Study On The Buddhist Education And The Process Of Secularization Of Laos Education System

As a concept of religious sociology,secularization mainly refers to the continuous development of the modernization of nation states since the modern times and the gradual decline of the influence of religion in the country.As a derivative concept of secularization,the secularization of education mainly refers to the gradual realization of the secularization of educational ideology and education system by the nation-state in the education development and gradually from the situation dominated by religion.Since the concept of secularization was first proposed in western countries,most of the previous researches focus on the process of secularization of education in modern western countries,which is dominated by Christian education.For the education of other religions,There are relatively few studies on the process of secularization of education.Therefore,this study mainly aims to analyze the relationship between Buddhist monasteries and schools in different historical periods through the longitudinal historical review of the development of Buddhist monasteries in Laos in South-East Asia,where the Theravada Buddhism is dominated by Buddhism.And through the analysis of the characteristics and influencing factors of the Buddhist temple’s education in different historical periods,this paper summarizes the characteristics of the secularization of the whole education and the functions of the Buddhist temple’s education in the process of the national historical development of Laos.The basic framework of the paper consists of five parts:The first part is the introduction.In this part,I explain the reasons why did I choose Lao’s monastic education as my own research object.Through summarizing the great contribution that Theravada Buddhism makes in Lao’s history to highlight its important position and function.In the following sentences,it’s mainly literature view.Through collecting and reading all kinds of papers about Lao’s Buddhism,the aim is to clarify it plays an important part in Lao’s politicization,economy,culture and also education.This is also a basis of my research.Then I clarify my research question,and in the following sentences,I make definition of “secularization” and “education secularization”.And in this part,I also clarify the important and difficult points in my research.The second part is Lao’s monastic education development in pre-colonial period.In this period(1353-1892),Lao is mainly in its kingdom stage,and there is not much information for us to record.So in this period,my content is mainly based on the large monasteries that the country built like Vat Mai,Ong Teu Vat and so on.We can also find information in foreign traveler’s travel log about monastic education in Lao,such as Dutch merchant Gerrit Van Wuysthoff and Italian Father Giovanni Marrie.This period can also regard as Lao’s religious education period.The third part is Lao’s monastic education development in Indochina period(1893-1945).In this period,Lao had became a French colony,and as a part of Indochina.Lao’s monastic education was challenged by Catholic education and the public education that was built by French.But as for some specific factors,its monastic education had got development as well as past.In this period,the Ecole Francaised’Extreme Orient(EFEO)that was built by French had made a lot of effort in the study of Lao’s monasteries.This period can also regard as Lao’s starting stage in secularization of education.The fourth part is Lao’s monastic education development after its independent stage and the founding of new Lao People’s Democratic Republic stage.This part consists of two minor parts.The first minor part is between the year 1945-1975,Lao had realized national independence.In this stage,there were two mainly governments in Lao’s society,one is kingdom government and the other is Pathet Lao government.Lao’s monasteries had became closely related to Lao’s politics and it’s truly regard as a tool of politics.The second minor part is after the year 1975.This year is also the state Lao People’s Democratic Republic had established.So under the support of the country,Lao’s public education had grown fast and became a big challenge to monastic education.This stage also can regard as its secularization of education establishment period.The fifth part is the overall characteristics of Laos’ secularization of education and the analysis of the existence and reality of Buddhist monastic education.This part mainly analyzes the historical development of Lao Buddhist temple education as described above,and analyzes the overall characteristics of Laos’ s educational secularization process.It mainly explains the following features of the process of education secularization: First,the secularization of educational content and the popularization of educational objects;Second,the modernization process of national politics has promoted the secularization of its education;Third,both international and domestic incentives have accelerated the secularization of their education;Fourth,the development of educational secularization shows a certain degree of compatibility.And by analyzing the specific functions of the Buddhist temple education,it analyzes the reality and rationality of Buddhist temple education in the social and historical development of Laos.