From Medicalizing State to Sacralizing Status of Thai Buddhist Monks in Secular Space: A Case Study of the Priest Hospital

This paper examines the sacred status of Thai Buddhist monks who have been engaging with the modern secular healthcare system, which also contrasts with their monastic traditions. It questions how modern medication has affected the sacred figure of Thai monks and what is their reaction to maintain their sacred status in such a secular space? Participant observations and informal interviews have been conducted, and data are conceptualized through the ideas of the birth of the clinic and biopower proposed by Michel Foucault. It finds that the traditional healing previously played by Thai monks has been challenged by modern medication eventually the monks also access the modern hospital. This phenomenon helps to change the idea of the cause of sickness, from demons to germs. This is interesting when some Buddhists request the monastic code-based healthcare system and monk patients’ zone. This paper argues that such an effort aims to maintain the sacred status of monks, who are perceived as holy persons and should not be seen by laypeople especially when they are in sickness, pain, and sorrow, which portray their ordinary human natures. Therefore, zoning management in the government hospital is needed to sacralize the monks’ status.

A Buddhist Monastic Code as a Source for Indian Law

Kane asserted that Indian “Buddhists” did not have any independent legal ideas or instruments, and, in effect, did not—in fact, could not—contribute anything to Dharmaśāstra or Indian Law. Even in his day, however, evidence was available that rendered his position untenable, and the recent re-dating of some major texts makes it even more so. Indeed, on the basis of a single Buddhist Vinaya, or monastic code, it can be shown that the relationship between Buddhist monastic law and Dharmaśāstra can be both complex and variable, and there are clear cases where Buddhist developments appear to have had priority.

An Interpretation of the Relationship between Chan-Buddhism and the State with Reference to the Monastic Code at the End of the Yuan Era

Based on the monastic code entitled

The Valley of Dantig and the myth of exile and return

The valley of Dantig in Amdo plays a central role in Tibetan Buddhist historical literature as the place where the monastic code was maintained during the tenth century after the dissolution of the monasteries in central Tibet. This article shows that a manuscript (now kept at the British Library) carried by a Chinese pilgrim monk through this region in the 960s, which mentions Dantig, is the only direct documentary evidence of Tibetan monastic culture in this region at this time. The authors also show how the nameDantig, which has been previously unexplained, derives from theSudāna Sūtra, a Buddhist narrative of exile and return that is directly relevant to the aspirations of the refugee monks from central Tibet who settled in the region.