Preah Maha Ghosananda
Encyclopedia
Maha Ghosananda, (1929 - March 12, 2007), was a highly revered Cambodian Buddhist monk in the Theravada
tradition, who served as the Patriarch (Sangharaja) of Cambodian Buddhism during the Khmer Rouge
period and post-communist transition period of Cambodian history. His Pali
monastic name, 'Maha Ghosananda', means "great joyful proclaimer". He was well known in Cambodia for his annual peace marches.
in 1929, to a farming family in the Mekong Delta
plains. From an early age he showed great interest in religion, and began to serve as a temple boy at age eight. He greatly impressed the monks with whom he served, and at age fourteen received novice
ordination. He studied Pali scriptures in the local temple high school, then went on to complete his higher education at the monastic universities in Phnom Penh
and Battambang
, before going to India to pursue a doctorate in Pali at Nalanda University in Bihar
.
In 1965, Maha Ghosananda left India to study meditation under Ajahn Dhammadaro, of Wat Chai Na forest temple near Nakorn Sri Dhammaraj in Southern Thailand, a famous meditation master of the Thai Forest Tradition
. Four years later, while he was still studying at Dhammadaro's forest monastery, the United States began bombing Cambodia as part of their attempt to shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
and end the Vietnam War
. Cambodia became engulfed in civil war and social disintegration.
seized control of the country, the prospects of Buddhism became increasingly doubtful. Pol Pot
, who had once served in a Buddhist monastery, denounced Buddhist monks as useless pariah, and part of the feudalistic power structures of the past. Monks were viewed with suspicion and disdain as part of the intellectual class, and targeted for especially brutal treatment and "reeducation".
As part of the Khmer Rouge's horrific Year Zero
campaign, monks were systematically turned out of monasteries and forced to disrobe and become farming peasants, or were tortured and murdered outright. Some monks were forced to violate their vows at gunpoint. By the time the Khmer Rouge reign of terror ended, there were no monks alive in Cambodia, and most temples were in rubble.
Meanwhile, refugees began to filter out of Cambodia and congregate in refugee camp
s along the Thai border, bringing with them tales of unbelievable, apocalyptic
horrors.
In 1978, Maha Ghosananda left his forest hermitage in Thailand, and went down to the refugee camps near the Thai-Cambodian border to begin ministering to the first refugees who filtered across the border.
Maha Ghosananda's appearance in the refugee camps raised a stir among the refugees who had not seen a monk for years. The Cambodian refugees openly wept as Maha Ghosananda chanted the ancient and familiar sutras that had been the bedrock of traditional Cambodian culture before Year Zero. He distributed photocopied Buddhist scriptures among the refugees, as protection and inspiration for the battered people.
His entire family, and countless friends and disciples, were massacred by the Khmer Rouge.
When the Pol Pot regime collapsed in 1979, Maha Ghosananda was one of only 3,000 Cambodian Buddhist monks alive, out of more than 60,000 at the start of the reign of terror in 1976. Throughout 1979 Maha Ghosananda established wats in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, ordaining monks against the orders of the Thai military.
In 1980 Maha Ghosananda and the Reverend Peter L. Pond
formed the Inter-Religious Mission for Peace in Cambodia. Together they located hundreds of surviving monks and nuns in Cambodia so that they could renew their vows and take leadership roles in Cambodian temples around the world. In June 1980 the Thai Government decided to forcibly repatriate thousands of refugees. Pond and the Preah Maha Ghosananda organized a protest against the forced repatriation of refugees from Sa Kaeo Refugee Camp
.
In 1988, Maha Ghosananda was elected as sanghreach (sangharaja
) by a small gathering of exiled monks in Paris. He agreed to accept the position provisionally, until a complete, independent monastic hierarchy could be established in Cambodia. At the time, Venerable Tep Vong
was the titular head of a unified Cambodian sangha
, having been appointed to the position in 1981 by the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea.
, a peace march or pilgrimage, across Cambodia in an effort to begin restoring the hope and spirit of the Cambodian people.
The 16-day, 125-mile peace walk passed through territory still littered with landmines from the Khmer Rouge. The Dhammayietra became an annual walk which Maha Ghosananda led a number of times, despite the danger during the Khmer Rouge years. In 1995, the Dhammayietra consisted of almost 500 Cambodian Buddhist monks, nuns and precept-taking lay people
. They were joined by The Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life. Together the two groups crossed Cambodia from the Thai border all the way to Vietnam
, spending several days walking through Khmer Rouge-controlled territory along the way.
He had been called "the Gandhi of Cambodia." Maha Ghosananda was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by the chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Claiborne Pell
. He was again nominated in 1995, 1996, and 1997 for his work in bringing peace to Cambodia. He also acted as an adviser to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship
and resided part time in the Palelai Buddhist Temple and Monastery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, United States.
He died in Northampton, Massachusetts
on March 12, 2007.
