Abstract
The Theravada Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia, have issued Sangha laws, or Imperial ordinances, and established centralized Sangha organizations in the process of modernization. The government of Myanmar also tried to establish a united and centralized Sangha after independence, but did not succeed because there were many sects (gaing, nikaya) in that country, and the monks could not agree on a single Sangha.
In 1980, the “Congregation of the Sangha of All Orders for Purification, Perpetuation, and Propagation of the Sasana” was held and it enacted “Fundamental Rules for the Sangha Organization, ” “Procedures for the Sangha Organization, ” and “Procedures for Solution of Cases and Conflicts in Accordance with the Rules of the Order.” The first Sangha organization was subsequently established in Myanmar.
The “Fundamental Rules” document is the most important of these rules and procedures, and this decree is significant for the study of Sangha institutions in Myanmar. It is also essential for the comparative study of Sangha organizations within the other countries of Southeast Asia.
This rule has only been touched upon in several academic theses, but had not been translated into any foreign languages. One purpose of this paper is to translate the “Fundamental Rules for the Sangha Organization” from the Myanmar language to Japanese and to contribute to the study of the relationship between Theravada Buddhism and society in Southeast Asia. Another purpose of this study is to introduce the new system of Sangha organization which was established in 1995 as there have been no theses written about this new structure.
