CAUSAL FACTORS AFFECTING THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUDDHIST EMPOWERMENT POLICY OF CHINESE SANGHA SECTS IN THAILAND

Abstract

Background and Objective: The policy for sustainable development in Thailand aims to foster simultaneous growth in the economy, society, and environment. It is crucial to have a religious management principle to support this sustainable development in the short, medium, and long terms. This research focuses on implementing the management policy of the Sangha for the prosperity of Buddhism, aligning with its objectives and goals. The purpose of this research is to study the causal factors affecting the sustainable development of the Buddhist empowerment policy of the Chinese Sangha sects in Thailand.

Methodology: The sample group consisted of monks and novices from 14 Chinese sects’ temples with a structural equation model (SEM). The researchers had set the sample size at 20 times the observable variable. The study consisted of 15 observational variables. The sample volumes were 300, included 82 monks from Chinese sects’ temples out of 100 monks. The sample group was selected from the population ratio calculation, and the temple had a worshiper population in the top 3. Another sample group was chosen from Chinese sects’ temples, which comprised 218 novices from 1,683 novices who were temple members. Thus, the researchers used proportional stratified random sampling and set the sample group as a ratio of each stage per the population of worshipers.

Main Results: The analysis found that the potential development of monks had the greatest overall impact on such policy, followed by policies related to the management of the sects, social participation, and the dissemination of Buddhist teachings. When considering the variables that had a direct impact on the policy, social participation had the greatest influence, followed by the dissemination of Buddhist teachings and the potential development of monks and sects’ management policies. In terms of the variables that indirectly affected the empowerment of Buddhism of the Chinese Sangha sects, it was found that the Chinese Sangha administration policy and the development of monk potential had the greatest indirect effect on such development, followed by social participation. The overall analysis found that the correlation coefficient index became more consistent with the empirical data and the standard criteria, indicated a high standard of the model. In addition, the factors that indirectly affected the sustainable development of Buddhism of the Chinese Sangha sects were affected directly by the development of monk potential and social participation, as well as the use of media. The indirect effect of the development of monk potential was found to be 0.62, which was higher than the direct effect of 0.24.

Involvement to Buddhadhamma: The discovery from this research model was that it was possible to utilize the knowledge obtained from this study to contribute in the sustainable development of Thailand, which differed from previous research that did not incorporate religious principles to promote sustainable development. Religion was a crucial element in uniting organizations and facilitating sustainable development more effectively. Additionally, it enabled both of public and private sectors to apply and implement it in various organizations. For the public sector, it could create a sustainable development model for Thailand under sustainable development principles. Furthermore, it served as a guideline for applying this knowledge to religious organizations such as Islam, Christianity, and other disciplines in order to integrate it with long-term national development policies.

Conclusions: This research indicated that causal factors influenced the change statistically significant and were consistent with the objective.