Since the late 13th century, Theravada Buddhism
has been a way of life among the Khmer and other lowland peoples of mainland Southeast
Asia. To this day, some 85 per cent of the population in Cambodia live in villages whose
symbolic centers are still the wats, or temple-monasteries. The wat was not only the
moral-religious center of village communities, but served important educational, cultural,
and social functions as well. Until very recent times, the temples were the main centers
of learning with schools and libraries where the Khmer culture and language was preserved
and transmitted from generation to generation. They also served as culturally- and
environmentally-sensitive foci for people-centered development that included, indeed
featured, social safety nets for the poor, destitute, and needy. Until the recent time of
troubles that began with civil war in 1970, it was still common for all men to ordain as
monks at least once in their lives, an act most commonly done as rite of passage for young
men entering adulthood and society.
Through the 1960s, the Kingdom of
Cambodia was commonly known as a peaceful, Buddhist country. It was tolerant of the other
faiths -- Muslim, Chinese, Christian, as well as indigenous peoples -- that constituted
approximately 10 per cent of the population. At the Sixth World Council of Theravada
Buddhists in Rangoon in 1955-56, the Cambodian Sangha, or monastic community, was singled
out for its strong adherence to the Vinaya, or Buddhist discipline. But soon thereafter,
it became caught in and the victim of the ideological conflicts (the "isms" such
as nationalism, whether of "left" or "right," and communism) that
swept through the region.
The Destruction in the
1970s
Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives during the 1970-75
civil war, when American saturation bombing targeting Vietnamese communist sanctuaries and
communist atrocities took their toll of Buddhist monks, laypeople, and temples. The
Cambodian Buddhist Sangha was virtually annihilated by the communist Khmer Rouge regime in
the years that followed through early 1979. Of some 65,000 monks and novices in the
country in 1969-70, no more than 3,000 are believed by all available accounts to have
survived the civil war and genocide during the decade that followed.
An estimated 1.7 million people of a population of seven million in
1975 lost their lives during the horror of the Khmer Rouge regime, when Buddhism in all
its forms was a special target of destruction for the loyalty it commanded among the
people. Of the 3,369 temples in 1970 that marked the Cambodian landscape and towns, nearly
two thirds were destroyed and the remainder damaged and/or desecrated. The same fate was
meted out to the Muslim mosques and the less than a handful of Christian chuches in the
country. Temple-monastery buildings left standing were used for storage, as torture and
execution chambers, and centers for the political indoctrination of the population. By the
end of the decade, the physical destruction of Buddhism in Cambodia was nearly complete.
Partial recovery in 1980s
When the Vietnamese communists drove out the Khmer Rouge in early 1979,
the people, working spontaneously through revived lay temple committees, began to
reconstruct the country. Temples and villages were repaired or gradually rebuilt.
The resources for small-scale public works projects such as road and
bridge repair and social and literacy programs were collected and provided through the
temples. In September 1979, the first seven Cambodian monks were officially re-ordained by
a delegation of Theravada monks brought from Vietnam. But Buddhism as a force for
meaningful cultural and social renewal remained repressed under the Vietnamese-dominated
regime until 1988, when many restrictions on Buddhist practices were lifted. The most
notable restriction barred men under the age of 55 from ordaining as monks.
Since the late 1980s, the number of monks and novices has risen from
approximately 8,000 to more than 50,000 today. As a social phenomenon, it is significant
that the Buddhist revival in Cambodia has been spearheaded by Cambodia's villagers, the
main victims of nearly a generation of ideological conflict and oppression. With meager
means and enormous spirit, the common people have been in the forefront of rebuilding
their temples, ordaining their sons, and reclaiming their Khmer Buddhist way of life.
The Education Problem
The quality and standards of the Cambodian Sangha, however, have
remained low through the 1990s given the loss of an entire generation of learned monks.
Only some 20 percent of monks, the bulk of whom are under 25 years of age, receive some
formal training, mainly from lay teachers whose qualifications tend to be rudimentary. The
first secondary school for monks re-opened in 1993, but nearly all of its graduates in the
past two years have moved into fields such as computers, accounting, and English as
preparation for jobs in lay life. Few have chosen the monastic path of teaching the Dhamma
and Vinaya to monk students and laypeople. The low numbers and quality of training and
education for monks and, consequently, the generally poor discipline of the monks in
Cambodia today remain one of the great social problems of the country and its recovery as
a moral community. The weakness and lack of resources of the Sangha and Ministry of
Religious Affairs have prevented them from introducing meaningful education reform while
many local masters at the wat level are simply no longer there.
The Future in Balance
Since the UN-brokered peace plan in 1991 and elections in 1993,
Cambodian society has begun a process of opening up and democratization, in part through
the prodding of an international community still operating for the most part on European
time, reason, and logic. At the same time, the new freedoms and aid dollars have helped
foster a growing climate of greed, corruption, and licentiousness in a country whose
social fabric remains frayed. The rebirth of Khmer culture and society, not to mention
political renewal, depends to a great extent on the renewal of standards in the Buddhist
Sangha. In this context, it must be remembered that the western concept of
"church" and "state" separation is meaningless in Cambodia and the
Theravada lands of Southeast Asia. For the Cambodian Sangha to resume its traditional role
as the moral conscience and spiritual guide of the people, it is necessary for the new
generation of monks and novices, not to mention the younger lay devotee nuns and
laypeople, to receive the best possible training and education. Bereft of the moral and
cultural leadership base of the Sangha, it is difficult to imagine the Khmer people
overcoming their inner and outer conflicts and charting a peaceful, tolerant course for
rebuilding and developing their country.
Well-trained monks as well as nuns
are needed to minister to the people's psychic, cultural, and social needs in ways that
the western development agencies and the state are unable to do. Based on historical
precedents, Buddhism in Cambodia can play a critical role at both the village community
and societal levels in promoting a meaningful peace, healing, and reconciliation process;
in guiding a people-centered development that is culturally and environmentally sensitive
and based on social equity; and in contributing to the wider moral, intellectual, and
political regeneration of the country. The Buddhist Sangha and network of temples have
been in the forefront of regenerative forces in the past; in spite or because of
materialistic globalization/ development pressures, it can, with help and encouragement
from sympathetic friends, again play a leading role in shaping a better future for all
Cambodians.