Thai Buddhist accounts of male homosexuality

·期刊原文
Thai Buddhist accounts of male homosexuality and AIDS in the 1980s
(THai Sexuality in the Age of AIDS: Essays in Memory of Robert Ariss)
by Peter Anthony Jackson
The Australian Journal of Anthropology

Vol.6 No.3

Pp.140-153

Dec.1995

Copyrighyt by Anthropological Society of New South Wales

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1. Introduction
In the early to mid-1980s, the official Thai response to the spread
of HIV infection in that country was characterised by denial and
silence. It was only in the latter years of the decade that the
threat HIV/AIDS posed to public health in Thailand was formally
acknowledged by government and public health officials and that
public education campaigns began to be formulated and implemented.
As in many other countries, the initial responses of many public
figures in Thailand to the recognition of the serious issues posed
by the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS were informed more by prejudice and
fear than by reasoned consideration of the evidence on modes of
infection. In this period homosexual men, female prostitutes and
Western tourists and residents in Thailand were condemned as sources
of AIDS and threats to public health by many Thai journalists,
politicians, public health officials, Buddhist monks and other
public figures.
In my previous work (Jackson 1989a) I argued that popular Western
perceptions of a general tolerance of homosexuality in Thailand are
to an extent inaccurate. Although there are no legal or formal
sanctions against homosexuality in Thailand, I showed that a wide
range of normative cultural sanctions operate to stigmatise Thai
homosexual men and women. Sanctions against homosexuality are
diffused throughout Thai society rather than being focused in any
clearly definable institution or set of homophobic practices as has
historically been the case in most Western societies.
However, this situation changed somewhat in the late 1980s. The
initial 'shock, horror' response to AIDS provided a focus for
previously diffuse anti-homosexual sentiments as homosexual men were
publicly labelled as the main 'source' or 'origin' of HIV infection
in Thailand. A number of Buddhist writers were involved in this
stigmatisation of homosexual men, drawing on Buddhist teachings to
construct arguments against homosexuality that contributed to the
fear and angst surrounding much public discussion of HIV/AIDS in the
country in the late 1980s.
I begin by describing accounts of male homo-eroticism in the Thai
language translation of the Tipitaka(2), the canonical scriptures of
Theravada Buddhism, noting, firstly, divergences in ethical
judgements made on homosexuality in the canon and, secondly,
similarities between scriptural descriptions of pandaka (Thai:
bandorh) and the popular Thai notion of the kathoey (transvestite,
transsexual, male homosexual).
I then consider traditional Thai accounts which propose that
homosexuality arises as a kammic consequence of violating Buddhist
proscriptions against heterosexual misconduct. These kammic accounts
describe homosexuality as a congenital condition which cannot be
altered, at least in a homosexual person's current lifetime, and
have been linked with calls for compassion and understanding from
the non-homosexual populace.
Thirdly, I describe more recent Thai Buddhist accounts from the late
1980s that describe homosexuality as a wilful violation of 'natural'
(hetero) sexual conduct resulting from lack of ethical control over
sexual impulses. These accounts presented homosexuality as
antithetical to Buddhist ethical ideals of self-control and were
associated with vehement anti-homosexual rhetoric and vociferous
attacks on male homosexual behaviour as the purported origin of
HIV/AIDS.
2. References to male homosexuality in the Theravada scriptures
The Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism contains numerous references to
sexual behaviour that today would be identified as homo-erotic and
to individuals who would be called homosexuals and transvestites.
However, as would be expected of a series of texts composed over two
millenia ago in a non-European culture, sexual categories found in
the canon do not match contemporary notions of homosexuality or of
homosexual individuals. Most notedly, the canon does not clearly
distinguish homosexual behaviour from cross-gender phenomena such as
transvestism. Nevertheless, while not being given a single,
distinctive name, male-male sex is referred to in many places in the
Vinaya,(3) the clerical code of conduct, being listed amongst the
many explicitly described forms of sexual activity which are
proscribed for monks. It is important, however, that Theravada
Buddhist accounts of homosexuality are understood in the context of
the religion's general disdain of sexual activity and distrust of
sensual enjoyment. It is also important to keep in mind that
Buddhism began as an order of celibate male renunciates, the sangha,
and that the Vinaya is predominantly a clerical not a lay code of
conduct.
