Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
198
“schisms” among Theravadins (gaing in Burma, nikai in Thailand,
etc.) are not based upon differences in doctrine, but upon practices
involving ways of pronunciation of Pali stanzas as well as ritual
behavior including ways of wearing robes and the like, which have
been configured in the historical process of localization to differen-
tiate each other.
Previous anthropological studies of Theravada Buddhism have
described living Buddhist practices, paying attention to the mode of
intersection between Buddhism and indigenous spirit cults. However,
while the localized Buddhist practice can be examined as a result of
socio-historical development in a specific region, we need a study on
varieties of Buddhism led by lay believers in comparative perspec-
tive. In order to understand the feature of practices which unite and
differentiate Theravadins with or from each other, we should ask
what kinds of factors are shared between them (1).
This paper sketches practices of Theravadins whom I have met
in my extensive surveys in the Lao P.D.R., Cambodia and Sipsong
Panna (Xishuangbanna), Yunnan, in southwestern China, where Bud-
dhism has temporarily been persecuted due to the socialist regime
for a few decades. Focusing on the activities of laity, who constitute
resources to maintain Bhikkhus and Sangha, it also seeks the implicit
features of Buddhist practice in a regional context. The lay practices
embedded in their regional experiences more often than not look
quite deviant from institutionalized Buddhism. However, every kind
of practice in each region has its own relevancy as a Buddhist
activity even if it might be claimed as “invalid” by some ‘official’
interpretation of Buddhism.
1. To Be Buddhist
199
we had no temple and monks, we visited surviving temples
in the same district to join annual rites because we are
Buddhists. Unlike our neighbors, the Hmong who worship
spirits, we observe precepts (thu sin). Precepts are always in
our minds (sin yu nai cai talot). Wherever we go, precepts
also go together with us” [Lao Phuan, Village head, Ban
Thoen, Xiang Khwang, Lao P.D.R.: field notes, Jan. 5, 1991].
200
A stilted house type of temple, which is more accurately described as
a “hut”, is located at a higher level of elevation in the village
compound. Its entrance is usually locked, as with other temples in
Laos, for fear of thieves. Inside the temple, nothing is enshrined but
a wooden plate-carving of the head of a naga, taken from the temple
of the old village.
No monks reside at the new temple. However, the Lao villag-
ers hold the annual collective rituals (boun), e.g. boun nam tom in
the first month of the lunar calendar, khao padapdin (ninth) and kao
salak (tenth), inviting monks from other temples.
Another predominantly Lao village, Ban Fat Toeu, one hour
upstream from Wan Tao, has 42 households, including 11 Tai Daeng
families. According to the village head (born in 1945), the Lao began
to come here in 1938 from the border area of Vietnam, to seek new
land to grow glutinous rice. “Lao phut” was also used here. “Satsana
phut is Lao religion and ‘Brothers Tai Daeng’ (phinong taidaeng)
believe in satsana phi” (2).
In the past the Lao had their village guardian spirit (phi
ban) but abandoned it in 1968. Then, the village pillar was installed
instead, but it was also abandoned in 1998. As for Buddhist annual
rites, believers hold khao salak, khao padapdin, and songkran at
the village temple, which also looks like an ordinary village house.
When they cannot invite monks, they hold rituals in front of
“pha chao”, a Buddha image enshrined at the village temple.
The representative of laity (sangkhali) would pay respect to pha chao
before holding rites.
The villagers once had a legendary wandering monk (pha
thudong) from Savannakhet, southern Laos. This monk, called Ya
Khu Boua, had come to stay at this village from the 1940s until his
death in 1972. The people built the village temple at that time with
other laymen from neighboring villages. During his stay, Ya Khu
Boua had many disciples from six villages. However, since 1972
201
the villagers had no monks at all, leaving the village temple as
a place to donate clothes and other things. It will be renovated in
2001.
When we stay at rural Buddhist villages which have no
temples or monks, or have temples under construction, the following
patterns are clearly observed; Laymen produce temples and monks-to-
be. Then Monks are “born” in the master-disciple relationships.
Laymen support monks. Villagers who have no temple in their village
use available temples in other villages, so lay Buddhist activity is
developed in the chains of villages centered on a temple. Accordingly,
temples should have first a congregation hall where laymen meet
together, then an ordination hall would be the last.
