THE ROLE OF KING MONGKUT IN IMPROVEMENT OF BUDDHISM IN THAILAND

Abstract

The purposes of this thesis are 1) to study development of Buddhism in Thailand 2) to study development of Buddhism in the reigns of King Rama III and King Mongkut 3) to integrate development of Buddhism in the reign of  King Mongkut 4) to propose a new approach in creating new knowledge about ‘development models of Buddhism in Thailand in the reign of King Mongkut.’ This research is a qualitative research through analyzation of data from the Pali Canon, Commentaries, texts and relevant documents as the principle source of data and also conducted a deep interview with 15 Buddhist scholars and historians.   

The results of the thesis were found that:  

1. Buddhism in Thailand is the Theravada Buddhism of Sri Lankan lineage which have been adhered as a national religion of Thailand respectively from the Sukhothai, Ayutthaya, Thonburi and Rattankosin periods to the present day.
2. Buddhism in the reign of King Rama III was the original Buddhism or traditional Buddhism which was adhered by the most of the population. Whereas Buddhism in the reign of King Mongkut principally went through a massive reformation. The reformation of Buddhism covered both on Buddhist studies and practices. The reformation took in different aspects: on educational perspective of Buddhist studies and practices, on collections of the Tipitaka texts to its completion, on teaching Buddhism both to monks and layman to get a right knowledge and understanding particularly focused on education and producing religious personals.
3. King Mongkut’s integration with the development of Buddhism in Thailand has 4 dimensions: textual, educational, creedal, and practical. This conduces to gain a new knowledge about King Mongkut and development of Buddhism in Thailand on 3 aspects i.e. knowledgeable, disciplinary, and meditativeness. Knowledgeable means in the level of the primary development process one must develop proficiency in knowledge, mastering the right knowledge and become an expert. Disciplinary means discipline oneself as well as strictly follow disciplines according to doctrines and disciplines. Moreover, this has to go with having a proper discernment and belief which must be along the right view. Meditativeness means minding in meditational practice. In case of monastics they must mind in the practice of Samtha and Vipassana meditations. In case of layman they must mind in Dhamma practice i.e. keeping precepts and developing meditation. One who follows this proper practice is the one who is considered to be a Dhamma practitioner or holding on to the Dhamma i.e. the right principle which is labeled as Dhammayuttika. 4. New knowledge we gained from King Mongkut’s integration with the development of Buddhism in Thailand is the KDM Model.