Sulak Sivaraksa (, ; ; born 27 March 1933) is a Thai social activist, professor, writer and the founder and director of the Thai NGO "Sathirakoses-Nagapradeepa Foundation", named after two authorities on Thai culture, Sathirakoses (Phya Anuman Rajadhon) and (Phra Saraprasoet). He initiated a number of social, humanitarian, ecological and spiritual movements and organizations in Thailand, such as the College SEM (Spirit in Education Movement).
Sulak Sivaraksa is known in the West as one of the fathers of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists (INEB), which was established in 1989 with leading Buddhists, including the 14th Dalai Lama, the Vietnamese monk and peace-activist Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Theravada Bhikkhu Maha Ghosananda, as its patrons.
When Sulak Sivaraksa was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 1995 for "his vision, activism and spiritual commitment in the quest for a development process that is rooted in democracy, justice and cultural integrity", he became known to a wider public in Europe and the US. Sulak was chair of the Asian Cultural Forum on Development and has been a visiting professor at UC Berkeley, the University of Toronto, and Cornell. whose surname was Lim and born into an affluent Teochew Sino-Thai family, Sulak Sivaraksa was educated at Assumption College in Bangkok and at the University of Wales, Lampeter, where he is now an honorary fellow in Buddhism. He passed the Bar in London in 1961. Upon his return home, he became the editor of Social Science Review magazine. Many considered it the leading Thai intellectual journal of its time. By 1968 the Social Science Review had become "the intellectual voice of the nation". During a protest on 26 February 2006, Sulak called Thaksin a pitiful dog. Sulak's comments were condemned by Somsri Hananantasuk, former Chairperson of Amnesty International Thailand, who said that such words could provoke violence.
In 2007, he spoke out against proposals to declare Buddhism Thailand's "national religion" in the new constitution, arguing that to do so would exacerbate the existing conflict in southern Thailand.
Sulak Sivaraksa also appears in the documentary film about the Dalai Lama entitled Dalai Lama Renaissance.
Sulak Sivaraksa is an advocate for social and political change in Thailand, as well as globally. Sivaraksa has written several influential works that have both inspired people to work towards justice and provoked controversy from political leaders. Nonetheless, Sulak Sivaraksa's speeches and other writings discuss political and economic corruption in Thai government, universal ethics, and socially engaged Buddhism. Some of Sivaraksa's most influential works include his autobiography, Loyalty Demands Dissent, as well as Seeds of Peace: A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society, and Conflict, Culture, Change: Engaged Buddhism in a Globalizing World. Sulak Sivaraksa's writings, as well the organizations he has created, express his desire for a moral and ethical world from a Buddhist perspective. Sivaraksa's religious faith is clearly the foundation of all of his political and social beliefs, yet he uses his religious beliefs to create social change in a modernist fashion.
Sulak was arrested on 6 November 2009 for lèse majesté. He was bailed out shortly thereafter.
In 2014 Sulak was again charged with defamation of the monarchy after questioning the historicity of a 16th-century royal duel on elephantback. He was cleared of these charges in December 2017.
In a 2019 interview with The Isaan Record, Sulak expressed his disappointment with the government of Prayut Chan-o-cha, but saw great promise in the rise of new progressive parties.
Books
Pridi Banomyong in S. Sivaraksa Opinion
Royal Majesty with Thai Future
Loyalty Demands Dissent
Sulak Sivaraksa presents his view of Buddhism is his autobiography, Loyalty Demands Dissent. Along with a first hand account of this life, he also includes information about his views on the relationship between religion, society, and politics. Two chapters in his autobiography, "Interfaith Connections" and "Working with the Monks", discuss Buddhism's relationships with other religions and also the changes in Buddhism that he believes are necessary for it to apply to the modern world.
Interfaith Connections
An important aspect of Sulak's work as an engaged Buddhist is his focus on inter-religious dialogue. Spending some of his early years in Great Britain enabled him to present Buddhism in a way that is congruent with Western logic. His concern for social change as a religious matter moved him to found the Coordinating Group for Religion and Society (CGRS) in 1976, which included Buddhist men, but also students, women, Catholics, Muslims, and Protestants. While many had religious backgrounds, Sulak has stressed the fact that they were all just people who were coming together to discuss social change.
Sulak's commitment to inter-religious dialogue has been important throughout his life. Sulak established a relationship with the World Council of Churches (WCC) and believed that there was much work to be done within society by Buddhists and Catholics together. When discussing the dialogue between Buddhists and Catholics, Sulak states "the idea that one religion is better than the other simply doesn't exist". This perspective concentrates on the work that needs to be done in society by people of all faiths.
Working with the Monks
With growing concern about communism in Asia in the early-1960s, Sulak received funding in 1962 to promote a reform of Buddhism as an alternative means to social change. He traveled to monasteries where he encouraged the monks' education in higher institutions of learning so that they would be "concerned about conservation, peace, and society", because he writes, "our monasteries had to become more modern, and our monks needed to understand the West. We can't keep Buddhism as it is. It has to change to meet the modern world". Sulak feels that these dimensions of religion lead to chauvinism and prejudice, so he believes humans must step away from these and focus on the basic teachings of the Buddha.
Sulak advocates a return to the Buddha's original teachings as a means of social reform. In addition, he believes that the social dimension of Buddhism cannot be ignored because Buddhism is "concerned with the lives and consciousness of all beings". Sulak explains that nonviolence, or ahimsa, does not mean non-action. For example, if a person sees a violent act and does not attempt to prevent it, this can be considered an act of violence because the bystander is not acting with compassion.
Sulak applies these ideas to social and political situations as a response to social injustice. He uses the principle of nonviolence as a call for action against social injustice, defining a strategy to bringing about long-term peace to the world: peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace building.