Annual collective rituals are the occasion for making offerings
to contribute to the completion of temple-building, mobilizing other
lay people from outside the locale. Actually these patterns are widely
found among the Theravadins. Thus, interaction and reciprocation
between the laity and the monks, which characterizes the Theravada
way, are possible only when these relations of laity in a particular
region can work [cf. Lester 1973: 131]. In addition, this pattern is
also confirmed when people restore Buddhism after persecution.
The following are several such cases from Sipsong Panna, China
and Cambodia, where the lay Buddhists, especially ex-monks, have
played a crucial role in regaining and maintaining their practices.
202
In Laos, a quite general term, Phu Song Khunnauthi, is used.
Whatever the naming of their role, they share similar characteristics.
They are the laity who have the skill and knowledge to officiate
rituals, mainly because most of them are ex-monks. Where no
long-term monks are in residence, they organize and perform rituals
usually carried out by monks. Therefore their practices constitute
regional practices and mediate between the rest of the laity and
monks, the practical and the institutional. It is not exaggerated to say
that they are the people who define what is Buddhist practice in which
other laymen are involved.
203
has been busy taking this role in annual collective rituals throughout
the year except for July and August.
Wherever the villages have their own temples, there should be
pho tzan. Pho tzan should be a village elder who has been a long-term
monk, while khanan, whose experience as monks are shorter than that
of the pho tzan, can be assistants of pho tzan as “chief kanan” (kanan
long). Only lay elders can have these designations. The role differen-
tiation of the layman extraordinaire depends more or less on the
duration of the years in monkhood, which ultimately requires Sangha
or monastic organization. Other villagers note that pho tzan, who can
read and write sutras at the occasion of merit- making rites at the
Pagoda (dan that), should take responsibility not only for inviting
monks as a lay representative, but must also have the ability to solve
problems concerning religious affairs. What is more, pho tzan are
expected to instruct young monks on what should be done during
ritual occasions. In this sense, pho tzan is a lay specialist on Buddhist
practice. However, it is interesting to note that observing precepts is
not necessarily required to be admitted as pho tzan. It is his previous
experience as monk rather than his daily practice as layman today
which counts. Therefore pho tzan represent their formal/institutional
status much more than informal pious lay Buddhists.
This formal feature of pho tzan is found in another case at
Man Thin in Ching Hon district in Yunnan, which had 107 households
in 1990. The village temple had no monks (tu) but two senior novices
(pha long) and five junior novices (pha noi) at that time.
Mr. KN (born in 1930) has taken the role of pho tzan there
since 1982. In his past, he became pha noi at the age of 11 and was
ordained as a monk at Wat Man Lin, Mon Ham when he was 21 years
old. He disrobed due to the Cultural Revolution in 1956. Later he
was “elected” as pho tzan in 1982. He considers his role to be the
collecting and recording of donations at annual merit-making rites
204
like dan tham and dan that in particular, and to report to the officers
at Front Union ( ) and the Buddhist Association
( ).
When the villagers decided to remake their temple, they visited
him to ask his help. Actually Mr. KN knows how to build pagodas,
which direction is the most suitable for setting up a Buddha Image and
other particulars. Other pho tzan were also invited from many other
villages in the same district. Here, the role of pho tzan is held by a
corresponding member from a Buddhist institution rather than an
informal lay ascetic. He does not need to keep precepts in his daily life
but needs to contribute to rebuilding and maintaining pagodas, and in
disseminating knowledge concerned with Buddhist rituals. This is one
reason why he was chosen by other village elders who want the person
to be able to perform such a role.
205
through the ordination ritual at the same time. In 1944, at the age of
22, he disrobed. Then he got married and had two children. Having
stayed with each other for 11 years, his wife died. His elder daughter
also died the same year. At the age of 33, he married his present wife.
He had four children but only one survives. He recounted the past as
follows:
206
He is very active on Buddhist Sabbath days. On the eve of
Buddhist Sabbath (chet kham), haksa sin, after three hours (15:00-
18:00) listening to the preaching of monks, he continues to stay
vihan (vihara) to conduct ritual acts of yat nam.
One haksa sin explains what is meant by yat nam. First, it is
to ask forgiveness so that the conditions of one’s afterlife will be
better, in that yoma does not record bad deeds. Second, it is to
transfer merit to one’s deceased parents. Such merit can rescue
them. Third, it is to send merit to deva (thewara) as well (sap bun).
