11 - The Nineteenth-Century Achievements of Religion and Sangha

Summary

Converse with any educated scholar-monk in Bangkok or the provincial centers and he is likely to tell you that the wat played an important educational role in the past, a role that has diminished in the past 70 to 80 years because of the impact of Western civilization on Thailand and the consequent increasing modernization and urbanization. The more vocal and ambitious monks would say that it is time that the sangha recaptured its old role; but they will also concede that the traditional monastic education is in many ways outmoded and needs to be restructured. But this restructuring itself presents dilemmas and doubts. On the one hand, scholar-monks moan the decreasing interest of novices and monks in continuing with traditional Pali studies as such beyond a certain point. Since the minimum Pali qualification required to enter an ecclesiastical university is parian prayog 4, many young monks or novices do not feel the need to carry their Pali studies further. As a result, many traditionally famous monastic centers of education have had to contract their teaching of Pali at higher levels and to concentrate on the lower levels only (prayog 3–6). At the same time, together with a diminution of interest in higher Pali studies goes an interest in acquiring modern secular knowledge on the part of novices and monks, so that they can keep up with the times and so that, it is claimed, they can play a more vital and relevant role in modern society.