In Buddhism all forms of sexual activity and desire must be
transcended in order to attain the religious goal of nibbana,
literally, the extinction of suffering. The first section of the
Tipitaka,(4) provides detailed guidelines on the practice of
clerical celibacy in the form of often explicit examples of the
types of sexual misconduct which entail 'spiritual defeat'
(parajika) and automatic expulsion from the sangha. To quote an
often repeated formula in this section of the Vinaya, 'Whatever monk
has sexual intercourse is parajika, a defeated one, and will not
find communion [in the order]' (Vinaya, Vol. 1, p.27, passim).
The precision with which monks' conduct is monitored is shown in the
canonical definition of 'perform' in the expression 'to perform
sexual intercourse', which is described as a monk inserting his
penis into a vagina, mouth, anus, etc. 'even if only as far as the
width of a sesame seed' (Vinaya, Vol. 1, p.49). The extreme imagery
evoked in the Buddha's denunciation of a monk who was found to have
kept and trained a female monkey to have sex with him graphically
portrays the kammic consequences that were believed to follow from a
monk's violation of his vow of celibacy or brahmacariya,
Behold O worthless man (moghapurisa), the penis you insert into the
mouth of a poisonous snake is yet better than the penis you insert
into the vagina of a female monkey. It is not good. The penis you
insert into the mouth of a cobra is yet better than the penis you
insert into the vagina of a female monkey. It is not good. The penis
you insert into a pit of blazing coals is yet better than the penis
you insert into the vagina of a female monkey. It is not good.
For what reason do I say the mentioned points are better? Because
the man who inserts his penis into the mouth of a poisonous snake,
and so on, even if he dies or suffers to the point of death because
of that action . . ., after death and the dissolution of his body he
will not enter the state of loss and woe (apaya), the states of
unhappiness (duggati), the place of suffering (vinipata), hell
(naraka). As for the man who inserts his penis into the vagina of a
female monkey, after death and the dissolution of his body, he will
enter the state of loss and woe, the states of unhappiness, the
place of suffering, hell. (Vinaya, Vol. 1, p.29)
According to the canon, sexual misconduct (kamesu micchacara) should
be avoided by the pious laity as well as by monks and nuns. In
Thailand lay sexual misconduct is most commonly interpreted as
meaning 'violating another person's wife' (Thai: phit mia khon u'n),
or as 'violating another person's spouse (husband or wife)' (Thai:
phit phua-mia khon u'n). Homosexuality amongst laymen has
traditionally fallen outside the scope of kammicly significant
sexual misconduct in Thailand.
2.1 Heterosexuality and homosexuality as equivalent defilements
In the context of Buddhism's general anti-sex attitude, the Vinaya
often describes homosexuality in terms that place it on a par with
heterosexuality. But this ethical equivalence is negative, with
heterosexuality and homosexuality being described as equally
repugnant sources of suffering and as constituting equivalent
violations of clerical celibacy. The Vinaya identifies not two but
four gender types: male, female, ubhatobyanjanaka and pandaka. The
latter two Pall terms are used to refer to different things in
different sections of the canon, but broadly ubhatobyanjanaka(5)
refers to hermaphrodites while pandaka(6) refers to male
transvestites and homosexuals. The Vinaya lists those sexual
activities with men, women, pandaka and ubhatobyanjanaka that entail
spiritual defeat and a monk's automatic expulsion from the order:
1. Anal, vaginal or oral intercourse with a female human,
non-human (i.e. an immaterial being or animal,
2. Anal, vaginal or oral intercourse with an ubhatobyanjanaka human,
non-human or animal,
3. Anal or oral intercourse(7) with a pandaka human, non-human or
animal; and
4. Anal or oral intercourse with a male human, non-human or animal.
In the Vinaya's listings of proscribed sexual activities, sex
between monks and the various categories of women, hermaphrodites,
transvestites, men, dead bodies, animals and inanimate objects are
all described in equivalent terms, none being presented as any more
morally reprehensible than any other and all entailing spiritual
defeat, although sex with inanimate objects was regarded as a lesser
infraction entailing penance but not expulsion. However, elsewhere
in the Vinaya and in other sections of the Tipitaka it is made clear
that ubhatobyanjanaka and pandaka are spiritually and ritually
inferior to men, often being compared with women and criminals.
2.2 Scriptural examples of discrimination against pandaka and
ubhatobyanjanaka
The scriptures describe the Buddha as demonstrating a compassionate
attitude towards people who began to show cross-gender
characteristics after ordination and who, while attracted to members
of the same sex, were regarded as being physiologically and
behaviourally true to the prevailing cultural notions of
masculinity. However, the Buddha opposed accepting into the sangha
those who openly expressed cross-gender features at the time they
presented for ordination. Volume Four of the Vinaya recounts a story
of a pandaka who violated the clerical vow of celibacy and whose bad
example led to the institution of a comprehensive ban on the
ordination of pandaka.
