Vajirananavarorasa
This article relies largely or entirely on a single source. (January 2020) |
Somdet Phra Maha Samana Chao Krommaphraya Vajirañāṇavarorasa | |
---|---|
Supreme Patriarch of Siam | |
In office 5 December 1910 – 2 August 1921 | |
Personal | |
Born | Prince Manuṣyanāgamānob 12 April 1860 |
Died | 2 August 1921 | (aged 61)
Religion | Buddhism |
Nationality | Thai |
School | Theravada, Dhammayuttika Nikaya |
Dharma names | Manussanāga |
Senior posting | |
Predecessor | Ariyavangsagatayana (Sa Pussadeva) |
Successor | Jinavorn Sirivaddhana |
Vajirananavarorasa (also spelled Wachirayan, Watchirayanawarorot, correct
Destined to become "the leading intellectual of his generation in Siam", in the words of the Thai historian David K. Wyatt (cited in Reynolds 1979:xiii), his royal name was Prince Manuṣyanāgamānob (พระองค์เจ้ามนุษยนาคมานพ) ('he who is a nāga among men'). Vajirañāṇavarorasa is the name he received on a gold nameplate together with the Krommamuen rank on 16 March 1882.
Early life and education
Vajirañana was the 47th child of King
In the palace, he was taught the
After his father had died in 1868 and his elder half brother
King Chulalongkorn founded an English medium school on the palace grounds and hired the Englishman Francis George Patterson for providing Western education. When the school first opened in 1872, Vajirañana began to study there. Patterson instructed the brothers of the king in the morning and the boys from the Royal Pages' Bodyguard Regiment in the afternoon. Patterson could not speak Siamese, and he used European textbooks, teaching English and French (reading, writing and speaking), mathematics and also some European history and geography. Vajirañana and Prince Damrong Rajanubhab were the most diligent of Patterson's students. Vajirañana continued his education with Patterson until 1875.
At the age of 13, Vajirañana was ordained as a novice for 78 days on 7 August 1873, with
After having disrobed from his novicehood, Vajirañana got his first bigger amount of money to spend and discovered the world of consume. But in 1876, he met the young (between 25 and 30) Scottish physician Dr. Peter Gowan. Dr. Gowan taught him English here and then and a little about medicine, and he had a big influence on Vajirañana's life conduct (stop smoking, drinking and some prodigal or even dissolute habits). Getting more and more attracted to the monastery, Vajirañana went to visit his uncle, the reigning Supreme Patriarch Prince Pavareś. By him, Vajirañana was given instruction in poetry, astrology, and Buddhist scripture in 1876. He learned some additional astrology (i.e. how to do calendars) from two other teachers, Khun Debyākaraṇa ("That") and "Pia" (Phrakrupalat Suvaḍhanasutaguṇa at Wat Rājapratiṣṭha). Under the guidance of Prince Pavareś, Vajirañana also took up the study of Dhamma. He also invited one of his former Pāli teachers, Phra Pariyatidharrmadhātā ("Chang"), to come to the monastery to instruct him in Pāli again.
Vajirañana has always been very critical about the methods by which students learned Pāli and would later rewrite the texts for Pāli studies.
Although Vajirañana frequented the monastery, he could not yet decide himself to become a monk. From 12 July 1877, he also worked as a legal secretary for King Chulalongkorn for two years. King Chulalongkorn needed a reliable person such as Vajirañana in the
Ordination and early years in the Sangha
On 27 June 1879, Vajirañana was fully ordained in the Royal Chapel with Prince Pavareś (aged 71) as his preceptor. Another senior monk, Phra Candragocaraguṇa (Candrarańsī), Abbot of Wat Makuṭakṣatriya, assisted in the ceremony as kammavācācariya.
After the ordination rite, Vajirañana spent the first Rains in
After the Rains, in November 1879, Vajirañana moved to Wat Makuṭakṣatriya (then called Wat Nāmabaññati). There he studied Pali (the Mańgalatthadīpanī) under Chaokhun Phra Brahmamunī (Kittisāra).
On 3 January 1880, Vajirañana was reordained in the orthodox Dhammayuttika manner on a raft, with Chaokhun Dharmatrailoka (Ṭhānacāra) being his preceptor. He continued to live in Wat Makuṭakṣatriya as a pupil and personal attendant of Phra Candragocaraguṇa, and as a Pāli student of Phra Brahmamunī.
On 25 December 1881, Vajirañana began his Pāli exam, the Supreme Patriarch being his examiner. He advanced to prayōk 5 at a stroke and was succeedingly raised to krom rank as promised before. He was also appointed Deputy Patriarch of the Dhammayuttika Sect (Chaokhana Rōng Khana Thammayuttikā).
Middle years
In 1892, Prince Pavareś died. Vajirañana became his successor as Abbot of
On 1 October 1893, the Mahāmakuṭa Royal Academy (Mahamakut Buddhist University) was opened. Vajirañana now could carry out his reforms concerning the study of Pali and the Dhamma. Vajirañana wrote a Pāli grammar and several textbooks. He also designed the university's curriculum. It consisted of secular subjects such as reading and writing Siamese, history, and some science beside religious studies and the preparation for the Pali exam, as the new academy also served the purpose of training monks to become teachers. In 1898, King Chulalongkorn ordered Prince Damrong and Vajirañana to find a possible solution for providing the whole country with a primary education. Due to the lack of money the solution was to let the educated monks be the teachers of the villages in the outer provinces. (This plan, however, was not further pursued after 1902.)
In 1894, Vajirañana established Dhammacakṣu ('Eye of
While the
The First Sangha Act of 1902 established a new administration of the Sangha in the country.
In 1906, King Chulalongkorn raised Vajirañana's princely rank to Krommaluang, although it was not royal custom to promote prince-monks until they reached advanced age. But Vajirañana should not be at a disadvantage in comparison with his brothers.
From 1900 to 1910, the position of Supreme Patriarch of Thailand remained vacant. Reynolds speculates that King Chulalongkorn didn't want to appoint a successor to the 9th Patriarch because a senior monk might have been too conservative to support the ongoing reforms, and Vajirañana might have been still too young to be able to assert his reforms against the will of the conservative senior monks.
Later years
After the accession of King Vajiravudh in 1910, Vajirañana was appointed Supreme Patriarch. In 1921, King Vajiravudh created the honorary title Phramahasamanachao for the Supreme Patriarch. Vajirañana continued his work in religious education, Sangha administration and scholarship. He breathed new life to the Council of Elders (Thera), founded by the Sangha Act of 1902. The Publication of Thalaeng kan khanasong [Announcement of Sangha Affairs] which spread rules for the whole Sangha within the country. In 1912, he created a new curriculum for Dhamma studies that does not require previous Pali studies.
Between 1912 and 1917, Vajirañana travelled to the provinces of Siam to examine the situation of the Sangha. He later died of tuberculosis in Bangkok on 2 August 1921.
Ancestry
Ancestry of Vajirananavarorasa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
References
- Reynolds, Craig J. (1979). Autobiography: The life of Prince-Patriarch Vajiranana of Siam, 1860-1921. Athens, Ohio: University of Ohio Press.