State Violence and Buddhist Monks

In the twenty-first century, nation-states such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka rely on Buddhist monks for political legitimation. Some of these Buddhist-influenced governments are dictatorial and/or autocratic. While this state-sangha relationship has been well researched on the ways in which these governments exert overt and subtle Buddhist influences, very little work has been on the political power of the Buddhist monks in these countries. This chapter explores the ways in which Buddhist-influenced governments provide monks with potent political influence to support to destabilize autocratic governments. Buddhist scriptures emphasize the political influence of Buddhist monks, but they provide very little space for lay political power. The lack of a lay model for political influence does not support the advent of democracies. Rather, this doctrinal background provides conditions for autocratic governments and their state violence in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.