The Establishment of State Secular Power in the Buddhist Church of the Royal Court of Siam through the Ecclesiastical Titles between B.E. 2325-2445

Abstract

This paper aims at studying the establishment of the state secular power in the Buddhist Church of the royal court of Siam through the ecclesiastical titles between B.E.2325-2445. The study found that the Royal Court of Siam was successful in tightening its grip on power by managing Buddhist affairs to act as connection between the Royal Court and the Buddhist Church. Buddhist monks had to constantly change throughout the early Rattanakosin period, resulting from the ideals of the Royal Court of Siam, in closely supervising Buddhist affairs so that they would become a part of state building. The Royal Court of Siam in the reign of King Rama I adopted the giving of ecclesiastical titles to the monks to build a political network in the Buddhist Church. The Supreme Patriarch and the high monks were the monks of the kingdom who aided the activities of the Royal Court. Later, in the reigns of King Rama IV and King Rama V, the Royal Court gave the highest ecclesiastical titles to the ordained members of the royal family in order to regulate the administration of the monks. The Royal Court of Siam was, therefore, able to successfully maintain the state secular power in the Buddhist Church resulting in the proclamation of the Sangha Law in B.E. 2445 of the Royal Court of Siam, regarded as a cumulative effect of the changing process continuously implemented by the Royal Court, and its success to centralize the ecclesiastical power, as to the political reformation carried out by the Royal Court at the same period.