GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Preah Seyhanouk Raja Buddhist University

Lecturer:Mr. Son SanYear II, Semester I, Room ឃ

Academic Year: 2015-2016

Group 3 Members:1. Ven. Mouch Sokly

2. Miss Phum Kimyieng3. Mr. Souert Vannak

Chapter 3Theravada Buddhism in CambodiaTerritorial and Social Lineaments

1. Land, Authority, and Sacred SpaceMost cultures of regions, Cambodians, from

the end of the Angkorian period until the 1840s.

The territory belonged to the spirits of the ancestors(Neak Ta).

In the Theravada Buddhism’s philosophy, the king was chosen by election.

Since the appearance of Theravada Buddhism, the Cambodian king has been regarded as “one who has merits”(Neak Mean Bon).The king possession of a set of powerful fetish weapon.The Khmer were not as opposite toward hill tribes such as the Vietnamese and Chinese.

In nineteenth-century, Cambodia was arranged into 5 regions(Dey):

Tbong Kmum, Ba Phnom, Treang, Pursat and Kampong Svay(Kampong Tom). Ba Phnom was probably a central of regarding space with Theravada’s belief, while 4 regions were grouped around a central hub.

2. Neak Ta and other SpiritsCambodia is protected by a network of tutelary spirits (Neak Ta), even they were not the Buddhism’s religious belief.Some Neak Ta are related to specific locations, such as the trees, the ponds, or the ruined villages.

Neak Ta were divided into 3 kinds: First spirits(Neak Ta) related to the natural phenomena. Second Neak Ta were ancestral spirits, both male and female.

Third Neak Ta derived from Brahmanical gods and various mythical heroes.The famous Neak Ta in the country is Khleang Moeung, the protector spirit in Pursat province.His shrine is 5 km long Northwest of Pursat province.

Shrine of Neak tà Khleang Moeung

Neak tà Khleang Moeung’s exploits once formed part of the repertoire of the National Theater and were often performed during times of tension with Thailand.There are three basic types of rite associated with their cult:The first is a vow or promise (born sron).The second (banhchean neak tà) is a more formal ceremony.The final category (bon banchan neak tà oy sok sabai).

Breay are another class of exclusively female and highly dangerous spirits of virgins or of women who have died in childbirth. There are different kinds of ghost(Kmoch):Kmoch Tay Horng: a ghost of someone who was killed.Beysach: a ghost that lives on dirt places.

Priey: a ghost living in a large tree with the ability to turn into a ball of fire.

3. Spirits Priests, Amulets, and ProtectionThe Gru are almost always males.Gru follow written text containing details for the medicine, symbolic diagrams(Yantras), and mantras.The dhmap can do the black magic.Protective amulets come in a variety like: small Buddha images, tooth of a parent.

4. MountainsMountains had been a sacred site of religion.Phnom Kulen was the holiest mountain of the Angkorian period.About thirteen kilometers west of Battambang on the road to Pailin is Phnom Sampou.Phnom Preah Reach Trop, the sacred hill at Udong.

5. MonasteriesA lot of modern monasteries, particularly in Kampong Cham, Svay Rieng, Takeo, and Kandal province have been constructed on the site of Angkorian and pre-Angkorian temple.Giteau notes that between 1964 and the early 1970 at least four monasteries in Battambang town had destroyed and also rebuild.Typically.

Monasteries often possess racing canoes.Bon Banchos Sema must be celebrate before monasteries are used.Some monasteries are famous by relics.All Viharas possess at least one Buddha’s status.

6. The Monastic EconomyThe work involved in constructing the Angkorian barays and their associated temples had been enormous and required the services of a massive pool of man power. There are four categories of monastery slave: pol preah, komlas preah bamros preah and nhom preah.

The Khmer word “kñum” possesses the semantic resonances to justify its translation by the term “slave,” but one must be aware of potential anachronism. Western notions of freedom and slavery may not always be appropriate in judging the institutions of medieval South-east Asia 290–291

According to a manuscript once housed at Wat Sam-bok ([Keo-Han 1951], King Paramaràja VIII [r. 1659–1672]) decreed that 40 families of condemned persons forced into corvée for the king (neak na) and “slaves other Buddha” (pol preah) be responsible for the upkeep of the monastery and a large stùpa in perpetuity.

Monks could also become pagoda slaves if found guilty of com-mitting a variety offenses, including killing and stealing sacred objects. For fornication, adultery, incest, bestiality, administering a drug to bring about an abortion, falsely claiming to have achieved various spiritual powers

A monastery’s real estate was termed Sambat preah. Such sacred lands (dey preah) were not taxed when worked by slaves but might be subject to taxation when tended by freemen.The arrangement clearly perpetuated the institution of monastic slavery. However, because monastic slaves were part of the property of a monastery.

