Reform Symbolism of a Thai Middle–Class Sect: The Growth and Appeal of the Thammakai Movement

Abstract

The Thammakai movement in Thailand has won increasing attention over the past decade for its popularity, for the devotion of its supporters and the size of their contributions, and for its links with influential individuals in the Thai government, army, and business communities. This suburban monastery's ability to draw a congregation of 50,000 participants each year for its most publicized annual religious observance is perhaps unprecedented in Thai ecclesiastical history. Thammakai leaders see themselves heading a key Buddhist reform movement to improve the lives of their followers, to strengthen the religion, and to bring prosperity to the nation. But Thammakai's detractors criticize the meditation method around which the movement has been built, deplore the movement's expenditure rates and fund-raising techniques, charge that it uses hypnotic mind-control methods over its followers, and criticize its increasingly acquisitive tendencies. Thai observers of all persuasions have noted Thammakai's skilful use of positive national and religious symbols in its public relations, its abilities in organizing students and young urban professionals to work for organizational goals, and its skill at staging visually and emotionally appealing public displays.

Divine self and selves: Religious practices and orientations toward religion among adolescents in globalizing northern Thailand.

“…Still others have pointed to increasing consumerism from within religious institutions. Scholars have studied the commercialization of Thai Buddhism, whereby Buddhism is transformed into a commodity (Kitiarsa, 2008), and to Thammakai , a fast-growing Buddhist movement (Taylor, 1990; Zehner, 1990). Commercialism and religious consumerism are central to Thammakai (Sricharatchanya & Burama, 1987), for its followers are told that the more money they donate to the temple, the more good karma they receive.…”

Cyber-Buddhism and Changing Urban Space in Thailand

“…Take, for instance, the modernist Thammakaai Movement (see Apinya, 1993;Suwanna, 1990;Taylor, 1990;Zehner, 1990), which I would argue is a hyperrational, neoliberal consumerist response to normative (state) conservative/traditional Buddhism. 8 Thammakaai maintains an internal structure and spatial ordering that incorporates the global logico-morality of the postfordist marketplace and a simulated outcome of (late) modernist cultural and political identity.…”

Constrictive Constructs: Unravelling the influence of Weber's sociology on Theravada studies since the 1960s

“…Initiated by King Mongkut, Reform Buddhism redefines one's present/future place in the new capitalistic society according to one's own action in this life (Keyes, 1989). Reform Buddhism is characterised by: 'rational(-isation, or -ism)' (Keyes, 1989, 124-142), 'revitalisation' 61 (Zehner, 1990, 404 -406;Swearer, 1991 note 87), 'capitalism' (Jackson, 1989;Taylor 1990, 154;Keyes 1987 Chapter 7), 62 'secularisation' (Zehner, 1990), 63 'individualistic' movements (Taylor, 1990), 'internal conversion' 64 (Zehner, 1990), 'fundamentalistic' movements (Swearer, 1991), and 'resistance and protest' (Swearer, 1999). …”