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Modernization in Thailand
| Article
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10543 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
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2 / 1986 |
9,048 Words |
| Author
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Pinit Ratanakul
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Thailand, one of the oldest nations in Southeast Asia, with a culture stretching back several thousand years, has been struggling to be integrated into the modern world for decades - with some success and some failure. This article will focus on the modernizing efforts of Thai governments to transform their traditional society into a modern state.
The modernization process is not the same in all developing nations. Nevertheless the problem Thailand has been facing, since its adopting of modernization ideology from Western countries in the nineteenth century, are not confined only to itself but can be found in many developing nations which have chosen westernization as the means towards modernity. Similarly, the desire of Thailand to find for herself, instead of the alien Western models, some paradigms of development that are attuned to the indigenous culture and aspirations of her people are shared by all emerging nations.
Thailand could be said to have become fully exposed to the focus of modernizations by 1855 in the reign of King Mongkut or Rama IV (1851-1868), when the Browning Treaty was concluded with Britain. This and subsequent treaties opened the country to the West, making it more vulnerable to Western imperialism.
To preserve national independence, King Mongkut began to pursue a policy of modernization to accommodate Thailand to the modern world. Threatened by the Western powers, the king was not interested in the conceptual and definitional problem of modernization. Facing him was the concrete reality of how to catch up with Western modernized countries in order to survive. He therefore equated modernization with westernization, and used it as a means to reduce the disparity between Thailand and the countries in the West.
The modernization process imitated by King Mongkut involved the selective adoption of Western technology, education, and administrative and economic organizations to replace traditional education, an outdated administrative system and a subsistent economy.
Modern education was introduced primarily to acquaint the Thai elite with Western technology and scientific knowledge, and to reform attitudes and beliefs in the hope that they would begin to use reason and scientific methods for the solution of problems, rather than rely on magic and superstition. Education and other reforms were carried out along Western patterns, but the adoption was made with careful selection.
However, only those aspects of westernization that were conducive to the welfare of the nation were chosen to be assimilated into Thai culture. Most of Thai traditional culture was kept and only those outdated customs that humiliated the sense of human dignity were abolished.
Apart from educational and cultural reforms, King Mongkut's modernizing efforts resulted in religious modernization both and socioeconomic changes. His religious modernization advocated a return to the original Pali Buddhism, which was more rational and scientific without the mythological and magical underpinnings of popular Buddhism. This initiative paved the way for subsequent effort towards the adjustment of Buddhism to the modern world.
Social reforms
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