泰國的佛教王權與政權鞏固

The Buddhist Kingship and Regime Consolidation in Thailand

泰國佛教與僧伽（Sangha）的發展，與王權遞嬗有極深之歷史共生脈絡。從斯里蘭卡（Sri Lanka）傳入的上座部佛教、發展僧伽制度，結合轉輪聖王、未來佛思想、婆羅門元素，以及傳統「恩庇」、「父權」之觀念，歷經八百多年深植人心。暹羅歷代王朝皆運用佛教與僧伽，以正源王權法統，與維繫政權之穩固。 歷史潮流轉變泰國為今日之立憲君主體。然而，從「王權」轉化而來的政權思想，從未放棄與教權結合，甚至更嚴謹與完備僧伽制度，以將「僧權」更深化於「政權」控制之下。近來泰國政治發展面臨重大變化，佛教做為國家價值的重要組成，自然也成為各政治勢力所關注與著力之處。因此，以結合佛教與僧伽的王權鞏固政權之歷史，及其內蘊的價值意涵，或可為今日觀察泰國政治與未來發展的基本認識，此為本文研究之發想。 本文採取歷史結構途徑，通過多元面向的文獻探討，以解構、分析與理解在泰國歷史時空中，發展佛教與鞏固王權間之相互關係。而在對「王權」時代界定，則是以暹羅「絕對王權」結束實行君主立憲的1932年，作為研究、分析的時間範圍切割與斷點，以與1932年之後君主立憲體之泰國「政權」做區隔。 本文安排如下：首先探討暹羅王權之佛教義涵，及與僧伽之關係；接著回顧王權時代佛教與僧伽制度發展歷史概要；以及西方殖民勢力對暹羅王權之影響及其回應；之後並據以評論與君主立憲時代佛教王權在泰國政治角色的差異；最後結論提出個人歸納的見解，與未來發展研究的可能方向。

In modern Siamese-Thai history, the development of Buddhism and Sangha has been deeply embedded with the evolution of kingship. The religious blending among Theravada Buddhism introduced from Sri Lanka, the Sangha system, Cakkavatti (Wheel-Turning King), Maitreya (Future Buddha), Brahmanism, and the concept of patronageandpatriarchyhad have been deeply rooted in Siamese-Thai people’s mind for more than 800 years. Siamese dynasties always utilized Buddhism and Sangha to legitimize the reign as well as to stabilize the rule. The ancient Siamese absolute monarchy had been transformed into the contemporary Thai constitutional monarchy nowadays. However, this modern political regime, derived from the traditional kingship, never gave up the strategy to incorporate with the religious authority, and even more completely strengthened the Sangha system to put Sangha power under the control of the political regime. Thailand's recent political changes face major challenges in which Buddhism, a crucial component of Thai national interests, is just seemed natural to be the target that all political groups tried to win with, it shared the same scenario with the ancient Siam. This article aims to explore the context of the Siamese-Thai political history firmly based on the combination of Buddhism and Sangha to rethink modern Thai political changes and its future possibilities. The historical structure approach is adopted in this research to deconstruct, analyze and perceive the correlation between Buddhism development and kingship consolidation in Siamese-Thai history. This article firstly demonstrates the Buddhist meaning of the Siamese kingship and its relationship with the Sangha, followed by reviewing the development of Buddhism and the Sangha system during the Siamese kingship era, then comments on the influence of Western colonial powers on the throne of Siam and its response, as well as the role of Buddhist monarchy in modern Thai constitutional monarchy era, and finally concludes the research findings and suggests the future research.