Sulak Sivaraksa
Sulak Sivaraksa of Bangkok of
Bangkok is an eminent international exponent of socially engaged Buddhism and
arguably Thailand’s most prominent social critic and activist.
He has founded rural development projects as well as many
non-governmental organizations dedicated to exploring alternative models of
sustainable, traditionally-rooted, and ethically and spiritually-based
development. Sivaraksa is the
founder of the International Network of Engaged Buddhists. Periodically, he has been persecuted for his social activism.
In 1976, following a coup and the deaths of hundreds of students, he was
forced to stay in exile for two years, during which time he was visiting
Professor at Berkeley, Cornell and Toronto.
In 1984, he was again forced to go into exile and not exonerated until
his successful trial in 1993. Sivaraksa
was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in both 1993 and 1994.
He received the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative
Nobel Prize, in 1995. He taught at
Swarthmore College in Autumn 2002 and Harvard University in the Spring of 2003.