Workshop on:
Buddhism and the Crisis of Nation-States in Asia

Date:	19-20 June 2008.
Location:	Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore @ Bukit Timah Campus 469A Tower Block, Level 10, Bukit Timah Road

• Principal Investigator: Dr. Pattana Kitiarsa

 While the post 9/11 international communities have focused their attention on Islam and its political involvements, the Buddhist counterparts throughout Asian continent have been increasingly visible and vocal. Indeed, no religion is politically free and neutral, including Buddhism with its peaceful and non-violent principles. In Buddhism Betrayed?: Religion, Politics and Violence in Sri Lanka, Stanley Tambiah (1992) has struggled to come to terms with this discomfiting question: “If Buddhism preached nonviolence, why is there so much political violence in Sri Lanka today”. This question has well echoed current political situations in most Asian Buddhist states.

Buddhism has had problematic relationships with the rulers and the modern states. Since after the Second World War, Buddhism has served as a spiritual and political backbone to many of the “new Asian states”. Buddhism has pervaded the politics of nation building and modernization processes in Asia’s new Buddhist-dominated nation-states. In Tibet, the Buddhist Sangha was perhaps the sole spiritual and political force of resistance against the Chinese annexation in early 1960s. In Sri Lanka, Singhalese Buddhism is the foundation of its postcolonial nation building project, yet it has failed to establish itself as a dominant source of moral authority for the new nation. In Laos and Cambodia, traditional Buddhism has been contested by the socialist vision of imagined community. The Sangha in both Indochinese countries have found themselves excluded from the socialist governments’ national ideologies. They have performed the dual roles of reviving and regaining moral and political legitimacy, and healing their countries’ traumatic experiences from their violent revolutionary pasts. In Myanmar, young, radical Buddhist monks consider themselves as the sole organized force and institution to contest the oppressive military regime which has been in power since 1962. The recent “Saffron Revolution” stands as a testimony to this historical tension of Buddhist polity in the country. In Thailand, Buddhism has been fragmented from a relatively centralized Sangha entity into smaller communities of faiths and believers. Although Thai Buddhism is considerably strong as a state-sponsored, nationalistic religion, it has been weakening by sectarianism, consumerism, and materialism in the past three to four decades. Thai Buddhism’s political functions are also well documented.

The workshop was timely in terms of both current political situations throughout Asia’s Buddhist world and scholarly interests. It brought together top scholars working on Buddhism in Asia to examine the “crises of nation-states” in Asia’s Buddhist countries. It explored complex situations and issues pertinent to the changing status and role of Buddhism in the far-from-complete processes of nation-state building and modernization in major Buddhist countries in the region. It also compared the paths, patterns, and processes which Buddhism has undertaken in its role as a traditional source of moral and political authority in various states. Some of the questions that were explored are 1) to what extent has the Buddhist Sangha in each Asian nation been involved in the politics of nation-building and modernization? 2) how and why Buddhism negotiates with some of the dynamic forces of secular governance and overall secularization of modern culture and society. A total of 16 papers and invited speakers addressed issues concerning the following themes: (1) Buddhist Polity Revisited; (2) Buddhist Visions and Politics of Nation Building; (3) Buddhist Fundamentalism and Nationalism; (4) Militant and Socially-Engaged Monks and Nuns; and (5) The Politics of Buddhist Piety and Fragmentation.

 PROGRAM

 Please click here for the  program and abstracts.

 FOR ENQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT:

 Organiser:

Dr Pattana Kitirasa

Southeast Asian Studies Program, National University of Singapore

Email: seapk@nus.edu.sg