith and not on commercial purposes. “Whoever wants to do this business, they might need to ask themselves first whether or not they ‘click’ with dhamma,” she says. “I love practising dhamma and meditation whenever I am free from my regular work. I have been with dhamma since I was young. “I will do my best to offer a greater variety of all items for monks. I will also try to build brand awareness. We are now ready to go, as all marketing plans are already sketched out.”
