Buddhist Warfare

by Michael Jerryson

  35. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 6.10 (1951): 1

  36. It is interesting to notice that Buddhists in Jiuquan had appealed to other Buddhists to donate an airplane for Chinese soldiers during the Anti-Japanese War.

  37. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.11 (1951): 33

  38. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.12 (1951): 28 . On March 1, 1955, 10,000 Chinese yuan was equivalent to about 45 U.S. cents (100,000:4.5).

  39. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.12 (1951): 28

  40. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.12 (1951): 29

  41. In May 1951, both the Panchen Lama and the Dalai Lama had come to Beijing on the occasion of signing the “Treaty on the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet.”

  42. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 2.4 (1951): 16

  43. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 2.2 (1951): 23

  44. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 2.8 (1952): 25–26

  45. In “A Letter to All Buddhists in China,” Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.12 (1951): 28 , The Committee of Buddhist Circles in Beijing for Resisting America and Assisting Korea, promised to contribute 100–600 million yuan. The shortage may be explained by some difficulties in the actual campaign. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 2.5 (1952): 23

  46. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.6 (1951): 35

  47. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.11 (1951): 34

  48. In a temple of more than 300 resident monks, both the temple and the old monks were left without care after dozens of young monks joined the army. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.12 (1951): 23 . They were told by the editor of Xiandai Foxue that the reduction in the number of monks would not do any damage to Buddhist institutions in China, but rather be a blessing for the future.

  49. According to Xiandai Foxue, only one case was reported in which a nun joined the army and went to military college for training. The practice of leaving the sangha and joining the army occurred during this period even before the outbreak of the Korean War. By February 1950, twenty-four out of forty monks at the Jing’an Si Seminary in Shanghai had joined the army or entered into military training. See Welch, Buddhism under Mao, ch. 1, n. 90.

  50. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 2.2 (1951): 21

  51. Xiandai Foxue (Modern Buddhist Studies) 1.12 (1951): 30

  52. Welch, Buddhism under Mao, 68.

  53. Zedong Mao, Selected Collections of Mao Zedong (Beijing: Renmin Publication Society, 1967), 2:665

  NOTES

  1. This chapter is based on interviews and transcripts of sermons collected between October 2004 and March 2007, during research funded by the University of Virginia’s Department of Religious Studies and a Fulbright-Hayes doctoral dissertation research fellowship. This research was performed with the cooperation of the Sri Lankan Army Media Corps and the written permission of the former commander of the army Lt. Gen. (ret.) Shantha Kottegoda. All interviews were performed in Sinhala, recorded on a digital voice recorder and then translated with the assistance of Mr. T. M. Jayatillake.

  2. A note on diacritics: all Sinhala and Pli words, with the exception of proper names, are spelled according to standard Sanskrit conventions. Sinhala proper names appear according to the individual spellings, if known, that are adopted by the informants, e.g., Obeyesekere rather than Obeyasekara.

  3. See, for example, Ananda Abeysekara, “The Saffron Army, Violence, Terror(ism): Buddhism, Identity and Difference in Sri Lanka,” Numen 48.1 (2001); and Tessa J. Bartholomeusz, In Defense of Dharma: Just-War Ideology in Buddhist Sri Lanka (London: Routledge Curzon, 2002).

  4. When I say “Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist rhetoric,” I am using it as shorthand for clusters of discourses used in the national media and personal interactions that have acquired power in reference to a particular vision of Sri Lanka as a unified Buddhist nation ruled by the Sinhala people. Examples of this rhetoric include calls for selfless devotion to raa, jti, and gama, as well as references to the Sinhalese cultural hero Duugämuu, who is said to have reunited the country under the standard of Sinhalese Buddhism.

  5. Gananath Obeyesekere, “The Origins and Institutionalization of Political Violence,” in Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis, ed. J. Manor (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 154.

  6. Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Sri Lanka: Ethnic Fratricide and the Dismantling of Democracy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), 1.

  7. Ananda Wickremeratne, Buddhism and Ethnicity in Sri Lanka: A Historical Analysis (New Delhi: International Centre for Ethnic Studies, Kandy, in association with Vikas, 1995), xx.

