Buddhism has been considered to be the core of Thai identity since the establishment of the first
Kingdom in the 13th century. Though the present constitution does not make it compulsory for
every Thai to follow the Buddhist beliefs and practices, for the majority of the Thai population
one cannot be a true Thai without being a Buddhist. Since early times the Thai sangha, the order
of Buddhist monks, has been integrated into the state structure to provide legitimation for the
monarch and/or political rulers. The institution of kingship, sangha and nation are considered as
the basic triad of social solidarity and identity. They have been so intermingled in the course of
history and are so deeply meaningful to the hearts of the people as to form the core of what may
be called the civic Thai culture.
Life
The cause-effect nature of life
The teaching of Buddhism centers primarily on human existence consisting of life, suffering,
death and the way out of it. The Buddhist perspective on life, suffering and death can never be
truly understood apart from the Buddhist laws of causality (Paticcasamuppada) and mutation.
For the Buddhist these two laws are natural laws that operate universally in all physical and
mental phenomena. The law of cause and effect is thus expressed: "when this exists, that exists,
when this arises, that arises, when this is not, that is not, when this ceases, that ceases."1 This is
interpreted as meaning that all that exists is the result of antecedent causes. Each "event" or
"happening" acts as the cause or the necessary condition for the arising of the following event,
which then provokes or causes another event. Thus, as used in Buddhism, the relation between
cause and effect is only that of the earlier to the later phase of a single process. Therefore, in the
context of this natural law, life consists of many psychophysical factors.2 It is a fabric of causes
and effects, arising existing and continuing by the concatenation of these factors mutually
conditioning one another. In Buddhism this process is specifically referred to as the kamma
process. Kamma (or karma in Sanskrit) means volitional activity whether mental, verbal or
physical. The concept is used to emphasize that life consists of interwoven activities of causes
and effects. In this sense the preceding cause transmits its potential force to, and is received by,
the following effect. Life is made possible because each of these factors is both conditioning and
conditioned, with no beginning and no end point : the process is an endless cycle. Death is
considered an integral part of existence and is one phase of this endless cycle; in no sense is
death seen as terminating the cycle. This conditioned existence is called in the Buddhist texts
samsara3 and represented in Buddhist art by the Wheel of Life (bhavacakra).4 This is in contrast
to the unconditioned state of nibbana (nirvana in Sanskrit), which is the Buddhist highest ideal.5