The Brāhmanization of the Bhikkhu Sangha in Thailand

With regard to Thai Theravādin Buddhist culture, a feature relevant to our present discussion is its virtual re-installment of high-caste priests in the form of bhikkhus, or Buddhist clergy, but with one considerable differentiation. In vivid contrast to the divinely sanctioned caste of brāhmans, the exalted class-status conferred on the bhikkhu has been perpetuated not by ancestral purity, but by a state-sanctioned system of monastic ordination and lineage construction. In recent times this was largely the work of the energetic Thai prince Mongkut who had joined the bhikkhu sangha (Buddhist monkhood) in 1824, only to disrobe 26 years later and be crowned as King Rama IV.

Mongkut was a reformist monk who studied classical Buddhist texts. He became the head of a highly influential reformist monastery in Bangkok and established a new qasi-orthodox sect called the Dhammayut-nikāya, literally "those who stick to the dhamma (Buddhist doctrine)." He then divided the entire population of gamavasi or "city dwelling monks" into two distinct groups within the sangha. Ranked first was his own Dhammayut-nikāya, which was very small and elitist in nature. The remaining vast majority of Buddhist monks were subsequently dubbed Maha-nikāya, literally "great majority sect." Sponsored by Mongkut's own royal family, the Dhammayut-nikāya, gained instant prestige among the lay population as the more austere and orthodox group of city monks.

During this period, however, the Bangkok-centred religious authorities systematically ignored another major segment of the Thai bhikkhu sangha. This group was known as the araññavasi or 'monks that dwelled in the depth of the forest (arañña)' in austere conditions in order to concentrate on yogic-asceticism. This mainly self-regulated sector of the sangha was greatly ignored but certainly not forgotten. In her valuable article, Heikkilä-Horn (1995) writes that after the turn of the 20th century all "unauthorized" wandering ascetics were increasingly marginalized and systematically discredited as aberrant, ill-disciplined and heretical elements within the government-regulated bhikkhu sangha.[5] Now what this may have spelled for the widespread traditions of para-Buddhic tantrics, independent siddhas, yogins and gurus living on the margins of institutional religion is anybody's guess. Already by then a centuries-long campaign of Vedic disinheritance had deeply inculcated the collective Thai mind to malign and repudiate the slightest vestige of its own misunderstood Brahmanical legacy. Such bigoted perceptions would moreover prove crucial in fashioning the modern Thai nation-state just after the turn of the t20th century and the subsequent construction of "Thailand" in 1934.

As sovereign Mongkut was careful to cultivate contacts with the various foreign emissaries and to study the rise of colonialism in the region. While the neighbouring countries of Burma and Cambodia were warring against their colonial masters, Mongkut preserved a semblance of diplomatic relations and a nominal independence for the Kingdom of Siam. The Bangkok elite took advantage this period to consolidate its centralized political authority on the newly emerging frontier areas and to begin to engineer a modern nation-state. We also see the blatant use of 'Theravāda' Buddhism as a legitimizing force in the state formation process. This was not without its historical precedence.

Since the early thirteenth-century kingdom of Sukhothai, it was known that so-called 'Theravāda' Buddhism played an important manipulative role in legitimizing political power and shaping the emerging "Thai" nation-state.[6] Sukhothai's founder, king Ram Khamhaeng, was also alleged to have left behind stone inscriptions praising himself, his Buddhist virtues and his close relations to the Buddhist monastic order. But interesting to note, these stone inscriptions have recently aroused much controversy with their authenticity coming under scrutiny.[7] All the same, the inscriptions stand as "an important piece of real or 'invented' history," and as such, remain an imperative early "document of state formation and state building which was legitimated by Buddhist concepts and by the Buddhist monastic community," writes Heikkilä-Horn.[8] In the later Ayutthaya period (1350-1767) as well we know that the state provided protection to the established sangha against religious competition. In return, the monks gave legitimacy to the state by ritually accepting material support and attending state ceremonies.[9] This trend has continued into the 21st century.

The Thai Sangha Act of 1902

A characteristic element of modern Thai Buddhism, then, is that it is under virtual state control. With the passing of the Sangha Act in 1902 by Mongkut's son and heir to the throne, King Chulalongkorn (1868-1910), the position of the sangha within the Thai state became legally defined for the first time. In fact this same legislation still stands today. It demonstrates clearly the totalizing state-centric position that the sangha is intended to hold, stating that 'the administration of religious affairs is just as important as the administration of the state,' and that 'if systematically administered, religious affairs shall be sure to attract more people to the study and practice of religion under the guidance of Buddhist doctrine, thereby leading them to the correct mode of living, in accordance with Buddha's teaching.'[10] After that the state passed a host of other religious reforms "in order to consolidate state power over the whole kingdom" (Bunnag 1984).[11]

Beyond these purely legislative acts, the new reformist Dhammayut sect furnished extra and sustained guarantees to the "functioning sangha-state relationship, as members of the sect have ever since [occupied] leading positions in the state sangha hierarchy" (Council of Elders).[12] It was also after the passing of the 1902 Sangha Act that the Siamese monarch fashioned a new Bangkok "court-style" Buddhism. Due largely to these changes the Buddhist faith in Thailand became more deeply infused with the sentiment of royalty, and monks were turned into sacrosanct princes. This furthermore acted to increase the separation between the ascetic few and the masses of laity, as the stature of the latter was reduced to approximate the rank of social untouchability, and their pre-eminent life-duty was serve to the two highest "castes," vis-à-vis, rulers and priests. Now it ought to be noted that this new "state-centric" court-style Buddhism was actually based on the Royal Khmer precedent.

