When discussing about religious conflicts in Thailand, more often than not many would think about what happen in the deep south where it has become some sort of anarchy. There are constantly bombings and shootings. Buddhist monks and buddhist people got killed. However, I think the issue in there are complicated and it wasn’t really all about the religions alone. So, I’m not going to talk about it. Rather, I would like to focus more on the internal conflict of Buddhism in Thailand instead today.
As you know, the majority of this country say they practice buddhism. So, aside from what happens in the deep south, there isn’t much to talk about religions conflicts in this country. However, I think that the buddhists here which are the majority have internal conflict. We have two fractions: one is the conservative and the other is the progressive one, I don’t really want to use the word liberal in this context.
Anyway, the heart of such an internal conflict among Buddhism in Thailand lies in how the Thai way of Buddhism cannot get along very well with the new ways of life which are highly influenced by the west. Traditionally, people are very submissive and conservative. But things have changed. Many people have stood up and dropped the old buddhist values like not caring so much about virginity. And those who are still conservative are freaking out because of such a new practice.
So, there are many debates about the lifestyles that we take after the west. And most of the times the conservative will bring up something like, “This is Thailand. It is a buddhist country,” to tell the other fraction to have some respect and stop doing what they do. Aside from that, the internal conflict in among the buddhists also involves sweeping things under the rug. Like they would pretend to not see something or prohibit others to discuss it because it contradicts the country’s image of being the “Buddhist Land.”
For example, a Thai film which was believed to reflect what’s going on with the monks in this country got temporarily banned. Again, the conservative said something like the film created a bad image of the country where Buddhism is like the national religion. But then let’s face it. The film does really reflect the reality. It’s true that we have bad monks everywhere who violate the buddhist precepts.
So, people argued fiercely when the film got banned. I think this shows the internal conflict of the buddhists in Thailand really well that there are those who have adapted and those who try to put things under the rug. And when you might not see it as severe as the religions conflict in the deep south or in the Middle East, this internal conflict actually shows that even people in the same religion could disagree and see things differently.