Missionary Intent and Monastic Networks: Thai Buddhism As a Transnational Religion (Essay‪)‬

In this essay, I explore the recent expansion of Thai Buddhism abroad as part of religious transnationalization across international borders. By Thai Buddhism, I mean the beliefs, practices, and institutions pertinent to the Theravada Buddhist tradition which has been widely adopted as a state-sponsored religion and an organized way of social life by the majority of people living in Thailand. Formally divided into Mahanikai and Thammayut Orders, Theravada Buddhism from Thailand is one of the recognized brands of Buddhism in the outside world. Although its primary aim is to serve communities of Thai and other Buddhist followers outside the Thai territories, the mission to spread Buddhism abroad has been adopted as a core religious mission by Thailand's Sangha Supreme Council (Mahathera Samakhom; hereafter the Sangha) since the 1970s (Cadge and Sidhorn Sangdhanoo 2005). I suggest that Theravada Buddhism as a traveling religion from Thailand deserves close scholarly attention. I focus my discussion on the following questions: how and why Thai Buddhism has emerged as a notable transnational Buddhist movement? What are the major factors underlining such a phenomenal exportation of Buddhist faith to the rest of the world? How can the bordercrossing mobility of Buddhism enhance our critical understanding of the politics of religious transnationalism as a multidimensional phenomenon involving several actors and complex religio-cultural processes? I address these questions by drawing on the information which I gathered from my fieldwork in Thailand and Singapore, and some ethnographic observations of Thai Buddhist temples in the United States and elsewhere. The study of the transnational aspect of Thai Buddhism is relatively uncharted academic territory. Scholarly works focusing on Thai Buddhism as transnational religious endeavours of committed groups of people to "keep feet in both worlds" (Levitt 2001, p. 21) of old and new homelands are very rare. Thai Buddhism as a field of academic inquiry is exclusively limited to analyses of the religious traditions and phenomena within the national boundaries of modern Thailand. Studies of Thai Buddhism usually draw a clear distinction between two academic entities: Thai Buddhism at home and Thai Buddhism abroad. It is a common practice that the two research subjects are kept away from each other. There are small numbers of recent studies of Thai Buddhism beyond Thailand, such as Cadge (2005), Cadge and Sangdhanoo (2005), Payutto (1999, 2002), and Seager (1999) on Thai Buddhism and the big picture of Buddhism in America, Cate (2003) on mural paintings at Wat Buddhapadipa and aspects of Thai Buddhism in the United Kingdom, and my other work on Thai Buddhism in Singapore (Kitiarsa 2007). I intend to show some transnational ties and institutionalized support from the homeland which make Thai Buddhism a religion of transnational expansion while retaining its ethnocultural identities and national roots.