Tai-Burmese-Lao Buddhisms in the ‘Modernizing' of Ban Thawai (Bangkok): the Dynamic Interaction Between Ethnic Minority Religion and British–Siamese Centralization in the Late Nineteenth/Early Twentieth Centuries
Buddhism; Study & Teaching of Bilingual Education; Multiculturalism; Burmese Social Conditions
摘要
Drawing on extensive Thai literary and oral history sources this article sets out to explain the complex social, political, ethnic and religious framework within which the opening by ‘the Irish Buddhist’ U Dhammaloka of a free, bilingual and multi-ethnic Buddhist school at Wat Ban Thawai, Bangkok in May 1903 acquires a broader and deeper significance. The article documents the mutual relationships between the local Buddhisms of Tai, Burmese and Lao ethnic minorities and the politics of British-Siamese alliance in the period before and during the First World War. It examines the British-Siamese support of these Buddhist communities in Bangkok and explores the British-Siamese use of their diplomatic relationship with the Tai, Burmese and Lao ethnic minorities in Ban Thawai and elsewhere (i.e. across the borders between Siam and Burma) in order to centralize power. It also discusses the anomalous effect of British and French influence in Ban Thawai which allowed local resistance to Siamese centralization and saṅgha reform.
目次
Introduction 94 British colonization and British-Siamese centralization mid nineteenth to early twentieth centuries 96 Key events: treaties, transformation of the urban landscape and migration 98 The Bowring and other treaties and their consequences 98 The transformation of the urban landscape in Bangkok 100 Migration, mid-1880s to early 1900s 101 Royal marriages 102 Tai-Burmese-Lao Buddhist communities at four important temples in Ban Thawai under British-Siamese support and control 104 Political control of temples 104 Unexpected fruits of this control 105 Conclusion 109 Acknowledgements 110 Notes 110 References 113 Material in Thai 113 Material in English 114
