Call For Buddhists To Have Five Wives
Recently there was a call from a Buddhist monk for Buddhists to have five wives as allowed in Islam. This shocking announcement from a Buddhist monk should be condemned by all Buddhists, as it is against Buddha’s teachings and breaks one of the cardinal precepts in Pancha Seela. The reason for this unwarranted anti-Buddhist statement is that statistics show the increase in Muslim population as against Sinhala Buddhists.
Perhaps this Buddhist monk is not aware why Prophet Mohammed decreed the marriage of four wives and have any number provided all could be equally treated. If one has studied the history during the time of Prophet Mohammed, one would know the number of holy wars carried out and the victorious troops came back with a depleted army of men, thus there were more widows and unmarried women. In order to replenish the loss He decreed the marriage of four wives and also distribution of wealth and property. This was merely, according to my understanding, an administrative order not bound by Islam. I invite Muslim readers to air their views on this interpretation.
Having said that, educated, knowledgeable, and rational Muslims of today limit their families and very seldom come across Muslims having four wives. This is solely due to economic reasons. Of course there are non-Muslims who embrace Islam to circumvent the charge for bigamy.
The Buddhist monk who uttered this nonsensical statement should first attract more non-Buddhists by their exemplary behaviour and preaching the Dhamma rather than bring disrepute and sacrilege to the Noble Teachings of Siddhartha Gauthama, the Buddha.
Already much damage has been done to Buddhism by Buddhist monks by entering politics, which the majority of Buddhists as well as the Mahanayake Theros have openly criticized. Some neglect their religious duties towards Buddhist devotees and give preference to other mundane personal matters for material gain. It will not be a surprise, before long, Buddhist monks will call for the abolition of the oath of celibacy as the Catholic priests in the West clamour for.
It is high time the Manayahake Theros and those in authority bring about a Code of Conduct to weed out monks who know nothing of the Dhamma, merely don a yellow robe, for personal material gain and discredit Buddhism.
G. A. D. Sirimal
Dewalamulla
Boralesgamuwa.
The Buddhist monk should be encouraged by all Buddhists in Sri Lanka as it is not against Buddha’s teachings and does not breaks the cardinal precepts in Pancha Seela. Lord Buddha never said that you should have only one wife.
Good for us, isnt it. You cannot even maintain or control one wife but these uncivilized so call barberic monks (monkies) want us to have five. Is it serious or these baboons joking? Well and good lets have five and all five will entertain not only Sinhala but the Tamils Muslims Burgurs and Malays since there isnt any attention or income. This so called uncivilized criminal monks are to distroy the Budda’s philosophy.
People such as above commenter are suffering from some acute illness.
LTTE’s motive was to distroy the south and now its happening without them with ease. Thank you for destroying our land – mara gora bera chara nara sira.
Monks have more than five women & they can increase the Buddhist population.
That is correct my home town monk has few ladies & lot of kids.
But most buddhist monks are gay and have 5 or 6 abbots under them.
The writer is not aware that not very long ago that both polygamy and polyandry (eka ge kema) was practiced in this country. There is well documented evidence of this in both Davy’s and Knox’s books. Though Polygamy disappeared with the British introducing the monogamous marriage system , the ‘Eka ge kema’ has been in existence in the farmer community in villages. The country’s cultural habits have nothing to do with the ‘Panca Sila’ as monogamy is not a Buddhist concept but a Christian one.
The former Buddhist King of Bhutan was married to 4 (or was it 3?) sisters, all at the same time.
Well said!
How many fathers and mothers have the children in Sri Lanka as relict of polygamy and more polyandry? A necessity in that time. Too many wars and no supporter of the families. What they want now is just dirty politic.
What is the Buddhist Philosophy?
Five wives will not get you that far. Only headaches and starving children with missing fathers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihp9u9xEIkI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLMZNmxFUZU
The Sinhala “Buddhist” racists are hiding under the cloak of Buddhism. What a shame. They are an insult to the true non-racist Sinhala Buddhists. They will not accept Tamil Buddhists, because of racism, So they want 5 wives, so that Sinhala Buddhism is clean. There are Sinhala and Tamil Christians, Tamil and Sinhala Muslims, but only Sinhala Buddhistss in Sri Lanka. Why?
What they really need to do is convince why Buddhism as a Philosophy or religion is superior to Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, or other religion and convince conversions voluntarily. Show the intellectual merit and value. Getting people to pray to idols made of clay or getting people to pray to human priests, chanting unintelligible verses or destroying others places of worship will not get you the respect even from your own, and will not take you that far.
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/61469
From Asia Tribune-
….reflect upon the quote of Emperor Ashoka who gave Sri Lanka the greatest of all gifts, Buddhism, to reflect on his time tested words:
“One should not honor one’s own religion and condemn the religions of others, but one should honour other’s religions for this or that reason. So doing, one help’s one’s own religion to grow and render service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise one digs the grace of one’s own religion and does harm to other religions. Whosoever honors his own religion and condemns other religions does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking ‘I will glorify my own religion’. But on the contrary, in so he injures his own religion more gravely. So concord is good: Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others.”
See Negative Comments on Buddhism, and its practitioners. What happens to boys? May be the Sinhalese Buddhist monks can get girls to the temple, instead of boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNOfTGSADdY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clcs2PSze0I
Is it good for a country to have different marriage laws to suit religious beliefs.All laws should apply to Citizens Equally. No descrimination.