We may now begin to see how Brahmanical culture continues to exert tremendous influence at every level of Thai social life.

Conceptual Mandala-shift

It is amidst these freshly emerging details that we find ourselves presiding over a conceptual mandala-shift, as the traditional epicentre of tantric conventionalism – so vaguely construed in the popular mind – begins to re-emerge upon the Southeast Asian stage. After more than a century of hyper attention on the Indian and Tibetan archetypes, this natural progression ought to be welcomed.

It was Chod himself who seeded my brain just a few weeks before his decorporealization. The present essay is therefore seen to have commenced upon a narrow trail of directives and clues that emerged from a private conversation with the Master while relaxing after lunch one glorious day. "In ancient times," Chod casually spoke, holding a cup of jasmine tea, "Cambodia was considered an extension of India." He then disclosed the meaning of his family name, Harshavarman, which is not at all Thai, but Royal Khmer. "It means the servant of Indra," he added with a smile. "Indra was the king of the gods..."

Accordingly Harshavarman is a Sanskrit name. Harsha means literally "that which causes the hairs on the back to stand up." It also signifies the Vedic god Indra, the king of the gods. Varman (lit. "coat of mail") is a suffix often attached to the names of Khmer kings implying "protector" or "protégé." The name debuts in Cambodian history with the ascendancy of the first Harshavarman king in the 9th century. This is proven by a terse stone inscription dated 834 that records the "donation of the king Harshavarman to Śiva." Nothing more is known of this early Khmer monarch beyond the fact that his posthumous name is Rudraloka, an epithet denoting "the abode of Śiva." There were later Harshavarman kings as well.

The Guru also told me of the priestly brāhman families that actually still live in Thailand today, and whose community is centred at the well known Bot Phram or "Brahman Chapel" in Bangkok. He explained its location near Sao Ching-Cha or "The Giant Swing," the famous city landmark where spectacular festivals in honour of the Vedic god Śiva once took place annually. "I went there many times and talked to the priests," he said. "But we found that our families were not related. We could tell by examining the names. They frankly admitted that they weren't Khmer at all, but had migrated up from the old southern kingdom around the beginning of the century."

Suvarnabhūmi & the Early Khmer

Three hundred years before the Common Era, Indian kings already knew about the far-off region called Suvarnabhūmi. This almost mythical "Land of Gold" was distinguished quite literally for its immense reserves of gold and other natural resources. In those days, Cambodia was an overseas Hindu colony called Kambuja-desa.[13] It seems to have achieved near-epical acclaim as an Indo-Chinese El Dorado. The highly fertile and well-watered region corresponded roughly to the broad geographical basin that stretches today from southern Burma eastward to the Mekong Delta. Indeed, there are ancient Sanskrit treatises that classify Cambodia as one of the great sixteen states of India.

The first Cambodian realm began no later than the 1st century CE, coinciding with a prosperous Indianized state known by its Chinese name Funan. Most of what we know of this early kingdom comes from Chinese dynastic annals.[14] From the second to the sixth century, this early Funanese dominion spread across what is today the southern part of Cambodia and the Mekong Delta. Its wealth came mainly from maritime trade. It was favourably positioned at the crossroads of the ancient world's major sea routes that linked the Mediterranean with the China Sea. Commercial exchanges with Rome are certain and by implication Egypt too. Roman coins of Antonius the Pious dated 152 and others representing Marcus Aurelius have been unearth at excavation sites. Eight centuries after the founding of Funan the great Angkorian Empire emerged with its centre at Angkor Vat. The complete historical movement of the Khmer kings extended more than a thousand years until its eventual decline in the 13th century.

Still, in its heyday, Khmer Civilization spread throughout the Indo-Chinese peninsula from the Bay of Bengal to the China Sea and south to the Isthmus of Kra region. Its rulers bore Hindu, or Vedic names such as Harshavarman, Jayavarman, Yashovarman and Sūryavarman. They learned the elements of classical Sanskrit and introduced many of its forms into their own High Khmer language. These facts reflect an intense assimilation of Brāhmanical culture. Yet, the thoroughness in which this culture was imported and absorbed into the fields of literature, science, art and religion cannot be explained by Cambodia's intimate connection with Motherland India alone. Such marked propagation was also due to the flourishing numbers of cultural institutions, conservatories, and diverse ascetic hermitages or ashrams (āshramas) that were established all across the country. Cambodian rulers were themselves responsible for maintaining these citadels of Indian civilization.

