Thai Buddhism’s complex hierarchy a mystery
As an amateur student of religions with a limited knowledge of Buddhism, I am puzzled to know how Thai Buddhism got to its present state.
So far as I know, or think I know, early Buddhism was pretty much unstructured, egalitarian and democratic. When the Buddha laid down rules, it was usually in response to a specific problem, and seems to have been done with considerable reluctance.
Now, more than 2,500 years later, we see a highly structured ecclesiastical hierarchy with ranks and titles, all under the control of the Thai state.
How did Thai Buddhism get from there to here? It would be extremely useful to those of your readers who are curious about this issue if you would run an in-depth article or series of articles tracing the history of organised Thai Buddhism.
William Page
