Thailand is an overwhelmingly Buddhist nation, with 98% of the country claiming it as their religion. But what does that mean? During Pre-Service Training we hear from a well respected monk on the topic of Buddhism in Thailand and after being in the country for five months I have certainly noticed what it means to some of the Thai people I know.
A cursory overview of Buddhism: Buddhism is the following of the teachings of the Buddha, who was born an Indian prince by the name Siddharta Gautama. After seeing a man who ailing, he was shocked at the suffering and set off to find enlightenment. After attaining enlightenment by sitting beneath a tree, he spent the rest of his life teaching the dharma or the path the enlightenment.
In Thailand, they practice Theraveda Buddhism where the authoritative text is the Pali Canon and the Buddha’s later Mahayana sutras are not recognized. There is the Eight Fold Path to enlightenment and there are four stages to becoming an arhat, or one who has achieved enlightenment. This branch of Buddhism is more philosophical than religious. The monk who came and spoke with us described Buddhism as a river of water: it doesn’t replace the beliefs that were in the area previous to its introduction, it absorbs them into its practices. Often, the Buddhist practices in Thailand have roots in animism and you will find Buddhist monks who are Muslim or Christians.
Observations of Thai Buddhism
Here are some ways that I have seen Buddhism reflected in the lives of the people I spend my time with:
- unlike Judaism, Christianity or Islam there is no designated time to go to temple and worship
- that doesn’t mean that people do not go to the wat; the wat is often the central part of the village and is available as a community meeting space and is often alongside the school. Whenever one goes to the wat it is important to pay respect or make merit at the Buddha statue by lighting three piece of incense, a candle and offering some kind of flower, praying and wai-ing, or press your palms together in front of their chest and lower your head, deeply and pressing your palms to the floor three times. (The deeper the way, the more respect it shows.)
- people go to the wat to make merit on important days: the Buddhist holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, before big trips, before big events, during funerals, during monk ordinations, etc.
- some people will wai as they walk past a wat, Buddha statue or other monument
- head-foot concept is an extension of Buddhism, in that the head is physically and spiritually the highest part of the body and the feet are physically and spiritually the lowest and dirtiest part of the body. In general, people don’t touch each other’s heads and are careful not to point their feet at other people. Also, don’t step on money because it bears the image of the king and that is tantamount to putting your feet on the king.
- some people orient their bedrooms so that they sleep with their head facing to the east and their feet to the west because the sunrise is symbolic of the beginning of life and the sunset of death.
- almost everyone wears an amulet or charm of the Buddha or a monk around their neck. Each person ascribes a different meaning to the amulet, but what I understand is that most people believe it has some kind of protective powers. A prayer must be said after taking it off.
- along the lines of wearing an amulet, almost all the vehicles I have been in have had some kind of amulet or tiny Buddha on the dashboard. Additionally, there are often Buddhist prayers written on the ceiling or steering wheel in a kind of paste that dries. You will also see a collection of white strings knotted around the steering column on both cars and motorbikes. Again this is because of a belief in the protective powers of the blessing.
- in a room in the house, usually a bedroom, there is a designated altar for a Buddha statue. When I was looking at rental options, the owner pointed it out to me and said I could sleep in that room if I was afraid of ghosts because it would protect me.
- men must become a monk for three months once in their life, usually around age 20. It can be longer that three months and you can become a monk more than once. Women are not allowed to touch male monks. Once I was one of the last people to get on a bus and a monk got on after me. The only seat available to him was the one next to me. He instructed the young man on the other side of the seat to move over and sit next to me and the monk sat between him and his male friend. When the monk went to get off the bus, all the women sitting along the aisle would lean as far toward the window as they could.
- there are also female nuns, but I do not know as much about the customs surrounding them.
- early in the morning, the monks of the community wat will go around and collect alms from the community members, most often in the form of rice and food. Again, women cannot hand anything directly to a monk, so them must set it down and the monk can then pick it up.
- every morning before school, after the students sing the national anthem as the flag is raised, they will all chant a Buddhist prayer. The same thing happens as a part of the opening ceremony for every camp that I have hosted. At the camps, it also includes a VIP lighting incense for the altar. (You may have seen in the video for Wan Wai Kruu, the students wai-ing three times to the altar before bowing the picture of the king and then wai-ing the teachers.)
Have any questions about Buddhism in Thailand from an outsider’s perspective? Leave ’em in the comments, I’ll try to answer.