After yat nam is completed around 20:00, haksa sin practices medita-
tion and concentration (samathi) until 21:00.
The next day (paet kham), he gets up 5:00 and practices his
contemplation without having breakfast. On that day he takes only
a midday meal, which is sent by his children from home. After
having the meal, he practices meditation again. Then he completes
another period of meditation around 22:00. On the following ninth
night (khao kham), he meditates at 6:00 for around an hour. Then he
proceeds to clean the temple compound and goes home around 8:00.
He still continues to practice meditation twice daily, in the afternoon
and the evening in his home. On the Buddhist Sabbath day during
Lent he always stays at wihan for two nights.
Since 1984 Mr. AY has not missed his practice of meditation
on Buddhist Sabbath day. Whenever he meditates he prepares five
pairs of flowers and candles and a white cloth (five meters long), all
of which are put in a bowl. In his view, the number five means
Buddhist Trinity (Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha), meditation monk
(phra kammathan) and great teacher monk (phra khuba achan). In
addition to this ritual for veneration, he also takes a rosary (mannap),
which he got from Burma, and a copy of Buddhist text, recently
brought from Wat Bansa in Chieng Hong while he was seeking sacred
texts. Mr. AY is proud of his private Buddhist altar with a small
Buddha image in the bedroom in his house, saying that nobody else
207
in his village has one, since he first installed it in 1982. The Buddha
image was given by a Tai Lu monk who had been in Chieng Tung,
Burma.
208
other tasks to help the village abbot. In Cambodia, a distinguished
achar who can give suggestions to other pious elders is called “achar
thom”. His assistant is called by the recently coined “achar rong”.
These ranking designations have been given to register lay leaders, at
the request of the Ministry of Cults and Religious Affairs (Kraswong
Thoamaka Nung Sasana), despite the fact that all ex-monks as pious
laymen were formerly called “achar” in general.
The ordination ritual was not officially completed until the
precept-giving rite was restored by Theravada monks of Khmae
Kraom (lowland Khmer; it refers to people of Khmer origin who
are Theravadins dwelt in the southern part of Vietnam since the
seventeenth century) who came from Ho Chi Minh. The precept-
giving rite was held on 9 September, 1979 (Yang. However, another
“official” restoration of the ordination rite preceded this formal one
on 7 April, 1979. Under the support of Phnom Penh’s then—Gover-
nor, it was officiated by a native ex-monk, Mr. NM, who had been
a long-term monk as well as preceptor until the Pol Pot regime. All
laity who had gathered to celebrate this occasion at that time agreed
that Mr. NM was the most eligible and he could serve to ask and
receive precepts from a Buddha statue regarded as a preceptor. When
this rite was completed, the re-ordained Monk NM, in turn, officiated
many instances of the ordination ritual, to have other ex-monks
re-ordained. However, all of the rites were later declared invalid,
similar to self-ordination.
209
for one Lent, then moved to Vat Siso Watharam Phnom Dal to study
Buddhist teachings and Pali (thoamma winai, balai) at Buddhist
primary school for three years, under the former regime. In order to
continue to study, he moved further to Phnom Penh and stayed at
Vat Moha Montrei.
On reaching 21 years of age (1943), he was ordained as
a monk (pikko) under his preceptor (upachea; who can give precepts
after having more than 10 [yearly] observations of Lent [Vassa]),
Monk Meung Ses of that monastery. In 1957 he was appointed
abbot as well as preceptor at Vat Angkor Nearam, Tbong Khmom
district in his homeland, Kompong Cham, and stayed there for 17
years. However, due to the following civil wars and guerrilla
struggles, he decided to leave for Vat Ounalom, Phnom Penh, as an
ordinary monk. He then saw what happened there in 1975 and the
following year as Buddhist monks were compelled under the Pol Pot
regime to defrock. He rejected this once, but the second time he
decided to disrobe, even though this was against his desire to be
a lifelong monk, which he had cherished since his earlier ordination.
He was sent to Kompong Suphoe, Baset district to engage in collec-
tive labor. Many others died there. But he was able to survive and
he returned to Phnom Penh in 1979.
