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24 EASTERN HORIZON | FEATURE

apotropaic practices. While this is a useful intervention, Council (SSC) to alleviate the suffering of the Thai
the essay perhaps unintentionally reinforces a secular- people and to mitigate the spread of the disease. These
religious distinction in matters of public health by have included publicizing the receipt of a cash donation
suggesting that states engage in medical/scientific from executives of 7-11 meant to be redistributed
practices (encouraging face masks and hand washing, around the country, donating masks to novices
for example) while religions engage in magical throughout the country, and postponing summer
protective rites. As a genre these essays—the first drafts ordination programs and the annual Pali exams.
of the scholarly efforts to make sense of the impact of
Covid-19—tend to ignore institutional responses or There is nothing extraordinary about any of these
actions, particularly those that are at the intersection of responses. They are all appropriate institutional
state and religious institutions. responses to a public health crisis. Indeed, the relief
efforts that are described on the NOB website are pretty
A clear example of this oversight is evident in Thailand. prosaic, boring even. They deal with basic needs, such as
In late April 2020, the National Office of Buddhism food. They display posters that highlight guidelines for
(NOB) in Thailand released an eBook (in Thai) that maintaining a social distance. They emphasize masks.
detailed some of the efforts of the Thai Sangha (the While some Thai monks are engaged in apotropaic rites
monastic community) to mitigate the national impact in response to Covid-19, this is not what the NOB and
of the corona virus, most of which date from late March. the SSC are communicating as their primary response.
This document does not talk about prayer, rites, faith, Rather, the official, institutional response has focused on
or comparable matters. Rather, it is concerned with public health and mundane, ordinary human needs.
public health. It describes how the Supreme Patriarch of
Thailand signed a declaration specifying measures and It is striking to me that most of the discussions
practices that monks and novices should follow to help of Buddhist responses to Covid particularly in
prevent the spread of the disease. Southeast Asia (and especially monks and gift
giving, here and here) have ignored institutions, as well
These measures include: limiting the movement of as how these institutions have advocated public health
people into and out of the temple and forbidding responses (though see here on the public health efforts
novices to leave except to go out for daily alms; ensuring of the Taiwanese group Tzi Chi). The reasons for this are
people wash their hands when returning to the temple; complex, but I would highlight three.
postponing important ceremonies (such as the 150th
anniversary of the Supreme Patriarch’s own temple, First, the operations of Thai monastic institutions,
Wat Ratchabophit); and following other public health particularly in their interactions with state agencies,
measures of the government. The document also have not been well or fully described in the literature
describes how the secretary of the Supreme Patriarch studying Thai Buddhism. In part, this is because these
and the National Office of Buddhism put out a call to institutions have a hybrid nature: they are shaped by
temples throughout the country to coordinate with state law, but they are not really or not directly a part
local governments to establish centers to distribute of the state. The organization of the SSC is established
food to people affected by Covid-19. Most of this eBook in a law commonly referred to as the “Sangha Act.”
is a compilation of short reports of temples from The current version of this law was enacted in 1962,
throughout the country showing monks behind piles of though significant revisions were made as recently as
food to distribute, laywomen working in temples to sew 2018. The Sangha Act delegates to the SSC the authority
masks, and similar kinds of events. to manage the daily affairs of Thai monks, and the
NOB, a governmental agency housed in the office of
In April and May, the NOB’s website also highlighted the prime minister, serves as its secretariat. The NOB
other work being conducted by the Supreme Sangha is responsible for distributing the policies and rules

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