The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

140 John P. Ferguson and Shalardchai Ramitanondh
The honorary system, we also concluded, modifies and supplements
the hierarchy, enabling the King and his representatives to temper
seniority traditions by rewarding monks for administrative ability, as
well as to encourage certain desired ends, such as Pali scholarship,
meditation, or leadership. The honors, we feel, are symbolic rather
than material in the sepse that they stand for values and traditions
important to royalty and to the Sangha.
The Thammayut Sect was presented in this paper as a pioneering,
missionizing movement that seeks footholds in Mahanikaia territory.
The sequential movement from the Acban Man regimen to emphasis
on regular Thammayut learning is seen as one way in which the Sect
establishes itself and yet is incorporated eventually into the national
hierarchy. In Chiengmai Province, the Sect has benefitted from the
aid of certain figures in the government. The question of whether there
is a fascination of political power in all of Thailand with the Thammayut
Sect is a matter needing of more research. All we suggest is that the
Thammayut Sect at the provincial level is possibly an alternate avenue
of royal and governmental influence over the monkhood, in addition to
the channels available through the hierarchy and hdnorary system.
There seems little doubt that the days of the monastic rebellion of
the now legendary Kru Ba Sri Wichai are gone in Chiengmai Province.
The province seems to have accepted gracefully Bangkok's right to rule
its monkhood. Yet the Province has retained much of its basic nature.
Certainly each abbot no longer reigns like an absolute ruler in the old
style, but he retains the powerful support of his laity. The life blood
of the monastery in terms of the manpower to join lt and the physical
necessities to support it come from the neighborhood, not Bangkok.
Thu& the ability of. the Sangha to be self-supporting iffords it a certain
healthy independence and preserves the freshness of difference under the
system.
We do not find as Dumont (1966: 243-58) bas. proposed, that
hierarchy as a system or principle co-exists with egalitarian behavior in
a somewhat contradictory fashion. Instead we find that the concept of
hierarchy, which the Thai apparently enjoy very much btcause it implies
order an