Very Good Move.There Will Less Rapists
Bring Down The Marriage Tax Also, Then They Can Have More Illegal Wives Added To The Five Already Approved
Another Good Move By The Monks. There Will Be Population Boom Since We Have A Low Birth Rate And A Higher Divorce Rate.
Breaking News!
Very Good, One Way Of Increasing The Birth Rate.
Monks Are Setting A Good Example For Marriageable Couples
Islam is a religon preached by a Pedophile…
If all parties are agreeable and there’s no preferantial treatment and if the practice does not end up being abused (like what is happening in some arab states). Then what the heck
@ Chanaka – from the little that i’ve read in the bible i couldn’t come across anything actually banning a man from taking a second wife… if he did he was to ensure that both spouses were treated equally(it’s mentioned in proverbs i think and some men would have taken a second wife esp if the first wife couldn’t have children or for for political alliances). There were restrictions on foreign brides and women that levite priests could marry. This practice may have gone out of fashion once the Romans showed up (they had monogamy thing going). plus it would have become more financially difficult to support multiple wives and their children with equal living standards. It may have been the founders of modern christian laws that have banned this practice. (correct me if I’m wrong)
@ Bandara…Has buddism preached marriage…so no point talking about one wife.what buddism preaches is minimize attachments….so better not to marry..talking about 5 wife s are stupid…
Islam permits men to marry two, three or four provided they can maintain them equally without doing any injustice or discrimination financially or otherwise. and Quran also insist that if the men cannot maintain the wives equally and justly marry only one thus restricting them to marry only one as in most cases it is impossible to maintain two or more wives equally. This Quranic decree is to solve a social problem that is being experienced by the world population. The current world population statistics indicates that female population is much more than the males and also there are millions of Gays around the world without taking a female partner and having same sex marriages and prison population indicates that there are more men in prisons thus making many millions of surplus women who are unable to find life partners. As a result many women are turning into prostitution and ending up as public properties. Therefore our non muslim brothers should understand why Islam gives an option (not compulsory) to practice polygamy in order to solve a serious social problem. By this practice the society can eliminate prostitution. Where monogamous marriages are practiced the majority of men have illegal spouses or go to prostitutes
everyone should understand that GOD is ONE , HE IS IN NO NEED BY ANY MEANS , HE NEITHER BEGETS NOR IS HE BEGOTTON , NONE CAN BE COMPARED WITH HIM . so if HE has permitted the law of marriage by creating each creation by male and famale , no creation can overcome that law . it is very simple that everyone should abide the law . every living creation has the urge for sex , if so they should have their partners , it is by nature that GOD created and inspired this act . one should keep the hand in their heart and ask whether i can resist this act of sex in one’s life , NO . cannot , every human being , animal , replite , insects , birds , etc need this . if nobody marries then where the population to rule , to serve , etc.
Next call by monks would be for monks to Legally marry poor starving girls from villages.
Vasudeva must jump into the conversation, as he has a Ministry which will
suggest that all Sinhala men be allowed three wives, one from each
community – S/T/M !
(A joke says one cannot eat chicken everyday, he must switch to fowls as
well!)
May be what the monks really want is permission for them to make babies.
At first glance, I thought the monk was preaching the acceptability of four wives for themselves against the celibacy now practised. Nevertheless it would not be a bad idea for all Buddhists to have 5 wives, if the wives were also allowed to have 5 husbands. If the objective was to sire more Buddhists, then if this did happen, we would be having millions more Buddhists in a single generation.
the begirning of converting the temple – sacrad place in to a brothel.So where are all the women going to worship. the start of many rapes coming up.
Ruined the country now Ruined the temple too.
The goverment should bring a law to this folly of two or three wives,all who have more than two children should pay the tax,thus limiting the amount of children like in china.
The only way to counter the increasing population of the Muslims in Sri Lanka is to allow the Sinhala Buddhists to have four wives and the Govt. must pay social assistance to each child.
I must applaud Mr Sirimal for his understanding of why Muslims were allowed to marry more than once. The holy prophet Muhammad stated that you can marry more than once if you are able to treat your wives equally and fairly, otherwise marry only once. The multiple wars prevailing at that time resulted in the death of a large number of both married and unmarried males. Hence there was a gender imbalance rendering it difficult for women to find husbands and widows and their children to fend for themselves.
Muslims are just 13 % of the population in sri lanka after 1000 years. So dont worry we will not be here or our grandchildren the day sri lanka is not buddist anymore if so ? who cares? if the people wants islam let them take it in. Its far more better than the capitalist world we live now. However not all muslims practise there religion …Some take intrest rate , selling gold, loan money and making the non muslim people in debt. Which is a discrase to islam.
“It is high time the Manayahake Theros and those in authority bring about a Code of Conduct to weed out monks who know nothing of the Dhamma, merely don a yellow robe, for personal material gain and discredit Buddhism.” Wonderful! But, when was the last time Mahanayakes spoke on the social issues?
Personnaly think polygomy is wrong in any religion, so why don’t we pass a rule to enforce monogomy for all races and religions.???
My experience is that protests who wow to celibacy, end up having multiple women be Biddhist, Catholic or another. It is better to have wives legally than hav them. Illegimately.