DIEU - VS - BOUDDHA Khmer Buddhism's critique * Réflexion sur le bouddhisme khmer
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Fire Storm, Rain Storm, Volcanic Eruption (2002/01/20)
Around Christmas, down under, a fire storm threatened Sydney for two weeks and then the city was shaken by a rain storm. Now, in Congo, Goma's streets are swept by burning lava blown out by a nearby volcano.
Buddha's vision of Preah Se Ar Metri, le dernier, foresaw the end of our modern world around 4457 A.D. On the other hand, the Old Testament (Daniel)
and the Bible (St. John) have predicted these catastrophies that all of us are
witnessing nowadays. Buddha has not come to earth for Cambodians alone,
neither has Jesus come down for the sole French and Australian. What was written
in the Torah, the Jataka and the New Testament is giving the kings of the earth
the same order for the 21st century : or thou change thy self and the world, or
thou perish sooner than the year 5000 !
Even former U.S. President Bill Clinton is talking about this need of change : «Nous n'y parviendrons pas si les pauvres de ce monde sont dirigés par des gens comme
Oussama Ben Laden, qui croient pouvoir trouver leur rédemption dans notre destruction.
Nous n'y parviendrons pas non plus si les riches sont menés par ceux qui nourrissent un
égoïsme à courte vue et perpétuent l'illusion que nous pourrons éternellement revendiquer
pour nous ce que nous dénions aux autres. Nous allons tous devoir changer.» (Excerpt from
his article in French at www.lemonde.fr, 2002/01/16).
Theravada Buddhism Vs Kambuja's Downfall (from camdisc@cambodia.org, 2001/11/23)
yost@webtv.net wrote : There is often asked the question of "what caused the downfall of Angkor, and therefore the Khmer civilization?" In more than one
case, it has been suggested that the injection of Theravada Buddhism into the Khmer society was a major factor, ... an indeed, yet another researcher
has come to that conclusion, ... and with apparent good reason.
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"Reasons for the Fall of Angkor Civilization"
1) Introduction of Theravada Buddhism : The pillar of the Angkor Civilization was supported by the blending
of the religious beliefs of Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism. The monarchs
being regarded as the god-king were able to motivate the dedication
of their people to serve the throne as a divine service. The empire's
extensive irrigation system and military troops required extensive
labor and manpower to maintain. The introduction of Theravada Buddhism in 13th century to the Khmers had turned out to cripple sublimely the
basic foundation of the Angkor Empire in the long run.
Theravada Buddhism taught the people to seek "self-enlightenment,"
abandon worldly things and discourage any superstition belief which
directly or indirectly means all deities and all evils.
The sovereignty of the Kingdom, and therefore the Angkorian monarch
as well, as a "god-king" or deva-raja was basically eroded.
2) Loss of Water Control : Less devotion of the people led to a negative impact on the empire.
The Khmers seemed unwilling to work wholeheartedly for the king as
a holy service as they had previously did. The formerly efficient
irrigation and drainage system became silted up with less water supply
and the rice crops, used to be cultivated two or three times a year,
were dramatically dropped, thus weaken the productivity and therefore
the strength of the Angkor Empire.
3) External Threats : As neighboring states of the Angkor rose, they became a major threat
to the empire, especially the Thai State of Ayuthaya in the Chaophaya
River Basin to the West. In order to protect the empire, Angkor had to direct
greater portions of its manpower to secure strong armed forces, which
in turn, deprived itself from giving good maintenance to its irrigation
system.
4) Double-edged sword of Roads Network : The road network built by Jayavarman VII had aided the transports of
products and trades throughout the empire and also facilitated the
Khmer troops to defend against its neighbors. It had became a double-edged
sword when Angkor became weak as the invaders could easily marched
in through this road network, instead of previously sailing up from the
Mekong River. This turned out to be true when the newly emerged
Ayuthaya, a Thai kingdom in the West became stronger. They use this
road to march from the Chaophaya River basin through Phnomrung (in Burirum
of modern Thailand) and then through Aranyapathet to attack right at the
heart of Angkor and finally sacked the empire in 1431. The glory
of the Angkor Civilization was terminated at that time. (...)
From: History of Cambodia, by Aphisit Weerathippavong, who himself
conducted extensive research on Khao Phraviharn (Preah Vihear), a Khmer
temple in the Dangrek Mountains.
Contributors : Mr. George Ehrlich, Mark Standen (author of "Passage through Angkor")
from the U.K., From Cambodia: Mr. Meng Hieng and Mr. Saran in
Phnom Penh. Ms Suppatra (Lek), Ms Angkana (Bee), and Ms Charadrak (Chim).
Mr. Meng Hieng, Makara, Mr. Visal, and Hun Socheat, in Siem Reap.
At Angkor, Mr. Bros - who has vast knowledge of Angkor Wat and the area.