  8. Gananath Obeyesekere, “Duttagamini and the Buddhist Conscience,” in Religion and Political Conflict in South Asia, ed. D. Allen (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993), 158.

  9. Interview with Ven. nandavasa in Bogahayya, December 5, 2005.

  10. Interview with Ven. Dr. Dhammalankra in Rukmale, September 28, 2006.

  11. Sermon delivered on March 9, 2007, at Mihintale by Ven. Neluwakande Gñnnanda.

  12. Bartholomeusz’s use of prima facie obligations to construct a Buddhist just-war theory is the culmination of several streams of thought. James Childress adopted the concept of prima facie ethical obligations from the early twentieth-century philosopher W. D. Smith to articulate just-war criteria in a way that is useful to just-war theorists and pacifists alike. Childress, “Just-War Criteria,” in War in the Twentieth Century: Sources in Theological Ethics, ed. Richard B. Miller, 351–372. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1992), 369. Charles Hallisey later adopted prima facie ethical obligations as a possible way of describing Theravda Buddhist ethics as presented in the Mangalasutta. Hallisey, “Ethical Particularism in Theravda Buddhism,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 3 (1996): 32–43.

  13. Rupert Gethin, “Can Killing a Living Being Ever Be an Act of Compassion? The Analysis of the Act of Killing in the Abhidhamma and Pali Commentaries,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics (2004): 190. Although I would not go as far as Gethin in identifying the Abhidhamma with “mainstream Buddhist ethics,” much less the ethical calculations of contemporary Sri Lankan Buddhists, he makes an important point about the dangers of comparative studies. It is important that comparison does not overwhelm the categories and terms used by Sri Lankan Buddhists themselves.

  14. P. D. Premasiri agrees with Gethin’s argument in Premasiri, “The Place for a Righteous War in Buddhism,” Journal of Buddhist Ethics 10 (2003), accessed at http://www.buddhistethics.org/10/premasiri-sri-lanka-conf.html on September 17, 2008. Premasiri writes:

  All wars, according to the Buddhist view, originate in the minds of people. The behaviour of the large majority of living beings is determined by the mental processes referred to in Buddhism as unskilled or unwholesome (akusala). Conflict in society is therefore, considered in Buddhism to be endemic.

  15. Throughout this chapter, I have chosen to translate the Sinhalese term pav (Pli: ppa kamma) as “negative karma.”

  16. The term hamduruwo is a Sinhalese honorific used when addressing monks.

  17. Interview with Ven. Sudarsana, March 9, 2006, at Labunoruwa Araññ. The citation cetan ‘ham bhikkhave kamma vadmi comes from AN III, 416. The full citation is cetan’ha bhikkhave kamma vadmi, cetayitv kamma karoti kyena vcya manas (O Monks, intention is what I call karma. Having intended, one does karma with body, speech, and mind).

  18. Interview with anonymous corporal, September 26, 2005, at Pangoa.

  19. Dhs. A. 129; Sdhp. V, 58; Kkvt. 50; Uj. 62.

  20. Interview with Ven. Ampiiy slavasatissa, July 24, 2005, at Welgam Vehera near Trincomallee.

  21. Interview with anonymous soldier in Pangoa, September 25, 2005.

  22. Interview with Major Chakkrawarthi, November 30, 2005, at Pangoa army temple.

  23. It should be noted that, with the exception of two of my informants, who are long-time friends, the monks in this sample were chosen specifically because of their relationship with the army. The monks in
this sample either live very near to an army camp, participate frequently in ceremonies sponsored by the army, or were members of the army prior to ordination.

  24. Ven. Ratanavasa changed his answer over the course of the time that I knew him. In 2005, he answered that firing at the enemy produced pav. In 2007, however, he reversed his answer, arguing that a soldier firing at the enemy need not produce negative karma.

  25. The terms “timely” and “appropriate” translate the Sinhalese terms klena and uccita, respectively.

  26. Interview with Ven. Pilassi Vimaladhajja in Pangoa, October 9, 2006.

  27. Gethin points out that the Pli word translated as “spear,” kunta, probably referred to a banner and not to a weapon at all. See Rupert Gethin, “Buddhist Monks, Buddhist Kings, Buddhist Violence: On the Early Buddhist Attitudes to Violence,” in Religion and Violence in South Asia: Theory and Practice, ed. J. R. Hinnells and Richard King (London: Routledge, 2007), 76.

