Venerable Nget Sopheap was born on 1991 in Cheuteal Village in Cambodia. His father died when he was young. He became a monk in 2005 when he was 13 years old and started to attend the Buddhist primary school in Sovannsakor monastery. He finished Buddhist high school at the Chomchreal monastery in 2010. He obtained his Bachelor Degree at Shihamuniraja Buddhist University in Phnom Penh in 2014. He is now a 3rd year student at Paññasastra University of Cambodia (PUC), majoring in International Relations. He is also a volunteer in the PUC Youth Club for Community Development. He is an Event Department Adviser of this club. This club mostly focus on community work in order to help the poor people in the rural areas and aim to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. In his country most people are uneducated because of the civil wars that happened in Cambodia. They are sharing their knowledge and experience with the younger generation with the hope that they can make their country a better one in the future. Abstract Buddhist Educational Crisis in Cambodia Actually, 95% of Cambodian people are Buddhists. Buddhism is the religion that have presented in Cambodia since Funan kingdom (the first state of Khmer). Buddhism had played very important roles and brought more development in Khmer society. But Cambodia became a victim country because of the cold war and civil war so the Buddhist educational system in Cambodia deteriorated until now. In 1975 when the communist Khmer Rouge took control of Cambodia, they tried to completely destroy Buddhism and very nearly succeeded. By the time of the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, nearly every monk and religious intellectual had been either murdered or driven into exile, and nearly every Buddhist temple and library had been destroyed. The Khmer Rouge policies towards Buddhism - which included the forcible disrobing of monks, the destruction of monasteries, and, ultimately, the execution of uncooperative monks effectively destroyed Cambodia's Buddhist institutions. Monks who did not flee avoided execution by living among the laity, sometimes secretly performing Buddhist rituals for the sick or afflicted. Estimates vary regarding the number of monks in Cambodia prior to the ascension of the Khmer Rouge, ranging between 65,000 and 80,000. By the time of the Buddhist restoration in the early 1980s, the number of Cambodian monks worldwide was estimated to be less than 3,000. The patriarchs of both Cambodian Nikayas perished sometime during the period 1975-78, though the cause of their deaths is not known. Due to their association with the Thai monarchy, monks of the Thommayut order may have been particularly targeted for persecution. Finally, there are many factors that have made Buddhist Educational Crisis in Cambodia such as: - Spread of Cold war - More Civil wars - Invasion from other country As I have mentioned that most of the Cambodian people are Buddhists but most of them did not understand what is the Buddha’s teaching. They just believed and followed their parents and ancestors but they did not know why they do like that. I have some experiences to get involved in the society in order to teach them the morality, how to be a good person or to get the peace and harmony in the society based on teaching of the Buddha, I will share some activities that I have done to promote peace and morality through the Buddha’s teaching. FIRST DRAFT Buddhist Educational Crisis in Cambodia Venerable Nget Sopheap Email: [email protected] Introduction Cambodia is a country in mainland South-east Asia, bordering Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and the Gulf of Thailand. Cambodia covers a total area of 181,035 km2 (69,898 sq mi). The country is situated in its entirety inside the tropical Indomalayan ecozone. Cambodia has a land area of 181,035 square kilometers in the southwestern part of the Indochina peninsula, about 20 percent of which is used for agriculture. It lies completely within the tropics with its southern most points slightly more than 10° above the Equator. The country capital city is Phnom Penh. International borders are shared with Thailand and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on the West and the North, and the Social Republic of Viet Nam on the East and the Southeast. The country is bounded on the Southeast by the Gulf of Thailand. In comparison with neighbors, Cambodia is a geographical contact country administratively composed of 20 provinces, three of which have relatively short maritime boundaries, 2 municipalities, 172 districts, and 1,547 communes. The country has a coastline of 435 km and extensive mangrove stands, some of which are relatively undisturbed. In order to make you to understand about the Buddhism, this is the brief history of Buddhism in Cambodia. In the year of 238 B.C (before Christ), Emperor Asoka King sent two learned Bhikkhu monks named Sona Thera and Utara Thera to propagate Buddhism in Suwanaphumi or Southeast Asia of present time. From that time Buddhism