Santidhammo Bhikkhu Buddha of the Battlefield: Life of Maha Ghosananda
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
tradition, who served as the Patriarch (Sangharaja) of Cambodian Buddhism during the Khmer Rouge
Khmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
period and post-communist transition period of Cambodian history. His Pali
Páli
- External links :* *...
monastic name, 'Maha Ghosananda', means "great joyful proclaimer". He was well known in Cambodia for his annual peace marches.
Early life
He was born in Takéo Province, CambodiaCambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
in 1929, to a farming family in the Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
plains. From an early age he showed great interest in religion, and began to serve as a temple boy at age eight. He greatly impressed the monks with whom he served, and at age fourteen received novice
Novice
A novice is a person or creature who is new to a field or activity. The term is most commonly applied in religion and sports.-Buddhism:In many Buddhist orders, a man or woman who intends to take ordination must first become a novice, adopting part of the monastic code indicated in the vinaya and...
ordination. He studied Pali scriptures in the local temple high school, then went on to complete his higher education at the monastic universities in Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
and Battambang
Battambang
Battambang is the capital city of Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia.Battambang is the second-largest city in Cambodia with a population of over 250,000. Founded in the 11th century by the Khmer Empire, Battambang is well known for being the leading rice-producing province of the country...
, before going to India to pursue a doctorate in Pali at Nalanda University in Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
.
Education
Maha Ghosananda trained under some of the most highly influential Buddhist masters of his time, including the Japanese monk Nichidatsu Fujii, and the Cambodian Patriarch Samdech Preah Sangharaja Chuon Nath.In 1965, Maha Ghosananda left India to study meditation under Ajahn Dhammadaro, of Wat Chai Na forest temple near Nakorn Sri Dhammaraj in Southern Thailand, a famous meditation master of the Thai Forest Tradition
Thai Forest Tradition
The Thai Forest Tradition is a tradition of Buddhist monasticism within Thai Theravada Buddhism. Practitioners inhabit remote wilderness and forest dwellings as spiritual practice training grounds. Maha Nikaya and Dhammayuttika Nikaya are the two major monastic orders in Thailand that have forest...
. Four years later, while he was still studying at Dhammadaro's forest monastery, the United States began bombing Cambodia as part of their attempt to shut down the Ho Chi Minh Trail
Ho Chi Minh trail
The Ho Chi Minh trail was a logistical system that ran from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam to the Republic of Vietnam through the neighboring kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia...
and end the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Cambodia became engulfed in civil war and social disintegration.
Khmer Rouge era
As the Khmer RougeKhmer Rouge
The Khmer Rouge literally translated as Red Cambodians was the name given to the followers of the Communist Party of Kampuchea, who were the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, led by Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen and Khieu Samphan...
seized control of the country, the prospects of Buddhism became increasingly doubtful. Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
, who had once served in a Buddhist monastery, denounced Buddhist monks as useless pariah, and part of the feudalistic power structures of the past. Monks were viewed with suspicion and disdain as part of the intellectual class, and targeted for especially brutal treatment and "reeducation".
As part of the Khmer Rouge's horrific Year Zero
Year zero
"Year zero" does not exist in the widely used Gregorian calendar or in its predecessor, the Julian calendar. Under those systems, the year 1 BC is followed by AD 1...
campaign, monks were systematically turned out of monasteries and forced to disrobe and become farming peasants, or were tortured and murdered outright. Some monks were forced to violate their vows at gunpoint. By the time the Khmer Rouge reign of terror ended, there were no monks alive in Cambodia, and most temples were in rubble.
Meanwhile, refugees began to filter out of Cambodia and congregate in refugee camp
Refugee camp
A refugee camp is a temporary settlement built to receive refugees. Hundreds of thousands of people may live in any one single camp. Usually they are built and run by a government, the United Nations, or international organizations, or NGOs.Refugee camps are generally set up in an impromptu...
s along the Thai border, bringing with them tales of unbelievable, apocalyptic
Apocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
horrors.
In 1978, Maha Ghosananda left his forest hermitage in Thailand, and went down to the refugee camps near the Thai-Cambodian border to begin ministering to the first refugees who filtered across the border.
Maha Ghosananda's appearance in the refugee camps raised a stir among the refugees who had not seen a monk for years. The Cambodian refugees openly wept as Maha Ghosananda chanted the ancient and familiar sutras that had been the bedrock of traditional Cambodian culture before Year Zero. He distributed photocopied Buddhist scriptures among the refugees, as protection and inspiration for the battered people.
His entire family, and countless friends and disciples, were massacred by the Khmer Rouge.
Restoration
Maha Ghosananda served as a key figure in post-Communist Cambodia, helping to restore the nation state and to revive Cambodian Buddhism. In 1980, he served as a representative of the Cambodian nation-in-exile to the United Nations.When the Pol Pot regime collapsed in 1979, Maha Ghosananda was one of only 3,000 Cambodian Buddhist monks alive, out of more than 60,000 at the start of the reign of terror in 1976. Throughout 1979 Maha Ghosananda established wats in refugee camps along the Thai-Cambodian border, ordaining monks against the orders of the Thai military.
