152 CHAPTER SEVEN7 .4.3 ThailandAs mentioned previously, Thailand did not come under colonial rule, although
this is not to say that the survival of the Thai monarchy during the colonial
period was a foregone conclusion. With pressure from the British in the west
and south, and from the French in the north and east, Thai monarchs had to
follow a skillful campaign of external diplomacy and internal reform to re-
main in power. Religious reform was an important part of this campaign.
King Rama IV (r. 1851-68) had been ordained as a monk for nearly 30
years before his ascent to the throne, and during that time had begun his own
personal reform from within the Thai Sangha. The reform was called the
Dhammayut (In Accordance with the Dhamma) movement, and entailed an
unusual combination of strict adherence to the Vinaya and a more rationalist,
critical attitude toward the Pali Suttas, Abhidhamma, and commentariallitera-
ture in particular. It is difficult to ascertain whether Rama IV's historical per-
spective on the relative authority of the commentaries resulted from his
contact with westerners-he was an avid fan ofWestern science-or from a
more traditional Thai skepticism toward the commentaries, which were pri-
marily a Sri Lankan and Burmese enterprise. But at any rate, his view set the
tone for Thai Pali studies up to the present time.
The reign ofKing Rama V (r. 1868-1910) was marked by a drive for cen-
tralization that weakened the Sangha in some respects but strengthened it in
others. On the one hand, a secular educational system was established, taking
the traditional role of teacher from the monks and placing it in the hands of
lay teachers who received their orders from the central government. Thus,
even though the Thais, unlike the Sri Lankans and Burmese, were not saddled
with a Christian educational s').s,tem, Thai monks were stripped of one of their
most important social roles. When Western medicine began its spread through
Thailand in the latter part of the 1800s, monks were deprived of yet another
important social role, which began to make them seem superfluous in the eyes
of many educated Thais.
On the other hand, Rama V, together with his half-brother, the Prince-
Patriarch Vajiraiial).a, succeeded in creating a national organization for the
Thai Sangha, uniting all the various regional groupings except one-ironi-
cally, their father's Dhammayut movement-into a single sect, called the
Mahanikaya (Great Sect). The Dhammayut was formally declared a separate
sect, although both sects were placed under a single ecclesiastical authority.
The Prince-Patriarch wrote a series of new textbooks, reflecting a rationalist
approach to the Dharma and the legends surrounding the Buddha. These text-
books became the basis for nationally administered ecclesiastical exams that
were meant not only to standardize knowledge of the Dharma throughout the
country, but also to form the prerequisite for advancement through the system
of ecclesiastical rank instituted by the government.
These reforms had their onerous side as well. Ancient, noncanonical texts
from outlying parts of the country were brought into Bangkok for evaluation.
If they were found to conflict with the new curriculum, they were burned,