Abstract:
The history of Buddhism has been told for over 2,500 years that monks have a very special role in society in terms of being spiritual leaders, giving guidance to the peoples daily lives and pre-viding social services for the people. These follow the footsteps of Lord Buddha: practices and disciplines, which require monks to have a close relation with the communities and to promote activities which will bring about peace and prosperity to mankind. Therefore it appears that form time of immemorial monks have been playing an important role in society in the spiritual development and the quality of life of the people. The objective[e]s of this thesis are to examine the cause and effect of the Buddhist monks participation in the Thai rural community development from 1957-1977, by focusing the outcomes of such programmes and their impacts on the communities, the government and the monks. As the ways of life and social values of Thai people have changed with the acceptance of progressive Western technology. New material development and institutions have been adopted resulting in diminishing the important roles of temples and monks as the centre of Thai communities. Particularly the monks roles in education has been diminished. Monks are compelled to improve their status in society. The higher educational institutions for monks were established in order that monks can study modern technology hand in hand with the study of Buddhism. At the same time many activities with a view to disseminate Buddhism and resuming the former roles of monks in society have been introduced. This movement occurred at a time when the government was compelled to seek the cooperation from monks in national development for prosperity and security of the country. As a result, monks were involved in carrying out the governments administrative policy. The study yields some facts concerning the status of monks in society. These roles are less important in urban areas. But in the rural communities they remain unchanged. In the rural areas monks gain respect from the people. Their activities may be divided into 2 categories: firstly, monks carrying out their activities freely corresponding with the needs and conditions of each locality; secondly, monks formulating the community development programmes with financial support and cooperation from the government. Since monks involve in maintaining temples, educating people, community development as well as other welfare activities, they tend to succeed in improving the daily lives of the rural people. Sometimes monks have been drawn in organizing worldly activities for community development and thus do not receive the people support and cooperation. The monks, sent by the central administrative organization, are not well acquainted with the rural people and their presence is of a temporally nature. Thus the positive result of the community development shared by monks from the central administrative organization is doubtful.