The Roots of Conservative Radicalism in Southern Thailand's Buddhist Heartland

Abstract

Since the beginning of Thailand’s protracted political crisis in 2005, the country has experienced a conservative political turn centered on the monarchy. One of the regions where this turn has been most pronounced has been in southern Thailand. Studies of the south have tended to focus on the border provinces, its Malay Muslim community, and a long-running separatist movement. The more populous parts of the upper south with a Thai-Buddhist majority have been largely overlooked. In recent decades the south’s old Buddhist heartland has witnessed a high level of cultural and religious dynamism. This region has given birth to an influential new academic field of southern Thai studies and a distinctive southern Thai literature. These factors have contributed to the hardening of a southern Thai Buddhist identity. Politicians and activists from the south have played a prominent role in Thailand’s on-going political crisis. This article explores the rise of conservative radicalism in southern Thailand’s Buddhist heartland with reference to the roles of southern academics, writers, poets, activists, and politicians over the last half century. It offers a regional case study of the roots of Thailand’s political crisis as well as the rise of Buddhist radicalism in Southeast Asia.