Yashovarman ascended the throne in 889. He was a highly educated monarch with liberal religious views. Although a devotee of Śiva, he lavishly patronized Vaishnava sects, and various Hīnayānic and Mahayānic Baudha cults as well. He is said to have founded one hundred ashrams throughout the realm where ascetics engaged in piety and study were provided with their daily necessities. Other things granted to these institutions were "pearls, gold, silver, cows, horses, buffaloes, elephants, men, women, and gardens."[15] All of these ascetics were free to live in accordance to their own particular custom.

The favour that yoga and asceticism enjoyed in the ancient religious life of the Khmer is an area of its culture that deserves due notice.[16] After all, Śiva, the national god of Cambodia, was considered the ascetic par excellence. According to Kamaleswar Bhattacharya, an authority in the field of Khmer epigraphy and religion,

...[T]here is often mention of grottoes where asceticism was practiced. The temple of Vat Phu was also a special place for asceticism. Speculations on the syllable Om occupy a large place in the Sanskrit inscriptions of Cambodia.[17]

Indeed, the practice of yoga is specifically documented. A Sanskrit inscription by Jayavarman V at Vat Sithor, dated 968, is a vivid illustration of the practices current among the tenth to thirteenth-century Vajrayānic Buddhist schools in Cambodia. In this very important record, the king bestows praise to the religious teacher Kīrtipandita for practicing and propagating the teachings of yoga throughout the land.[18]

In no other way is Khmer-yoga heritage more deeply expressed than through the famous image of the Buddha with Nāga. It was clearly the background of Khmer yoga-tantra that imbued this image with its far-reaching esoteric significance. Nowhere in India or throughout the Indianized states of Southeast Asia did this quintessentially yogic icon become so widespread as among the Khmer. Yet as previously discussed (Sritantra, "Buddhism & Yoga" 2006), the symbolic importance of the Buddha with Nāga lays not it its reference to the enchanted incident in the Hierophantic Buddha's burgeoning career, but rather in its esoteric association with the arousal of an inner primordial energy called kundalinī śakti. Buddha with Nāga became a main cult icon and was placed in the central Shrine of the Bayon temple;  King Jayavarman VIII even identified himself with it.

Bayon temple is contained within the walls of the great Temple City of Angkor Thom, itself situated adjacently north of Angkor Vat. The Bayon was constructed at the end of the 12th century when Buddhism gained prominence under the rule of king Jayavarman VII. But it remains unknown if a Buddharāja notion ever displaced the "god-king" tradition of the Devarāja. There are other major unanswered questions as well. For example, what do the four gigantic faces on the Seventh Jayavarma's temple represent? The Bayon has been variously regarded as a temple to Śiva, Brahmā, Avalokiteśvara and/or Buddha. It could very well be all of these, and even more. Yet be that as it may, the often mentioned 'break in the Vedic tradition' marked in the reign of the Seventh Jayavarman is likely more apparent than actual. And the Vickery (2004) study (to be mentioned again) of the 1308 inscription by the third reigning king after Jayavarman VII, zooms right in on this overlooked area. For even if a convert to Theravada Buddhism, king Śrīdravarman's inscription "shows no change in the structure of society, in spite of the new religion" (Vickery). In Bhattacharya's view, as well, the older forms of worship never subsided: "the local cults, whether Hindu or Buddhist, were reunited in the Bayon, a veritable pantheon that functioned both as the kingdom's centre and its image in small."[19]  

The Khmer Caste System

The Indian system of caste-division or Varnāshrama-dharma was also introduced to Khmer society. Having touched on the subject of caste above, I will now give a more complete explanation. In its purely sociological sense, Varnāshrama-dharma organizes society into four occupational and four spiritual divisions (i.e. varna and āshrama) that theoretically function in accordance with dharma or 'duty, natural law.' Āshrama literally means "stage" or "station" and refers to the recognized periods of life that affect Hindu males of the three higher castes. There are four such āshrama: brahmācara-āshrama (student-stage), grihastha-āshrama (householder-stage), vanaprastha-āshrama (forest-dweller stage) and sannyāsa-āshrama (surrender-stage).

Varna means, among other things, "colour." It refers to the four-fold division of society along the lines of "caste" [from Portuguese, 'race,' 'breed,' from Latin castus, 'pure,' 'chaste']. These social classifications were traditionally laid down in the ancient Indian Laws of Manu. The concept of varna also accords with a four-fold typology of human "nature" or "quality."[20] The four Hindu varnas are brāhmana, kshatriya, vaishya and sūdra. Brāhmana (or brāhmans) are the priests, intellectuals, doctors and artists; they are the figurative head of the social body. Ksatriyas are the rulers, politicians, corporate executives, administrators and military leaders. They are thought of as the arms of the social body. Vaishyas are businessmen, traders, artisans and agriculturists. Shūdras constitute the masses of labourers. These last two divisions represent the belly and the legs of the social body respectively. According to tradition, each caste honours the caste above it, except the priestly brāhmana who honour the gods.

Since remotely ancient times the system of caste has been the governing force in India society. It was jealously guarded down through the ages with an implicit adherence to strict social prohibitions regarding, in particular, inter-caste marriage and all other aspects of social mingling.[21] Naturally the system has left itself open to attack by modern social theorists who are prone to become indignant over its perceived stratification along lines of racial exclusiveness. Yet a Marxist appraisal may deserve more scrutiny as the system would appear to be founded on a "division of labour," not to mention the "Asiatic Mode of Production."

