Thai sociology professor, author, organizer, consultant, and founder and leader of various NGOs, institutes, and movements. When Ajahn (master, teacher) Sulak Sivaraksa received the Right Livelihood Award (“Alternative Nobel Prize”) in 1995, he also became increasingly noticed in the West. He is also a council member of the World Future Council, which, like the Right Livelihood Award, was founded by Jakob von Uexküll.
Sulak Sivaraksa studied in Wales as well as in England and graduated as a lawyer in London. The military coup of 1976 forced him into exile for two years. During this time, he gave numerous lectures in Europe, Canada, and the United States. He also used the time for further studies at the Social Science Research Council in New York City. The contacts of that time proved important when international protest came to his aid in 1984 and shortened his stay in Thai detention, imposed on him for allegedly insulting the king. Exiled again in 1991, Sulak finally managed to be a free man in his own country again in 1995 after a lengthy journey through the courts.
Shortly before “Coronation Day” on 5 May 2007, another case was dropped for imputed lese majeste, which dated back to the reign of Thaksin Shinawatra, whom he attacked very directly in public. On the evening of 6 November 2008, Sulak was arrested anew for lèse majèsté.
Sulak Sivaraksa is a moral authority among his country’s intellectuals and among international bodies, but also an enfant terrible of Thai politics because of his gripping logic and sometimes uncompromising conclusions. He has been instrumental in the establishment of several Thai and international NGOs, associations, foundations and initiatives, and is a welcome advisor and speaker at congresses and universities in several Asian countries as well as in Europe and the United States, where he has also held temporary visiting professorships (including Berkeley and Harvard).
As a practicing Buddhist, Sulak Sivaraksa is considered an outstanding representative of a world-oriented and committed Buddhism. Thus, it is obvious that he advocates, for example, human rights, ethnic minorities, peace education, as well as the Bhikkhuni ordination and interfaith dialogue, and speaks out very pointedly against corruption, abuse of power, oppression, globalization, consumerism, the World Bank, the IMF and large corporations, or participates as an activist in sit-in blockades against rainforest-destroying gas pipelines.
He is also an advocate for Asian artists and – as a friend of the Dalai Lama – for issues concerning Tibet. He also fulfills his role as a tireless admonisher by preserving the memory of democratic role models from Thailand’s recent history and keeping alive the memory of important monks. He has published several books in Thai and English on these topics, either as author or editor.
Link to Wikipedia biography