Contemporary Thai stereotypes of kathoeys (transvestites and
transsexuals) have precedents in descriptions of pandaka in Pali.
Zwilling (1992:205) notes that the view of pandaka as 'lascivious,
shameless, unfilial and vacillating' was reflected in early Buddhist
literature,
According to Buddhaghosa pandakas are full of defiling passions
(ussanakilesa); their lusts are unquenchable (avapasantaparilaha);
and they are dominated by their libido (parilahavegabhibhuta) and
the desire for lovers just like prostitutes (vesiya) and coarse
young girls (thulakumarika) (Samantapasadika III, p.1042). Thus the
pandaka . . . was considered in some degree to share the behaviour
and psychological characteristics of the stereotypical 'bad' woman.
It might be contended that the Buddha's ban on the ordination of
pandaka reflects his concern about the disruptive effect of
transvestite homosexuals in an order of celibate, predominantly
heterosexual monks. However, the scriptural emphasis is usually on
receptive anal sex as the violation and source of disruption. The
Vinaya conflates receptive anal sex with demasculinisation, i.e.
being a pandaka, and the Buddha's ban on the ordination of pandaka
indicates a concern to exclude non-masculine men from the sangha.
The ban on the ordination of pandaka or kathoeys has continued until
today. In 1989 the supreme governing body of the Thai sangha
considered the matter of 'sexually perverted (Thai: wiparit thaang
pheet) persons being ordained as monks' (Khamhuno 1989:37). The
Sangha Council discussed the matter after news reports of the
ordination of a kathoey and local criticism of the abbot who
permitted the ordination, and the meeting affirmed that the Vinaya
and the laws of the Council clearly specify that people who are
kathoeys or pandaka are prohibited from being ordained, adding that
they are also prohibited from being ordained as novices (ibid.).
3. Contemporary Thai views on homosexuality
However, scriptural attitudes to pandaka are not uniform and
depending on which sections of the Tipitaka are referred to or
emphasised can lead to differing ethical positions on homosexuality,
some compassionate and others invidious. Indeed, two broad schools
of thought on homosexuality are current among contemporary Thai
Buddhist writers, one accepting, the other unaccepting. The key
factor differentiating the divergent stances is the author's
conceptualisation of the origin of homosexuality; those who, taking
a liberal stance, maintain that it is a condition which is outside
the conscious control of homosexual men and women and has its
origins in past misdeeds, whereas those who maintain that
homosexuality is a wilful violation of ethical and natural
principles take an antagonistic position.
3.1 Kammic accounts of the origins of homosexuality
Bunmi (1986) has provided a detailed exposition of the kammic
explanation of homosexuality which has prevailed in Thailand until
recent decades, as well as the ethical corollaries of this account.
Like most contemporary Thai authors writing on Buddhist attitudes to
homosexuality, Bunmi translates pandaka into Thai as kathoey, which
he appears to understand in its more traditional sense. That is, for
Bunmi kathoey primarily denotes an assumed gender imbalance and only
secondarily denotes homosexuality.
Bunmi lists a number of types of sexual misconduct in a past life
that can lead a person to engage in homosexual activity in their
current life. These misdeeds include committing adultery, being a
prostitute, sexually interfering with one's children or being
sexually irresponsible, such as a man not caring for a woman who
becomes pregnant by him. Criticising popular Thai ideas on the
origins of homosexuality, Bunmi denies that being a kathoey is
caused by raising a boy with girls or by raising a girl with boys,
maintaining that individuals in the categories of human beings,
animals and 'lower level spirits' (Thai: phii-saang-theewadaa) are
born as kathoeys because of causal factors in their past lives
(1986:39-41). Buddhist views that being a pandaka/kathoey carries a
stigma that marks a person as deficient are clearly shown by Bunmi's
note that the Abhidhammapitaka (no reference cited) lists the kammic
causes of being born with a disability. He maintains that being a
kathoey is included in this list of disabilities along with being
born or becoming physically disabled, being mute, mad, blind, deaf
and intellectually retarded (ibid:265). The Buddha prescribed that
people with any of these disabilities, plus those with serious
illnesses and diseases, should be barred from ordination.
