THERAVADA BUDDHISM AND THE REGIONAL POLITICAL ORDER OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to define the role of Buddhism in shaping the political order and to model this process in the states of the Theravada school of thought of Southeast Asia. Methodology and Approach. Using the systemic method, the event analysis and the genealogical method in the interpretation of M. Foucault, the author investigated the genesis and generalized the experience of the establishment of the institution of the monarchy in Buddhist states, as well as analyzed the forms of interaction between the head of state and the Buddhist community (sangha). In the course of the research Buddhism was presented not as religious (sacral), but as a value-philosophical category, which allowed to consider it as an ideological basis of the studied national states. This, in turn, led us to relate the postulates declared in Buddhism to their practical embodiment in state and national construction, using the example of Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, and Laos. Results. The author proposes a justification for the sustainability of monarchist statehood in several countries of the region based on Buddhism and its values, which allows speaking generally about its effectiveness as an ideological setting. An indicator of the success of Buddhist statehood and its head the well-being of sangha, due to the economic potential of monasteries, which in turn provided political stability, has been proposed. The theoretical significance of the study lies in the fact that for the first time in domestic science the category of regional political order is examined through the prism of Buddhism, and Buddhism itself is considered as one of the complex and determining factors in the formation of statehood in the region under study. Practical significance is expressed in the potential ability of the foreign ministry and other state and non-state organizations operating in the region to adjust their policies taking into account the identified patterns and the data provided.