Dharma if you do/dharma if you don't (1)

'So what is it like, living in a Buddhist country?' I somehow got (and still get) that question a lot. At first I could not really answer that. Yesyesyes, Buddhism seems to be present in everything here. Sometimes it's beneath the surface somewhere. Sometimes it's right there in your face. But after a year in Isaan my answer would have to be 'Sometimes I'm not so sure I'm in a Buddhist country at all.'

Here's why. First of all: what is a Buddhist country anyway? It's got a whole bunch of branches just like any major religion. Second of all, in Thailand and in Isaan especially, Buddhism is heavily influenced by various superstitions, ancestor worship, voodoo-like rituals, Brahmanism and so on. Some of it quite compatible, some of it not so much so at first glance. One day I might list those here. Not today though.

What gets me about Thailand has more to do with the branch-thing. You had the Buddha and then the monks spread the word to the south, everything ended up in Sri lanka and moved into Thailand by way of...well anyway, in the end you get Thai Theravada Buddhism. And a lot of people struggle with what that means nowadays. According to some senior monks it is has become more of a belief system than a way of life. More of a religion than a practise. And who can blame some Thai for being a bit confused if you also put all the Chinese, Indian and hilltribe (and Western!) influences in the mix? Not me.