BUDDHISM IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION (5 papers)
Chair: Suwanna Satha-Anand, Chulalongkorn University
Looking at America through Buddhist Wisdom: The Way Out for Thai Society in the
Perspective of Phra Brahmagunabhorn (P.A. Payutto)
Dhanapon Somwang, Sripatum University
Venerable Phra Brahmagunabhorn (Prayudh Payutto) is widely acknowledged and
respected in Thailand, especially among Buddhist scholars and intellectuals of almost
all spheres, as the author of Buddhadhamma and for his profound insight on how to
apply Buddhist teachings to the world civilization and concrete modern problems. He
has also written essays and published numerous booklets presenting Buddhist
perspectives in many academic fields; education, economics and the science, etc.
Phra Brahmagunabhorn views that Thai society takes America as a model for almost
all things. And he sees that an American society is a model of progress and can be
referred to as representative of Western societies. Many countries in the world admire
the American society as their model for creation of a peaceful and prosperous society.
The progress of American society as the most developed country in the world related
to and abundance of material goods, convenience and various comforts. But at the
same time, American society now is experiencing a cultural crisis which may result in
radical changes in the near future. The case of American society is cited and criticized
by him in many places, especially in “Looking to America to solve Thailand’s
problems” (1987), “Looking at the World Peace through the background of
globalization civilization” (1999) “Getting to Know America, Turning Back to View
Thai Potentiality”(2003) and others.
Phra Brahmagunabhorn believes that to solve the social problems of Thai society one
must get at the foundation of being Thai, which composed by Buddhism and must
understand the true conditions of American society. So, he investigates the
background of American society in several aspects, i.e. human rights, democracy,
education, family, equality, freedom and so on. He founded that American society as
the symbol of the modern civilization now is turning to decline and is still far from
desirable society. This means that, in his opinion, modern civilization is the legacy or
bad Kamma have created by human beings in the twentieth century, which is going to
exert an influence on humanity of the twenty-first century. The citizens of the twentyfirst century are going to have to deal with problems which are the legacy of the
twentieth century. For him, the basic of all other human problems now is the problem
of wrong basis of wrong thoughts, resulting in various disasters and crisis of human
society.
In his perspective, Buddhist wisdom is the foundation of Thai society and very
valuable as it can solve Thailand’s problems and create modern Thai and world
civilization.
Thai Buddhism in British Columbia, Canada
J. A. Placzek, Pacific Rim Department, Langara College
The Thais of BC are predominantly Thai women who have married Canadian
men. This parallels other Thai communities abroad, especially in the West. The BC
Thai community historically lacks leadership despite a series of Community
Associations, and the location of the regional Royal Thai Consulate-general in the
city of Vancouver.
For many years BC Thais traveled to nearby Washington State, where two major wats
are established along with a branch of Wat Phra Thammakai (Dhammakaya). In BC
itself, an associate of Ajahn Chaa’s Thai Forest tradition is established, but the most
successful Thai wat has been a branch of Luang Pho Viriyang’s network, based
originally at Wat Dhammamongkol in Bangkok. The rest of the paper focuses on the
wats of this charismatic leader, who has established Canadian residence status in the
next-door province of Alberta. One result of Luang Phor’s style of leadership is the
exclusion of his wats from local networks of Theravada centers, and his almost total
focus on his “Willpower Institute”.
The paper looks at issues of merit-making, overseas network building by charismatic
monks, and Thai participation in the historic transfer of Buddhism to North
America. The merit-making is argued to be a cultural imperative for Thais, and its
apparent contradictions of motivated yet pure acts of giving are discussed. Also
considered is the issue of merit making as a means of wealth display to earn a
position in the local mainstream culture.
Philanthropic Religious Organizations and the New Welfare Regime Model in Thailand
Manuel Litalien, PhD Candidate, University of Quebec in Montreal - UQAM
This paper proposes to examine one aspect of social policies in Southeast Asia that
has received scant attention so far: the reliance on religious philanthropy in the
establishment of a residual welfare regime. The paper develops its arguments from a
critique of the “East Asian welfare model” developed by the late Gordon White and
Roger Goodman, which have looked at culturalist explanations for the specificities of
these models as a discourse to justify policies of minimal state intervention. It looks
into the claims made by some government officials, politicians, mass media, devotees
of different religious persuasion, and academics about the importance of the
contribution to the provision of social services, and in particular their efficiency in
providing disaster relief and assistance to the poor. We will study the contribution
made by the Thai religious organization Dhammakaya. After introducing the
importance of this organization in Thai society in terms of its membership, influence,
and reach, the paper will focus on the reconstruction effort that has followed the
December 26th, 2004, Tsunami off the coast of Thailand. It will discuss the way in
which the contribution of the Dhammakaya was presented to the Thai public and
abroad. The argument of the paper is that although reliance on philanthropy is
advocated as an alternative to state provision of social services by some very vocal
constituencies in Thailand, the efficiency of that approach is questionable and its
acceptance from policy-makers remains questionable.
History of Statue of Buddha Maitreya in Buddhist Temple in Saint-Petersburg
Natalia Kirillova, Saint-Petersburg State University
In this work the author summarized information about statue of Buddha in Buddhist
temple in Saint-Petersburg. Russia & Thailand are two countries where religion has
always played a leading role in people’s lives. All this gave the start to writing the
article.
