【经济学人】泰国：军队和佛教“干”起来了丨2017.02.23丨总第826期

SOME people think he has fled abroad. Others say he may have died. For more than a year the authorities in Thailand have been trying to get hold of Phra Dhammachayo, the reclusive former leader of a controversial Buddhist sect who is wanted for questioning in a fraud case. On February 16th a group of officers finally gained access to the vast religious complex which his Dhammakaya movement maintains on the outskirts of Bangkok. Instead of locating the septuagenarian monk—often pictured in signature sunglasses—they found an empty bed stuffed with pillows.

有人认为他逃到了国外，也有人说他可能已经死了。在这一年多内，泰国当局一直试图抓住Phra Dhammachayo——一个富有争议的佛教宗派的前领袖，而且他早已退隐。但他涉嫌策划一个欺诈案。2月16日政府官员终于有机会接近这个庞大而又复杂的修道士团体，因为他的Dhammakaya运动要在曼谷市郊举行。不过，他们并没有找到这个常被刻画成戴着太阳镜的七十多岁的僧侣，只是找到了堆满枕头的空床。

• septuagenarian  n. 七十岁老者
  

• get hold of 把握，抓住

• controversial adj.有争议的

• outskirt  n.郊区，市郊

By February 22nd more than 4,000 police and soldiers were lingering outside the Dhammakaya compound—waiting to complete a full sweep of the massive site but apparently hindered by monks and devotees who had blocked its dozen entrances. A spokesman for the sect claimed that 30,000 people were still inside the property, having ignored orders to leave; there have been scuffles at its gates. Apiradee, a retired civil servant helping to feed Dhammakaya followers who had gathered in support outside the police cordon, said she has never seen anything like it.

到了2月22日，4000多警察和士兵在Dhammakaya外徘徊——准备进行一个大面积的清扫活动，但遭到了僧侣和信徒的阻碍，他们将很多入口都堵住了。一名宗教发言人称30000人无视撤离的要求，待在在房子内。并且他们已经在大门口发生过混战。Apiradee，一个退休的国家公务员，她负责给聚集在警戒线外的Dhammakaya的追随者提供给养。她说她从没见过这种事。

• scuffle  n.混战，扭打
  

• linger   v.徘徊，磨蹭

• hinder  v.阻碍，牵制

Founded in the 1970s, the Dhammakaya movement claims about 3m followers around the world. It is by far the most influential temple in Thailand. It bears a loose resemblance to the evangelical mega-churches that increasingly beguile the world’s Christians.（读者试译句） Dhammakaya’s mostly middle-class adherents complain that older Buddhist temples have grown complacent and materialistic. They insist, rather grandly, that the Bangkok compound, with its vast stadium, is meant to become a kind of Buddhist Vatican.

Dhammakaya运动于二十世纪九十年代创立，宣称在全世界约有三百万教徒。到目前为止，该教 最有影响力的寺庙在泰国。“期待您的翻译，将您的理解留言在文章下方留言处，第二天将会有长难句解析哟~。”Dhammakaya的大部分中产阶级拥护者抱怨大佛寺变得自满且唯物论了。他们宣称宁愿把曼谷和其大体育场变成佛教梵蒂冈。

• adherents支持者，拥护者

But Dhammakaya has fierce opponents both within the Buddhist establishment and outside it. Critics denounce it as a cult that peddles wacky theology, and warn that it misleads wealthy urbanites into thinking that they can purchase religious merit. (The most serious of the several allegations against PhraDhammachayo relates to a case in which an acolyte funded a donation with cash embezzled from a credit union.) Thailand’s ruling junta worries that the movement’s leaders are sympathetic to the cause of Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister toppled in 2006 whose lingering influence the generals and their backers are determined to stamp out.

