Page 28 - Applied Buddhism

Chinese Buddhist temples, following the Mahāyāna tradition, picture of their smoking habits and their perception of smoking.
are found throughout Malaysia. There are many Thai Buddhist
temples (wats) of the Theravāda tradition in the northern states
where some Thai descendants live. These temples are also
frequented by Chinese devotees. The Sinhalese have established a
temple in Penang and Taiping and two temples in Kuala Lumpur.
They follow the Theravāda tradition. In recent years, Vajrayāna
centres have also been established in major cities. These centres are
led by Tibetan monks but the devotees are Chinese.
In the Mahāyāna and Vajrayāna traditions, smoking is not
common. In my 30 years of association with Buddhist activities,
I have not seen a single monk from these traditions who smoked.
On the other hand, smoking is seen amongst Sinhalese and Thai
monks of the Theravāda tradition. The Sinhalese monks are more
discrete, and they do not normally smoke in public, but the Thai
monks smoke openly. There was an occasion when a Thai chief
monk entered a shrine room to perform an important religious
ceremony, with a cigarette in his hand, much to the displeasure of
the VIP present in the ceremony.
In other words, smoking amongst monks only happens in Thai
and Sinhalese temples. Since Thai temples are concentrated in the
northern states and Sinhalese temples are few in number, many lay
Buddhists residing in other parts of the country are not aware of
this practice and are often shocked to discover such a behaviour.
However, for Buddhists who frequent these temples, they have
come to accept the practice and have even become a source of
supply of cigarettes for the monks!
Since there are not many monks in Malaysia, my observation
and frequent association with some of them is enough to paint a
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Nevertheless I have interviewed some monks in the Kuala Lumpur
region before coming to this Conference. The result of the interview
may not be extrapolated to represent the full picture since the sample
size is too small, but it nevertheless allows one to have a glimpse of
the Kuala Lumpur scenario.
Of the ten monks interviewed in Kuala Lumpur, six were from
the Theravāda-Sinhalese tradition, two from the Theravāda-Thai
tradition and three from the Mahāyāna-Chinese tradition. Eight of
them were not smokers and two were former smokers. The two
former smokers were from the Sinhalese tradition. All of them
agreed that smoking is bad for health, is a waste of money, and is
not a good social behaviour.
When asked whether people should offer cigarettes to monks,
the eight non-smokers replied no, and the two former smokers said
that it is up to the people to make the offer.
When asked about the Buddhist teaching regarding smoking,
one monk said it was silent on it, three of the monks said it
discouraged smoking, while one monk said it forbid smoking.
The remaining five monks were of the opinion that smoking is a
violation of the Five Precepts.
The eight monks, inclusive of one former smoker, believed
that Buddhist monks can be effective in persuading people to give
up smoking. When asked what they did when offered cigarettes,
all of them said they rejected the offers. Two of them said that
monks should take the opportunity to educate the devotees on the
right form of offering when offered cigarettes. Of the two former
smokers, one is more than 80 years old and the other is in his late
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