The Khmer, however, did not at all adhere to the classic Varnāshrama-dharma caste system, but made significant adaptations. In India, for example, we know that the brāhman or "priestly-caste" gained early domination over the other three castes. They did this largely through maintaining a monopoly on intellectual and spiritual knowledge, and by making themselves considered to be indispensable to the ruling kshatriya-caste.[22] But this was not the case among the Ancient Khmer.

According to Coedès, the government of the Khmer

was in the hands of an aristocratic oligarchy, and the great offices were held by members of the royal family. [But] the offices of chaplain of the king, officiating priest of the Devarāja, and tutor of the young princes were reserved to members of the great priestly families, within which offices were transmitted in the female line.[23]

Here we get a glimpse at the important roles that were played by brāhman priests and gurus, as conductors of tantric rites and sacrifices, thaumaturgic advisors and royal teachers. It was the special intimacy of this brāhman-kshatriya caste alliance that ultimately fostered the new state religion called Devaraja at the beginning of the 9th century.

Khmer Religion – Śiva & Vishnu

The predominant religion among the ancient Khmer was clearly based on the worship of the Vedic god Śiva. Śiva was described as "a great ascetic with many names." Many Śaiva's epithets also identify him with The Sacred Mountain. He was thus worshipped variously as Giriśa, "He who reclines on the mountain," Girīśa, "Lord of the mountain," and Giritra, "Protector of the mountain."[24] The early importance of this yogic deity is amply demonstrated by Daweewarn: "So great was the influence of this god that in the early 7th century...the king renamed the capital of Kambuja as Īśanapura...City of Śiva."[25]

But it needs to be mentioned that the religion of Vishnu and the closely allied Bhāgavata School, or "devotees of Krishna," flourished from as early as the fourth-century pre-Khmer Funan period. Krishna was the favourite of certain Khmer queens and princesses as well. An inscription dated from the pre-Angkorian reign of Jayavarman I espouses the central Vaishnava doctrine that 'a man may progressively purify himself in the course of his various existences and thereby free himself from successive rebirths, either good or bad, resulting from action (karma).'[26] Khmer dedication to the cult of Vishnu is most compellingly confirmed by the piety of king Sūryavarman II, the monarch responsible for the construction of Angkor Vat during first half of 12th century. Angkor Vat is unreservedly the greatest Vaishnava temple ever known to the world. Unlike all other temples of the Greater Angkor complex, Angkor Vat faces west, the direction of the setting sun, the symbolical pole of the after-world. What is more, in the view of Daweewarn, the incarnation concept of the Devarāja is "a purely Vaishnavite belief."[27]

Lord Vishnu most famously appears in Khmer iconography, as reposing on the primordial multi-headed serpent Anantashesha as depicted in a well-known style of temple lintel. This brilliant example of a distinctly Khmer stylistic mode is from the decorative eastern lintel of the mandapa (central shrine) of Phnom Rung Temple in present-day northeast Thailand. As I have elsewhere mentioned, this extraordinary carving illustrates the Puranic creation myth of Vishnu reclining with the Anantashesha ("eternal one") in the primordial ocean of eternal bliss before the creation of the world. From Vishnu's navel stems a lotus blossom upon which the tiny Lord Brahmā (world creator) sits in the posture of yoga. A uniquely Khmer innovation on the theme is seen by a dragon (in place of the serpent) that supports the whole ensemble. 

Yet it must be said, and boldly underscored, that the worship of Vishnu found far less acceptance than that of Śiva among the Khmer. Many stone inscriptions bear vivid testimony to the predominance of Śaivism, and to the great popularity of the śivalinga, the stone-sculpted phallic symbol through which the god was mainly worshipped. A stone-hewn bas-relief of two brāhman ascetics worshipping Śiva bears further testament to Cambodia's affinity with Indian religious culture. The two bearded sādhus wear only loincloths. Their hair is tied in top-knot fashion. They sit on the ground in a casual manner and lean back to back against a low decorative pillar. Each of them holds in their two hands a chilum ( ritual clay pipe) as they perform the quintessential Vedic rite of honouring Śiva through a sacramental offering of smoke. The pipes are filled with the herbal offering consisting largely of cannabis-derived substances.[28] The bas-relief is found at the hilltop fortress Prasat Phnom Rung, a Śaivite sanctuary built between the 10th and 13th centuries. It is situated in the present-day Buriram province, Thailand.

Khmer Śaivite Philosophy

There were varied forms of Śiva-based worship and philosophical speculation among the Khmer. Śaivite Monism with its "multiple bodies" philosophy was especially influential there. This was doubly inspired by Ādi Śankācācarya's Advāita Vedanta school and by the South-Indian Śaivite Āgama ('tantric texts') school. In the 7th and late 9th centuries there were also appearances of the Pāshupata school, the sectarian followers of Śiva in the name of Pāshupati (pati, 'chief' of the pāshu, 'beasts, or un-liberated soul within.'

