The Buddhist Public Relation Model of Sangha Administration Section 7

Abstract

This article is of three objectives: 1) to examine the concept and principles of the public relations in Buddhism, 2) to investigate the Buddhist public-relations model of the Thai Sangha and 3) to explore the procedures of the public relations of the Sangha Administration Section 7. This is a qualitative study through interviews with religious and public relations scholars. The results revealed the concepts and principles of public relations in Buddhism can be divided into two aspects viz., 1) the Concept: it referred religious organizations desire to spread their activities to the public and 2) Principle: It referred to the Buddha’s wish to preach the Dhamma to the audience to follow the ideology of the religion. Next, the public relations of the Thai Sangha involve two aspects: 1) style: it uses direct public relations principles like face-to-face and indirect communication. 2) Scope: it is internal and external public relations. In addition, the public relations process has retained the identical pattern as in the Buddha’s time. However, in the past 10 years, the proactive public-relations policy has been consistently emphasized, with The Five Precepts Village Projects being developed across the country and successfully presented as a model village. Lastly, the Buddhist public-relations model of the Sangha Region 7 consisted of six types: (1) method of preaching (2) the model of communication tools (3) model of activity (4) model of project (5) model of daily routine and (6) conservative. The researcher has adopted the six models as a tool to correct problems in the Five Precepts Village Project on the following issues: (1) to study the problems and impacts (2) to formulate prevention and suppression policies (3) to promote and develop the potential of personnel (4) allocates an adequate budget, (5) formulate a proactive public-relations policy and (6) evaluates public-relations results.