MATTERS SPIRITUAL

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 34, 8 August 1925, Page 16

MATTERS SPIRITUAL

SIAM AS A LAND, OF RELIGIOUS TOLERATION.

"Siam is one of the strongholds of Buddhism, and although the modern tendency to be indifferent to rejigious matters is as observable in Siam as elsewhere, the people generally give as much attention to the practice of their faith as does the average resident in Christian countries in applying to his daily life the principles of his belief," says Mr. W. Nunn, in a paper read before the Royal Society of Arts.

"The Siamese attitude towards matters spiritual—their conception ,of their duty to God, their fellow-men, and themselves is simple. It is not complicated by the strife of sects, by the competition of conflicting faiths, by intellectual arrogance, nor i>y undisciplined enthusiasm. It is an attitude of unconcerned belief, quietly held and practised.

_ "If one of its most noticeable results is the congregating' together of large bodies s< idle priests, who toil not neither do they spin, that result is not resented commonly by the people, nor does any form of priestly tyranny spring from it. The most striking characteristic of the religious life of Siam is its wonderful tolerance. Christian missionaries are as free to work in the-country as if they were in a Christian land, and their educational and medical work is encouraged officially. It is interesting to note, as bearing upon this matter of religious toleration, that the weekly 'day of rest which is observed in the capital, in all Government offices, is the Christian sabbath, decreed to be an official holiday by King Chulalongkorn •in the year 1899. It is to be hoped that nothing will ever happen in Siam to rob it of its being one country, at least, where the expression of religious belief does not disturb the goodwill of men."