Mr. Bunna, Mr. Lieng, and Mr. Kong who have provided many other writing
materials.
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JY : Another question that arises is :
Hey, ... weren't the Siam the ones who ascribed to the Theravada line
of Buddhism as a tool of organizing a campaign of seccesion against the
Khmer? If so, why did the Siam, supposedly followers of
self-centric "Theravada," use the sword to rise to supremacy over the Khmer, ...
whereas the Khmer, who were subsequently the targets of Siam practices
of "religious-cleansing," and ultimately subverted into Theravada,
why did the Khmer never rise again?
It has been zero-sum total for the Khmer ever since they lost their
Hindu-Mahayana syncretism, ... in effect, the Lord Buddha has been
used against the Khmer to reduce them to the status of eternal prisoners
of faith, ... some "liberation" that is.
nearovi@sympatico.ca wrote : Dear All : First, some analogies to other civilizations : a) the Pharaohs didn't use Egyptians as cheap labour for building pyramids ; they took slaves from other peoples : Jews, Ethiopians a.s.o. and the real (ancient) Egyptians of today are only minority
in their own country : the Copts ; b) the Romans were big persecutors of Christians ; in the 4th century, Constantin promised to God to become Christian if God helped him win over his competitors, and he'd won ; since then, Rome was Catholic.
I think our Varmans
had done the same : while Khmers were generals, architects, artists and
engineers, cheap labour were those "then" minorities which seeked asylum
in Khmer empire : Thai, Lao, etc. Ethnologists and historians say the Thai
and the Dai - - a mountain tribe of China's Yunnan - - were the same people.
The Dai, like another Yunnan tribe, the Viet, were driven south by their
demographic explosion. Both tribes hated the Chinese, but a fraction of
Dais and future Siameses might have preferred being cheap labour but with
lot of foods in Khmer empire, to hardship in the overpopulated China.
Jaya Varman II studied Sanskrit in Bali island [1] from Javanese
Brahmins (chvea pream) not at Ayuthya nor in India. Khmer army was parading on the Elephant Terrace
to the sound and pace of the chhayam band and was charging the enemy to the music of khlong
chhnak brass. Khmer troops were gathering (kaend) minorities for cheap labour in building stone monuments. We were constructors
but we were also exploiters of the north-western minorities. This explained
the fury of the Thai or Siamese - - when they got stronger and more
numerous than us - - in destroying not only the stone temples that costed
them lot of lifes, sufferings and humiliation, but also in annihilating
what was the Khmer brain : the scholars and the written documents. All
of the latters were taken to the now (or rather then) Siam kingdom : the
Siamese (and their cousins the Lao) became alphabetized, Buddhist (not
like the Dai in Yunnan), had the same royal court manners as the Khmer,
the same royal ballet and orchestra, etc.
One of the big sins of Khmer dynasties was their sexual appetite. Tens of (if not hundred)
concubines gave the king tens of children, female and male. These royal
bastards would do anything to become and be called Preah. The future Jaya VII wanted to succeed
to Surya Varman II who'd just finished erecting the Angkor Wat temple.
But another guy took the throne, Jaya exiled himself in south and maritime
Kampuchea. The Cham took advantage from the dissension, invaded, sacked
and occupied Yasodharapura (Angkor) in 1177 A.D. Jaya ousted them in 1181,
became king-god and proclaimed himself bodhisatva but did not promise anything yet to Buddha. Jaya Varman VII kept on building
stone temples, pagodas, hospitals, roads ... so he had to send troops to
gather minority people for cheap labour (thus, the Siamese were not strong
yet), while maintaining an occupation army in Champa. This occupation army
was withdrawn by Indra Varman II in the 13th century. Why ? Maybe the dissension
was continuing, Indra needed troops to eliminate rivals. No more significant
monument was erected, only some more inscriptions. The last Sanskrit
inscription dates from 1327, the first in Pali from 1309[2].
Consequently, minorities in the north-west of the empire have had 100 years
of rest and re-arming themselves. In the mean time, around 1327, a Khmer
competitor for the throne might have promised to Buddha to become fully
Buddhist if he became king ; he did become Preah
Moha Ksatr, kept his word, no more sent
troops to the north-west, but rather sent ceremonial processions (bonn
kathen) to construct pagodas and/or to offer everything needed by Buddhist monks. The chhayam band which once was leading every military parade, was now (or rather then)
leading these charitable and holy processions. Later on, in 1431, one knows
what happened to Yasodharapura.
________________________ [1] Un documentaire touristique et publicitaire sur Java et l'île de Bali
a montré deux traditions javanaises qui ressemblent exactement à
celles cambodgiennes : a) la cérémonie de banvel popil, b) le carnet en feuilles de latanier (sastra slek rit) et la façon
d'écrire (en sanskrit, par dessus le marché) avec une pointe de fer.
[2] National Geographic, May 1982.