16 - Patronage of the Sangha and the Legitimation of the Polity

Summary

The Formal Hierarchy of Offices

Mulder (1969) has provided a useful chart indicating the hierarchical structure of the sangha and how it relates to the governmental system (and at the base to the village population). We may conveniently use it (Figure 16.1) as our point of departure.

At first sight it becomes obvious how the sangha hierarchy is directly modeled on the civil administration (even though the upper echelons of the organizational structure were radically changed in 1963). Today the supreme patriarch parallels the prime minister, and the Council of Elders the Council of Ministers; and again the territorial administrative divisions of the sangha and the polity (according to region, province, district, and village) closely parallel each other. It is also remarkable how the number of lay and religious officials at regional, provincial, district, and commune levels are closely matched, the symmetry disappearing only at the lowest level of wat and hamlet/village (muban). On account of these formal similarities we might be seduced into thinking that there is a dual pattern of ecclesiastical and secular authority in Thailand, each being supreme in its own domain, both finally converging at the apex under the umbrella of the king, who is both head of government and protector of Buddhism. This impression is only partially true, because this formal patterning does not reveal the political reality behind it, a reality that signifies asymmetry rather than equality.