Roar: Sulak Sivaraksa and the Path of Socially Engaged Buddhism

Pistono (Fearless in Tibet) tells the life story of Sulak Sivaraksa, the Thai leader of the Socially Engaged Buddhism movement, in this admiring biography. Drawing from interviews with Sivaraksa and his friends, students, associates, and colleagues, Pistono tracks Sivaraksa’s early conservative loyalties to the Thai monarchy; his creation of The Social Science Review, a Thai journal; his support for the student uprisings against the Thai government during the 1970s; and his periods of being persecuted and exiled. Sivaraksa’s work as a social activist is placed in contrast to Thailand’s shifting political and social climate: Sivaraksa has been critical of military dictatorship, ineffectual kingship, entanglement in the Vietnam War, American economic imperialism, and more. He argues that the legitimacy of the Thai monarchy is dependent on it attending to the suffering of the poor and cultivating righteous dharma with monastic support, but, Pistono claims, the monarchy has not met these conditions, and Sivaraksa leads an ongoing movement in Thailand critical of the government’s practices. Pistono’s hagiography is an accessible and flattering exploration of the world of Socially Engaged Buddhism, the 20th century in Thailand, and a Buddhist activist who fights socioeconomic injustice. [em](Feb.) [/em]