In a remarkable epigraph dated 1100, Bhattacharya has identified the most characteristic aspect of Indian Āgamic Śaivism, that being the feature of dīkshā or "initiation" mentioned often in Cambodian inscriptions.

Assuming two different aspects, Śiva's energy (śakti) first strengthens the bonds of the soul then frees the soul from them. The strengthening or 'maturing' of the bonds, which have existed for all eternity, is intended solely to help beings bring their intrinsic capabilities to full fruition. When the bonds are ripe, the Energy of Grace comes down to break them. Śiva himself takes on the form of a guru to perform the initiations (dīkshā), which induce different states in individuals, proportional to their capacities.[29]

Syncretic Tendencies – Harihara

Syncretic tendencies are marked in Khmer culture. They may reflect a spirit of great religious tolerance. It was the compelling Indian notion of the "unity of self" that provided the theoretic underpinning for these stunning developments. Thus the syncretic image of Harihara, half-Vishnu half-Shiva, emerged as early as the pre-Angkorian period. Let us first look briefly at the basic criteria that distinguish the worship of Vishnu and Śiva.

Vaishnavas believe in various avatāra or 'messiahs' of Vishnu who arrive (lit. "come down") to this world at critical junctures to restore the path of virtue. Śaivites, on the other hand, reveal the complexity of Śiva's nature through the invocation his 1,008 names and epithets. Vishnu represents not only the primordial emergence of being as expressed in the sleeping Mahāvishnu icon, but also the axis mundi or cosmic axis that maintains world order. Therefore Vishnu is known as the "Preserver" and is always exalted as the Unexcelled God by the pantheon of lesser gods themselves. Conversely, Śiva has (or keeps) no "god-friends" and is actually worshiped as the archetypal lone-ascetic of utterly wild and contemptible nature. Śiva is therefore the "God of Destruction" who is often surrounded by a company of pāshu or demons. But his ultimate aim is the destruction of the ego; and his fiendish friends represent the psychological barriers of fear. Śiva also represents the principle of time, as is deemed both endless and inescapable. He is therefore (and furthermore) the God of "Creation," as death is not the end of the theatre of life, but an ignorance-obliterating occasion of transmutation.

Śiva's śivalinga or phallic symbol is also to his worshipers what the shālāgrāma represents to the followers of Vishnu. In other words, the coil-configured fossilized shell of the shālāgrāma is the symbol of Vishnu's potency or semen; both are believed to possess miraculous properties and emanate the deity's boundless presence.[30] Other correspondences are noted in the fact that the śivalinga and the shālāgrāma are both kept in temples and on people's private altars, and regularly ritually bathed, anointed and perfumed. The water used to bath these ritual icons is furthermore believed to posses a sin-dispelling quality and devotees drink it after the rite.[31]

To return to the subject of Harihara, the syncretic half-Vishnu half-Shiva deity: the early importance of this Hindu god is clearly demonstrated in the naming of the royal pre-Angkorian town Hariharālaya or "Abode of Harihara" in the 7th century. It was found by King Jayavarman I as the capital of his Aninitapura Kingdom. Hariharālaya was the Cambodian capital that immediately preceded Yashovarman's founding of the first Ankgorian city of Yashodharapura. Today Hariharālaya is known as Roluos, a dusty hamlet situated a short distance southeast of Angkor Vat in Siem Reap province.

Śiva-Buddha Syncretism

Even before the seventh-century founding of Aninitapura by Jayavarman I, Khmer theological speculation revolved mainly around the worship of Śiva. It is also apparent that at a deeper level there existed among the ancient Khmer an intrinsic proclivity for mingling religious notions of the Supreme, as was just demonstrated by the syncretism of Harihara. Yet a far more compelling case in point is observed in the highly creative fusion and confusion of Śiva and Buddha.

In a Sanskrit inscription dated 104 at Phimai (present day Northeast Thailand), Śiva and Buddha are invoked in a way that reveals their concepts merging very close. In another inscription dated twenty-six years later, we witness an enlargement of the classic Hindu-trinity (trimūrti) in order to incorporate the historical Buddha in an extraordinarily innovative Śaivite tetralogy called śaivī caturmūrti, "Śiva in four-forms." The inscription relates the rising of a śivalinga together with the images of Vishnu, Brahmā and Buddha.[32] But from the standpoint of Indian Monism – of which both Khmer Śaiva and Bauddha partook – such blending is as natural as it is inevitable. For at their highest metaphysical intensity, respectively, there is hardly any difference in the two religions.[33] Hence Śiva, who is absolute and "one in his essence," manifests as a multiplicity of forms; and yet in spite of being multiple, Śiva is "empty" of any discernible determination – as implicitly is Buddha, metaphysically construed, beyond the distinctions inherent in our thinking, and assumes four "bodies"; presumably Dharmakāya, Sambhogakāya, Nirmānakāya and Śivakāya.