It was in August 1994 that I was able to meet him as a layman,
an unpaid Pali teacher to the young monks at several temples. The
following is Mr. NM’s narrative:
“After the Pol Pot regime was ousted, I came back to Phnom
Penh because I wanted to be a monk again as before. ( .... )
I had a chance to meet Mr. V, who was secretary of the
Phnom Penh headquarters then. I didn’t know him before, but
my friends introduced to me. He made a promise to me
that he would assist in holding an ordination ceremony at
a temple in Phnom Penh. ( ..... )
210
It was April 7, 1979 that Mr. V organized a procession
to Vat Sansom Kosal located in the suburbs of Phnom Penh.
People—including villagers—gathered and celebrated that
day. The reason why this monastery was chosen was that
other big temples had been occupied by Vietnamese Army,
who used the buildings as headquarter or propaganda schools
inasmuch as people had difficulty coming into the city
freely from January to June that year. Vat Sansom Kosal was
convenient for its location, but that doesn’t mean the temple
was kept in good condition. Preahwihea (ordination hall)
had no roof and no Buddha statues. Only one undamaged
building served as a small residence for monks. But it was
just a miracle that a villager found and brought an old
sitting Buddha image from outside Phnom Penh.
We had no living preceptor at that time because all
long-term Khmer monks had been defrocked. Real peace
has not come yet. We did not invite monks from neighboring
countries. We all knew we should invite monks from areas
Khmae Kraom, but it was impossible, most probably because
the Vietnam government did not give any permission at the
time. Since I’d been a formal preceptor until the Pol Pot
regime, we agreed that we would perform the ordination
ceremony in front of our one Buddha statue.
We enshrined the image facing east in the ordination
hall. In front of the image a yellow robe, a begging bowl, an
umbrella and other (symbolic ritual objects) called borikha or
parika were placed together with five volumes of Tripitaka
which had been secretly kept safe by laymen during the Pol
Pot regime. The number of people had reached a hundred,
including government officials and ordinary villagers. Mr.
OS, who had been the chairman (prothean) of sub-district
in Phnom Penh, declared the beginning of the ceremony.
211
The candidates numbered five including me. All of them,
who were older than me, had experience as monks before
Pol Pot.
All five candidates sat facing the Buddha image
about five meters distant. I saw the faces of the president,
deputy president and Mr. OS to the right of me. Many VIPs
were there. The low of the north was occupied by ubasok
(pious laymen who take care of monasteries). The Mayor
of Phnom Penh acknowledged this ceremony but did not
attend.
First, all the candidates paid deep respect to the
Buddha (namassaka) and then started to chant a verse in
obedience of the Triple Gems [nea mo....]. Next were chanted
‘proka-pdacanha, som kama tho’, the verses asking to be
a monk by the grace of and with the permission of Buddha,
were uttered by the candidates.
After that, the lay congregation helped us to put on
our yellow robes. As usual the candidates would ask for
and receive ten precepts. Later we requested and received
all 227 precepts, pattimok. So we chanted it to proceed
those ritual sequences. From that night, we began staying at
that temple. I was appointed as an abbot of the temple as
well as a preceptor. Though I was the youngest, they said
I had been the longest-term monk and a rigorous precepts-
keeper. All re-ordained monks stayed there through Lent.
After Buddhist Lent was over that year, four other monks
went out to four different places, Kandal, Svay Rieng,
Kompong Speu and Takeo, to announce this event.
I stayed on there to take responsibility in giving precepts
as a preceptor.”
212
preceptorship, the number of ordained monks reached almost ten
thousand, as many as he remembered from before. Later, Mr. VS,
who had maintained that the Khmer don’t have to have any assis-
tance from the Vietnamese in restoring Buddhism under the new
policy, was expelled from the party. One Vietnamese attaché who
examined religious policy in Cambodia then demonstrated that
Buddhist monks, who can pass through the countryside freely, would
be useful when they commit to politics. The National Front also
began to institute policies to clean-up remnants of the Pol Pot
debacle, with some monks’ assistance. Monk MN did not agree
with those views. Thus the circumstances surrounding MN, who
refused to help in killing or concerning himself with this-worldly
things (anacha), were drastically changed.
