A Modern Trend of Study of Buddhism in Thailand

กระทู้สนทนา

ศาสนาพุทธ พระไตรปิฎก ปฏิบัติธรรม ทำบุญ บทสวดมนต์

A Modern Trend of Study of Buddhism in Thailand:
King Mongkut and Dhammayutikanikaya
_{by Phra Dr. Anil Dhammasakiyo (Sakya)}

Abstract
This paper will examine King Mongkut’ s attempt to develop an
interpretation of Buddhism consistent with Western science and
learning. This attempt is marked by the beginning of a fundamental
epistemological shift in doctrinal Thai Buddhism. The theoretical
shift, which continues to have significant religious implications
today, involves the rejection of the layered or hierarchical notion
of truth which underlay traditional Buddhist teachings and replaced
it with the notion of a single, universal, and all encompassing
truth.

Although Theravada Buddhism has been the national religion
of Thailand since the Sukhothai period in the thirteenth century,
the popular understanding of traditional Theravada Buddhism was
often clouded by a mythological and popular overlay mixed with
magical beliefs, superstition and a mixture of Brahmanistic rites.
These aspects of Thai Buddhism became problematic for many
Buddhists when they were exposed to Western science, ideology
and authentic Buddhism. King Mongkut found that these practices
conjoined with delusion were far away from the true teachings of

1 This paper was presented at the international conference on Exploring
Theravada Studies: Intellectual Trends and the Future of a Field of Study, August
12-14, 2004, organised by the Asia Research Institute at National University of
Singapore. I am grateful for valuable comments made by Louis Gabaude and
Peter Skilling.