Alleged Histories of Child Maltreatment in Buddhist Monasteries in Sri Lanka as Revealed by Adult Survivors

Vollständiger Abstract

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ABSTRACT In Sri Lanka, there are more than 12,000 Buddhist monasteries where children as young as 5, mainly from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, are ordained with the expectation of becoming life‐long monks. Although child ordination is identical to the placement of a child in alternative care, it is carried out entirely on the discretion of the parents and the abbot of the monastery, without any oversight from the safeguarding authority. Despite regular media reports of incidents of child abuse in monasteries, risks of child abuse associated with child ordination seem to be overlooked possibly due to the cultural deference towards this practice and the monastery as an institution. Except occasional opinion pieces published in local newspapers, no systematic academic research centring survivors have been conducted so far. Perhaps for the first time in this context, this article presents stories of child abuse in the Buddhist Monastery in Sri Lanka. It is based on semistructured interviews with four former monks who survived childhood abuse in monasteries. Interviews were analysed using thematic analysis to illustrate several social and institutional factors that created a conducive environment for child abuse. This article contributes to the limited literature on male survivors of childhood abuse in South Asia.