Under the “Heng Samrin regime”, September 9, 1979, 21
monks and one Vietnamese elder novice, then 70 years of age, were
officially invited from Khmae Kraom, to Vat Ounalom in order to
conduct a formal ordination ceremony. Monk MN was also asked to
be ordained under this chapter, but he refused. Seven Khmer men
were ordained as monks according to vinaya; 1. Thep Vong, 2. Prak
Dith, 3. Koeuk Vay, 4. Ith Sum, 5. Non Nget, 6. Ken Vong, 7. Din
Sarun. Among them, Monk Thep Vong had taken responsibility to
make “invalid” monks—that is, those to whom Monk MN had given
ordination rituals—come to be ordained as “valid” monks at Vat
Ounalom.
At the end of 1979, after having spent his Lent at Vat Sansom
Sakol, Monk MN was compelled to move to Vat Ounalom under the
misnomer of “invitation”. The other monks suggested to him many
times to have a new ordination ritual, which Monk MN refused for
the next three years. At last he decided to disrobe himself in July,
1982. He quit everything after returning to secular life, until 1989
when Buddhist Primary School was restored and he began teaching
Pali, albeit without salary.
213
As a Buddhist layman, Mr. MN is now called achar. He still
insists that the way the ritual was taken was incorrect by the sangha
regulation, but “right” in its spirit, while the following formal ordina-
tion rite supported by anti-Pol Pot policy was institutionally right
but “wrong” in its behavior and intention. I was very impressed
with what he said when we were finishing the interview; “Who was
the valid preceptor when Buddha was ordained?”
214
of the rite, called “pachum tom”, people flocked to and made offerings
at temples.
The members of temple committees and achar were extremely
busy adjusting time schedules to accept the lay people donating
offerings. Since they (committee members and achar) cannot move
from one temple to another, their family members (the wife, mainly,
and sometimes children) and friends go to make merit instead. More-
over, on Buddhist Sabbath day during Pachum Bon, achar also
suggested that laity, mainly elderly women who gather at temples
in the evening, make glutinous rice balls, not an ordinary food for
the Khmer. The achar stay the night at temple and observe five or
eight precepts. The following morning, those rice balls are thrown
away in the temple compound after walking around preavihea three
times, clockwise. This ritual act is called dak ban. It is held for the
purpose of transferring merit to those of the spirits of the dead kin
including preta.
As Pachum Bon shows, the Khmer Buddhists also share the
notion and practice of transferring merit as do other Theravadins.
While donations to monks and building temples are typical merit-
making acts in terms of causality of action, the transference of merit
to the spirit of someone who has passed away is widely practiced.
This practical “inversion” is based on the metonym that when the
bereaved transfers the merit they have acquired through presenting
food, money and goods to the monks, the spirit of the deceased, as
a result of obtaining this merit, receives all the donated goods
(Parinamana, “being diverted to somebody’s use”) [Gombrich 1971a:
265-284; 1979b: 213].
What is more, there is another interpretation that is an
extension of transferring merit. Merit acquired can be shared with
others. ‘Others’ here means not only the deceased or spirits but
also with living contemporaries in ritual environments. Collective
merit-making rituals are therefore considered to be one of the best
215
occasions for developing relations to communicate with others in
different worlds.
The amount of merit to be shared corresponds to the degree
of social intimacy. It can be interpreted in terms of this-worldly acts
in the following way; those who feel that they have received a share
of the merit of the privileged ones are appeased and integrated into
society. By accepting gifts from the ‘haves’, the ‘have nots’ may
support them politically and give them a mandate to govern.
In addition to such reciprocal relationships among the
contemporaries, this ritual act extends further to other dimensions
of merit. It is also held for the purpose of fulfilling one’s own
“salvation”, which transcends such reciprocal schemes wherein merit
is shared with anonymous spirits (6). For instance, the funeral rite
shows many patterns at different levels of merit-making. Merit-
making consists of actions involving making offerings to and the
intervention of monks. At the same time, it is accomplished through
one’s relationships with others. This is a basic observation that holds
true for annual Buddhist rituals like pachum bon among the Theravadins
as well. The reciprocal relationships related to the multiple dimensions
of merit are expressed in a condensed form at the funeral. All those
remaining in this world, the bereaved and other ordinary villagers,
are mobilized in merit-making and enact the meaning of “life” within
reciprocal relationships before the deceased, who has lost the oppor-
tunity to acquire merit.
