Radix Spotlight: Taja De Silva

Compassion in Action: Buddha’s Lost Children

Introduction

This essay investigates the film Buddha’s Lost Children, which tracks “one of the last travelling monks,”^[1]Phra Khru Bah and the nun Khun Mae Ead. Both have “devoted [themselves] to the orphaned and abandoned children”^[2]of the Golden Triangle: a region heavily influenced by the disastrous effects of a growing drug problem. The film provides an overview of the inner workings of the Buddhist sangha, or the “monastic order,”^[3]while maintaining a focus on the “symbiotic nature of the monastic-lay relationship”^[4]that Phra Khru Bah and Khun Mae Ead emulate while caring for the novices. The duo’s immense display of selflessness, counters the common misbelief surrounding the “self-interested”^[5]nature of Theravāda Buddhism: Thailand's majority religion. Ultimately, the presiding theme of Buddha’s Lost Childrenis expressed in the film’s opening reference to Shin Yatomi: “Living is an art to be learned,”^[6]a statement that manifests in the actions of Khru Bha’s and Khun Mae Ead’s mobilization of “Buddhism as a liberating vehicle”^[7]to aid the region and guide the novices alongside an overriding emphasis for compassion:a trend that transcends the narrative of the film and takes root in the core tenants of Buddhism.

Theravāda Buddhism

In Thailand, Theravāda Buddhism has maintained “a leading role in all aspects of national life”^[8]since becoming constitutionally recognized as the State’s “official religion”^[9]in 1932. The result was a merging of Thai and Buddhist traditions that have connected aspects of Theravāda Buddhism and religious practice to Thai identities. An inspired sense of nationalistic pride is thus reserved for the Thai monastic community, who––having come to embody an extension of Thai culture––are represented accordingly by episodes of the sangha’ssymbiotic relationship with local villagers. Evidence of this relationship in the film is encountered in the “collect[ing] alms”^[10]or donations, that are typically offerings of food^[11]from villagers who consider their contribution as “an opportunity to earn merit”^[12]towards the Theravāda goal to end rebirth.^[13]Further evidence of a culture of Buddhism is found in the film’s segment on Boontam, the especially adorable future novice who, at the young age of four, already “goes back and forth between the temple and his village”^[14]with enthusiasm. His mother has already decided that Boontam will “go through the formal steps of becoming a novice”^[15]when he is seven. This attitude towards novicehood represent the majority of Thai parents who “would consider it a great honor”^[16]if their son pursued a life as a monastic. In both these examples, Buddhist practices are shown to have become normalized throughout Thailand^[17]and Buddhism’s reputation as an institution is recognized as trustworthy. The full weight of achieving this bond with the locals, however, is not fully realized until Khun Mae Ead explains that villagers were initially “very suspicious of a Thai monk”^[18]and feared that the monastery’s “presence put them in danger.”^[19]Here, Khun Mae Ead describes a trying scenario best addressed with the nation-wide fondness and familiarity for Buddhist tradition.

In general, Theravāda is less concerned with the intricacies of Buddhist doctrine or text and shows greater interest in the “practical affairs of everyday life.”^[20]This focus on practical knowledge informs the curriculum for the novices and includes subjects from animal husbandry––a skill with the immediate purpose of travel––to Muay Thai: which Phra Khru Bah recognizes as particularly relevant to The Golden Triangle, and an opportunity to pursue a career in Thai Boxing. Theravāda’s focus on practice, however, is ultimately a focus on sangha. This relates the film to the Theravāda context by emphasizing lived experience, alongside the sangha’sdual focus: on monasticism and renunciation.^[21]

The Sangha

The term sanghahas come to distinctly represent a “clear and unique identity”^[22]belonging to the Buddhist community. In its early history, the sanghaexisted as a “community of wanderers”^[23]so as to enforce the Buddhist motivation for renunciation and to limit the monastery's potential to become burdensome for religious mendicants.^[24]The film enlivens this otherwise waning^[25]Buddhist practice of wandering by following the novices as they embark on the annual nine month trek between Thailand’s border villages under the care of Phra Khru Bah and Khun Mae Ead. This journey reveals the sangha’smaintained responsibility “to be a good friend of the villagers”^[26]who are shown to depend on Phra Khru Bah’s generosity for basic necessities and a future for children otherwise vulnerable to the region’s drug problems. The role of the sanghahas continued to operate as the region’s primary access to medical care and education; a scenario mirroring the position of early monastic centers as “the intellectual backbone”^[27]of traditional Buddhist society, and an indication of the sangha’songoing relationship with education and local communities.

