Religious Affairs Promotion Committee and Buddhism Propagation Committee under the Government of Field Marshal Plaek Phibun Songkhram, 1938-1944

Abstract

Religious Affairs Promotion Committee and Buddhism Propagation Committee were established during the Field Marshal Phibunsongkhram administration with the purpose to oversee domestic religious affairs and encourage the sangha to support assorted governmental policies. After the rise of Phibunsongkhram to premiership, the government formed and tasked the Religious Affairs Promotion Committee with the responsibility to specify the correct role and qualifications of monks as well as provide an appropriate guideline to the management of Buddhist affairs. Perhaps more importantly, during the Franco-Thai War in 1941, the Phibunsongkhram government set up another committee, the Buddhism Propagation Committee, to internally fight against other faiths, especially Catholicism. This committee set its sight on propagating Buddhism through religious training provided to students and the public from which the Chaplaincy Division was founded within the Religious Affairs Department to facilitate such process in order to assert the place of Buddhism as the national religion.