Re: Pali grammar/education in Thailand

Dear navako,
I disagree with preyty much all of the venerables
conclusions. What do you like about it?
Robertk
--- navako <navako@...> wrote:

>
> I posted a few articles to the list on (the decline
> of) Pali education in
> Burma and Sri Lanka, as I recall, but this is the
> first on the state of
> things in Thailand.  This is torn from the pages of
> the Bangkok post, and
> written by a monk whom I would be very interested to
> meet.  I've heard vague
> statements about problem's with "The King's
> Kaccayana" (and how this is
> related to the dismally low level of Pali literacy
> in Thailand), but this is
> the first article I've seen that "spells it out".
> Worth reading right
> through to the end (the portion about grammatical
> textbooks differing from
> Kaccayana begins about half-way through), even if it
> is a bit erratic in
> composition, and has some strange tangents along the
> way.
> E.M.
>  ------
> [Title:] Anna and the retarded education
> [Subtitle:] That monastic education is trapped in
> the past and by rules
> which are as quixotic as they are anachronistic
>
> [Main text:]
> The good news about a Buddhist monastic education is
> that it has served
> Thailand and most Buddhist countries in Asia as the
> main thrust of literacy
> for hundreds of years.  This is attested to in the
> records of foreigners and
> Christian missionaries in Asia who were surprised by
> the high literacy rate
> among native Buddhists in countries such as Sri
> Lanka, Burma, Siam and
> Mongolia.
>
> The monastic system provided many boys from poor
> rural areas a way up the
> social ladder.  Many leaders in Asia were educated
> or supported by monks or
> nuns before attaining success in life.  However,
> this does not mean that the
> traditional monastic education and training is the
> foundation of an advanced
> learning system as required by modern society.
>
> The bad news about education in Buddhist monasteries
> in Thailand is that it
> is based almost exclusively on memorization;
> critical thinking plays little
> part.  It is conditioned by the traditional system
> of feudal obedience.  No
> student has the right to question his teachers.
>
> This is in contrast with the liberal and critical
> attitude of early Buddhist
> monastic training expounded by the Buddha in the
> canonical literature.  This
> does not condone any concept of obedience to a guru.
>  The message opf the
> Buddha encourages his listeners not to believe in
> him nor accept his
> teachings without putting them to the test of
> thorough and critical
> analysis.
>
> Monks here are taught to accept the teachings of
> their master without
> question.  Criticism or analysis of any passage or
> myth about the life of
> Buddha is neither welcome nor tolerated.
>
> Worse than the rigid system of religious orthodoxy
> in the monastic
> philosophy of education is that students in this
> education system are not
> encouraged to study the Tipitaka, the very canonical
> literature of Buddhism.
> Instead, their studies are limited to the
> commentaries from the Mahavihara
> monastery in Sri Lanka of the 5th century C.E.
> [Note: this was one of
> Buddhadasa's "Big issues" for about 40 years; but he
> did not bring about any
> change outside of the monasteries he founded
> --E.M.].  The traditional
> system of exegesis is based on fables and tales
> written by commentators and
> preserved in the Pali language, which is believed to
> be the language of the
> state of Magadha, the legendary root language of the
> cosmos, spoken by the
> Buddha.
>
> Despite the fact the legend of the root language of
> Pali as the language of
> the Buddha [sic.] has no support in the Tipitaka,
> this belief is one of the
> distinctive characteristics of Theravada Buddhism,
> which is the only form of
> the religion that takes the language as the one and
> only sacred language of
> Buddhism.  Based on this assumption Buddhist
> scriptures in Tibetan, Chinese
> or Mongolian are seen as heterodox.
>
> Even worse than this is that the text on Pali
> grammar, mandated for national
> Pali examination in Thailand differs greatly from
> books of Pali grammar
> taught in other Theravada countries.  Not only is
> this book without
> references, thus preventing readers from learning
> about the history and
> origin of Pali, its format is not based on the
> traditional book of grammar
> in Pali that was known in Sri Lanka or Burma.
>
> The Pali Grammar Book, whitten by Somdet Phra
> Mahasamanchao Krom Phra
> Vajirayanvarosos, classified Pali grammar into four
> parts: morphology, parts
> of speech, syntax, and the prosody system of
> division [sic.] not shared in
> books of Pali grammar taught in other Theravada
> countries.  Nowhere in this
> authoritative book does the princely monk
> acknowledge his sources.
>
> The alien format of the grammar was taken from
> Victorian English.  The
> source of the format, of course, was taken from his
> English instructor when
> he was a young prince.  This could have been Anna
> Leonowens, who was
> employed by King Rama IV to educate the royal
> children.
>
> Because of the authority of the princely monk, who
> later became the leader
> of Buddhism in Thailand, the syllabus cannot be
> changed.  Monks and novices
> are forced to memorize the paradigms, and the hybrid
> Pali grammar posed in a
> modern European language; the learning style is like
> parrots without any
> clear understanding of its true meaning.  The
> translation they learn is
> based entirely on what their teacher tells them; no
> independent thinking is
> allowed.  It is not surprising therefore that the
> Thai translation of Pali
> literature is quite different in several details
> from that of other scholars
> in the Pali language and from other Theravada
> Buddhist countries.
>
> Worse than this already bad news is that there is no
> way for the Thai feudal
> monastic system to reform monastic education, as it
> is closely intertwined
> with the monarchy and pride of ecclesiastical
> feudalism.
>
> The adverse effect of the current traditional
> monastic education is obvious
> in Thai society, where monks are taken as leaders.
> When scholars and civic
> leaders are pushing for education reform, their
> efforts are retarded by
> monks who see the child-centred model of modern
> education as sacriligious to
> the Buddhist ideal in which Dharma should be the
> centre.
>
> Attached to this traditional value, so-called the
> Dharma [sic.] as they
> interpret the religion, is Buddhist cauvinism and
> religious complacency. 
> Anna might not have expected the influence of her
> teaching in the court of
> Siam to have lasted this long.
>
> [Afterword:] Mettanando Bhikkhu is a staunch critic
> of the Ecclesiastical
> Council, and a former physician with an MA from
> Oxford University and a
> doctorate from Hamburg University, Germany.
>
> 
>
> --
> A saying of the Buddha from http://metta.lk/
> View Streaming Dhamma Video http://dharmavahini.tv/
> Who strives not when it is time to strive, who
> though young and strong is
> indolent, who is low in mind and thought and lazy,
> that idler never finds
> the way to wisdom.
> Random Dhammapada Verse 280
>