Thailand: Land of Buddhism

Thailand: Land of Buddhism

When searching a topic to write for this term paper, I was studying about Geography of Religions. Really interest with this subject, I tried to find a country, which has an attractive religion, to write about. And it is Thailand with its national religion, Buddhism. My home country, Vietnam, is also a nation of Buddhism. However, based on my own knowledge, and searching information, there are many differences about Buddhism between Thailand and Vietnam. It is really interesting and serves as a motivation for me to write this paper. Through it, I gain knowledge not only about Thailand but also my home country, Vietnam.

I. Location:

Located in Southeast Asia, Thailand has a large land area of 513,115 square kilometers. It is bordered by Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea. In learning to draw the map of Thailand, Thai children are taught that the country is shaped like an elephant's head, with the trunk of the elephant dropping south towards Singapore and its ear pointed towards Cambodia.

The population of Thailand is more than 65,000,000 people, 75% are Thai and 14% are Chinese. Bangkok and Chiang Mai are the two biggest cities where 10,000,000 Thais are living. Generally, Thailand is still very much a rural country, with the majority of Thais living in small villages.

As stated above, Thailand is a country of Buddhism; more than 95% of Thais are Buddhists. The rest of the population comprises about 3% Muslims, and 2% Christians and others.

II. Apply 5 themes of Cultural Geography to Buddhism in Thailand:

1. Religious Region: After created by Prince Siddhartha Gautama (536 B.C.), Buddhism today has two main trends: Theravada (the Way of the Elders) and Mahayana (the Great Vehicle) . The biggest differences between them are their practices and their scriptures. Theravada's goal is an eternity life in Nirvana while Mahayana's is enlightened wisdom and compassion. Both schools remain the same basic disciplines. In Thailand, Theravada has been dominant. Thais is affected strongly by the theory of cause and effect, which states a good act lead a good consequence. There are just a small percent of population follows other religion such as Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism, and Animism. Southern Thailand is only area where Islam is dominant religion. Within Buddhism in Thailand, after a long history of development, there are also some local variations. For example, in Central of Thailand, the highest priest is chosen by the King while in Northeast, this position is elected by people in community.

Different from Thailand, Buddhism in Vietnam follows Mahayana. In Vietnam, people focus more on social concern and universal salvation. Vietnamese mostly believe that living is suffering and just a part of an eternity circle of born, die and reborn.

Although there are some differences between 2 trends of Buddhism, generally, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries which follow Buddhism try to obtain the purification in mind, the avoidance of evil and the tendency to do good act.

2. Religious diffusion: After created in the 6th century B.C., in the 3rd century B.C, Buddhism had been widely accepted by many countries in Asia. When it reached to Sri Lanka, the new form of scripture was written in Pali language. It provided the principals of Theravada School of Buddhism. This form extended to what is now Thailand around the 6th century A.D. but still did not become the dominant religion before 1369 when Thai Kingdom was established .

As the result of this diffusion, Thais Buddhism has many influences from India and Sri Lanka.

Difference from Thailand, Vietnamese Buddhism was diffused from China. Chinese Buddhism has a really long history. China is one of the first countries which have accepted Buddhism (around the 3rd century B.C.) and developed its own school of Buddhism: Mahayana. This religion firstly reached to Vietnam in the 2nd and 3rd century A.D., by the Chinese refugees and Indian Buddhist travelers .

3. Religious Ecology: There are many sacred placed in Thailand nature. There are 2 examples:

Sacred Tree with spirit house at tree base.

Buddha statue at Suan Mok forest monastery.

More than just sacred place, Buddhism in Thailand also has many legends to explain natural phenomenon such as rain, wind, and flood.

In this theme, what happen in Thailand also happen in Vietnam. The biggest difference is just the name of these legends and name of spirits.

4. Religious Interaction: In Thailand, there are many interactions between religion and economy, . However, the most interesting one is the interaction between religion and politics. This is one of the most prominent characteristics of Thais Buddhism.

Thailand is the only one country that the King is considered as the protector of religion and must be a Buddhist. Moreover, King of Thailand is constitutionally the head of the state. As the result, Buddhism always plays an important role in Thais political system.

Religion also influences to