Search Results

This chapter focuses on the role of militarization and Buddhism. Buddhist soldiers and police located in the southernmost provinces establish their headquarters in Thai Buddhist monasteries, thereby transforming religious spaces into militarized spaces. In addition to militarized Buddhist monasteries, the role of the Buddhist monk is militarized as well: witness the advent of the military monk, a soldier that is simultaneously a monk. This unique role of Buddhist soldier monks is contextualized historically with different cases of Buddhist monastic soldiers across Asia, such as Japan, China, and Sri Lanka.

There is no evidence for Buddhist monasticism either before or during the Mauryan period. To judge by his inscriptions and the language used in them, Aśoka himself did not know anything about Buddhist monasteries. However, I. B. Homer talks about the historical “success” of Buddhist preoccupation with lay values and sensibilities; she talks about its survival value, but not about its costs, not about its impact on what it meant to be a Buddhist monk, or the way in which it must have put limits on individual monks' choices and foreclosed some old and previously available options. These too need to be brought into some kind of focus, and they might in the first instance be most easily seen in the ways in which these monastic codes deal with asceticism. Asceticism was dangerously individualistic, prone to excess, culturally powerful, and not easy to predict: precisely the sort of thing that could create problems for an institution.

This chapter provides a general background of the southern Thai conflict, describes ethnographic challenges of working in a conflict area, and outlines the larger framework of religion and violence. International and Thai analysts largely overlook Buddhist calls to arms when they attempt to explain the spikes of violence in the war-torn region. This is a serious oversight. Religion changes the contour of a conflict and infuses it with cosmic relevance. Although not the primary agents, Buddhist monks are armed participants in the southern Thai conflict. Violence becomes a religiously justifiable action as long as it is deemed defensive. In many ways, this and the subsequent chapters discuss practices that contrast with the most well-established assumptions of Buddhist traditions and monasticism.

The translations by Buddhist scholars of Pāli Vinaya texts reflected the mental predispositions of those involved. These scholars were not legally trained and tended to see the Vinaya as a series of prohibitions and duties. Furthermore, early translators were not necessarily situated to appreciative the importance of ritual, and did not incorporate the insights from inscriptional evidence. This chapter shows, through the concept of legal pluralism, neglected aspects of ‘Vinaya jurisprudence’. First, it examines the situation where monks were directed to obey ‘outside dictates’ of the Dharmaśāstra to facilitate business and to ensure the continued support of donations. In this regard it is shown how the Vinaya replicated wider norms within the Dharmaśāstra as regards the requirements of other business communities with which the Sangha (Buddhist order) aspired to do business. Secondly, the chapter examines the situation where monks had to adhere to wider notions of Indian society based on notions of purity and pollution.

This book studies Buddhist monks and nuns and their continued familial relationships by drawing on monastic law codes, or vinaya. As an introduction, this chapter discusses the family as it relates to the study of Indian Buddhist monasticisms. It first considers what we know about the Buddha's family before turning to an important example from some of the earliest known strata of Buddhist literature: the Rhinoceros Horn Sūtra. It then examines V. Fausböll's claim that there are two Buddhisms: a pure or original form of Buddhism as exemplified by the Rhinoceros Horn ideal, and a later, presumably degenerate, monastic form. It also explores conflicting vsions of the ideal monk, Indian monastic law codes and concludes by providing a preview of the chapters contained in the book and explaining the scope of the study.

In June 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a seventy-three-year-old Buddhist monk from an outlying province burned himself to death amidst thousands of stunned spectators at a busy intersection in Saigon. The event made an indelible stamp on America's collective consciousness and rudely awakened the Kennedy administration to the gravity of the Buddhist crisis. Buddhists had long regarded themselves as the moral and intellectual guardians of Confucian values against misguided or corrupt rulers. On several occasions in Vietnam's history, they had sought to restore the will of heaven by inspiring a peasant uprising aimed at overturning a deceitful or mendacious government. This time the implications extended beyond domestic concerns. The well-choreographed atrocity of Quang Duc's violent death signified the wide chasm that had opened between the moral ideal and the immoral reality, greatly increasing the chances of a coup.