has flourished throughout the land of Suwanaphumi or golden land. We are able to trace back through various ancient kingdoms such as Funan Kingdom (first state of present Cambodia) had been claimed about the advantage of Buddhism in this capital city. Among the kings of Funan dynasty, Kaundinya Jayavarman (478-514 AD) sent a missionary to China under the leadership of a Buddhist monk named Nagasena from India. During the reign of the same Chinese emperor, two learned Khmer monks named Sanghapala Thera and Mantra Thera of Funan went to China. At these early years of the sixth century AD, the two learned Cambodian Bhikkhu monks taught Buddhism and meditation to the emperor of China. Bhikkhu Sanghapala had translated an important Buddhist scripture Vimutti Magga(the Way of Freedom) which it is believed older than Visutthi Magga (the Way of Purity) written by Buddhagosacara. Now this Chinese manuscript has been translated into different language by many Buddhist countries. King Rudravarman (514-539 AD) is said to have claimed that in his country there was a long Hair Relic of Lord Buddha for his people to worship. The Tharavada with Sanskrit language flourished in Funan in the fifth and earlier part of the sixth centuries AD. Around seventh century AD, the popular usage of Pali language in southern region manifested the strong appearance of Theravada Buddhism in Cambodia. The great emperor, Yasovarman (889-900 AD) established a Saugatasrama and elaborated regulations for the guidance of this asrama or hermitage, at the time, Buddhism, Brahmanism (both Visnuism and Vaisnavism) flourished in Cambodia. During the reign of Jayavarman V (968-1001 AD),the successor of Rajendravarman II, Mahayana Buddhism importantly advanced. The king supported Buddhist practices and invoked the three forms of existence of the Buddha. In this way, up to the tenth century AD, Mahayana Buddhism became substantially prominent. Pramakramabahu I, the king of Sri Lanka, is said to have sent a princess as a bride probably for Jayavarman VII, son of Dharnindravarman II (1150-1160 AD), who was the crown prince. King Jayavarman VII (1181-1220 AD) was a devout Buddhist and received posthumous title of Mahaparamasaugata. The king patronized Mahayana Buddhism; his records expressed beautifully the typical Buddhist view of life, particularly the conduct of charity and compassion towards the whole universe. Taprohm Inscription of his reign informed that there were 798 temples and 102 hospitals in the whole kingdom, and all of them were patronized by the king. One of the monks who returned to Burma with Capata Bhikkhu was Tamalinda Mahathera, who is believed the son of the Cambodian Emperor Jayavarman VII. Under the influx of Sihala School Buddhism; his administrative prestige retreated, his temporal power crumbled away, and the god-king cult was weakened. Theravada Buddhism had become the predominant school of the people of Angkor at the end of Jayavarman VII’s reign. The second half of the twelfth century AD, Sri Lanka's fame as the fountain-head of Theravada Buddhism reached the Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia. The knowledge of Sinhala Buddhism was so wide-spread and the Sinhala monks were so well-known to the contemporary Buddhist world. At this time, a Cambodian prince is said to have visited Sri Lanka to study Sinhala Buddhism under the guidance of the Sinhala Mahatheras. Buddhism continued to flourish in Kambuja in the thirteenth century AD and became the dominant school in the Kingdom. Thereafter, Theravada became the main school of Buddhism. The change was likely due to the influence of the Thais of Thailand, who were devout Buddhists and had conquered a large part of Cambodia land. Under the influence of the Thais, Sinhala Buddhism was also introduced in Cambodia. As time changed, the Brahmanical gods like the Angkorean Period were replaced by Buddhist status. Gradually, Buddhism became the dominant school in Kambuja and today there is hardly seeing any trace of the Brahmanical religion in the country, as said it had mixed like the people folk belief. The Jinakalamali gives an account of the cultural connection between Cambodia and Sri Lanka in the fifteenth century. It states that 1967 years after the Mahaparanibbana of Lord Buddha, eight monks headed by Mahananasiddhi from Cambodia with 25 monks from Nabbispura of Luburi went to Sri Lanka to receive the Upasampada ordination under the preceptor of the Sihalese Mahatheras. Buddhism continued to flourish in Cambodia in the sixteenth century AD. King Ang Chan (1516-1566 AD), a bloodline of king Dhammaraja, was a devout Buddhist. He built pagodas in his capital and many Buddhist shrines in different parts of the Kingdom in order to engage Buddhism. King Satha (1576-1594 AD), son and successor of Barom Reachea, restored the great third floor of Angkor Wat (in the past was erected and dedicated to the god of Visnu), which was built by King Suriyavarman II (113-1150 AD), had become a Buddhist shrine or Buddhist Temple by the sixteenth century AD.