ISSN 1076-9005
Volume 31, 2024
Buddhism and the State: Rājadhamma after the Sattelzeit
Lajos Brons
Rājadhamma is a list of ten royal virtues or duties that occurs in the jātaka tales and that has been influential in Southeast Asian Buddhist political thought. Like pre-modern political thought in Europe—that is, thought before the Sattelzeit—Buddhist political thought lacks a concept of the “state” and is concerned with kings and similar rulers. Here I propose a modernized interpretation of rājadhamma as virtues/duties of the state. Read article
For those curious about this topic, I found Eugénie Meireau’s paper on the rajadhamma very interesting.It can be found on her website. Other articles in the same vein are also useful.
Bruno Liber: Which paper do you mean? Are you referring to “Buddhist Constitutionalism in Thailand, When Rajadhamma Supersedes the Constitution” or is there another paper on the topic by Meireau?