Among the Theravada Buddhists, the event of the individual
“death” is socially concluded before the public. At the same time,
the deceased reciprocates the scenario of a life-cycle connected with
the afterlife the instant he is reduced to a mere silhouette. The
relationship of “benefactor and beneficiary”, which the bereaved
continue to maintain with the deceased in their memories, is one
of mutual help that is repeatedly, if sorrowfully, revised. It is
a relationship that includes opportunities for meeting and parting, for
reminiscence and forgetfulness.
216
Another example from a northeastern Thai village. Elderly
women transfer merit and receive precepts like other middle-aged
housewives. The content tends to be oriented more towards personal
practice than towards social relationships. For one thing, the greater
their longing to have a better destiny in the afterlife, the greater the
austerity with which the physically weaker elder women practice
them. Similarly, the objective of merit transfer has shifted from the
spirits of departed kin to the anonymous, generic spirits whose former
existence and names are not even known. In the sense that no reward
is expected from the recipient, the merit-making activities of elderly
women are a more personal and altruistic practice that transcends
reciprocal relationships.
Thus the objective and range of merit transfer goes beyond
the male principle of merit that emphasizes the creation and expres-
sion of hierarchical social relationships based on reciprocity. As
compared to the male’s expressive practice in a public forum, the
proof of maturity for women is revealed through a more internal
practice in which the individual is the nucleus. Rather than the
expression of a female principle of merit, this is a refined and purified
religious practice in that it transcends individual social relations.
While on the one hand it is related to a Buddhist system and practice
represented and constructed by men, the “salvation of religious
precepts” for women can be said to have its foundations for practice
in a field that cannot be completely subsumed.
217
non-Buddhist areas. This flexibility not only made Buddhism
acceptable in a given area, but it also lent continued vitality
to the Buddhist faith. Lacking a responsive divinity of their
own, Buddhists were able to turn to indigenous deities and
draw on the religiosity associated with them” [Strong 1992:
32].
218
All kinds of religious practices are legitimated by living
individuals, who have concrete social interests and social position.
Thus no ‘ideal Buddhism’ takes place in isolation from the regional
context in history. The case above shows how Buddhism is taken
and interpreted by the former ‘animists’ against the regional backdrop
of inter-dependency between different language groups.
Actually, whatever the case, relations among Buddhists and
yet-to-be Buddhists have been made along lines that “we can choose
friends but not neighbors” in inter-ethnic relations of mainland south-
east Asia, while Buddhists in general enjoy their cultural and political
dominance of the region [cf. Lefevre-Pontalis 2000 (1902): 180;
188; 193].
In any case, Buddhist identity appears in relations with
“others”, meaning other ethnic groups who use different languages
and other people living within the same culture, as in women’s
relations toward men, men’s toward women, and the bereaved kin’s
relation with the dead. Thus merit making is a practice which unites
and transcends such relations as well. Buddhist ways of dealing
relationships is not bilateral as in spirit cults which need placating to
confirm boundaries of the land, but multilateral as in merit making
with precepts which should control self and others, and go beyond
the boundary between temporal people and eternal timelessness.
Therevada Buddhism has accordingly not been a religion confined
to virtuous world-renouncers. To the contrary, it is a practice invoking
interchangeable relations between renouncers and laity. It is just
this dynamic relation in which kings and peasants, the haves and
the have nots, the living and the dead can share with each other.
From my observations in these areas, holding collective
rituals is more important than other rituals. Keeping precepts is
also important as far as ritual acts are concerned. Both configure
the nucleus of Buddhist practice to realize making and sharing merit
in relations with others. Comparatively speaking, the Buddha image,
Pali texts and even monks are not fundamental to lay practices.
219
Besides, when they have no preceptors or monks, people ask for
and receive precepts, employing symbolic alternatives such as
Buddha images (as preceptor in Cambodia) or pieces of yellow robe
(as the monk in Du Hong) or, ultimately, by themselves, believing that
they can hold precepts in their body (Lao). Such kinds of practices
and their related interpretations, however, are found not only in
countries which had socialist regimes, but also in Thailand, which has
well-organized Buddhist institutions (7). In theory these practices,
therefore, function to have socio-historical potency, by virtue of the
relationship between the reality-defining and reality-producing pro-
cesses, and are cultural abstractions from the vicissitudes of people’s
experiences of everyday life in the world [cf. Berger and Luckmann
1966: 135].
Precepts are themselves as the heart of Buddhism for both
clergy and laity. Halliday, who was a keen observer of Mon culture
early last century, seems to have recognized that Mon people consider
that precepts are the heart of religion.