In 1980 Maha Ghosananda and the Reverend Peter L. Pond
Peter L. Pond
The Reverend Peter Lawrence Pond was a New England clergyman, activist and philanthropist who worked with Cambodian orphans on the Thai-Cambodian border...
formed the Inter-Religious Mission for Peace in Cambodia. Together they located hundreds of surviving monks and nuns in Cambodia so that they could renew their vows and take leadership roles in Cambodian temples around the world. In June 1980 the Thai Government decided to forcibly repatriate thousands of refugees. Pond and the Preah Maha Ghosananda organized a protest against the forced repatriation of refugees from Sa Kaeo Refugee Camp
Sa Kaeo Refugee Camp
Sa Kaeo Refugee Camp was the first organized refugee relief camp established on the Thai-Cambodian border by the Royal Thai Government with support from international relief agencies including the United Nations. It was opened in October 1979 and closed in early July 1980...
.
In 1988, Maha Ghosananda was elected as sanghreach (sangharaja
Sangharaja
Sangharaja is the title given in many Theravada Buddhist countries to a senior monk who is the titular head either of a monastic fraternity , or of the Sangha throughout the country...
) by a small gathering of exiled monks in Paris. He agreed to accept the position provisionally, until a complete, independent monastic hierarchy could be established in Cambodia. At the time, Venerable Tep Vong
Tep Vong
Tep Vong is a Cambodian Buddhist monk, currently the Great Supreme Patriarch of Cambodia. He was the youngest of seven senior monks re-ordained under Vietnamese supervision in 1979 in order to provide a core leadership group for the re-establishment of the Cambodian sangha, which had been nearly...
was the titular head of a unified Cambodian sangha
Sangha
Sangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...
, having been appointed to the position in 1981 by the Vietnamese-backed People's Republic of Kampuchea.
Dhammayietra
In 1992, during the first year of the United Nations sponsored peace agreement, Maha Ghosananda led the first nationwide DhammayietraDhammayietra
The Dhammayietra is an annual peace walk in Cambodia that originated during the historic repatratiation of refugees along the Thai border camps during the United Nations monitored transition to democracy in 1992. The peace walk takes place in early May and usually involves an assemblage of...
, a peace march or pilgrimage, across Cambodia in an effort to begin restoring the hope and spirit of the Cambodian people.
The 16-day, 125-mile peace walk passed through territory still littered with landmines from the Khmer Rouge. The Dhammayietra became an annual walk which Maha Ghosananda led a number of times, despite the danger during the Khmer Rouge years. In 1995, the Dhammayietra consisted of almost 500 Cambodian Buddhist monks, nuns and precept-taking lay people
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
. They were joined by The Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life. Together the two groups crossed Cambodia from the Thai border all the way to Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, spending several days walking through Khmer Rouge-controlled territory along the way.
He had been called "the Gandhi of Cambodia." Maha Ghosananda was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
by the chair of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Claiborne Pell
Claiborne Pell
Claiborne de Borda Pell was a United States Senator from Rhode Island, serving six terms from 1961 to 1997, and was best known as the sponsor of the Pell Grant, which provides financial aid funding to U.S. college students. A Democrat, he was that state's longest serving senator.-Early years:Pell...
. He was again nominated in 1995, 1996, and 1997 for his work in bringing peace to Cambodia. He also acted as an adviser to the Buddhist Peace Fellowship
Buddhist Peace Fellowship
The Buddhist Peace Fellowship is a nonsectarian international network of engaged Buddhists participating in various forms of nonviolent social activism and environmentalism with chapters all over the world...
and resided part time in the Palelai Buddhist Temple and Monastery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
, United States.
He died in Northampton, Massachusetts
Northampton, Massachusetts
The city of Northampton is the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population of Northampton's central neighborhoods, was 28,549...
on March 12, 2007.
Books
Maha Ghosananda Step By StepSantidhammo Bhikkhu Buddha of the Battlefield: Life of Maha Ghosananda
Awards and recognitions
- 1992 - The Rafto Prize
- 1998 - Niwano Peace PrizeNiwano Peace PrizeNiwano Peace Prize is given to honor and encourage those who are devoting themselves to interreligious cooperation in the cause of peace,and to make their achievements known...
- 1998 - Courage of Conscience Award
External links
- Site dedicated to preserving his memory and creating a mausoleum and temple in his honor.
- Cambodia's Nobel Nominee on peace and suffering
- The Serene Life - 20 minute interview with Maha Ghosananda
- Maha Ghosananda's biography in Khmer Language
- Maha Ghosananda's biography in German Language
- Maha Ghosananda's Facebook
- Maha Ghosananda's Dharma Talks