Cambodia: Progress and Challenges since 1991

21. Buddhism in Cambodia since 1993

320 Ian Harris 320 21 BUDDHISM IN CAMBODIA SINCE 1993 Ian Harris INTRODUCTION Buddhism has had a long history in the country we now call Cambodia. Inscriptional and archaeological evidence suggest that it was already well established by the fifth century of the Common Era (CE) when the lower Mekong appears to have become a significant entrepôt in the passage of Buddhist ideas and material culture from India to the Middle Kingdom. In the Angkorian period Buddhist influence waxed and waned, sometimes thriving in a syncretic nexus with Brahmanical beliefs and practices, at others playing an important role in the rituals of state. The zenith of this Mahayanist and Tantric state-supported Buddhism coincided with the reign of Jayavarman VII (c. 1243–95) and declined swiftly following the fall of Angkor in the first decades of the fifteenth century. From this point on, and largely as a result of rising Siamese influence in the region, a grassroots, village-oriented form of Theravāda Buddhism took hold, and this has continued to be the dominant religion until the present. However, Cambodia’s Theravāda tradition never remained static. It underwent a small, Bangkok-inspired renaissance during the reign of King Ang Duang (1848–60), while its bureaucratic structures 21 Cambodia_Progress 3/6/12, 10:40 AM 320 Buddhism in Cambodia since 1993 321 were modified and its educational facilities enhanced during the French colonial and early Independence periods.1 As is now well known, Buddhist institutions were dissolved during the Democratic Kampuchea era, many thousands of monks lost their lives, and religious practice, where it occurred at all, was entirely hidden from public gaze. With the demise of the Pol Pot regime and establishment of the People’s Republic of Kampuchea [PRK] in early 1979, organised Buddhism gradually re-emerged, although for the next decade it was obliged to operate within a strictly socialist setting. This meant that the activity of the monkhood (san .gha) was largely restricted to the patriotic, nation-building role assigned to it by the government.2 Despite these restrictions there is good evidence that Buddhism rapidly regained its relevance at the popular level. This was most apparent in regard to a greatly felt need to perform funerary rites for those who had perished during the country’s appalling upheavals. Knowing that relatives had not been properly cremated, thus effecting transition to a new form of rebirth, appears to have been a great psychological burden. It induced a “sense of guilt for having survived” amongst many, some of whom embarked on journeys to places they had lived during Democratic Kampuchea to collect the remains of the dead (Ledgerwood n.d., 33). This in turn, resulted in a massive burst in the building of funerary monuments (chedey) and a renewed emphasis on the annual day of ancestors (pchum ben). With the breakup of the Soviet Union, and subsequent withdrawal of Vietnamese troops, a new spirit of religious toleration began to manifest itself. The April 1989 constitution of the State of Cambodia [SOC] restored Buddhism as the state religion, while Prime Minister Hun Sen apologized for earlier government “mistakes” in a series of talks around the country, and senior leaders engaged in acts of conspicuous Buddhist piety. In this new atmosphere, monk numbers grew rapidly, pagoda reconstruction burgeoned — mainly as a result of funds flowing into the country from an extensive Cambodian Diaspora — taxes on pagodas were abolished, and Buddhist education, including Pali schools, began to re-emerge.3 As if to underline these dramatic changes, the Cambodian People’s Party [CPP], an entity rapidly forged from the embers of the old Khmer People’s Revolutionary Party, now claimed that the: …citizens’ honour, dignity and life must be protected by laws. The death penalty is abolished. Buddhism is the state religion with the Tripitaka4 as basis of laws. All religious activities are allowed in the country.The traditions, customs and cultural heritage of the nation must be preserved and glorified, 21 Cambodia_Progress 3/6/12, 10:40 AM 321 322 Ian Harris as well as the traditions of all the nationalities living in the Cambodian national community.5 REBIRTH OF SANGHA INSTITUTIONS When Samdech Norodom Sihanouk returned in November 1991, one of his first acts was to resume his traditional kingly duty as supreme patron of the san .gha. During the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) era, a single unified san .gha of the Front...