The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

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102 .David. L. GosliDg._
and many people in Chian~ -Mar did. not seem to know that maw saw 5 had been renamed
and changed.
Ecclesiastical grades are no less complex. Tlie lowest naktizam ("student of
dhanima") grade. is naktham thri, followed by naktham tho and ek. This elementary
religious instruction is fairly basic and does. not require any knowledge of Pali.
.The Pali pariyattitham. studies are ·designed to offer detailed analysis of the
Pali. langUage and Tripitaka texts. The parian examinations, as they are known,
enable ~he monks and novices who sit them to obtain prayog grades ranging from one.
to nine. Prayog 9 is extremely· difficult, and very few monks. attain it. In practice,
and for reasons often to do with the establishment of alternative routes to advancement
such as Adult .Education ~nd the Buddhist Universities, few· monks now go beyond ·
prayog 4. A monk or novice who has obtained naktham ek and prayog 4 is eligible for
admission to either of the two Buddhist Universities in Bangkok and may move there
without proceeding further with the parian examinations. Traditional Pali studies in
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the provincial capitals such as Chiang Mai have suffered as a result, and Adult Education
courses ate now having an even more deleterious . effect on them.
An account of the education offered ·by the Buddhist Universities has been
given elsewhere. OS) The syllabi have recently been changed so as· to include more
secular subjects and instruction in practical skills which enable tbe scholar-monks to
part in develO"pment programmes. The overall effect of the Buddhist Universities. is to
take more able ·monks from the "radial" ambit of the provincial capitals into
the "galactic" sphere of influence of the Metropolis-to use Tambiah's expressive
phraseology~
Adult Education courses, like those at the Bangkok-based Universities,· also
include a large amount of instruction in practical subjects, and are proving increasingly
popular with monks a~d novices in the provincial capitals. Although designed primarily
for laymen who wish to enhanee their j'?b prospeets, they are very often h~ld in wat
compounds at times of the day when it is convenient and "appropriate" for monks to
be present. It is not appropriate, of course, for members of the Sangha to attend local
. secon~ary schools because this would be. incompatible with their monastic dut~es and
would .bring them into an inappropriate amount of contact with 'members of the opposite
. sex. But they are usually allowed to sit examinations in th~ same buildings as
local children. Hence some novices and monks have·used Adult Education classes at
their wats to learn enough to enable them .to pass maw saw examinations.
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18. D.L. Gosling, "O'p. cit. (7), p. 413.