但是Dhammakaya在佛教内部和外部都有强劲的对手。批评家公开指责它是一种传播古怪的神学的邪教，还警告大家说它会诱导有钱的城市居民他们去买功德。（在Dhammakaya的反对者中爆料了一件事，一个祭司用从合作信用社贪污来的钱建立了一个捐款基金。）泰国执政政府担心这场运动的发起人支持在2006年被打倒的前任平民主义首相Thaksin Shinawatra的遭遇，这有可能使将军和他们的支持者决心去造反。

• denounce  v.公开指责

• peddle   v.宣传，传播

• allegation  n.陈述，指控

• acolyte   n.助手，助理

• embezzled  v.贪污，盗用（公款等）

Last year the junta abandoned several attempts to drag PhraDhammachayo out for questioning, fearful of the outrage that might follow were soldiers to be pictured manhandling monks. The latest effort looks more concerted. It may not be a coincidence that the operation began shortly after the installation of a new Supreme Patriarch (Thai Buddhism’s most senior monk). That job is usually filled according to a strict hierarchy but had been held open for several years after conservative clergy refused to endorse the expected successor—in part because of worries that he was too close to Dhammakaya. The junta took the unusual step of asking King Vajiralongkorn, who succeeded his father in December, to solve that dispute; he anointed a less controversial alternative, SomdetPhraMahaMuniwong, who hails from the smaller and more orthodox of Thailand’s two main Buddhist orders.

去年，军政府担心媒体会把军方描绘成迫害修士的负面形象，而没有对PhraDhammachayo继续质询下去。最近军方的行为似乎也证实了这一点。这次行动是在新任住持(佛教级别最高的和尚)就任之后就展开了。这个职位通常是有严苛的等级制度的，不过迄今已经对外开放好几年了—因为一位保守的牧师拒绝承认继任者—而其中部分原因是担心继任者与Dhammakaya走的太近。军政府采取了非常规步骤，要求在去年12月份继承父位的Vajiralongkorn国王解决这项分配问题；他任命了一位争议较少的替代者-，来自较小规模的两个主要正统教派之一-的SomdetPhraMahaMuniwong.

• orthodox   adj. 正统的; 规范的; 公认的
  

• outrage   n.愤慨; 暴行; 骇人听闻的事件

• manhandle  vt.  撕打; 粗暴地对待，虐待

• concerted   adj. 协调的; 协定的; [乐] 合拍调的

• hierarchy  n. [计] 分层，层次; 等级制度; 

• conservative  adj.  保守的

• clergy  n.（尤指基督教堂内的）牧师，教士

• successor  n.(c) 继任者，继承人

• anoint   vt.指定，用油软膏涂抹; （宗教仪式上）抹油使神圣化

• hail from  来自…

Monks at the Dhammakaya temple say that they have not seen their former abbot for months. They say the real aim of the raid is to shut the entire temple down. The generals may yet decide to back away from the fight, as they have done previously. They could perhaps claim that the searches they have already conducted are enough to declare the operation complete. That might look like a defeat, but it is hard to escape the conclusion that the Dhammakaya movement is running out of powerful friends. With the royal succession—which some had feared would be tumultuous—safely behind it, Thailand’s conservative establishment is reasserting itself, in religion as in politics.

Dhammakaya寺院的和尚说他们已经几个月没有见到他们的前任住持了。这次突袭使得整个寺院都无法正常运转了。各方领导人也许还没有决定撤退，正如他们最近所做一样。他们也许会宣称他们所做的调查研究已经足够完成这项行动。也许看起来是失败了，但Dhammakay运动消耗掉了所有有能力的盟友这个结论也是板上钉钉了。有了忠实的继任者安排妥当—有些恐惧反应会比较激烈，泰国的保守派不论是在宗教上还是在政治上也不断重申自我。

• reassert  vt.再断言，重复主张
  

• raid  n.（骑兵队等的）急袭，突然袭击，突击，（军舰等的）游击; 劫掠，劫夺

• tumultuous   adj. 骚乱的; 吵闹的

翻译 ▍E-R-2

审核 ▍小情人

编辑 ▍hua外音