  28. Sanskrit for “worthy ones,” arhats are people who have realized the goal of nirva in Theravdin traditions.

  29. Mhv, xxv, 109–111.

  30. Rajjasukhya vymo n’ya mama kadcipi: Sambuddhassanasseva hapanya aya mama, in Majjhima Nikya, xxv, 17.

  31. Interview with Ven. nandavasa in Bogahayya, November 1, 2006.

  32. Interview with Ven. Sarasivapatuve Mangala in Kandy, October 4, 2006.

  33. Of all of the sermons that I attended, only one preacher told the soldiers directly that they should kill the enemy.

  34. Interview with Ven. Vipuladhamma in Mihintale, January 18, 2007.

  35. Interview with Ven. Pilassi Vimaladhajja in Pangoa, November 29, 2005.

  36. Indeed, one of Richard Gombrich’s interview subjects uses the story of Duugämuu specifically as an explanation of the concept of ahosi karma, karma that does not come to fruition. Gombrich’s informant explains:

  For example, Duugämuu killed many Tamils in war, which is pav, but he did it to save Buddhism, and then he did so much for Buddhism (founding monasteries at Anurdhapura, etc.) that his pin so far outweighed his pav that he will stay in heaven [divyalk] till the time of Maitr, the next Buddha, when he will be reborn as his right-hand disciple … and attain nirvana. His pav will therefore never mature, there being no results [vipk] of bad karma in heaven. (Gombrich, Buddhist Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism in the Rural Highlands of Ceylon 2nd. [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1991], 253)

  While one may question this particular informant’s interpretation of Buddhist doctrine, his words reveal the terms that are important to him in debates about Buddhist involvement in warfare: karma and vipka (Sinhala: vipke, Pli: vipka).

  37. I follow the work of Jeffrey Samuels here and use the word “heart” to translate the Sinhalese term hita. Hita is often used interchangeably with cetan in colloquial Sinhalese and is roughly equivalent to the Pli term citta, which is often translated as “mind.” Discussing his translation of hita, Samuels writes: “The term hita (or sita), which I translate as heart in this and subsequent chapters, however, is slightly more problematic as the term, like shin in Chinese and kokoro in Japanese, refers to both one’s cognitive and [one’s] emotional center.” Jeffrey Samuels, “Attracting the Heart: Buddhism and Emotion in Contemporary Sri Lanka” (forthcoming, University of Hawaii Press), 5, 6.

  38. Jeffrey Samuels, “Is Merit in the Milk Powder? Pursuing Puñña in Contemporary Sri Lanka,” Contemporary Buddhism 9.1 (2008): 123–147, 133.

  39. Ibid., 16.

  40. Interview with Major Chakkrawarthi in Pangoa, November 21, 2005.

  41. Interview with Anonymous Captain in Pangoa, October 11, 2005.

  42. Personal communication with anonymous officer in Pangoa, September 22, 2005.

  43. Interview with Ven. Dodangoda Assaji in Colombo, November 23, 2005.

  44. Interview with Ven. Ratanavasa near Mihintale, December 4, 2005.

  45. Interview with Ven. Dr. Itäpanna Dhammalankra, September 28, 2006.

  46. Interview with Ven. Pilassi Vimaladhajja in Pangoa, November 29, 2005.

  NOTES

  An earlier version of this chapter was published as “Appropriating a Space for Violence: State Buddhism in Southern Thailand,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 40.1 (Feb. 2009): 1–25.

  1. Pli is the scriptural and liturgical language of Theravda Buddhist traditions, such as Thai Buddhism.

  2. Personal communication with a monk in the southernmost provinces, 2006.

  3. For a brief discussion of Buddhisms, see the introduction to this volume.

  4. Kurt Lang, “Military,” in International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, ed. David L. Sills (New York: Macmillan, 1968), 10:305.

  5. I draw this definition from peace educator Betty Reardon’s Militarization, Security, and Peace Education: A Guide for Concerned Citizens (Valley Forge, Pa.: United Ministries in Education, 1982), 3.