Bunmi maintains that sex-determined kamma is of two types, that
which manifests from birth and leads to hermaphroditism and that
which manifests after birth and leads to transvestism,
transsexualism and homosexuality (ibid:287). He says those who are
born hermaphrodites cannot attain nibbana in this life but those who
become kathoeys after birth can attain nibbana if they apply their
discriminating intelligence (Thai: panya) to the task of spiritual
liberation (ibid:294). Bunmi also says that kathoeys tend to be born
in societies in which sexual misconduct is prevalent because such
societies provide appropriate environments for them to expend their
kammic debts (ibid:301).
Significantly, Bunmi maintains that actions and desires which have
an involuntary cause in the kammic consequences of past sexual
misconduct do not themselves accrue any future kammic consequences.
They are the outworking of past kamma, not sources for the
accumulation of future kamma. According to Bunmi, homosexual
activity and the desire to engage in homosexual activity fall into
this category and are not sinful and do not accrue kammic
consequences. In a similar vein, he says that,
Changing one's sex is not sinful (ducarita). Consequently the
intention to change one's sex cannot have any ill kammic
consequences. But sexual misconduct (Thai: phit-kaam) is sinful and
can lead to consequences in a subsequent birth. (ibid:306)
In Bunmi's account the only sexual activities that accumulate future
kammic consequences are traditionally sanctioned forms of
heterosexual misconduct. Bunmi says that sexual misconduct with a
member of the opposite sex has kammic consequences because, 'it is
like stealing, because the person responsible for that person has
not given their permission' (ibid:308). Bunmi does not explicitly
refer to female kathoeys and his examples of sexual misconduct that
lead to being born a kathoey are moral infractions committed by men.
His use of a proprietary simile, comparing adultery to theft, would
appear to reflect a view of women as men's property.
The sexual activities that Bunmi says Buddhism classes as sins are
precisely those which in Thailand, and presumably also in ancient
India, have historically been regarded as dishonouring and sullying
the female victims and their male relatives or spouses, namely,
adultery, rape and sex with a girl who has not been given in
marriage. In this cultural context two men having sex does not cause
any equivalent damage or loss (Thai: sia haai), except perhaps to
their reputations as 'real men' should they be discovered. But when
a man is cuckolded or his wife is raped, then his property has been
interfered with and, in Bunmi's words, an action equivalent to a
theft has occurred.
There is therefore a close relationship between, on the one hand,
those sexual activities which Buddhist teachings proscribe for lay
people and which are interpreted as incurring kammic debts and, on
the other hand, the sexual mores and gender roles of Asian
societies. A range of physical gender imbalances and sexual
activities and inclinations which slip outside these traditional
norms are considered to have a neutral kammic impact and are not
regarded as evil or sinful. Significantly, Bunmi's traditionalist
Buddhist account proscribes violations of taboos and mores relating
to potentially reproductive sexual consequences but does not
denounce as sinful homosexuality and other forms of behaviour
without reproductive consequences. However, this contrasts markedly
with some more recent Thai Buddhist interpretations.
3.2 AIDS and the rise of intolerance in Thailand
Since the arrival of HIV/AIDS in Thailand in the mid-1980s a number
of lay and clerical authors writing on Buddhist attitudes to sex
have presented strongly anti-homosexual views. As in the West, which
I suspect to be the source of many of the more extreme
anti-homosexual arguments presented in Thailand in recent years,
HIV/AIDS has led to the foregrounding of subcurrents of homophobia
in Thai culture and society.
The recent critics continue to conflate cross-gender behaviours with
homosexual activity, interpreting homosexuality as a consequence of
gender imbalance or perversion. However, in the light of the focus
on male homosexual activity as a mode of transmission of HIV
infection during the early years of the pandemic, Thai Buddhist
critics concentrated more on the sexuality of people identified as
kathoeys than on these persons' assumed gender imbalance. It is
interesting that this inversion of the historical structuring of
notions of gender and sexuality in the notion of a kathoey, that is,
placing homosexuality rather than gender at the focus of the
concept, was associated with a shift in Buddhist attitudes from
relative tolerance of homosexuality to condemnation. AIDS, therefore
has had an important cultural impact in Thailand, contributing to
shifts in the understanding of what constitutes a kathoey and
leading to increased stigmatisation of certain sexual practices.
