VALUES OF THAI BUDDHISTS AND THAI CHRISTIANS PHILIP HUGHES*

It is commonly believed in Thailand that all religions teach people to be good. Indeed, this is considered to be one of the most important functions of religion in society. It is also believed that different religions have similar effectiveness and are of similar value in carrying out this function of teaching people to be good. It does not really matter whether one is a Buddhist, a Christian, or a Muslim, as long as one has a religion. On the other hand, there have been some Christian missionaries who have maintained that conversion to Christianity should involve a change in values. Some have argued that Christianity teaches different values to those espoused in Buddhism. For example, it has been suggested that the prime virtue in Buddhism is calm contentment and absolute peace of mind, while the prime virtue in Christianity is altruistic service for other people. Some missionaries have claimed that a change of values is evident among Thai converts to Christianity. Two Thai researchers, Suntaree Komin and Snit Smuckarn, have constructed an instrument for measuring the values of Thai people. This instrument is similar to one developed in the United States of America by Milton Rokeach, an American social psychologist. I

Rokeach's instrument has been used in many countries throughout the

''' Philip Hughes was born in London, but has lived most of his life in Australia.

He graduated

from Melbourne University with the degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in philosophy, and Master of Education . He also completed the degree of Bachelor of Divinity, awarded by the Melbourne College of Divinity. He is an ordained minister of religion, and worked both as the minister of churches and as a university teacher. In 1978, he enrolled in the Religious Studies Department of Lancaster University, England, and began studies towards the degree of doctor of philosophy. The following year, he went to Chiang Mai, Thailand. He spent three years in Chiang Mai, teaching at Pa)ap College, and completing his doctrate after transfering to the South East Asia Graduate School of Theology. He conducted research on the relationship of the beliefs and values of the Thai Christians to those of the Thai Buddhists. Apart from journal arttcles, he has written two books on Thailand: Thai Culture, Values, and Religion: An Annotated Bibliography of Engl_ish Language Materials, and Proclamation and Response : Study of the History of the Christian Faith in Northern Thailand . Both books have been published by the Payap College Archives, Chiang Mai. I.

Milton Rokeach, The Nature of Human Values.

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New York: The Free Press 1973.

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world, in Europe, Asia, Australia, as well as in the United States.2

Suntaree Komin

and Snit Smuckarn have shown that their instrument is capable of distinguishing the values of groups of people who dififer in such characteristics as sex, age, educational background, and socio-economic status. They have also noted that there are differences in values which correspond to differences in religious piety.3 Suntaree and Snit, following Rokeach, distinguish between two types of values. One type are described as terminal values. These are end states of existence which are considered to be good in themselves, such as the values of having good friends, and of peace in the world. Instrumental values, in contrast, are desired because they aid in the attainment of worth-while ends. and courage.

Amongst such instrumental values are cleanliness

This paper reports the findings of research in which the terminal values of Thai Christians and Thai Buddhists were compared. Methods used were similar to those of Suntrree and Snit. Their list o ~ twenty terminal values were presented to 'groups of Christians and Buddhists. How\_er, whereas Suntaree and Snit required their respondants to rank these values from one to twenty, this researcher asked respondants to rate each value according to whether it was "very important", "important", "of some importance", or "not important" to the respondant. It is difficult in this type of research to isolate the effects of one particular variable, such as religious affiliation, Qn values. Differences between groups of Christians and Buddhists could be due to differences in age, educational background, socio-economic status, or any one of a number of characteristics apart from religious differences. To minimize such interference from extraneous factors, two groups were chosen which were as closely matched as possible. Seventy-one Christians and three hundred and eighty-five Buddhists were compared. Both groups consisted of tertiary students studying in a college in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. They were studying similar subjects. Students majoring in philosophy and religion, the majority of whom were Christians, were excluded from this comparison. The differences and similarities between these two groups are described in the following section. There is a possibility, however, that neither group of students was particularly interested in or committed to the religion with which they were affiliated, and thus would not be greatly affected by their religious affiliation. In order to overcome this problem, a wider sampling of students was also taken, including Christian students 2. 3.

For a list of these, see Milton Rokeach and John F. Reagan, "The Role of Values in the Counseling Situation", The Personal Guidance Journal, 58 : 9, May 1980. The details of the construction of this instrument for measuring values, and tests of Thai values performed with it are described in Suotaree Komin and Snit Smuckarn, Thai Values and Va lue Systems: A Surl'ey Instrument, Bangkok : Nida, 1979. (In Thai)

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studying Christian theology and Buddhist tertiary students who had taken a course in Buddhism at a university. This wider comparison is discussed in the third section of this paper. Conclusions are drawn in the fourth and final section. For comparison, the questionnaire was also given to a group of forty-two missionaries working in Thailand in association with the Church of Christ in Thailand.

The Matched Groups of Christian and Buddhist Students The results of the matched groups are summarized m figure 1. In general , most values were rated similarly by Buddhists and by Christians. Over eighty percent of both groups of students rated "happiness in family life" and "having good friends" as being very important to them. Between seventy and eighty percent rated "success in life" and "self-esteem" on the one hand, and "peace in the world" and "calm contentment" as being very important. Thus, the most important components of a worth-wh'ile existence for these groups of Christians and Buddhists can be described in terms of having good relationships among family and friends, of self-actualization in terms of success and having a sense of self-esteem, and having a sense of inner peace and harmony in a world at peace. A secondary set of values reflected ideas about the sort of environment which the respondents considered desirable for achieving a worth -while life.

Between fifty -

five and seventy percent of both Christians and Buddhist groups rated as very important an environment in which there is security and development, equality and freedom, and in which there is a spirit of co-operation in which people are willing to help each other. The values of wisdom and learning were rated also as very important by a small majority of both Christian and Buddhist respondents. There were a number of values which both Christians and Buddhists tended to rate as important or of some importance. These included "having a comfortable life", "having a loving relationship", "being well-known in society", and "the beauty of nature and the arts". The four values which a ppeared -as least important to both Christians and Buddhists were "being honoured in society", "happiness and pleasure" in the sense of entertainment, "having an exciting life'', and "wealth in money and possessions". There ~as one value which occupied a rather different position in the hierarchy of the Christians' values compared with its position in the hierarchy of the Buddhists' values. "Having principles for life and a religion to depend on" was rated as much more important by the Christians than by the Buddhists. It was sixth out of twenty in the Christians' hierarchy, and thirteenth out of twenty in the Buddhists' hierarchy. This was the only value which the two groups rated significantly differently at a level of greater than 0.5% chance.

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VALUES OF THAI BUDDHISTS AND THAI CHRISTIANS

Figure 1.

The relative importance of twenty terminal values for matched groups of Thai Christians and Buddhists.

Greater 2

Q Happiness in family life

4

Importance--------------------~

8

6

1,0

12

1.4·

],6

·18

Having go od frie nds Success in ·life Pence in th e wo rld Calm contentment National security S):!l)f-esteem Equality Love of freedom Helping other people Having a comfortable life \