220
Keeping precepts connects laymen with monks. Patimokkha,
the fundamental precept, is embodied in monks. To be pious laymen
they have to observe five or eight precepts. Both are widely noted
among the Theravadins. At the same time, for the laity in general,
it is noticed that it’s not easy to observe them in their daily lives.
Among the Theravadins in an area, it is also socially admitted
that precepts can always be taken or left at will. One is not guilty as
a Buddhist. Such habits in relation to precepts give a crucial structure
to institutionalizing the ways of Theravadins. In sangha regulation,
Patimokkha should be given from long-term Bhikkhus at suitable
places, sanctuary (bot [T], sim [L], preahvihea [C]). Here we should
confirm that monks who observe 227 precepts are always born in the
master-disciple relations. Following this institutionalized procedure
in sangha, lay Buddhists can perform their ritual activity on the basis
of the places where monks are to reside or to visit, namely, temples
or pagodas. Even some villagers who have no temple in their villages
use temples in other villages as available temples. That is, lay
Buddhist activity is developed in the chains of temples in communi-
ties. These practices involving ritual relations make Buddhism
transcend regional boundaries.
Precepts, as codes of conduct for clergy, underlie institutional
regulations among the Theravadins on the one hand, yet can be free
from them on the other. Even the former definition is prohibited or
destroyed, as precepts themselves can escape from such conditions
because they can be held in memory and shown in action in the people
as far as they are kept. This dimension also suggests that precepts,
recognized as part of the ‘body’ of Buddha, permit various kinds of
interpretation by laity as well [Hayashi 1997].
Precepts produce and institutionalize Buddhist clergy and can
also exist outside of them. What makes this possible? It is because
precepts are not recognized as modern knowledge (printed and distrib-
uted), but captured as things originated in the relations between the
giver and the taker. Once it is taken, a precept goes always with their
221
physical body. Actually, precepts can change the physical condition
of bodies and “give direction to the whole life” as Hallet observed.
222
institutions. The Theravada community therefore was differentiated
and identified on the basis of ways of pronunciation of Pali and
by ritual behavior. Here we can see that Theravadins share the
oral-based practices (equivalent to “visionary”) found in other
cultures of orality [cf. Goody 1987: 120-121].
Tripitaka in practical Buddhism is not a reference, but an
“implement” to induce both monks and laity to cultivate their prac-
tices. In this context, the roles of monks who constitute the ritual
environment are performers rather than scholars. In other words,
Buddhist texts in general have been quite new “media” in the history
of Buddhism. Teachings of Buddha have long been orally transmitted
in the relations between masters and disciples. They exist in words
“uttered” as well as in the sound to be heard. The “station” (or
“container” to use O’Connor’s term) has been embedded in the
Buddhist’s body and his or her relations (9).
Under the historical condition that ruling centers (the court
and the government) adopted Buddhism for their political legitimacy
and administrated to standardize Buddhist institutions, no laymen
elsewhere lost having a hand in shaping Buddhism, while they also
employed such institutional figures as models or styles to spectacu-
larize rites. Oral transmission of Teaching has not been undermined
as far as social forces marginalize the Theravadins. It continues to
realize its potential.
Preaching, as an art of ritual performance, is still one the
most effective ways to attract the laity. Ritual performances having
real voice go well with “printed culture” based on various media
today. Theravadins in the study area, those who keep practicing oral
transmission of ideas in the chains of relations, therefore, can easily
reconstruct their own tradition and can also invent new sects at
both local and cross-regional levels. As a result of the continuity
and intersection of various local practices, Buddhism has figured as
a “World Religion” for laity, the major population of Buddhism.
223
During the past decades it became commonsense among
modern social scientists that every kind of “World Religion” spread
over the world must have been localized in some historical and
cultural setting in a particular region; it would not be there today
without such process. However, as seen above, Pali Buddhism is
of interest in the sense that it can be established through the chains
of multiple relations between peoples rather than the written texts.
In this area, the Buddhist canon itself is a result of such relations
in history. And it exists in verbal form rather than written, which
has developed along with various figures of speech. The future study
of Theravadins, who developed their regional practice on the basis
of oral transmissions of ideas and invention of ritual performance,
would clarify both the historical interaction between different
language groups among Theravadins and its dynamic consolidation
in an area. Moreover, it will also elucidate the ways of regional
configurations between the texts and practices in a new paradigm to
be developed.
