Gov’t Must Help Rebuild Religion, Top Monks Say
Buddhist leaders were roundly criticized for lax education and even corruption at a recent seminar on the role of Buddhism in building Cambodian society.
Chhorn Iem, secretary of state for the Ministry of Cults and Religion, was blunt. “The reason our religion has problems and the morality of our people has declined is that we don’t have a strong, intelligent monk leader at this time,” he said.
Supreme Patriarch Bou Kry, leader of the Thammayuth sect, did not dispute that harsh assessment. It is true that monks need better training in Buddhist precepts, he said.
But the government must help, he said. “We all want to develop more respect in our people,” but the way to do it is through more financial support from the government. “If there’s the budget, we can begin to improve education.”
Bou Kry and Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong, leader of the Mohanikay sect, were among a group of Buddhist leaders who participated Thursday in the one-day seminar sponsored by the Center for Social Development. They listened attentively to the criticisms but did not respond to specific charges, other than to thank the seminar participants for their work.
About 80 teachers, lawmakers and students joined NGO workers and officials from the police, military and government to explore how citizens can help rebuild Buddhism after its near-destruction by the Khmer Rouge.
In 1969, there were 3,369 pagodas in Cambodia and 65,000 monks and novices, Chhorn Iem said. Only about 5 percent survived the Khmer Rouge, while nearly two-thirds of the pagodas were destroyed.
In the years since, Cambodians have worked hard to rebuild their once flourishing religious system. Today, there are 3,731 pagodas and 50,800 monks.
But, said Chhorn Iem, “the big number of wats and monks these days does not reflect the quality of Buddhism. Our quality is very poor compared with” the pre-war era.
Participants said that many of the country’s top Buddhist scholars and most devout religious figures were slain by the Pol Pot regime, leaving too few spiritual or intellectual guides to show a new generation the way.
The Venerable Chin Channa, a monk at Wat Moha Montrei in Phnom Penh, said many of today’s monks are poorly educated, while some don’t even know the tenets of their own religion. “The monk leaders and the state’s leaders do not heed [or] think of strengthening our religion,” he said. “Monk leaders are weak, and even their respect for Buddhist teaching is not right most of the time.”
Venerable Tep Ul, a senior monk from Wat Sovann Kiri in Kompong Cham province, said poor understanding of Buddhist precepts has led some monk leaders to actually undermine Buddhism.
Those in high positions, he said, should not confuse themselves with Buddha. It is not up to man, he said, to alter Buddha’s teachings but to “respect and abide by the original rule of Lord Buddha.”
Money is even beginning to influence monks, a number of speakers said. One youth complained that pagodas have traditionally been places where poor boys can study.
But increasingly, students who want to live on pagoda grounds are asked to pay, he said. “This is not what our Buddhist tradition allows, but some greedy individuals in wats are corrupt,” he said.
While most speakers criticized the leaders for poor administration at the nation’s pagodas, some spoke in their defense.
“Don’t blame and insult” the leadership too much, said Dim Hay of Wat Neakkavoan, the deputy monk leader in Phnom Penh’s Tuol Kok district.
He said Tep Vong “has built Buddhism from scratch since 1979, from the destruction of the Khmer Rouge … We should be grateful.”
Dim Hay said it’s unfair to blame any single source for problems in modern Cambodian society. “The problems and weakness can stem from being influenced by the invasion of materialism and money,” he said.
Seng Somuni, a monk at Wat Unalom in Phnom Penh, said civilian authorities further hurt Buddhism’s standing in the community when they arrest monks who commit crimes.
Since it is the individual, not the monkhood, who errs in those cases, he said, the accused monk should be allowed to change into civilian clothes before being photographed by the media to protect the image of the religious community.
At the same time, he said, infractions by monks should be handled by religious authorities rather than civil authorities.
Thel Thong, a retired teacher, suggested that one way to improve the quality of religious leadership is to require monks who wish to hold leadership positions to earn university or graduate degrees.
“If we have intellectuals in our Buddhist leadership, we can improve [religious] administration, and people’s respect for our religion will get better,” he said.
And ultimately, “there should be an administration school for monks and monk leaders, so they can learn about how to effectively deal with monastic administration.”
