Monks and Buddhist Communities across Thai-Burma Border: Religious Space and Sovereignty

Abstract

This paper describes monks and Buddhist migrants who have crossed border from Burma to live in the Thai side of the border in the last three decades. Buddhist migrants have collectively created their monasteries and many forms of Buddhist space, which are ‘illegal’ according to Thai law. This paper shows that Buddhist space has its own sovereignty under the sacred power and can be found overlapping with sovereignty under Thai law. There are several factors which facilitate the creation of informal sovereignty within the migrants’ Buddhist space. First, it includes the patronage given by local Thai Sangha which upholds Dhamma and the persevering tradition of close affinity between Thai and Burmese Sangha. Besides, it involves the belief and respect ascribed to sacred monks and space by local Thai authority. This paper posits that the sovereign power of Thai state is not always absolute in Thai-Burma borderlands. Sovereignty under Thai state is at times overlapped with sovereignty created by religious communities under certain context. In specific, the Thai Sangha, which takes control over monks and all religious matters, faces a dilemma. On one hand, the Thai Sangha is obliged to comply with the law but on the other hand, it is to show allegiance to the Buddhist Dhamma and local traditions. Thus, migrants’ Buddhist space is not stable but always changing. It depends on the sacred or secular source of sovereign power that has been engaged and negotiated by the Thai Sangha, local authorities and Buddhist migrant communities.