In his book, A Vaccine to Protect Against AIDS, the monk Phra Phadet
Thattajiwo(8) (1987:Introduction), a member of the influential and
conservative Wat Phra Thammakay movement, says:
In an age such as the present when people believe that they have
achieved the pinnacle of progress whoever wants to do something does
it. For example, women want to be men and men want to be women. They
walk into hospitals and have doctors change their sex. People who in
the past would have avoided society because of shame of their sexual
perversion (Thai: wiparit phit pheet),(9) people whom we call
kathoeys, express themselves openly to have society accept them. At
the same time, they try to make their behaviour, which is wrong for
their own gender, more open for society to accept it. Others who
don't see through these people's [actions and claims], who have
mistaken views or who have suffered some disappointment in life, put
themselves up to ridicule by accepting and following the practices
of this group. Some people experiment with this type of behaviour
because they believe it simply represents a change of preference or
taste in their lives.
None of these people knew that they were building up the sin virus
(Thai: chu'a baap) to boil them alive. Until finally one day in this
very decade an extremely severe disease arose to destroy the lives
of those degraded, mentally perverted (jit-wiparit) people. This
disease is AIDS, a disease with no cure whose sufferers die slowly
in great suffering and torment.
Phra Thattajiwo says that 'sexual perverts', whom he identifies with
AIDS sufferers, are reaping the kammic consequences of sexual
misconduct in past lives. But he takes the kammic argument further,
saying that because of moral blindness such people persist in their
perversity even in this life, weakening their bodies and making them
susceptible to infection from AIDS so that,
. . . when they are reborn in a future life their suffering will be
even more severe than this, both from their behavioural perversions
and from the cruel torture that they will suffer from a disease that
will be many times more severe than AIDS. (ibid:20)
Phra Thattajiwo calls AIDS 'the executioner of people mad about sex'
(ibid:Preface), describing it as another form of the same holocaust
(Thai: fai pralai kaan or the conflagration that destroys the
universe at the end of each cosmic epoch in Buddhist mythology) that
has already destroyed the world so many times in the past. He thus
maintains that AIDS is not a new disease but has arisen innumerable
times in the past,
After it has spread for a period and destroyed (Thai: laang(10))
those people with this type of kamma this disease will also
disappear, until a time when people with this type of kamma are born
once more and this disease will then return and spread again . . .
It is the shadow of the executioner following us. (ibid:14)
Phra Thattajiwo blames homosexual men for the spread of AIDS. But
writing in an appendix to Phra Thattajiwo's book titled 'AIDS:
Humanity's Kamma That Must Be Repaid', one Dr Appasorn Bunpradap
makes the stronger claim that homosexual men were the cause of AIDS,

When AIDS is viewed from the standpoint of spiritual truth
(saccadhamma) it is as if nature were sending a punishment to those
people who have engaged in unatural sexual behaviour. (ibid:49)
AIDS has resulted from the behaviour of gays and people who engage
in promiscuous sexual activity, and these groups have resulted from
families that lacked warmth and did not hold fast to moral
principles in conducting their lives. And according to the
principles of religion which say that a result must come from a
cause this situation must be rectified at the source. Consequently,
dhamma is the single and only medicine which can put a stop to the
spread of AIDS in Thailand. (ibid:51)
Dr Appasorn further maintains that lobha (greed), dosa (anger) and
moha (spiritual delusion) cause social problems such as, 'drinking
liquor, smoking cigarettes, gambling, playing the lotteries,
corruption, being gay, engaging in promiscuous sexual activity, drug
addiction, and so on' (ibid:49). That is, she lumps homosexuality
together with a range of other social issues which, it is
maintained, would be eradicated if people followed Buddhist ethical
principles.
The moral 'vaccine' against AIDS that Phra Thattajiwo prescribes in
his book is the Buddhist practice of kayagatasati or observing the
unpleasantness and unsatisfactoriness of the body. Kayagatasati
involves seeing the body as merely a compound of thirty two
different components such as hair, nails, teeth, skin, sinews,
internal organs, blood, sweat, fat, spit and other fluids. The goal
of this practice is to aid the ending of attachment to the body and
assist in the extinguishing of carnal desire.
When we look at the body from the perspective of what it truly is
[a container of various kinds of filth! then there will be no
opportunity for us to be remiss in upholding the principle of
ethical sexual conduct, which would lead to us being born as a
kathoey or becoming a victim of AIDS.