This chapter focuses on Theravada practices that have traditionally been a major influence on the cultures of the Theravada countries. It specifically looks at the varied forms of “merit acquiring,” social welfare activism, and the central role of the Buddhist monk in the whole process. It has been claimed that there are two forms of Theravada practice: Kammatic and Nibbanic. Kammatic Buddhism included all types of religious behavior intended to generate “merit,” which are believed to further one's interests and ambitions in the samsaric existence—that is, the cycle of existence that includes past, present, and countless future lives. Nibbanic Buddhism, on the other hand, is the path followed by those who do not have samsaric aspirations or ambitions but wish to bring to an end samsara as soon as possible.

This lecture discusses the unearthed engraved stones created by the Buddhist monks of the Cloud Dwelling Monastery. It reveals that the rubbings of the inscriptions on these stones can help in analysing the doctrinal predilections of Tongli. The slabs that were excavated even contain two short texts which were written by Tongli himself, further proving the point that he was a leading figure in the Chan Buddhist school, and had close ties to the imperial court of the Liao dynasty.

This chapter examines the status of Buddhist monks' “former” lay wives by drawing on Buddhist narratives. In some stories, monks' former wives are presented as hostile to their husbands; in others they are depicted as still very much attached to them. There are also accounts of Buddhist monks and nuns acting as go-betweens in arranging marriages for their own children. This chapter begins by considering monastic education concerning sex with one's wife and goes on to discuss the status of married men and women upon entering Buddhist monastic orders, along with that of married monastics beyond India. It also explores marital dissolution and divorce in the Indian context and shows that monks could continue to visit and interact with their “former” wives in full compliance not only with the letter but also with the spirit of the vinaya texts. Finally, it tells the story of Mahākāśyapa, who embodies ascetic values in Indian Buddhist monasticisms.

This chapter explains how the World Fellowship of Buddhists's (WFB) embrace of a socially engaged role for Buddhist monks corresponded to initiatives already in progress in Thailand, where the ecclesiastical establishment, under government auspices, had begun to increase clerical involvement in secular affairs. For American observers at the conference, the resolution bore implications for continuing U.S. efforts to exert a constructive influence on Buddhism in South Vietnam. The chapter shows how Thai Buddhist leaders would secretly become involved in these efforts. What emerged during 1964–66 was a pattern of triangular Buddhist diplomacy between Thailand, South Vietnam, and the United States that quietly mirrored the secular and more visible military strategic ties.

This chapter describes a number of early Indian inscriptions which mention Buddhist monks, nuns, and laymen in terms of familial relationships. These inscriptions could be explained away as records of children who were abandoned and forsaken by their parents when the latter “left home for the religious life.” Extant Buddhist monastic law codes, however, preserve stories about men “leaving home” to become monks with their young children, and children who, after joining the monastery, still call their monk-fathers “Daddy.” There are also narratives of mothers and daughters who leave home for the religious life together. Such narratives raise questions of interpretation with regard to the phrase “to go forth from home into homelessness,” which lies at the very heart of our understanding of the nature of Buddhist renunciation. This chapter argues that the phrase is best understood figuratively rather than literally.

This chapter discusses the aftermath of the oppression of Buddhism during the Democratic Kampuchea period, arguing that while Buddhism had been in danger during the time, it was never totally extinguished, despite the claims of Angkar to the contrary. It goes on to describe various efforts at restoration and rebuilding, both of the memberships of the monastic order, as well as the more physical aspects of Buddhist institutions, such as its infrastructure. Moreover, the chapter details official and unofficial ordinations, which have caused some friction among the monks, as well as other miscellaneous aspects of this new era of Buddhism in Cambodia. Finally, the chapter turns to a discussion of Buddhism in the late PRK (People's Republic of Kampuchea) period.

