Thai Buddhist Modernism : Socially Engaged Buddhism

Abstract

In this research, Panutat Yodkaew aims to study what the term “socially engaged Buddhism” as part of the wider spectrum of the so called “Buddhist Modernism” actually means. He explore hundreds of pieces of writing over the past 50 years to see how Buddhist monks reacted to the intellectual force of globalization, how they interpreted the Tripitaka and applied ancient Buddhist thoughts therein to find solutions for social malaise and political crisis confronting Thailand. Due partly to the fact that Thailand has never been colonized by the West, several Thai Buddhist monks are keen to welcome various strands of Western thoughts while at the same time constructing their own versions of intellectual discourses and rhetoric, particularly in relation to what they deem as weak points found in those various modern thoughts and concepts penetrating Thai society.

Socially engaged Buddhism is not a common or easy-to-explain phenomenon for Western academia but this kind of Buddhism was formed when well educated Buddhist monks conversed, confronted and even reacted to the intellectual legacy of the Age of Western Enlightenment that figured predominantly during the rise of Pax Americana following the end of the World War II. In this context, Thailand’s leading Buddhist monks are perceived as negotiating the tension between adopting aspects of western modernity and critiquing them while maintaining what is viewed as the core Buddhist teachings. The discourses of their encounter with the West are still evolving and shaping our understanding of what Buddhism is about. In his research findings, Yodkaew shows that the perceived competition between Buddhism and Christianity and other modern concepts over the past sixty years gave rise to Thailand’s socially engaged Buddhism.