Page 74 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

nonviolence 1375
nonviolence 1375

Buddhist Nonviolence in Central Thailand

The following account describes how Theravada Bud- answered: ‘I work on the water’. Mistakenly I thought
dhists in farming villages in central Thailand deal with he was a sailor, and consequently demanded to know
the precept of nonviolence in their daily activities. whether he was attached to the navy or worked on a
merchant vessel. Rather embarrassed the old man ex-
Similarly, behaviour towards mosquitos is merciless,
plained that he was a fisherman, but he had avoided
and the man who can afford insecticide will not hes-
saying so ‘because it is not nice to tell a monk that
itate to spray a crop, thus killing thousands of small
you live by killing fish’.”
living creatures in flagrant contravention of the first
Possibly the evasion would not have been used in
precept. However, behaviour with regard to the
conversation with other monks. The fact that the
killing of animals which are bigger than insects is
monk in question was a Westerner is relevant in this
often accompanied by a marked discomposure. A
case. However special the circumstances, the fact
squirrel will be trapped and killed, because it devours
remains that the man wanted to be extra polite and
the best fruit, a poisonous snake will be beaten to
that he used a euphemism to describe the profession
death, rats, which steal the provisions are disposed of
of fisherman.
similarly, but in all these cases the careful observer
Animals bigger than chickens, like pigs and buf-
notices that there is uneasiness about these acts of
faloes, are usually not slaughtered by farmers. Some-
violence. Sometimes, a farmer will evade the act of
times, when draught animals are too old to work,
chopping a fish to death by letting it die out of the
they are permitted to remain on the farm until they
water, or by ordering a servant to do so.When fish or
die a natural death, but often these big animals are
a chicken has to be killed for domestic consumption,
sold to professional butchers. Most farmers shudder
it will be done out of sight, outside the house so that
to think about the store of bad karma a butcher accu-
even the spirits of the ancestors cannot see this act.
mulates during his lifetime.
An illustration of the uncomfortable awareness of
Source: Terwiel, B. J. (1975). Monks and Magic: An Analysis of Religious Ceremonies in
the evils of killing animals is given: Central Thailand (pp. 194–195). London: Curzon Press.
“Today, standing on one of the jetties waiting for
a taxiboat, a stranger struck up a conversation. At
one point I asked him his profession at which he

demanded democratic reform and an immediate meeting world’s most powerful democracy—and to the defeat of
with government officials. However, negotiations could dictators in central and Latin America.
not continue because students felt rising anger toward
the government and because student leaders felt Civil Rights Movement
estranged from one another. On 4 June 1989, military in the U.S. South
troops marched into the square, killing several hundred The seeds of Gandhian nonviolence were planted in new
protesters in what became known as the “Tiananmen soil when Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) led the
massacre.” However, the movement helped secure inter- civil rights movement in the U.S. South during the 1950s
national condemnation of the Chinese Communist and the 1960s. Drawing upon satyagraha and his own
regime for its violation of human rights and resulted in experience as a Christian minister, King developed a
the imposition of economic sanctions. unique philosophy of nonviolent resistance that was
effective during the major civil rights campaigns, includ-
Nonviolent Movements ing the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott (1956), the
in the Americas lunch counter sit-ins (1960), the freedom rides (1961),
In the Americas nonviolent movements became central the Albany, Georgia, campaign (1961–1962), the Birm-
to the restoration of rights in the United States—the ingham, Alabama, campaign (1963), and the drive for