Project Background
Despite the large quantities of research on Buddhist teachings on non-violence, little work has been done investigating how ritualised practices of violence can be morally sustained in a Buddhist society. Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand, and most of the fighters are practicing Buddhists. The sport involves numerous spiritual practices connected to Buddhist teachings. Many fighters are even blessed by Monks before a fight.
Core Objectives
Reconcile the seemingly contradictory simultaneous practice of state-sanctioned violence, albeit within the framework of a national sport, and a religion preaching non-violence.
Uncover how a state can justify legitimising a practice that is not doctrinally morally acceptable according to its principal ethical and religious framework.
Build on the investigation to provide insight into the cultural perceptions of violence, particularly in relation to masculinity and spirituality.
Methodology
I will divide my research into multiple phases, each providing the groundwork for the next, to hopefully arrive at a theoretically sound result, instead of an abstract argumentation against non-Western practices.
I will begin by diving into Buddhist literature, particularly pertaining to attitudes towards violence and conflict. I will explore Buddhist teachings on violence from the more practical everyday approach that is more predominantly practiced by non-monk Buddhists. I will study the extent to which Buddhism has historically been tied not only to Muay Thai, but violent practices more broadly.
Subsequently, I will attempt to establish what methods Buddhist practitioners have historically and currently used to tolerate the aspects of Muay Thai contradictory to their teachings. In conjunction with this, I intend to study the broader involvement of Monks in violent conflict, such as their involvement in the Sri Lankan civil war and the current persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.
Thereafter, I will take a comparative approach by contrasting it with other political theories concerning the tension between religiously informed moral views and politics. These include St Augustine's Just War theory, which was developed with the intention to reconcile Christianity with the military needs of the Roman state, and Gandhian non-violence, which rejects the idea that societies should seek to accommodate for violence. These will be used selectively to scrutinise and refine my central argument developed through the Buddhist-Muay Thai case study.
Supervisor: Christopher J. Finlay, School of Government and International Affairs, Durham University