Phra Thattajiwo's 'vaccine' to prevent AIDS is ultimately sexual
abstinence, achieved by Buddhist practices which focus on realising
the ugliness of the body and the distastefulness of sex. Phra
Thattajiwo does not mention safe or unsafe sexual practices in his
discourse on AIDS, saying that because people in the Buddha's time
followed the practice of kayagatasati they, 'not only did not suffer
from the disease of sexual perversion, they were also pure in
action, word and thought' (ibid:Preface). Phra Thattajiwo's view
misrepresents the Buddhist scriptures, where it can be seen from the
Vinaya that even a number of the Buddha's ordained disciples were
involved in unusual sexual practices such as bestiality ('The Case
of the Female Monkey', Vinaya, Vol.1, p.27), necrophilia ('The Two
Cases of Open Sores [in Dead Bodies!', Vinaya, Vol.1, pp.221-2) and
sex with inanimate objects ('The Case of the Moulded Image', Vinaya,
Vol.1, p.222; 'The Case of the Wooden Doll', Vinaya, Vol.1, p.222).
It is clear from the Vinaya that, apparently contrary to the
Buddha's expectation, some of the monks who went into charnel
grounds and graveyards to contemplate the transiency of the body
came to see the decaying corpses that were supposed to repulse them
as sexually attractive objects. That is, the Vinaya inadvertently
provides evidence that the kayagatasati practice proposed by Phra
Thattajiwo as a 'vaccine' against AIDS may not be as effective as he
claims because not everyone regards what Buddhism defines as the
'filthy' aspects of the body to be repulsive. Indeed, for some
people contemplation of these attributes of the body might serve to
incite their sexual appetite rather than dampen it. In a different
vein, the Buddha himself urged caution in the practice of
kayagatasati after some monks following this practice apparently
became so repulsed by their own bodies that they committed suicide.
Another clerical commentator on Buddhism and sex, Isaramuni, writing
in his book 'The Method to Protect Against AIDS', presents an even
more vehement anti-homosexual argument than Phra Thattajiwo. He
defines sexual desire (Thai: tanhaa thaang pheet) as 'sexuality',
using the English word, saying that it is a natural phenomenon whose
function is to ensure men and women perpetuate the human race. But,
Isaramuni maintains, when sexual desire is excessive it cannot be
controlled or kept within limits, leading to sexual disorder or
confusion (Thai: lak-lan) whereby a man develops sexual desire for
another man rather than for a woman (Isaramuni 1989:3-4). That is,
Isaramuni maintains that homosexuality derives from an excess of
sexual drive or from lack of moral control over the sexual drive to
ensure that it is kept within 'normal' or 'natural' limits.
The philosopher monk Phra Ratchaworamuni(11) also appears to support
the idea that homosexuality derives from lack of control over sexual
desire. In his Dictionary of Buddhist Teachings (Ratchaworamuni
1984:135-6.) he defines a pandaka as:
A kathoey, a person who does not appear to be either male or female.
Namely: someone born as a kathoey, a castrated man called a eunuch,
and a man with strong sexual desire who behaves outside of sexual
conventions and who incites other men to be likewise.
Implicit in Phra Ratchaworamuni's brief account of male
homosexuality is the supposition that male-male sex results from
excessive lust that cannot be satisfied by heterosexual intercourse.
In effect male homosexuality is presented as resulting from lust
breaking out of the bounds of an assumed heterosexual normality. In
this view homosexual men are considered immoral because they do not
contain their sexual urges within normal heterosexual limits. Given
that control and ultimate extinction of desire is the basis of the
Buddhist path to end suffering and attain salvation, in this view
homosexual men are regarded as the antithesis of Buddhist
spirituality. The view that the origin of homosexuality lies in
excessive lust appears to lend support to the popularly held view in
Thailand that homosexual men and women cannot attain nibbana or high
spiritual states, because in order to attain nibbana one must
control and contain desire. Furthermore, if this ethical control
were exercised, sexual desire would not flood outside the normal
bounds of heterosexuality. Homosexuality is considered immoral
because if homosexuals learned sexual self-restraint, like the
heterosexual population, they would cease to be homosexual. In this
view homosexuality is considered to be a universal but immoral human
potential that ethical control keeps in check.