  6. Perhaps the most well researched work on the subject is Paul Demiéville’s essay, first released in 1957 (and translated into English for the first time in this volume), which offers a cornucopia of historical examples linking the military and Buddhist monasticism in countries such as India, Korea, Japan, and China. Paul Demiéville, “Le bouddhisme et la guerre,” in Mélanges publiés par l’Institut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957), 1:347–385.

  7. Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 515.

  8. See ibid.

  9. All historical references in this chapter will follow Thongchai Winichakul’s practice of using Siam and Siamese for the country and people prior to 1941, and Thailand and Thai for any post-1941 or general context. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (Chiang Mai, Thailand: Silkworm, 1998), 18.

  10. Kamala Tiyavanich, Forest Recollections: Wandering Monks in Twentieth-Century Thailand (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1997), 3–17.

  11. A. J. Brown, “Awakening the Wild Tigers (An Annotated Translation with Introduction),” B.A. honour’s thesis (Canberra: Australian National University, 1983), 47 and 48. As Scot Barmé has already noted, T. W. S. Wannapho was the first to introduce this notion in 1893. Luang Wichit Wathakan and the Creation of a Thai Identity (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), 17.

  12. Scot Barmé, Luang Wichit Wathakan, 30.

  13. Stanley Tambiah, Somboon Suksramran, and Yoneo Ishii provide detailed accounts of bureaucratic parallels and political applications of the Siamese and Thai sanghas. Stanley Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), 368. Somboon Suksamran, Political Buddhism in Southeast Asia: The Role of the Sangha in the Modernization of Thailand (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1977), 44. Yoneo Ishii, Samgha, State, and Society: Thai Buddhism in History, trans. Peter Hawkes (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i, 1986), 40–52.

  14. Peter Jackson, Buddhism, Legitimation and Conflict: The Political Functions of Urban Thai Buddhism (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989), 2.

  15. Hayashi Yukio, Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao: Religion in the Making of a Region (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press, 2003), 1.

  16. Charles F. Keyes, Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as Modern Nation-State (Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1987), 138, 139.

  17. Richard Gombrich, Theravda Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1988), 116.

  18. Personal communication with Nopparat Benjawatthananant, director of the Office of National Buddhism, in Nakhon Pathom, December 25, 2006.

  19. Craig Reynolds, Seditious Histories: Contesting Thai and Southeast Asian Pasts (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2006), 237.

  20. There are no official reports on military monks; the only substantiation of their existence comes from interviews, pers
onal observations, and local rumors in southern Thailand.

  21. Michael Taussig, Defacement: Public Secrecy and the Labor of the Negative (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1999), 2.

  22. Personal communication with a high-ranking monk in the southernmost provinces, 2004.

  23. Personal communication with a Phra Nirut, a high ranking monk in the southernmost provinces, 2007.

  24. Personal communication with a monk in the southernmost provinces, 2007.

  25. Personal communication with Phra Eks in the southernmost provinces, 2006.

  26. Personal communication with Phra Eks in the southernmost provinces, 2006.

  27. Excerpt from Charles Keyes, “Political Crisis and Militant Buddhism,” in Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, ed. Bardwell L. Smith (Chambersburg, Pa.: Anima, 1978), 153.

  28. Ananda Abeysekara, “The Saffron Army, Violence, Terror(ism): Buddhism, Identity, and Difference in Sri Lanka,” Numen 48.1 (2001): 31, 32.

  29. This latent tendency in Theravda traditions is socio-historically founded on the strong interrelationship between sangha and State in Southeast Asia. The construction of a national religion permits the militancy of that religion if the nation is threatened. By isolating this tendency in Theravda tradition, I do not mean to infer that other Buddhist traditions are absent of militant traits, nor that Theravda traditions are more violent than other Buddhist traditions. I would like to thank Betty Nguyen of University Wisconsin, Madison, for reminding me to make these distinctions.

  30. J. J. M. de Groot, “Militant Spirit of the Buddhist Clergy in China,” T’oung Pao 2 (1891): 139.

  31. Christoph Kleine, “Evil Monks with Good Intentions? Remarks on Buddhist Monastic Violence and Its Doctrinal Background,” in Buddhism and Violence, ed. Michael Zimmermann (Kathmandu: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2006), 74.