The Role of Volunteerism and Buddhist Ethics for the Covid-19 Pandemic Response in Thailand

Abstract

Thailand was the first country outside of China where a case of COVID-19 was found when a tourist entered the country from China in February 2020. Still, up until now, the overall mortality from covid-19 remains much lower than in most other countries. What are the factors of this success? In this paper, we focus on the role of volunteerism and argue that its seamless integration into the Thai public health care system is founded upon the predominantly Buddhist religious culture in the country and corresponds to the cultivation of Buddhist virtues, such as karuṇā (compassion), and the motivation to tham bun (do/make merit). We suggest that Buddhist ethics and its habituation constitutes the key factor that underlies the country’s strong volunteer culture. We address our topic by surveying the existing literature conducting semi-structured interviews with seven health volunteers in May and June 2022. We deal with the possible objection that Theravāda Buddhism practiced in Thailand is an individualistic religion and a rather negative motivating factor for volunteerism and efficient pandemic response.