This book has explored the familial and marital relationships of Buddhist monks and nuns in India, thus highlighting a scholarly misperception in the study of Indian Buddhism: that world renunciation means severing all ties with kith and kin. Drawing on early epigraphical evidence, it has shown that Indian Buddhist monks and nuns who had left home for the religious life continued to be identified with their family members; monks also continued to interact and associate with their former wives. Finally, the book has shown that the authors/redactors of the vinayas seem to have negotiated a place within their religious institutions for monastic mothers. This concluding chapter examines issues surrounding family matters both presupposed and legislated by the authors/redactors of the extant monastic law codes and argues that family-friendly forms of monasticism may have been more common in India than previously assumed. It also discusses the ramifications of the book's findings for how we study Buddhist monastic life in comparative light, along with the utility of vinaya texts for the study of Indian Buddhist monasticisms.

This chapter focuses on direct contact between Khmer communists and Buddhist monks. After providing some background on the communists' first formal contacts with the monks as well as the struggles between both sides, the chapter describes a number of ways the Khmer Rouge had mobilized these monks—through forced labor, evacuations, defrocking, forced marriage, and military service. In addition, the chapter discusses the implications these methods hold for monks struggling to uphold Theravāda Buddhism, which provides certain religious restrictions and justifications that the Khmers have violated in attempting to mold these monks into productive members of society. The chapter also considers some options for the monks to escape these methods, such as fleeing the country outright.

This chapter explores the ways in which the Khmer Rouge had undermined if not outright destroyed the institutions of Buddhism, especially by killing monks. From the beginning of the civil war that marked Lon Nol's overthrow of Sihanouk in 1970, Buddhist monks shared the sufferings of their fellow compatriots. In addition, the frequent use of pagodas for military purposes and the massive US bombardment of Cambodia's eastern provinces exacerbated the situation. However, despite the heavy mortality rate sustained by the population at large, there does not appear to have been a policy for the systematic liquidation of Buddhist monks in Democratic Kampuchea. In addition, the chapter attempts to quantify and provide a statistical analysis of monk deaths during this period, at the same time discussing the challenges and difficulties of such an undertaking.

This chapter discusses the development of Buddhist biographies in East Asia. It focuses on Huijiao's Gaoseng zhuan [Biographies of Eminent Monks], which emerged in the sixth century and established a standard style and format for biographies of monks for the rest of the medieval period and beyond. The Gaoseng zhuan also discloses conventions of how monastic historians interpreted their sources, their motivations for writing biographies of monks, and how they employed Buddhist doctrines to interpret the past. The Gaoseng zhuan eventually had a profound impact on Buddhist biography, not only in China, but also in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam.

This chapter examines the transformation of tengu from a possessing spirit rooted in indigenous folk beliefs to a symbol of ma that can only be conquered by Buddhist monks. One of the most famous tales of tengu possession concerns the Empress Somedono (829–900), which is found in the Shui ojoden, a collection from 1123. Taking note of several points in this story leads to a better understanding of the nature of tengu in medieval Japan. First, the tengu's ability to possess a person and induce illness identifies it as a mononoke. Second, the tengu that possesses the empress is identified as Shinzei, a renowned Shingon monk. Third, Buddhist monks are summoned to subdue the tengu with esoteric rituals—further evidence of their key role in suppressing tengu and other mononoke.

This chapter provides the temporal and theoretical starting point for a discussion of recruitment, monastic training, and institution building. Discussing the life events of one monk, Venerable Narada, from his decision to become a monastic to his choice to remain in the sangha for life, it examines how social bonds influence the decisions that people—monastic and lay—make about their role in society and their commitment to the sangha. By assessing carefully the factors that contributed to Narada's decision to serve people's social and economic needs, the chapter maintains that the model of generalized economic exchange that is sometimes used to describe Buddhist monasticism as a social institution limits our ability to understand and appreciate how groups of monastics and laypeople interact on a regular basis. Although it may correctly be asserted that both monastics' material needs and the laity's ritual wants and their desire for merit are central factors that draw and hold together groups of monastics and laypeople, it is argued that social ties based on shared emotions and collective histories play a central role in the formation and continuation of Buddhist monastic communities.

This chapter first describes certain individuals and through them begins to indicate the complexity of the lives of contemporary monks, the variety of ties they each maintain, and what holds them together as a group. It then provides historical information about the Urad Mongols and Buddhism in Mongolia necessary for readers to understand the major ideas and practices called on by lamas today.