Isaramuni takes this line of argument further, claiming that
homosexuals' imputed immorality is not only the cause of their
homosexuality but was also the direct cause of AIDS,
When a critical event such as this occurs [i.e. homosexuality] the
environment in the world changes, things which have never existed
before arise because of the hidden consequences of human beings'
unnatural activities. That is, matter changes its form and chemical
changes take place. The AIDS virus arose thus and has caused a
frightening crisis to arise in the human world, that is, the spread
of the AIDS disease. (Isaramuni ibid:5)
Consequently we can say that the true origin of AIDS is
homosexuality. If there were no homosexuality the AIDS virus would
not have arisen. Or if human beings were to confine the scope of
their sexual desire within the natural laws or processes of the
world, that is, to only have sexual activity between males and
females, the AIDS virus would not have arisen. But now we [human
beings] do not play according to the rules and so the matter has
become very complicated. People cannot control their own minds and
let craving arise whenever they want and play along in accord with
the power of that desire. A desire which should not have arisen has
arisen and now the AIDS disease has become a grave danger to human
beings. (ibid:6)
Conclusion
Buddhism is a complex tradition and there is no single canonical or
scripturally sanctioned position on homosexuality. Rather, the Pali
scriptures contain a number of divergent trends which different
interpreters can use to develop views on homosexuality that range
from the sympathetic to the antagonistic. Whether an interpreter
adopts a sympathetic or a critical stance depends on whether he or
she regards the cause of homosexuality as lying outside the
individual, in 'old kamma' (Thai: kam kaw) built up in a previous
life, or in the individual's own supposedly immoral conduct.
It is interesting that the latter, intolerant view is the more
recent and, paradoxically, is presented by some authors who are
otherwise identified as socially and politically progressive. For
example, Phra Ratchaworamuni is widely respected in Thailand for his
concern to reform Thai Buddhism by uprooting institutional
corruption, demythologising Buddhist metaphysics and making the
sangha a purer and more effective cultural vehicle for transmitting
Buddhist values in the contemporary world. As in the West, public
panic about AIDS and latent fears about homosexuality combined in
Thailand to produce an increasingly explicit intolerance of
homosexuality in some quarters. But AIDS alone does not explain the
vehemence of the recent Buddhist attacks on homosexuality. As I have
described elsewhere, (Jackson 1988, 1989b) reformist formulations of
Buddhism are associated with a de-emphasis on kamma as an
explanation for why society and people are the way they are. This
has opened the way for the development of an interventionist
Buddhist social theory which focuses more on individuals' capacity
to change their circumstances than on the extent to which their
current life conditions are pre-determined. From an ethical
standpoint, however, interventionist and socially progressive
Buddhist theories place more emphasis on individuals' responsibility
for their own future. In the context of the AIDS panic in the second
half of the 1980s and a widespread if previously diffuse
anti-homosexual sentiment in Thailand, the new reformist accounts of
Buddhism have fostered the development of a more focused
anti-homosexual polemic.
Reformist and modernist trends in Thai Buddhism are often regarded
as politically progressive because of their opposition to the
historical alignment of the sangha with the centralised state and
military. On the other hand, metaphysical and spiritistic views of
Buddhism which emphasise the determining power of kamma are
criticised by reformists as intellectually backward and politically
conservative. Paradoxically, however, the reformist, politically
progressive interpretations of Buddhism are often linked with a
strident moralism and a vehement anti-homosexual stance
unprecedented in recent Thai history. On the other hand, the
conservative traditionalists who still believe in the determining
power of kamma take a more laissez faire approach to issues such as
homosexuality.
Thailand in the 1980s thus provides an interesting example of how
changing intellectual and social conditions can bring a previously
neglected area of social life to prominence and invest it with new
meanings and significance. Thai history in the 1980s also shows that
political progressivism, intellectual modernisation and ethical
liberalism are not necessarily related trends and can move
independently and at different rates. Indeed, the very factors which
lead to perceived progress and expanded opportunities for some
sectors of society can simultaneously lead to regressive and
discriminatory developments in other spheres which restrict and deny
opportunities to other sectors.
Nevertheless, the impact of Buddhist authors' anti-homosexual
rhetoric appears to have been relatively small. To a large measure
this has been because the 1980s issue of homosexuals as the
purported source or originating site of AIDS has all but been
forgotten in the 1990s as the magnitude of the problem of
heterosexual transmission of HIV has become apparent.(12) The
vehement anti-homosexual rhetoric in Thailand in the second half of
the 1980s has not led to any noticeable increase in publicly
expressed intolerance or discrimination against homosexual men
beyond that which already existed. Paradoxically, the brief period
of public anxiety about homosexual men as supposed vectors of
HIV/AIDS and the associated religiously authorised criticisms of
kathoeys may in fact have contributed to the consolidation of gay
identity among increasing numbers of Thai homosexual men, and not
only because of the public prominence given to homosexuality.