224
Notes
225
to preahvihea (equivalent to bot in Thailand and sim in Laos).
Another type of Buddhist building, sala chothian, built and used
by lay Buddhists like a vat, is the meeting place for Buddhist
Sabbath days to invite monks and novices. It is not regarded as
vat because it cannot hold ordination rites. Theoretically this
meeting place can be developed into vat but not for all cases.
See [Hayashi 1998].
(9) In turn, the words and sentences from written texts are con-
versely objectified as sacred implements employed by ritual
specialists. My argument about wicha (Pali: Vijja, “supreme
knowledge” like magical knowledge and skill in practical use)
and thamma (Dhamma, a Buddhicized protective power)
among the Thai-Lao in northeast Thailand is related to this
226
point [Hayashi 2000]. I suppose that it would be the mid-19th
century onwards that the role of scripts or the canon as the
media for transmission of ideas began to grow. That period
meant that each state tried to transliterate Pali into each
“national language” (script) in the wake of the centralization
of provincial administrations including sangha organizations.
In accordance with the standardization of Buddhism as a state
religion, both the literal transmission of ideas and a culture
of literacy came to be dominant, but have not totally replaced
the oral tradition, which is deeply rooted in each locality.
227
References
Goody, Jack 1987. The Interface between the Written and the Oral.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Gunaratne Panabokke 1993. History of the Buddhist Sangha in India
and Sri Lanka. Colombo: The Postgraduate Institute of Pali
and Buddhist Studies, University of Kelaniya [originally
written as his Ph.D. thesis, University of Lancaster, 1969].
<relations with Burma and Siam in restoring teaching of
Buddha see pp. 213-216 in this volume>
Hallet, Holt S. 1988 (1890). A Thousand Miles on an Elephant in
the Shan States. Bangkok: White Lotus.
228
Buddhist Cultures: Interim Report, vol.1], Osaka: National
Museum of Ethnology, pp. 87-119 (in Japanese).
Hayashi Yukio 1997. “Bukkyo no tagi sei: Kairitsu no sukui no
yukue (Multiple Realities of Theravada Buddhism: Salvation
and Precept),” In Aoki Tamotsu ed., Syukyo no Gendai
[Religions in Modern World: Iwanami Lectures of Cultural
Anthropology 11]. Tokyo: Iwanami Syoten, pp. 79-106 (in
Japanese).
--- do --- 1998. “Kanbojia ni okeru bukkyo jissen: ninaite to jiin no
fukko (Restoration of Buddhist Practices in Cambodia: with
special refernce to the Activities of Laymen and Temples),”
In Ohashi Hisatoshi ed., Kanbojia: Syakai to Bunka no
Dainamiksu [Cambodia: The Dynamics of Socieity and
Culure], Tokyo: Kokin Shoin, pp. 153-219 (in Japanese).
--- do --- 2000. “Spells and Boundaries: Wisa and Thamma among the
Thai-Lao in Northeast Thailand,” In Hayashi and and Yang
Guangyuan (eds.), Dynamics of Ethnic Cultures across Na-
tional Boundaries in Southwestern China and Mainland South-
east Asia: Relations, Societies, and Languages, Chiang Mai:
Ming Muang Publishing House, pp. 169-188.
--- do --- (forthcoming). Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao:
A Regional Study of Religion in the Making. Kyoto: Kyoto
University Press.
Keyes, Charles F. 1994. “Communist Revolution and the Buddhist
Past in Cambodia,” in Keyes, Charles F., Laurel Kendall and
Helen Hardacre (eds), Asian Visions of Authority: Religion
and the Modern States of East and Southeast Asia, Honolulu:
University of Hawaii Press, pp. 43-73.
229
Lefevre-Pontalis, Pierre 2000 (1902). Travels in Upper Laos and on
the Borders of Yunnan and Burma: The Pavie Mission
Indochina Papers 1879-1895. Bangkok: White Lotus [trans-
lated by Walter E.J. Tips.] (originally published as Mission
Pavie Indo-Chine, 1879-1895, Geigraphie et Voyages. V.
Voyages dans le Haut Laos et sur les Frontieres de Chine et
de Birmanie, Ernest Leroux: Paris.)
230