Buddhism in Cambodia
Since the late 13th century, Theravada Buddhism has been a way of life among the Khmer and other lowland peoples of mainland Southeast Asia. To this day, approximately eighty per cent of Cambodians live in villages whose physical and symbolic centers remain the wats, or temple-monasteries. The wat historically was not only the moral-religious center of a village community, but also served important educational, cultural, and social functions.
Until recent times, wats were the main centers of learning with schools and libraries, where the Khmer culture and language was preserved and transmitted from generation to generation. They also served as culturally- and environmentally-sensitive foci for people-centered development that included, indeed featured, social safety nets for the poor, destitute, and needy. Until the recent time of troubles that began with civil war in 1970, it was still common for all men to ordain as monks at least once in their lives, an act commonly seen as rite of passage for young men entering adulthood and society.
Through the 1960s, the Kingdom of Cambodia was known as a peaceful Buddhist country that was tolerant of the other faiths — Muslim, Chinese, Christian, as well as indigenous peoples — comprising less than 10 per cent of the population. At the Sixth World Council of Theravada Buddhists in Rangoon in 1955-56, the Cambodian Sangha, or monastic community, was singled out for its strong adherence to the Vinaya, or Buddhist discipline. But not long thereafter, it became caught in the vortex and became the victim of foreign ideological conflicts that swept through the region in the sixties and seventies.
The Destruction of the 1970s
Hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives during the 1970-75 civil war, when American saturation bombing targeting Vietnamese communist sanctuaries in Cambodia took their toll along with communist atrocities of Buddhist monks, laypeople, and temples. The Cambodian Buddhist Sangha was virtually annihilated by the communist Khmer Rouge regime in the years that followed until early 1979. Of some 65,000 monks and novices in the country in 1969-70, no more than 3,000 are believed to have survived the civil war and genocide.
Nearly two million people of a population of seven million in 1970 lost their lives during the horror of the Khmer Rouge regime, when Buddhism in all its forms was a special target of destruction for the loyalty it commanded among the people. Of the 3,369 temples in 1969 that dotted the Cambodian landscape and towns, nearly two thirds were destroyed or damaged/ desecrated. The same fate was meted out to the Muslim mosques and the less than a handful of Christian churches in the country. Temple-monastery buildings left standing were used for storage, as torture and execution chambers, and centers for the political indoctrination of the population. By the end of the decade, the physical destruction of Buddhism in Cambodia was nearly complete.
Partial Recovery in the 1980s
When the Vietnamese communists drove the Khmer Rouge out of Phnom Penh and much of the country in early 1979, the people, working spontaneously through revived lay temple committees, began to reconstruct their communities. For villagers, repairing or rebuilding their wats were a first order priority.
The resources for small-scale public works projects such as road and bridge repair and social and literacy programs were collected and provided through spontaneously-formed wat committees. In September 1979, the first seven Cambodian monks were officially re-ordained by a delegation of Theravada monks brought from Vietnam. But Buddhism as a force for meaningful cultural and social renewal remained repressed under the Vietnamese-dominated regime until 1988, when many restrictions on Buddhist practices were lifted. The most notable restrictions had barred men under the age of 55 from ordaining as monks and confined the number of monks per wat to a maximum of four.
Since the late 1980s (the Vietnamese military occupation ended in 1989), the number of monks and novices has risen from approximately 8,000 to more than 60,000 today. It is a significant social and cultural phenomenon that the Buddhist revival in Cambodia has been spearheaded by Cambodia’s villagers, who were the main victims of nearly a generation of ideological conflict and oppression. With meager means and enormous spirit, the common people have been in the forefront of rebuilding their temples, ordaining monks, and reclaiming their Khmer Buddhist identity and way of life.
The Education Problem
Since the UN-brokered peace plan in 1991 and elections in 1993, Cambodian society began opening up. democratization, in part through the prodding of an international community still operating for the most part on European time, reason, and logic. At the same time, the new freedoms, the introduction of the drug and sex industries, and massive doses of material assistance by the international donor community have helped foster a growing climate of greed, corruption, and moral and intellectual paralysis in a country whose social fabric has since the earlier upheavals remained frayed. The rebirth of Khmer culture and society, not to mention political renewal, depends to a great extent on the renewal of standards in the Buddhist Sangha. In this context, it must be remembered that the western concept of “church” & “state” separation is foreign to Cambodia and the Theravada lands of Southeast Asia. For the Cambodian Sangha to resume its traditional role as the moral conscience and spiritual guide of the people, it is necessary for the next generations of monks and novices, not to mention the lay devotee nuns and laypeople, to receive the best possible training and education appropriate to their needs and conditions. Bereft of the moral and cultural leadership base of the Sangha, it is difficult to imagine the Khmer people overcoming their inner and outer conflicts and charting a peaceful, tolerant course for rebuilding and developing their country.
Well-trained monks as well as nuns are needed to minister to the people’s psychic, cultural, and social needs in ways that the western humanirtarian agencies and the state are unable to do. The Buddhist Sangha and network of temples have been in the forefront of regenerative forces in the past. Drawing on historical precedent, Buddhism in Cambodia can again play a crucial role at both the village community and societal levels in promoting a meaningful peace, healing, and reconciliation process; in guiding a people-centered development that is culturally and environmentally sensitive and based on social equity; and in contributing to the wider moral, intellectual, and political regeneration of the country. In spite or because of materialistic globalization/ development pressures, it can, with help and encouragement from Buddhists worldwide and sympathetic friends, again play a leading role in shaping a better future for all Cambodians.
Dharmayana
"The Dharma is visible here and now. It is always in the present, the omnipresent. It offers results at once. In Buddhims, there are three yanas, or vehicles, and none is higher or better than any other. All three carry the same Dharma. But there is a fourth vehicle that is even more complete. I call it Dharmayana, the universe itself, and it includes every way that leads to peace and loving kindness. Because it is complete, Dharmayana can never be sectarian. It can never divide us from any of our brothers and sisters. Come and experience it for yourself. The Dharma vehicle will bring you to nirvana right here and now. Step by step, moment by moment, it is comprehensible and can be understood by anyone."