The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXII, Part 1-2, 1984 - Khamkoo

SANGHA ORGANIZATION IN 19TH CENTURY BURMA AND THAILAND 187
of food.l o 1 The learning of the monks was often checked by convening religious
symposia in which the king himself often took part. I 02 Those who lacked the required
knowledge were forced to leave the order. Similarly monks residing in the provinces
were in theory also subject to checks by the provincial governors or their subordinates;
but in practice, in spite of the existence of the death penalty for refusal to obey the
orders of the king, officials in the regional administration were reluctant to carry out
such investigations as the monks were their spiritual teachers. I 03
The king also took action against a group of believers in the tripartite doctrines
- warajoti-ayu- which literally means belief in enlightened worship 104 which was
strong in Central Burma in the 1780s, particularly in and around Shinpyukyun.l os The
doctrines were (a) that there was no need to worship the statues; (b) that there was no
need to show respect to monks; and (c) that man after death was never reborn. 1 0 6
Such doctrines ran clearly counter to the tenets of Buddhism. It is difficult to know
how many people were involved in the group, or what their religious background was
or how their creed was expounded as documentary evidence is not available.
The fact
that the king took action against the group indicated that it was a serious movement at
least in one area. The king ordered that its followers should be executed in order that
the Sasana could be purified. In spite of such royal zeal, some heretics managed to
escape execution and it became necessary to issue a further order that officials who
failed to catch them should themselves be punished.! 07
The most revolutionary movement, though .it was short-lived, was an innovation
of the upasampada ordination. King Bodawpaya asked the Thathanabaing whether or
not a sima in which ordination for monkhood was performed was a sine qua non for
ordination since the Buddha and His immediate followers were otherwise ordained.
The Thathanabaing could give no sound reason for insisting that monks could only be
ordained in a sima and had to accept what the king said; so began a new line of
ordination. By this the essence of bona fide upasampada ordination was to follow
that of the triratna- the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha- thereby departing from
101. Thwe Thwe Sit, Padumman Lakthak Aupkhyupre, 1782 1819 (Administration under King
Bodawpaya, 17 82-1819), (M.A. Thesis, University of Mandalay, 1968), pp. 307- 8.
102. BE 1168 ( 1806) Royal Decree, (Department of Archaeology, Burma), No. 300, 450, 838.
103. BE 1173 ( 1811), Royal Decree, (Department of Archaeology, Burma), No. 974; BE 1174
( 1812), Royal Decree, (Departmant of Archaeology, Burma), No. l 049. ·
104. Ledi Pandita, Pali-Burmese Dictionary (Rangoon, Ledipandita Pinnya Taik, n.d.), pp. 360,
607.
105. BE 1145 (1783), Royal Decree, (Burma National Library), No. 350.
106 . See U Maung Maung Tin, Mranmaman Lakthat Catan Mya (Essays about Burmese Kingdom),
(Rangoon, 1967).
107. BE 1145 (1783), Royal Decree, (Burma National Library), No. 350.