Child Ordination in Sri Lankan Buddhist Monasteries: Is It a Cultural Exception or a Cause for Concern?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explore the practice of ordaining young children in Sri Lanka from a rights-based perspective with reference to the United Nation's Convention of the Rights of Child. According to some estimates, 60,000 children are living in more than 12,000 monasteries scattered across the country. Incidents of child abuse in monasteries have been consistently reported in the media and safety and ethical concerns around child ordination have also been raised. However, no formal studies have been conducted on this subject. This article attempts to explore this topic through the lenses of author's two decades of lived experience as a Buddhist monk, media reports and limited scientific literature.