Thailand’s Cultural Nationalism(02)

Thailand’s Cultural Nationalism(02)

Within the bloc Thailand would become a focus around which the dispersed members of the T’ai race would rally and coalesce.

The education system was brought under the strictest control. This measure was in accordance with the nationalistic scheme of making everything in the country ”national.”

All schools had to adopt the curriculum, textbooks and examination rigidly prescribed by the Ministry of Education, and all teachers had to be registered.

When nationalism reached its peak in 1940, the government began to interfere in the religious life of the nation.

The government attempted to prostitute the Buddhist faith by making it serve the ends of its chauvinistic propaganda. It built a temple at Bangkhaen (Wat Phrasi Mahadhatu) with the purpose of unifying two sects of the Thai Hinayana Buddhist Order; Dhammayuttika and Mahanikaya.