Monastic lands were generally donated by wealthy and influential figures to maintain the foundation in perpetuity, although other forms of land and property bestowal are also attested in the historical record.87 Ebihara (1984, 292) believes that such donations were motivated by two basic considerations: merit making and tax avoidance.

7. Monks, Ritual Specialists, and LaityIn the mid-1960s Kalab (1968, 521) studied a village, Prek Por, of around 4,500inhabitants. It consisted of a number of hamlet variously supporting three separate local monasteries.

The description nicely encapsulates the spiritual educational, and social welfare–oriented functions of a typical rural monastery several years before the country erupted into civil war.The chief monk (chau adhikar) is also known as the head of the monastery (mevat). In modern times he has been part of the provincial sangha hierarchy. His responsibilities include the overall maintenance of monastery buildings

Monks (loak song) constitute the heart of the community, but other categories of person also reside in a typical monastery. Temple boys (kmeng vat) between seven and twelve years of age carry out various domestic tasks and gain a basic education.

As if to underline this inequality between the sexes, village traditions hold that a boy around the age of twelve should become a novice monk (Samne) and observe the ten precepts for a short period in honor of his mother. Full ordination as a bhikkhu around the age of twenty, on the other hand, is undertaken in honor of one’s father.

One of the distinctive features .In the past, sangha members were accorded considerable deference, no matter how high the social or economic standing of the layperson might be. The penal code of King Sisowath prescribed the death penalty for anyone who killed a monk

It is sometimes said that, for a monastery to prosper, “either the villagers around must be rich or modestly well-oª, or the abbot must be very skilled in religious magic” (W. Collins 1998a, 21). We have seen that some monasteries have royal foundations and, until relatively modern times, were not so dependent on local economic vicissitudes.

The achar vat is generally selected in a consultation process between the chau adhikar and the village community. Ideally, he must be a pious older man who keeps the first eight precepts of the novice monk. In addition he must be known for his financial probity.

Another important role of the achar is as organizer of the seven major annual festivals. These celebrations are important opportunities for fund-raising.  The achar’s final responsibility is to lead the laity in acts of worship.

The term “leader of the wind” (mekhyal) 101is sometimes deployed in connection with the roles played by achars and cah thom. It implies that a position of authority is transient and related to specific situations. Thus, an achar may become mekhyal to accomplish a particular task.

A mekhyal is expected to become involved in a definite undertaking and should not act solely in a supervisory capacity. However, like the wind, he may act with daring to overcome obstacles, even if this implies some defiance of customary norms.

Lay rituals may also be performed for purely this-worldly ends, for, as an eighteen-year-old girl told “I will go to three or four Kathun103festivals this year so that I will be re-born as a rich American.” No matter the motivation, expenditure of large sums of money and energy in support of elaborate rituals

These are to abstain from Recent Cambodian religious traditions retain much that is archaic.

The cult of the neak tàmay be regarded as a foundational layer upon which later tradition shave been overlaid

Theravada Buddhism extended its hold, the Brahmanical mythology that had underpinned the concept of the devaràja diminished, though it was never entirely abandoned. The sacred character of king shiphas persisted, although Buddhist influences led the righteous king.

We can identify a general trend toward assimilation and accretion in the way that the Cambodian landscape has been sacral zed over the centuries. Worship at high places is a feature of most religious tradition, and Cambodia is no exception, for mountain cults are attested in the region from the earliest period.

We have seen that the rituals employed for the foundation of new Buddhist monasteries still preserve many archaic and sacrificial features. But the retention of the institution of sacred slavery until well into the modern period also demonstrates that social and political arrangements of the Angkorian period were retained by the post-Angkorian Theravada dispensation.

Group Discussion1.Why do Khmer people from the past until now always respect to the ancestors and the tutelary spirits (Neak Ta) ? (2 groups) (By Ven. Mouch Sokly)2.What is the monastic economy ? (2 groups) (By Mr. Souert Vannak)3.What do the Theravada Buddhist Monks in Cambodia help their monasteries and societies ? (2 groups) (By Miss Phum Kimyeang)(Divide into 6 groups)

Good Luck !

Chapter 3Theravada Buddhism in CambodiaQuestions1.Describe the Cambodia from the end of Angkorian period until the 1840s.2.How did Cambodians people choose a new king?3.In traditional law codes, what did the kingdom see ?4.Why did Neak Ta Khleang Moeung and his family die ? What did he do after he die ?5.How many categories(kinds) of Neak Ta were divided ? What were they ?

6.What is the most effective protection ?7.Why was Phnom Kulen the holiest mountain of the Angkorian period ?8.What is principle structures in the monasteries ? 9.What does the monks constitute ? 10.What does the terms of leader of wind imply ?