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Visions of Salvation: a Thai Buddhist Experience of Ecumenism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

David Gosling
David Gosling
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

Migration from the countryside to urban provincial centres and capital cities is a major reason why rural communities in southeast Asia suffer extensively from acute poverty and ill health. In Thailand, as elsewhere, it is principally the young and able who move to the cities in search of jobs, and whose departure impoverishes even more their home communities. The Thai Sangha has traditionally accommodated this pattern of migration by providing educational opportunities for those who ordain at an early age, but in recent years a variety of schemes has enabled monks to learn secular skills which equip them to become ‘practitioners of development’ in their home regions. This training has gone hand in hand with attempts by leading scholar monks to reformulate Buddhist teaching to emphasize the importance of living in self-reliant communities which are alert to the most up-to-date scientific information available on health care and environmental protection.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 31 - 47
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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