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History of Buddhism in Thailand - 20th-21st CenturiesSteadily more centralized and hierarchical in nature and its links to the state more institutionalised Continued from << History of Buddhism in Thailand - 13th-19th Centuries Modern era History of Buddhism in Thailand - By the nineteenth century, and especially with the coming to power in 1851 of King Mongkut - Rama IV (Reigned from 2nd Apr 1851 to 1st Oct 1868), who had been a monk himself for twenty-seven years, the sangha, like the kingdom, became steadily more centralized and hierarchical in nature and its links to the state more institutionalised. As a monk, King Mongkut was a distinguished scholar of Pali Buddhist scripture. Moreover, at that time the immigration of numbers of monks from Burma was introducing the more rigorous discipline characteristic of the Mon sangha. Influenced by the Mon and guided by his own understanding of the Tipitaka, King Mongkut began a reform movement that later became the basis for the Dhammayuttika order of monks. Under the reform, all practices having no authority other than custom were to be abandoned, canonical regulations were to be followed not mechanically but in spirit, and acts intended to improve an individual's standing on the road to nirvana but having no social value were rejected. This more rigorous discipline was adopted in its entirety by only a small minority of monasteries and monks.  The Mahanikaya order, perhaps somewhat influenced by King Mongkut's reforms but with a less exacting discipline than the Dhammayuttika order, comprised about 95 percent of all monks in 1970 and probably about the same percentage in the late 1980s. In any case, King Mongkut was in a position to regularize and tighten the relations between monarchy and sangha at a time when the monarchy was expanding its control over the country in general and developing the kind of bureaucracy necessary to such control. The administrative and sangha reforms that Mongkut started were continued by his successor. In 1902 King Chulalongkorn (Rama V, 1868-1910) made the new sangha hierarchy formal and permanent through the Sangha Law of 1902, which remained the foundation of sangha administration in modern Thailand. Next >> History of Buddhism in Thailand - What Influences Thai Buddhism? History of Buddhism in Thailand - 20th-21st Centuries Text adapted from 'Buddhism in Thailand' from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
 The Buddhist Flag 
Buddhist Flag Meanings
King Mongkut (18 Oct 1804 - 1 Oct 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam under the Chakri Dynasty, ruling from 1851-1868. He was one of the most revered monarchs of the country. Outside of Thailand he is best-known as the King represented in the play and film The King and I, based on the 1946 film Anna and the King of Siam - in turn based on the writing of Anna Leonowens, born in India, about her six years at the Siamese Royal Court. The Dharma Wheel 
In Buddhism-according to the Pali Canon, Vinayapitaka, Khandhaka,
Mahavagga, the number of spokes of the Dharmachakra represent
various meanings: Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo is a Japanese Buddhist
chant based upon the Lotus Sutra. Nichiren Daishonin (Feb 16, 1222 – Oct
13, 1282) a Buddhist monk who lived during the Kamakura period (1185–1333)
in Japan. Nichiren taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra, entitled Myōhō-Renge-Kyō in
Japanese, as the exclusive means to attain enlightenment and the chanting of
Nam-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō as the essential practice of the teaching.
Various schools with diverging interpretations of Nichiren's teachings comprise
Nichiren Buddhism.  Thailand Travel Guide  |
