Is Violence Justified in Theravada Buddhism?

Abstract

Focusing on three kinds of textual sources of Theravada Buddhism (the Pali canon, postcanonical Pali chronicles and medieval Sinhala literature), this paper examines whether there is any justification of violence in Theravada Buddhism. Though Buddhism has recognized the relative merits of the use of mild forms of force in certain rare circumstances, by advocating a path of non-violence as one of its central doctrines Buddhism has rejected the use of violence even as a skill-in-means (Skt. upayakausalya). The paper thus examines justifications both for violence and non-violence within the Theravada Buddhist tradition. It evaluates controversial discussions of violence in the post-canonical Pali chronicle, the Mahavamsa, in which one finds a rare case of justifying violence in the attempt to explain potential war crimes of King Duttagamani. By comparing Mahavamsa’s views with Pali canonical literature, the paper argues that both in theory and practice Theravada Buddhism does not profess violence.Asserting that violence cannot be justified under any circumstance, violence and its manifestations in Buddhist societies can be viewed as a deviation from the teachings of the Buddha.

Keywords

• Justifications of Violence
• Theravada Buddhism
• Morality of War