Buddhist society began to grow in Saint-Petersburg only at the end of the XIX
century. This was the time when relationship between the two countries flourished.
For example, in 1897 the Thai King Rama V Chulalongkorn visited Russia during his
journey to the Europe. After that tight contacts were established between the
countries.
In 1910 the building of the Buddhist temple was begun. The first Buddhist service
was held on the 21st of February in 1913 to honor the 300-year anniversary of the
Romanovs dynasty.
The second service was held on the 9th of June 1914 to celebrate the blessing of the
two statues of Buddha brought from Siam.
The first statue depicted sitting Buddha Shakyamuni. It was gifted to Russian
Buddhists by the King of Siam Rama VI Vajuravud. It was lost during the World War
II. The second one was standing Buddha Maitreya that was gifted by Mr. Plason the
Russian consul in Bangkok. He was asked to bring this sacral gift to Russia.
From the very beginning there grew misunderstanding in denominations. Russian
Buddhists by mistake called standing Buddha – Buddha Maitreya. Though the
standing Buddha is depicted in gesture called “Calming the ocean”. This mistake
could happen because the word “maitri” means “universal compassion”. This
misunderstanding has not been solved up to now. Many disciples of Buddha in Russia
know standing Buddha as Buddha Maitreya, though it is not true.
The statue of standing Buddha Maitreya suffered great damage during the revolution
of 1917. During this period the temple was neglected and the Red army forces
invaded it. After the revolution the statue of Buddha Maitreya was found fully
destroyed and damaged. Afterward it was taken to the Museum of religion and
atheism and spent much time till the government of Thailand decided to finance
restoration. In the year 2002 the statue of Buddha was brought to Thailand. Thai
masters used ancient technologies to restore the statue.
An attempt to detect the age of the statue was undertaken during the restoration. It
could be molded in last years of Rama III reign (1824 – 1851) or in the beginning of
Rama IV reign (1851 – 1868). As during this very period the way of wearing the
monk’s robe depicted on the statue was popular.
Though the exact date when it was molded is still not remains unknown to us,
because the most important part of the statue the base was lost.
On the 28th of August 2003 the ceremony of installing the restored statue of Buddha
Maiterya was held. This ceremony took place during the Thai days in SaintPetersburg.
Nowadays many disciples visit the temple of Buddha from various parts of Russia.
They worship statue of standing Buddha Maitreya with pleasure and commitment.
Photos and video of the ceremony of installing the restore statue will be provided.
In this work the brochure of the Department of Fine Arts of Ministry of Culture of
Thailand was used.
Angels in Digital Pictures: Cultural Interpretations of New Technological Phenomenon
Senjo Nakai, Independent researcher
Some Thai Buddhists call orbs – mysterious circular lights in a photograph –
chumnum thewada (an assembly of angles). For example, many attribute an orb
picture taken in a revered monk’s funeral in 2006 to his high spiritual status, or an
activity of supernatural beings. In fact, orbs are a common optical phenomenon for
digital photographs: They are widely understood by photographers as flash reflections
of foreign materials in front of a camera, such as dust, insects or moisture droplets.
However, such a scientific reading of orbs is not always accepted by Thai Buddhists.
This paper investigates indigenous responses of Thai Buddhists to orb pictures.
Spiritual readings of orbs are collected through in-depth interviews, and analyzed
within the broader context of popular Buddhism. The following questions are
answered: (a) How do Thai Buddhists interpret orbs? (b) What implications do orbs
pictures have to the maintenance of a worldview shared by Thai Buddhists? and (c)
How do stakeholders utilize orb pictures in order to achieve their goals? Although
science is a powerful agent of consensus building in contemporary Thai society, a
new phenomenon is still woven into the discourse of popular Buddhism. Other than
being a cognitive framework, it incorporates orbs into moral tales, and presents
worshippers with opportunities to enhance their socio-economic statuses.
Veneration of a Burmese Buddha image among the Tai people in Chiang Tung
Klemens Karlsson, Department of the History of Art, Stockholms University
In the middle of Chiang Tung, in the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar, there is a
Buddhist temple hall with a huge golden Buddha image. The image was made in the
British period (1920) as a copy of the most famous Buddha image in Mandalay, the
Mahamuni Buddha or Maha Myat Muni Buddha. This image in Mandalay is a
Burmese national treasure and is believed to be filled with sacred powers from the
Buddha himself as the tradition places the casting of the image in the time of the
Buddha. The Tai Khun people of Chiang Tung are closely connected to the Tai
people in neighboring northern Thailand, northern Laos and Sipsongbanna in China.
Chiang Tung was the main city in a small independent or semi-independent kingdom
called Khemarattha, which was closely connected to the kingdom of Lan Na from the
late 13th century. Buddhism was introduced in Chiang Tung from Chiang Mai, not
according to the Burmese Buddhist tradition. Chiang Tung was, and still is, more
closely related to the northern Tai cultural area, than to the Burmese.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the reason why the Tai people in
Chiang Tung choose to copy a Burmese Buddha image and not a Tai Buddha image.
The paper will discuss what makes some highly venerated Buddha images more
sacred than others. It will also discuss if there is something we could call Buddhist
ethnicity and what it means for Tai Khun to be living at the border between Thai and
Burmese Buddhism.