It would thus be fitting here to mention (Woodward, 2004) that the central image of the great Phimai temple was "most likely" the Nāga Protected Buddha named Lord vimaya, 'exempt from illusion,' as reflected in the place name, Phimai in Thai. Of additional interest, Woodward notes that this same Vimaya appears in a southern Indian text as an epithet of Śiva, but only from around the 14th century. He importantly infers from this a significant instance of a Southeast Asian religious development directly transferred to the subcontinent[35]. It should finally come then as no surprise that in a Phimai inscription dated 1129 a consummate fusion of Buddha and Śiva is conclusively achieved.[36] And yet as Bhattacharya wisely remarks, one must always keep in mind that the Indian texts seem to never to grow weary of repeating the adage that "Truth is one," only worshipped by the followers of different religions under various names and forms.

Along this theoretical Śiva-Buddha syncretic vein it is further worth mentioning the royal Khmer inscription dated 1308 by the Khmer king Sirisirīndavamma (the Pāli form of Sanskrit Śrī Śrīdravarman), the third reigning monarch after Jayavarman VII. It was apparently king Śrīdravarman who, during his reign (1295-1307), first instituted so-called Theravada Buddhism as the royal cult of Cambodia. Stylistically departing from an earlier Sanskritic epigraphic tradition, he begins his inscription (K.754) in the Pāli language proclaiming an endowment to the Mahāthera (senior monk) named Sirisirīndamoli of 'an entire village, labourers, both men and women, and a Buddha statute.' The same information is repeated in Khmer but the names are in Sanskrit, not Pāli. Yet the royal inscription's most remarkable disclosure is the actual name of the Buddha statue, Śrī Śrīndravamahādeva, considering the fact that "mahādeva" is a name for Śiva (Vickery, 2004).[37]

Primordial Śakti & Human Sacrifice

Extreme, perhaps even excessive forms of Śiva worship were also known in Cambodia. Such tantric perspectives are best understood as the outgrowth of the worship of Śiva's consort Śakti, the personification of the divine primordial power. Her domain is specifically known as Śaktism. She is mainly associated with fecundity and with the life-giving energies of earth. As Śiva's bride, Śakti is also strongly connected to The Sacred Mountain and is variously worshipped as Pārvatī, "She of the mountains," Umā Haimavatī, "The Golden Goddess" and Śikharāsinī, "She who lives on the summits. "Therefore, Śaktism is mainly distinguished by its symbolical adoration of the female energy of the godhead known as Devi, the Goddess or the Divine Mother. Other main features of Śaktism are its use of mantras (formulas), sorcery, and the propitiation of the Goddess Herself with ritual blood and wine offerings.

With her consort, Śiva, they represent the paradigmatic divine family. The Goddess is eternally at Śiva's side. She gazes on admiringly whether he is dancing the dance of cosmic bliss or decimating his foes. Their love is deep and abiding. In one illustration we observe their family serenely engaged in religious activity. Pārvatī holds their son, the little Kārtikeya in her lap while their second son, the elephant-headed Ganapati, helps his father string together garlands of severed human heads.

But only in the most excessive forms of Śaktism do we see the incorporation of human sacrifice. Where did such practices originate?

In India, the cults of human sacrifice have left an indelible mark on its history. They are thought to have begun around the 7th century in Kāmarūpa (present day Assam), a marginal border-zone between Vedic and primordial (savage) cultures. Actually, some regard Kāmarūpa as having been the "Tantric country par excellence."[38] Gorakhnāth, the twelfth-century tantric yogī-saint and legendary inventor of Hatha-yoga, is believed to have come from Kāmarūpa. So is the sect of Aghorī Yogīs famous for its "outrageous cruelties and licentiousness."[39] It was due to the terrifying lives of such ascetics that the appellation "yogī" came to insinuate the most fearsome and extreme of tantric practitioners.[40]

In A History of Assam,[41] author E.A. Gait tells of the infamous Tantric temple called Kāmākhya (or Kāmākshya) near present-day Guwahati in Assam.[42] The temple is situated on a hill called Kāmagiri. It is worshipped by sacrifice and eroticism, and considered a great pītha or centre of pilgrimage in honour of the Great Goddess and sexual Tantra. Its enormous sanctity is explained by a legend. It is the place where Śiva and his consort Pārvatī met for their eon-long erotic encounters. After her death, Śiva went mad and carried her sacred corpse on his shoulder as he wandered through the universe dancing obsessively. To cure Śiva's madness, the god Vishnu cut the Goddess's body into 50 pieces with his discus. These pieces represent the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet. The places where her body parts fell became her pīthas or sacred pilgrimage sites. The Devi's yoni (vulva) fell at Kāmākhya making it the most sacred site of all.[43] In a shrine within the temple premises there is a rock with a natural cleft resembling a yoni and which is kept permanently moist by a natural spring which runs red with iron oxide once a year, at the onset of the monsoon.

Kamakhya Temple was also renowned for its performances of human sacrifice. The cult interpreted the Vedic injunction svarga kāmo yajeta – "the heaven-desiring must sacrifice") – to its most distressing end. In 1565, 140 victims were decapitated during a single sacrificial ceremony. Eliade offers gripping details of the human sacrifices performed in Assam. 'Those who volunteered were called bhogīs ("enjoyers"), and from the moment they announced their intention of allowing themselves to be sacrificed they became almost sacred and everything was put at their disposal; in particular, they were allowed as many women as they wished.'[44] The "voluntary" victims were offered to the Goddess on huge copper trays. According to some sources and archaeological evidence, these sacrifices were only performed by kings.[45] The last human sacrifices at Kāmākhya temple occurred in 1832, then the British government put an end to all the fun.

