A Study Of Selular Nature And Custom Formation Of Short-term Monkhood In Thailand Southern Buddhism

The folk custom of short-term monkhood,a not inherent one,was created by Lithai,a king in Sukhothai period.It is through hundreds of years development that it has evolved into folk custom,and a indispensable reason for this process is due to its secular nature,such as flexible scheduling of becoming a monk,diversified secular motivations,interdependent relationship between monks and laity,and more adjustable to life and work while one returns to laity.In the historical development from implementing to disintegrating the Sakdina system and its secular nature feature,the short-term monkhood gradually formed the basic characteristics of folk custom,including collective feature,inheritance and spreading features,and stability feature.It was in the process of reform,implementation and change of traditional political system—the Sakdina system,through the requirement for official becoming a monk and the government’s relaxed manpower control,that the feature of top-down collectivity was formed.This system took four hundred years,so the Patron-Client relations between masters and servants can be established and developed.And short-term monkhood is guided by dominance hierarchy of king-oriented,gradually spreading to lower middle classes and combining diachronic inheritance with synchronic expanding.In the period of the Sakdina system,short-term monkhood would bring about traditional value of reality Tzu-Chi blessing.However,when this system collapsed,the tradition of short-term monkhood has never shoked and challenged because of influence of traditional ideology and has made a further in the era of post-Sakdina system.The short-term monkhood,when provided with the feature of collectivity,inheritance and spreading,stability,has become fold custom,and has the correspondence function,which will cultivate,regulate,maintain and adjust the society.The process of forming and development of short-term monkhood is also the development of its secular feature.The early short-term monkhood behavior has gradually became a folk custom because of the ruler’s personal political intention and the secular purpose of middle lower classes to enhance the level of secular life.The social functions of folk custom has further promoted the development of its secular nature feature.The short-term monkhood has transformed from original personal intention into society’s collective.In this age of globalization,the short-term monkhood becomes a unique folk custom that shows the national characteristics and cohesion of Thai nationality.