RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d
90

R. BRUCE

Like Sakya-muni who became Gotama Buddha, he left the rich life of the Palace for the austerity of monkhood. His head and eyebrows were shaven, his dress was the yellow robe, his dwelling a cell in a city monastery. He shared the simple life of the most humble. Each morning he went into the streets to receive in a metal alms bowl gifts of food from the people. Each day the monks chanted the Pali sutras, studied, or practised meditation. It was a life of abstinence. No worldly wealth is allowed in the Order. It is absolutely forbidden to tell lies, to take any form of life, to gossip, to steal, to have any contact with women, to handle money, or to eat after mid-day. A monk's demeanour is important - how to stand, sit, walk, how to address people, and how to maintain that composure which is revealed in the face of Buddha's image in every Wat in Thailand.

The discipline was not irksome to Mongkut, and it became him as easily as the luxury of the Palace. He immersed himself in Buddhist studies and acquired a good knowledge of Pali, the language of the scriptures. He found in his research that there were serious gaps in the collections of texts and commentaries in Siam. At the young age of thirty-three, he had been in the Order three years. Mongkut became the Abbot of Wat Bowaniwate. He ordered many Pali books from Ceylon to repair the omissions in the Buddhist writings. But the most important part of his work as a monk was the reform and revitalising of the Order of monkhood itself.

Prince Mongkut, the Abbot, found the observance of the code of conduct too slack. Some monks in Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, were even gambling and handling money. He set a new standard of discipline in his own Wat and then established a new sect within the Order. This was the Dharmayuta, the Followers of the Law, which survives today. The rules prescribed for this school of monks are far stricter than for the majority group, the Mahanikai, the Great Sect. Mongkut preached to the monks in his Wat and to the people, bringing a fresh interpretation of the Dharma, the Law, in place of what had become atrophied ritual. In creating a new sect among the monks, Mongkut did not bring about a "Reformation"; he left no cleavage among the followers of Buddhism. He re-inspired belief and disciplined practice. That this was done by a Priest, half-brother to the King and his likely successor, was doubly significant in a country where
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
133

ger ferry service direct to Hong Kong has already been established, and airports at Haikou and Sanya are being up-graded to international standard for direct air links with Hong Kong. A 50-km railway link will complete the link between Ba Suo, Lintau and Yulin. For energy, an open-cut mine will be developed at Changpo with capital investment of US$ 60 million (Bulletin, May 10, 1983) and the estimated output of 500,000 tonne of coal will be used at power stations at Changpo and Haikou (China Daily, November 25, 1983).

The projects which the Hainan authorities would like to proceed as joint ventures with foreign capital are listed in Table 1 (Anon., 1982a). These projects were presented to the Australian Department of Trade as being indicative of the range of the island's ambitions rather than as specific projects to which they

  
    Product
    Location
    size
    Comments
  
  
    Cement
    Dong Fang
    1 Mt/a
    Export through Basuo.
  
  
    Petroleum refinery
    West Coast
    1 Mt/a
    Based on expectations of offshore oil.
  
  
    Silicon carbide
    Dong Fang
    15000 tpa
    Based on planned hydro expansion on Changhua River. High quality silica sand.
  
  
    Plate glass
    Daxian
    
    Rebuilding of facilities.
  
  
    Paper
    Daxian
    
    
  
  
    Aluminium
    
    30000 tpa
    Long-term ambition.
  
  
    Tourism
    Five potential locations.
    
    
  
  
    Tropical agriculture
    
    
    Sugar cane, pineapple, cashews, coffee, cocoa macadamia nuts, beef and dairy cattle.
  
  
    Fish, prawns
    27 sites available for fish farms.
    
    
  

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