The worship of the Earth Goddess Teri among the Indian Kondh people is a case worth mentioning. As derived from their early creation myth, the Kondh believe that "there can be no fertility for their community without human blood falling on the ground." Here the role of sacrifice seems to imply two things: 1) that the deity, though considered both impersonal and amorphous, could be made tangible; and 2) that communication was obtainable between the abstract god and its surrounding community.[46] Over time, this cult of the Goddess Teri evolved the notion that human sacrifice was indispensable not only for maintaining the well-being of the surrounding community – but the entire world. This gave rise to the Meriah sacrifices, the victims of which were usually children. Similar to the bhogīs, the meriah victims were believed to incarnate the divinity. They were strangled and cut into pieces. The pieces were then buried in the fields for the sake of agricultural fertility.[47] But here one needs to understand that these sacrificial victims were never "served" to the god as food, as the god was not a cannibal. More accurately stated, each sacrificial victim became for the duration of the ceremony, the actual incarnation of the divinity. In addition, one presumes that the community gained communication with their worshipped god; but only through the go-between agency of the leader, who was also the priest.[48] Perhaps this explains why in India and Cambodia where sacrifice was made to the terrible form of the Goddess – as Kālī, Durgā, Bhairavī, Bhadrakālī, et. al. – the sacrifice had to be performed by the king. Brāhmans had no right to perform human sacrifice.[49]

Now it needs to be noted that on a comparative time scale, the practice of offering human sacrifice was known among the Khmer as early as the 6th century CE. This is well before its recorded appearance in Indian. In referring to a time before 589 CE, the Chinese History of the Sui gives record of a Khmer Tantric temple that, in fact, still survives.

Initially, these 'proto-tantric' forms of supplication were performed for the promotion of agricultural and feminine fecundity. In this regard, the culturally sophisticated śivalinga as the symbol of the fertilizing energy of Śiva, was originally a primitive phallic symbol "descended from the uncarved stones of earth cults."[52] And indeed, the rite of setting up large long stones in the soil (vis-à-vis the menhir), and then conducting human sacrifice before them, was a widespread feature of primordial cultures throughout the Neolithic world.[53]

According to Wales, the earliest stage of "simple animism" was founded on the notion of the sacredness of the earth. Later this evolved into a "religion of sacrifice" where a people were compelled to spill human blood before their vastly amorphous divinity-as-nature. Next came the need to establish sacred sites where the sacrifice secured a means of transmission with divinities living in alternate cosmic zones; and one would choose a certain place to raise a mound of earth in which to concentrate all the latent energies of the periphery.[54]

As for the linga itself, there are varied opinions regarding its meaning and function, particularly as it pertains to Khmer religion and the cult of the Devarāja. Laterally, the linga signifies the Cosmic Axis. Horizontally it serves as the "spatial locus" or hub of the periphery. The linga thus determines the "primal locus" or essential centre of a specific locale. Once it is plotted and formally set, the linga functions as the cardinal point-of-reference to which each subsequent centre is aligned. As a menhir (lit. "long-stone") the linga is also connected to the primitive "substitute body" concept, and to the chief's recognition of "the consubstantial presence in the stone as in himself of the sacred forces of the soil, and therefore, the domain."[55]

The character of the cult is further indicated by the soul's special propensity for human sacrifices.... The custom of offering human sacrifices, or rather severed heads, in the case of head-hunting tribes, probably comes from the magical belief that the soul force of enemies can thus be used to strengthen the accumulation of fertility-producing energy of the local god, for the benefit of the community.[56]

The underpinning primordial notion here, according to Wales, is that every territorial unit has its own particular earth divinity corresponding to the group of people living there. Originally, a naturally occurring stone outcrop (Sanskrit, svāyambhū-linga).[57] was chosen as the site to represent the great earth divinity, and around this, the town grew up. Not only a mound, but a tree as well was required to represent the spirit of the soil, as animistic people believe that the place where a well-grown tree has survived is the point where the fecundating energies of the earth are well concentrated.[58]

But sacred mounds symbolize more than just the concentrations of nature's mysterious potencies. They are also looked upon as magical centres or "macrocosmic focal points" symbolic of the axis mundi or Cosmic Pillar. They are therefore the means by which a people's sacrifice is ably transmitted to divinities abiding in alternate cosmic zones. Such mounds are deemed to be prototypical mandalas which function simultaneously as manifestations of the divinity and mirrors of the universe.

The Cult of the Devaraja

During the ninth-century Khmer reign of Jayavarman II, the religion based mainly on fecundity and the life-giving energy of nature was modified anew. It was replaced by a politicized form of Śaivism founded on rites of the Devarāja (lit. "divine rule"). Through the rites of Devarāja, the king sought empowerment as a cakravartin, or Lord of the World. This implied nothing less than a king's personal deification by merging his soul with the essence of Śiva's subtle being. From this time forward, the rites of Devarāja and the consecration of the king's royal linga became the chief sources of royal legitimacy.[59] Popular worship of the royal linga also became supreme.