The sanghais characterized by “monastic and ethical codes that govern its behavior”^[28]called the Vinaya. The Vinyadescribes “that by which one is led out [from suffering]”^[29]–which designates the sangha’srole as a “vehicle”^[30]––and defines the sangha’svows. For novices, vows are limited to the Five Precepts and are based on expectations that span across most childhood experiences, including a promise to “abstain from taking that which is not given”^[31]that is disregarded by a novice in the film. In response, Phra Khru Bah chose to turn the event into a “vehicle”^[32]for Buddhist compassion and encouraged the children to “love each other”^[33]without a serious reprimand. Here, the film demonstrates the manner in which the sangha enacts and adjusts its regulations to accommodate for the context of childhood, wherein a novice's failure to uphold their vows are viewed as opportunities for growth and met with leniency. In doing so, the film successfully distinguishes those nuances which separate the lived experience from doctrine and establishes the importance of an ethnographic understanding of religious practice.

The “Greater” Buddhism

Emerging as a response to “self-interested Buddhism,”^[34]the Mahāyāna school of Buddhism self-identifies as the “Greater Vehicle”^[35]towards Buddhahood and is built around the complementary doctrines of compassion and wisdom.^[36]Hīnayāna, in contrast, is the so-called “Lesser Vehicle”^[37]that commonly reduces Theravāda to a synonym, and associates Theravāda with selfishness for valuing personal salvation^[38]over the “compassionate effort to save all sentient beings.”^[39]This idea of Theravāda can be easily disproved by acknowledging the efforts of the Golden Horse Monastery and the many similar “pioneered development programs...[for] the needs of the rural poor.”^[40]Khun Mae Ead elaborates and explains that although caring for the novices “doesn’t bring material rewards,”^[41]she considers it a “chance to bring [the novices] happiness.”^[42]This reflects Mahāyāna because, for Khun Mae Ead, the immaterial reward of lessening another's suffering inspires her compassion; this is how wisdom––a “deeper understanding of emptiness”^[43]as tethered to suffering^[44]––becomes the “boundless compassion”^[45]that only a “crazy fool of a monk like [Phra Khru Bah] is willing”^[46]to give, or capable of giving. That said, Theravāda compassion diverges from Mahāyāna by emphasizing self-love as important, and crucial to understanding the suffering of others.^[47]In the film, this is relayed to the novices with lessons in basic hygiene and is revealed in the statement “nobody wants a dead human being” where individual health is described as a prerequisite to helping others.

Conclusion

This essay dismantles inaccurate representations of Theravāda Buddhism by recognizing the centering force of compassion inBuddha’s Lost Children, and the film’s portrayal of this compassion as essential to Buddhist practice. Theravāda Buddhism is related to the film in order to describe “Buddhism as a liberating vehicle”^[48]within the context of Northern Thailand and to connect this in explanation of the unique effectiveness of the sangha in propagating social change. Theravāda principles in practice have maintained a foundation in compassion that has been described throughout this essay––as resolution for conflict, a means towards salvation, affection for a horse, or love for a child––and overlooked as “lesser” to Mahāyāna doctrine. Ultimately, the Golden Horse Monastery’s significance can be summarized with the recitation: “I go to the Buddha for refuge, I go to the Dharmafor refuge, I go to the Sanghafor refuge.”^[49]It is this promise to provide refuge, wherein refuge and compassion are identical, that awakens Phra Khru Bah and Khun Mae Ead to the novices’ suffering, and grants them refuge in Buddhism.

Works Cited

Braitstein, Lara. “Lecture #17: Sangha.” RELG 252: Hinduism and Buddhism. Class lecture at

McGill University, Montreal, QC, November 16, 2020.

Braitstein, Lara. “Lecture #19: Mahayana.” RELG 252: Hinduism and Buddhism. Class lecture

at McGill University, Montreal, QC, November 23, 2020.

Braitstein, Lara. “Lecture #20: Therav??da.” RELG 252: Hinduism and Buddhism. Class lecture

at McGill University, Montreal, QC, November 25, 2020.

Prebish, Charles and Keown, Damian. 2010. “Chapter 4: The Buddhist Sangha,” “Chapter 5:

Buddhism in India,” “Chapter 6: Mahāyāna,” and “Chapter 8: Buddhism in South-east Asia” in Buddhism: the E-book. Fourth Edition. JBE Online Books. Pp. 9-57.

Verkerk, Mark. 2006. “Buddha’s Lost Children.” Film Documentary.