Prayudh Payutto was awarded the 1994 UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.
21 Facts About Prayudh Payutto
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Prayudh Payutto was born as the fifth child of Samran and Chunkee Arayangkoon on January 12,1938 in Si Prachan District, Suphanburi Province, Thailand.
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Prayudh Payutto began the study of Pali and received training in Vipassana.
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Prayudh Payutto embraced the monastic name "Payutto", literally "a person with unrelenting efforts".
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Prayudh Payutto received a bachelor's degree in Buddhist studies from Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University in 1962.
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Prayudh Payutto played an important role in modernizing Sangha's education by relating knowledge in Buddhism to contemporary social issues.
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Prayudh Payutto assumed the post of Deputy Abbot of Wat Phra Piren in 1973, but resigned three years later to dedicate himself to academic work.
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Prayudh Payutto published a number of books and articles, and regularly attended academic seminars and conferences, surrounding himself with contemporary scholars and intellectuals.
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Prayudh Payutto authored Buddhadhamma, recognized as a masterpiece among Buddhist scholars.
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Prayudh Payutto received honorary degrees from more than ten universities, both domestic and foreign.
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Prayudh Payutto is currently serving as Abbot of Nyanavesakavan Temple, located in Tambon Bang Krathuek, Amphoe Sam Phran, Nakhon Pathom Province.
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Prayudh Payutto strongly believes in strict interpretation of Pali Canon, very much in line with the Theravada tradition.
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Prayudh Payutto went public in many occasions in defense of the Pali Canon whenever its integrity was challenged.
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For example, in the mid-1990s, Prayudh Payutto published a book called The Case of Dhammakaya, in which he discussed the controversy related to the concepts dhammakaya and Nibbana as interpreted by the Dhammakaya Movement.
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Prayudh Payutto reviewed the essence of the Pali Canon, cited Pali texts he believed were misinterpreted by the temple, and came up with counterarguments in the context of the Pali Canon.
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Prayudh Payutto argued that the term Dhammakaya was not correctly interpreted, and claimed that if the temple continued to uphold false interpretations, it could not do so any longer under the umbrella of Theravada Buddhism.
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Prayudh Payutto compared discussing the nature of Nirvana with the well-known metaphor of blind people feeling an elephant and getting in a fight about what it is they are feeling.
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Prayudh Payutto has published a number of books that examine contemporary social issues, such as abortion, from a viewpoint of Buddhism.
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Prayudh Payutto regularly expresses Buddhist viewpoints on areas as diverse as education, law, social sciences and natural sciences.
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Prayudh Payutto stresses the Buddhist approach of middle path as the inevitable way to achieve peace and sustainable development.
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Prayudh Payutto argues that Buddhism is the eventual aggregation of natural laws and that it forms a basis of modern sciences.