著者

村嶋 英治

出版者

早稲田大学アジア太平洋研究センター

雑誌

アジア太平洋討究 (ISSN:1347149X)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.47, pp.49-72, 2023-12-15 (Released:2023-12-21)

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Today, Thai Buddhism is commonly referred to as Theravada (Thai pronunciation: Thērawāt) Buddhism. This is because the Buddhism that is practiced today in Sri Lanka and mainland Southeast Asia, which is based on Pali Buddhist scriptures, originated in Ceylon in the 3rd century BC and was established around the 5th century by Buddhaghosa and others in the Mahavihara Order, which is a Theravada lineage.However, it does not seem to be long ago that Thai Buddhists began calling themselves Theravada Buddhists.It was not until the second half of the 20th century that the term Theravada Buddhism became widely used to refer to Thai Buddhism.Before that, the name Hinayana Buddhism was widely used. At the Cabinet meeting on 13 January1930, King Rama VII (Prajadhipok) described Thailand’s state religion as Hinayana Buddhism. However, “Hinayana Buddhism” is a derogatory name from Mahayana Buddhism. The Thai dictionary published by the Thai Ministry of Education in 1928 also clearly states that Hinayana Buddhism is a derogatory term.So, why and when did Thailand begin to call itself Hinayana Buddhist country?It is believed that the major impetus for this was King Rama V (Chulalongkorn)’s use of “Hinayana Buddhism”, which he borrowed from A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects published in English by Japanese Mahayana Buddhists in 1886. In June 1900, a large group of Japanese Buddhist delegation in order to receive Buddha relics visited Thailand and donated the above- mentioned book to King Rama V. The king read the book closely with great interest, and in 1904, based on the knowledge he gained from the book and other sources, he gave the treatise of “Comparison of Hinayana Buddhism and Mahayana Buddhism” in letters to the high royalty. Since the king himself adopted the concept of Hinayana Buddhism to Thai Buddhism, it is believed that this was the beginning of the widespread use of the term Hinayana Buddhism by Thai intellectuals.On the other hand, it was around 1930 that the term Theravada Buddhism began to be used in Thailand in parallel with Hinayana Buddhism.Thailand is a multi-ethnic country, with Annamese people (overseas Vietnamese) and overseas Chinese living there, and their temples of Mahayana Buddhism have existed in the Bangkok area since at least the late 18th century. Both King Rama IV (King Mongkut) and Rama V (King Chulalongkorn) incorporated meritorious ceremonies (Kong Teck) performed by Annam monks at the funerals of important royal family members . Furthermore, King Rama V recognized the Annamese Mahayana Nikāya (Anam Nikāi) in 1878 and the Chinese Mahayana Nikāya (Chin Nikāi) in 1880. However, the king’s treatment of monks differed greatly between Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist monks. Annamese and Chinese monks were required to bow to the king. The Theravada monks, on the other hand, were to be worshipped by the king.Around 1930, interest in Mahayana scriptures arose in Thailand.The pioneering translation of Mahayana scriptures into Thai is thought to be the translation of the Amitabha Sutra (Kumarajiva’s version) by the Minister of Public Instruction (Education), Prince Dhani Nivat. Dhani translated the Amitabha Sutra from the English text, which he had obtained during his visit to Kyoto in November 1926, into Thai and published it in 1928. The Royal Thai Academy published a Thai translation of W. Woodville Rockhill’s Life of the Buddha, translated from Tibetan into English, in 1932, and a Thai translation of Dr S.Lefmann’s Sanskrit version of Lalita Vistara in the following year.