BODHI AUSTRALIA
  • About
    • Our People >
      • The Dalai Lama: our patron
      • Our Advisors >
        • Shelley Anderson
        • Solomon Benatar
        • Senator Bob Brown
        • Sister Mila de Gimeno
        • Prof John Guillebaud
        • Dh Lokamitra
        • Prof Chris Queen
        • Prof David Rapport
        • Sulak Sivaraksa
    • Latest news!
    • Our Finances
    • President's report
    • From the Medical Director's Desk
    • Media
  • Projects
    • Nishtha
    • Aryaloka Computer Education >
      • Update April 2024
      • Covid in Nagpur update: November 2021
    • Past projects - complete >
      • Bahujan Hitay, Pune, India >
        • Karunadeepa
      • Moanoghar, Bangladesh >
        • Moanoghar student support
      • Denis Wright Scholarships, Bangladesh
      • Barefoot teachers
      • SNEHA schools Arunachal Pradesh, India
  • How to help
    • Supporters, partners, helpers
    • Bequests
    • Shopping
    • Posters
    • Other ways to help
  • Meetings, reports, newsletters, more!
    • Meetings and Reports >
      • 2025
      • From the past >
        • 2024
        • 2023
        • 2022
        • 2021
        • 2020
        • 2019
        • 2018
        • 2017
        • 2016
        • 2015
      • Constitution
      • For committee >
        • Register of Members
        • References
      • partner details >
        • Aryaloka_reports
    • Editorials >
      • Rwanda
    • Newsletter (latest) >
      • BT61 supplement
    • Newsletters (recent)
    • BODHI Times (newsletter archive)
    • Blog
    • Justice >
      • Caste
    • Climate change
    • Nature
  • Remembering
    • Roshi Robert Aitken
    • Dr Ambedkar: an inspiration
    • Eric Avebury
    • Vanya Kewley
    • Dr Maurice King
    • Halfdan Mahler
    • Abdus Salam
    • Frank Schofield
    • Susan Woldenberg Butler
    • Denis Wright
    • BODHI's history
    • Old websites
    • Archives
  • Contact us
  • About
    • Our People >
      • The Dalai Lama: our patron
      • Our Advisors >
        • Shelley Anderson
        • Solomon Benatar
        • Senator Bob Brown
        • Sister Mila de Gimeno
        • Prof John Guillebaud
        • Dh Lokamitra
        • Prof Chris Queen
        • Prof David Rapport
        • Sulak Sivaraksa
    • Latest news!
    • Our Finances
    • President's report
    • From the Medical Director's Desk
    • Media
  • Projects
    • Nishtha
    • Aryaloka Computer Education >
      • Update April 2024
      • Covid in Nagpur update: November 2021
    • Past projects - complete >
      • Bahujan Hitay, Pune, India >
        • Karunadeepa
      • Moanoghar, Bangladesh >
        • Moanoghar student support
      • Denis Wright Scholarships, Bangladesh
      • Barefoot teachers
      • SNEHA schools Arunachal Pradesh, India
  • How to help
    • Supporters, partners, helpers
    • Bequests
    • Shopping
    • Posters
    • Other ways to help
  • Meetings, reports, newsletters, more!
    • Meetings and Reports >
      • 2025
      • From the past >
        • 2024
        • 2023
        • 2022
        • 2021
        • 2020
        • 2019
        • 2018
        • 2017
        • 2016
        • 2015
      • Constitution
      • For committee >
        • Register of Members
        • References
      • partner details >
        • Aryaloka_reports
    • Editorials >
      • Rwanda
    • Newsletter (latest) >
      • BT61 supplement
    • Newsletters (recent)
    • BODHI Times (newsletter archive)
    • Blog
    • Justice >
      • Caste
    • Climate change
    • Nature
  • Remembering
    • Roshi Robert Aitken
    • Dr Ambedkar: an inspiration
    • Eric Avebury
    • Vanya Kewley
    • Dr Maurice King
    • Halfdan Mahler
    • Abdus Salam
    • Frank Schofield
    • Susan Woldenberg Butler
    • Denis Wright
    • BODHI's history
    • Old websites
    • Archives
  • Contact us

Sulak Sivaraksa

Sulak Sivaraksa (1994 - present) (engaged Buddhism)

We are deeply privileged to have had Sulak (born 1932) as an advisor since Susan and Colin met him in 1994, at a conference near Bangkok, organised by the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, of which Sulak is a co-founder.

Sulak has, very deservedly, been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, as well as many other awards, such as the Swedish Right Livelihood Award
.

Sulak, trained as a lawyer, and long regarded as one of Thailand's leading intellectuals, has endured repeated charges for
lèse majesté from 1984 until as recently as 2017, when aged 85. This charge, and its threat, is a dominant instrument of control and suppression in hierarchical Thailand. Technically, it means defamation, insult, or threat to the Thai king, queen, heir-apparent, or regent (and, apparently, even interpreted as extending to ridiculing the king's dog). In Thai legislation since 1908, the punishment is three to fifteen years of imprisonment per count.

See The King Never Smiles, for some indications of why this law is so harsh. This book, written by Paul Hand
ley, a freelance journalist who lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in Asia for more than twenty years, including thirteen in Thailand, is not only unavailable in Siam (a name Sulak prefers), but in every other ASEAN country (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar).

An essay by Matteo Pisono points out that Sulak's work is relevant to structural violence: Buddhists should not only refrain from killing,
but examine how their actions might support wars or racial conflict. According to Wikipedia, Sulak, in 2007, spoke out against proposals to declare Buddhism Thailand's "national religion" in the new constitution, arguing that to do so would exacerbate the conflict in southern Thailand. The link to this has vanished, but this makes sense.

January 13, 2018

Update: to our great relief the charges against Sulak were dropped on January 17, 2018: see
https://www.yahoo.com/news/thai-court-drops-royal-insult-case-over-16th-074830561.html