The Importance of
Monasteries in Thailand
The number of Buddhist
novice monks is rising each year in Thailand. The official figure for the year
2000 was 97 875 novices. It is easy to think that more young men are being
drawn to the religious life. But according to Phra Peter Pannapadipo (an English
monk who has lived in Thai monasteries for ten years and who has just written a
book entitled Little Angels), this is not the reason for the increase in
novices.
He said that the
increase is more likely an indication of the continuing poverty and lack of
opportunity among the many disadvantaged Thai families, especially in rural
areas. It is a sad reflection of parents' inability to care for and educate
their children.
Phra Peter Pannapadipo
explains that boys from the rural areas of Thailand become novices because
there is nowhere else for them to go. Sometimes their impoverished parents
cannot afford to feed them or send them to school. For many boys therefore,
ordaining and studying at monastic high schools is the only way they can
complete their secular education. In a few monasteries, however, becoming a
novice for a time is a way of testing a man's spiritual commitment to the
monastic life before he becomes a monk.
The majority of novices
are in their late teens, but they can be as young as seven to as old as 20.
After 20, a novice is expected to be either ordained as a full monk,
or disrobe entirely.
Experts say that
monasteries play an important role and act as a social support system that has
been around for some time. "Ordaining as a novice or a monk has been part
of Thai society for a long time. This is the way the monastery and the
community support each other," said a professor of' the Social
Administration Faculty at Thammasat University. "In fact, providing
education for young boys and sheltering them from some bad surroundings, so
called `social work education', has been one of the most important roles of
Thai monasteries from the beginning," she added.
Novices usually study
during the week. Apart from walking on the dawn alms round and attending
morning and evening services, they have their own duties. These include for
example, keeping the monastery grounds swept, or preparing candles and incense
for ceremonies. Their schedules can be full beginning as early as 5.00 a.m. and
ending as late as 11.00 p.m.
Many novices disrobe
after six years of high school studies at these monastery schools. Some return
to their villages, others look for jobs in the cities. Some ambitious few, if
they can find money or obtain a scholarship, pursue further studies. The rest,
less than a handful, stay on to practice Buddha's teachings for the rest of
their life. They look for another monastery or stay on at the present one.
Summary: Thai monasteries play
an important role in providing education to Thai boys and sheltering them from
'bad' surroundings. Often parents are too poor to keep their children at home
or to send them to normal schools, so they send them to monastic schools. At
the monastery, the boys receive secular and religious education and at the same
time learn to keep the monastery clean and prepare incense for ceremonies. On
completion of monastic life, the boys either return to their villages or look
for jobs in cities. Some try to pursue their studies further or become
full-time monks.
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