Such sculpted stone phallic representations of Śiva were placed throughout the Khmer Empire. They were normally installed at the summits of pyramidal temple-mountains representing Mount Kailāsa, the navel of the universe. Śiva's association with "The Sacred Mountain" has already been mentioned. But now we have Śiva in the symbolic form of a linga placed in the central shrine of a temple, which itself is symbolic of the "sacred mountain." The compound effect can do nothing but swell the ramifications of the primordial concept. As the Cosmic Pillar, or axis mundi, the royal temple that enshrined the linga symbolized the sacred mountain Kailāsa, "the abode of the gods." In this way, the linga also plotted the "essential centre" or the primal locus of the Royal Dominion (cakratīrtha).

Cambodian monarchs made exacting calculations to determine the kingdom's essential power-point, and there they erected the royal temple. This mysterious "point-zero" furthermore functioned as the fundamental reference point to which all-subsequent centres were aligned. Thus, the linga of the king became the primal locus not only of the immediate geographic locale, but also by extension the entire universe. By erecting temple-mountains to enshrine the royal linga, each succeeding king was essentially constructing a personal quincunx or "four-cornered force-field" in the form of a religio-architectural mandala of universal alignment, power and protection. But mandalas, we should note, are more than just "microcosmic mirrors of the universe." Indeed, mandalas are "receptacles" of the gods. And as Eliade reminds us, in Vedic India the gods "descended into the altar." This conception was, in fact, extremely widespread, and existed beyond the frontiers of India and even of Asia.

...[T]he symbolism of royal cities, temples, towns, and, by extension, every human habitation was based upon such a valorization of the sacred place as the center of the world and hence the site of communication with heaven and hell.[60]

Finally, by way of personal observation, one can hardly help reflecting when visiting the ruins of the Greater Angkor Archaeological Complex, that while thieves and archaeologists have deprived the place of nearly every linga that ever stood, there remain an abundance of abandoned yonis.

Ayutthaya

Khmer influence on the early-Thai sense of kingship is clearly observed from the fourteenth-century Ayutthaya period onward. For one thing, there is a marked departure from the earlier patriarchal tribal leader concept prevalent in thirteenth-century Sukhothai. The Ayutthayan kings were more attracted to the Khmer conception of kingly divinity explicit in the rites of the Devarāja. These later Thai kings did not, however, enshrine the royal linga. 'Divinity was rather imparted to the kings through their occupancy of the sacred palace and through undergoing abhisheka (ritual bathing) and the rites of coronation, both of which were conducted by Cambodian brāhman priests. This thereby notes a clear example of the crucial role played by brāhmans in conferring state legitimacy in early Thailand. Yet still to this day, the kings of Thailand are officially identified with the two Hindu deities Śiva and Vishnu through the rites of coronation. In turn, the two deities are believed to transfer their celestial power or śakti to the king.'[69]

Naturally the sangha, or Buddhist monkhood, also underwent important changes through the long four-hundred-year Ayutthaya period. Heikkilä-Horn[70] explains that it was during the Ayutthaya period that the Thai Buddhist sangha were officially divided into two separate groups, the araññavasi and the gamavasi. The araññavasi or "forests-dwelling" monks practiced tapas and other forms of yogic-asceticism. The gamavasi monks rather stayed in the urban monasteries where "they studied, taught the laity and took on social and administrative duties." These city monasteries "were under state control in a profitable symbiosis with the state hierarchy," she writes.[71]

Four centuries after the founding of Ayutthaya a new dynastic line was established in Bangkok. It assumed the Sanskrit name of Chakri, pertaining to a magical disk-like instrument of war (cakra) as used by the Vedic god Harsha, king of the gods. Yet not to depart from established custom, the great House of Chakri acquiesced to precedence and sought to resuscitate Khmer Majesté. Interestingly enough this largely accounts for the present day survival of a vast Sanskritic nomenclature pertaining to all things regal in Thailand. The imperative Thai language usage raja-sap (lit. "royal sound")[72] is essentially derived from the Sanskritic court language of the Royal Khmer.

With time, however, the great prestige enjoyed by Cambodian brāhman priests showed marked depreciation and their courtly status grew increasingly subservient. Then around the turn of the 20th century a certain outstanding Cambodian family left the royal service altogether. They carried off with them sacred manuscripts with instructions for conducting important state ceremonies. In attempt to recover these sacred texts, the head of the priestly family's mother was imprisoned by the government. To secure her release some of the manuscripts were handed over. According to Wales, the government actually feared the commotion that a forceful attempt to obtain the remaining documents might have caused, and pursued the matter no further.[73]

Finally, with the heightened sophistication of Siamese society accompanying the enlightened rule of King Chulalongkorn, Cambodian brāhmans were once again called on to fill expanding governmental posts. It was a brāhman family much like this to which Saint Guru Chod was born on the Sagittarian full-moon night of 1900. The family bears the ancient name Harshavarman in its spanning a millennia-long line of kings, a