There has been considerable discussion among Western gay/lesbian
analysts about the historical shift in Western societies from
viewing homosexuality as a behaviour to a defining characteristic of
a type of person, i.e. homosexuals (see Halperin 1990). The changing
relative emphases on gender and sexuality in the notion of kathoey
appear to be leading to a similar shift in Thailand. When the class
of people identified as kathoeys were primarily defined by their
assumed gender imbalance then homosexuality was viewed as a
behaviour that 'men' as well as kathoeys may engage in. But as
kathoeys have come to be defined more by their sexuality, then the
idea of the homosexual as a class of person has also gained currency
in Thailand.
Despite their discriminatory character, the fact that the
anti-homosexual diatribes published in the light of HIV/AIDS focused
on homosexual men's unconventional sexuality rather than their
ascribed cross-gender behaviour has contributed to the consolidation
of notions of gay identity in Thailand. In the 1990s Thai homosexual
men tend to be defined as much by their sexuality as by their
assumed breach of gender norms and one consequence of the 1980s
criticisms appears to be the firmer establishment of homosexuality
as an acknowledged focus of sexual and social existence in Thailand.

Thanks to Eric Allyn and Ross McMurtie for their valuable comments
on earlier versions of this paper.
2. In this paper unmarked italicised words represent Pali versions
of terms. Thai language terms are marked as such, except for the
frequently used Thai term kathoey, which variously denotes a male
who has breached cultural norms of heterosexuality and/or
masculinity.
3. Zwilling (1992:208) notes that there are no explicit references
to homosexuality in the Suttapitaka, the collection of the Buddha's
discourses.
4. I refer to the Thai translation of the Tipitaka in this paper
because the selection of Thai terms used to translate Pali often
reflects Thai cultural values, providing insight into the
translators' views and preconceptions. For example, the Pali term
pandaka is sometimes translated directly by the equivalent Thai
technical term bandorh, while at other times it is translated by the
colloquial Thai term kathoey. All translations in this paper are my
own.
5. Pali: ubhato - Two-fold; byanjana - A sign or mark (of gender,
etc.); ka - Derivative-forming suffix.
6. It is possible that pandaka is derived from the Pall term anda,
which variously means 'egg' or 'testicles', and may originally have
had the sense of male reproductive deficiency or incapacity.
Monier-Williams (n.d.:580) defines the cognate Sanskrit terms pandra
and pandraka as 'eunuch or impotent man'. Zwilling (1992:204) says
that the term is of obscure origin and may ultimately be derived
from apa + anda + ka, 'without testicles'. He adds, however, that
this should not be taken literally as meaning that a pandaka was
necessarily a eunuch but, rather, should 'be interpreted
metaphorically as we do in English when it is said of a weak or
pusillanimous person that he (or she) "has no balls"'. Zwilling adds
that the term pandaka used in the canon could not have meant a
eunuch because, with the exception of the congenitally impotent,
accounts of pandaka describe a man who is capable of 'either
erection, ejaculation, or the experience of sexual pleasure'.
7. The fact that vaginal intercourse is not listed as a possibility
for pandaka indicates that they are biologically male.
8. In his books Phra Phadet Thattajiwo is variously referred to by
his lay name, Phra Phadet, and by his clerical name, Phra
Thattajiwo. I here refer to him as Phra Thattajiwo. Phra is a Thai
title for an ordained Buddhist monk.
9. Phit pheet may be translated as either 'inappropriate gender' or
'inappropriate sexuality', the term pheet, like kathoey, melding
notions of gender and sexuality. I here translate wiparit phit pheet
as 'sexual perversion' rather than its possible rendering as 'gender
perversion' because of Phra Thattajiwo's general emphasis on sex in
this discourse.
10. The Thai word laang can mean both 'to destroy/be destroyed' and
'to cleanse/be cleansed'.
11. Phra Ratchaworamuni is regarded as one of the most progressive
contemporary Buddhist thinkers in Thailand, having written widely on
the need to modernise Buddhism and relate teaching and practice to
contemporary social and economic issues.
12. Chris Lyttleton notes that, at least in many rural areas of
Thailand, officially sponsored safe sex education programs conducted
in the early 1990s have all but ignored unprotected homosexual sex
as a risk activity, focusing almost solely on heterosexual sex
(private correspondence). This further demonstrates the marginal
nature of homosexuality in Thailand. In the early years of the
pandemic, homosexuals were isolated and stigmatised as the supposed
source of HIV infection. But as the heterosexual population has
become threatened in Thailand, homosexual men, who are at just as
great a risk of infection as heterosexual men, have tended to be
ignored in the official safe sex campaigns.
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