Imperialism, Buddhism and Islam in Siam: Exploring the Buddhist secular in the Nangsue Sadaeng Kitchanukit, 1867

Abstract

This article argues for understanding the reform of the Buddhist tradition in nineteenth-century Siam as a shift towards a secular conceptual grammar, and positions this shift within the dual imperial context of Siam. The binary conceptual structure that can be traced in the Nangsue Sadaeng Kitchanukit (Elaboration on major and minor matters, 1867) also included an opposition between Buddhism and Islam, documenting not only the epistemic marks of the Christian missionary encounter, but also the inner-political imperial context of Siam's hegemony over the Islamic sultanate of Patani.

Buddhism and Comparative Constitutional Law

“…Although similar restrictions were abandoned in Cambodia, Buddhist monks there have launched pressure campaigns encouraging the government to reintroduce such measures (Lawrence 2022). Analogous dynamics can be found throughout colonial and postcolonial Asia (Streicher 2021a; Brac de la Perrière 2021). This kind of logic, which urges separation of religion and politics in the name of protecting the former against the latter, is, of course, familiar to historians of American constitutional law: similar rationales appear in Madison's "Letter to the Danbury Baptists."…”

Religion, political parties, and Thailand’s 2019 election: Cosmopolitan royalism and its rivals

“…The Thai word that is being used-satsana-could refer to either Buddhism specifically or religion in general. When this constitutional clause was first introduced, in 1932, it was made clear that satsana should be interpreted as a reference to religion as an umbrella concept(Larsson 2021) Streicher (2021). provides a fascinating analysis of how, in the course of the nineteenth century, satsana came to refer to 'religion' in the abstract.9 The Thai state has official links with many other religious organizations as well, but these are less well developed and institutionalized (Khemthong 2020, 93-99).10 One might add that what I call 'cosmopolitan royalism' serves as the ideological scaffolding for whatStreicher (2020, 2) refers to as the 'imperial politics' of the modern Thai state: 'the operation of rule through the management of difference generally and the Othering of Islam in particular'.…”

“…When this constitutional clause was first introduced, in 1932, it was made clear that satsana should be interpreted as a reference to religion as an umbrella concept (Larsson 2021). Streicher (2021) provides a fascinating analysis of how, in the course of the nineteenth century, satsana came to refer to ‘religion’ in the abstract.…”