Abstract:
This study is about violent Buddhist encounters in communities. The purpose of this
study is to identify causes of Buddhist violence in different communities mainly
focussing on Myanmar and Sri Lanka communities. This study compares causes of
violence in these communities to find the common cause of Buddhist violence.
Buddhism as a religion is not violent due to its teachings of Ahimsa. Thus, this paper
follows the life and teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the religion,
particularly his teaching about violence, what do schools of Buddhism which
developed after his death teach about violence and how do they justify the use of it.
All the three major schools of Buddhism forbid violence; however, they have
exceptions for the use of it. Therefore, these exceptions contributed to the
involvement of Buddhists in violence.
The methods used to answer questions in this paper are qualitative and interpretative
approach. The main cause of Buddhist violence highlighted in this paper is ethnicity
for Buddhism, and politics for the minority. Buddhist in this regard were protecting the
unity of their religion and the minority were fighting for their human rights. All these
incidents of violence demonstrates that Buddhists like any other religions are
capable of violence despite their reputation of peace.
