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Monastery Lands and Labour Endowments in Thailand Some Effects of Social and Economic Change, I868-I9I0

Monastery Lands and Labour Endowments in Thailand Some Effects of Social and Economic Change,... MONASTERY LANDS AND LABOUR ENDOWMENTS IN THAILAND SOME EFFECTS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE, I868-I9I0* BY CRAIG J. REYNOLDS Until the modern period the Theravada Buddhists of South and Southeast Asia supported monasteries by making land and labour endowments. The Buddhist monkhood or Sangha in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos has always been highly depen- dent on lay people to sustain it with donations of food and shelter because the Theravada monastic disciplinary code, the Vinaya, forbids monks from engaging directly in commercial transactions and limits monks to eight articles for their personal possession and use 1). In earlier centuries when the economies of these societies were largely agricultural and when economic exchange was primarily in labour and in kind the king, members of his court and the royal and noble families would set aside fields and orchards in perpetuity for the benefit of the Sangha. Sometimes the endowment would include agriculturalists to work the lands or craftsmen and labourers to keep the buildings and monuments in good repair, to maintain the monastery grounds, and to protect the Sangha's property from vandals and thieves. In Thailand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries *) Research http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient Brill

Monastery Lands and Labour Endowments in Thailand Some Effects of Social and Economic Change, I868-I9I0

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 1979 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0022-4995
eISSN
1568-5209
DOI
10.1163/156852079X00089
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

MONASTERY LANDS AND LABOUR ENDOWMENTS IN THAILAND SOME EFFECTS OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC CHANGE, I868-I9I0* BY CRAIG J. REYNOLDS Until the modern period the Theravada Buddhists of South and Southeast Asia supported monasteries by making land and labour endowments. The Buddhist monkhood or Sangha in Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos has always been highly depen- dent on lay people to sustain it with donations of food and shelter because the Theravada monastic disciplinary code, the Vinaya, forbids monks from engaging directly in commercial transactions and limits monks to eight articles for their personal possession and use 1). In earlier centuries when the economies of these societies were largely agricultural and when economic exchange was primarily in labour and in kind the king, members of his court and the royal and noble families would set aside fields and orchards in perpetuity for the benefit of the Sangha. Sometimes the endowment would include agriculturalists to work the lands or craftsmen and labourers to keep the buildings and monuments in good repair, to maintain the monastery grounds, and to protect the Sangha's property from vandals and thieves. In Thailand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries *) Research

Journal

Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientBrill

Published: Jan 1, 1979

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