I am in a class called Thai Society
and Culture taught by a mid 30-something English professor, with a doctorate in
Thai History, who also has red hair (so I obviously like him even more). The
teacher is very organized and knowledgeable, and lectures on Tuesday, and then
on Thursday he lectures for the first hour and during the second hour we
discuss our weekly assignment, which is a reading and worksheet related to that
week’s topic. The best part about the class is that it is half Thai and half
international kids (about 30 kids total) so I always get to hear the perspective
of a young Thai adult, especially when we get in small groups (the Thai
students get extremely nervous/quiet in full class discussions). This last week
we talked about religion in Thailand: how it came to Thailand, spread, combined
with other religions, and was influenced by the monarchy or government. 95% of
the Thai population is Buddhist, but many people are Buddhist nominally and
thus don’t really practice. Thai people typically practice Theravada Buddhism
(as oppose to Mahayana), a more orthodox sect of Buddhism that focuses on the
teachings of Buddha and meditation for the goal of reaching nirvana, but gives
little instruction on how to live in this world and life. Simply, Buddhism
teaches that life is suffering and impermanent- there is no permanent self and
we shouldn’t get attached to anything (ourselves, things, desires, people)
because attachment is the cause of suffering. Reaching ultimate enlightenment,
nirvana, can only be achieved by freeing oneself of suffering and thus give up
everything. It is extremely difficult to reach nirvana unless you are a monk,
which only men can become. Since most Thais believe that it is unlikely that
they will achieve nirvana in their lifetime, they instead focus on earning
merit so they will be born into a better life in the next lifetime. This is a
part of what’s called Karmic Buddhism, where a person acquires merit for doing
“good things” and demerit for doing “bad things.” I don’t know enough about
that to explain it well- I think it’s pretty complicated. However, the state of
one’s present existence is a result of actions in the past life, so if you are
wealthy it’s because you accumulated meritin the previous life. Likewise, if
you are poor or handicap it is because you did bad things in your past life. Since
the Thai government is Buddhist, I asked my teacher if this affects policies
and social programs affecting the poor and disabled, because according to this
line of thinking, being poor or mentally or physically disabled be the person’s
own fault. He said that probably not because you earn merit for helping the
poor. I still wonder if a Buddhist person born without arms or perhaps with downs
or in extreme poverty feels like they deserve this, or if that’s the collective
idea from those of a wealthy status, or if this is a facet of the religion that
few still subscribe to.
There are two other aspects of Thai
religion called Brahmanism and Animism. Brahmanism is grounded in Buddhism, but
focuses on this world (as oppose to future lives) and was adopted from Khmer
during the 14th century, so it has a long history in Thai culture.
Remember that Thailand was artificially and where present day Thailand is was
once several different kingdoms and tribes and so its hard to look at the
history of Thai religion collectively because it differs depending on what
region you’re talking about. Brahmanism uses rituals and ceremonies to call to
heavenly Buddhist beings, and if done correctly, are immediately effective.
Animism is about communicating with spirits that reside in that particular
region, but spirits are temperamental and unpredictable. There are people,
typically women, in Thailand who are processed by spirits, called spirit
mediums, and there are also spirit doctors, who can communicate with spirits.
These people give advice, help people who are hoping for a job promotion, and
even tell people what numbers they should pick in the lottery- all for a fee.
It is very common to see small houses outside a building, called spirit houses,
where people put offering like flowers, food, or drinks, to honor the spirits
so they will be nice to you.
In the last 30 years, there has
been an increase in people practicing animism and a decrease in people actively
practicing Buddhism and entering monkhood in Thailand. Monks are at the highest
social standing that you can be at in Thai society (they don’t have to do the
wai, a bow of respect, to anyone including royals) and in the past have been a
way to increase social status, especially for the poor. There has been
corruption in the monkhood where monks are sleeping with women (monks are
celibate and should have no contact with women), drinking and smoking, and
buying things like cell phone- all clearly prohibited. Joining the monkhood is
free and gives you free food and shelter, so some men join to avoid work while
also offers asylum for criminals, so you can escape a criminal offense by
joining the monkhood. Thus, men are becoming monks for the wrong reasons and
aren’t fulfilling their duties properly. Becoming a monk slows you entering the
workforce, so those who can afford an education don’t want to limit their
opportunities by having to take a long break from working or school. When we
talked about this in class and our teacher asked if any of the male students
were going to join the monkhood, they laughed. Some said they hadn’t been to a
temple in years. This was surprising to me- like I said 95% of the population
is Buddhist so I assumed some of the students would practice. I was in a small
group with 2 Thai girls and a Thai boy. None strongly believed in or practiced
Buddhism, but both of the girls practiced animism, and one had very strong
faith. Both of their parents had a medium come to the house to tell them what
god to pray to, based on the spirit that was in their house, and had a spirit
house on their property (but not in their house) that they frequently made
offerings to. They believed that if you wronged the spirits they could
seriously hurt you. I told them about a tv show that some of the Thai girls I
lived with were watching (I couldn’t understand it but they translated) that
centered around a medium that would talk to people that have disrespected
spirits and communicate what they needed to do. In the show, a man was drunk
and destroyed a spirit house and didn’t make amends because he didn’t believe
in spirits. He had a young baby whose leg was soon shattered- the girls said
that it just happened, that nothing caused it except the spirit. The girls in
my group believed that spirits could do that and that disrespecting spirits in
such a way could warrant harsh revenge. They said that, in short, that they got
more out of animism, which affected their current life than Buddhism, which
only affects them after this life’s death. After seeing all the statistics
about the population being almost entirely Buddhist and the temples everywhere
I never really questioned how the average person views religion and it was so
interesting to meet a handful of young people who didn’t match my previous
understanding and assumptions at all.
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