began in the Ayutthaya period, although the system
of nine grades or levels dates from the reign of Rama
II (1809–1824). Over the years its content has
changed; today it includes study of Wachirayan’s Pali
grammar, the DHAMMAPADAcommentary, BUDDHA-
GHOSA’s commentary on the vinaya and Visuddhi-
magga(Path to Purification), as well as study of the
abhidhammaand the commentary on the Man ̇gala-
sutta(Man ̇galatthadlpanl) written in 1525 C.E. by Si-
riman ̇gala, northern Thailand’s greatest Pali scholar.
Buddhism and Thai society
In times past it was said that to be Thai was to be Bud-
dhist. Although the place of Buddhism as the linchpin
of Thai identity has eroded due to the onslaught of
globalization and rapid social change, the great ma-
jority of Thais still find Buddhism to be a locus of per-
sonal meaning and community identity. The Buddhist
worldview continues to inform the lives of both urban
and rural Thais: the transformative ideal of NIRVANA;
the natural law of cause and effect and its conse-
quentialist ethic based on KARMA(ACTION) and RE-
BIRTH; the values of generosity and hospitality; the
ideals of equanimity, compassion, and nonviolence;
the merit-making exchange that binds monk and laity
together in a relationship of mutual reciprocity; and
attitudes toward social hierarchy and gender.
These principles and values continue to be enacted
in social relationships, including the ways in which
children relate to parents, younger people to older peo-
ple, and men to women. The rituals that define a life
passage from birth to death and the festivals that mark
a similar passage of the year, in the past tied more ob-
viously to seasonal change and an agriculture calendar,
have not disappeared even though they are attenuated
in urban settings. Scores of young men still ordain an-
nually as novice monks for a brief period, perhaps
during a summer vacation rather than the traditional
three-month rains-retreat from mid-July to mid-
October. Temporary ordination has been the norm in
Thailand for centuries, a very small percentage decid-
ing to remain in the monkhood for a lifetime.
According to traditional lore, spending a few
months as a monk “ripens” a young man and prepares
him for responsible family and community life after he
disrobes. Furthermore, ORDINATIONnot only func-
tions as a male rite of passage into adulthood, it ac-
crues special merit for one’s parents, especially one’s
mother. Girls participate only as onlookers, unlike
Burmese custom where both boys and girls are in-
cluded in shinbyuceremonies that end in temporary
ordination for males and ear-boring for females. An-
thropologists speculate that prostitution may have a
perverse tie to the ideology of merit-making in Thai-
land. Since there is no women’s san ̇gha, females are
denied the male opportunity to make merit for their
parents; they can, however, help prevent their parents
from falling into penury by supporting them from
money earned as prostitutes (Muecke).
Other rites of passage continue to be observed in
Thailand, often incorporating beliefs and practices
more animistic than Buddhist. Life transitions of all
kinds may be marked by spirit-calling rites (pithlriak
khwan), and illness or other personal and community
crises are occasions for life-extension (su’pchata) ritu-
als. Monks will be invited to conduct protective ritu-
als (suat mon/tham yan) for a new home, building, or
business, and funerals at monasteries and in homes are
such important ritual occasions that a unique chant
style was developed for these occasions.
Annual festivals continue to serve as events where
both men and women, young and old, experience a
sense of belonging to a local community and a nation.
For some, such as the Thai New Year celebrated at the
end of April before the May monsoon rains, commer-
cialism nearly overwhelms traditional practices. How-
ever, the old customs of paying respect to elders,
building sand “mountains” (chedl) on the monastery
grounds, and lustrating Buddha images and relics per-
dure. The annual preaching of the Vessantara-jataka
(thet mahachat) in November has given way to movies,
video, and rock concerts, but the Festival of the Float-
ing Boats (loi kratong) held during the same month
survives in altered form, with the traditional banana-
leaf rafts floated on ponds, lakes, and rivers replaced
by Styrofoam boats. VisakhaPuja, a celebration of the
Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death, and the be-
ginning and end of the monastic rains-retreat endure
not only as opportunities to make merit for the bene-
fit of one’s self and extended family both living and
dead, but as an affirmation of one’s identity as a Thai
Buddhist.Buddhism and the twenty-first century
To retain a continuing relevance to changing circum-
stances and conditions, religious traditions themselves
must change. The Thailand of today differs vastly from
the Tai kingdoms of the fourteenth century and also
from the state Buddhism promoted by King Chula-
longkorn and Supreme Patriarch Wachirayan in the
early twentieth. Buddhism in Thailand today is markedTHAILAND