Manhunt for a monk suspected of girdling and poisoning over 100 trees in temple

[webfact]

Manhunt for a monk suspected of girdling and poisoning over 100 trees in temple

 

 

The forest management office in the southern province of Krabi are gathering evidence to take legal action against a monk who allegedly girdled more than 100 trees and then poisoned them with chemicals in order to kill them.

 

The Krabi forest management office director Mr Thanat Saemee said Sunday that officials had checked trees on the compound of Wat Tham Sua monastery and adjacent area and found several hundreds of trees, aged between 10-100 years old, being girdled and sprayed with herbicide with many of them dying and stripped of leaves.

 

At the parking lot of the monastery, about 100 Tabaek, Inthanin, Krathinnarong and Chamchuree trees were found to have been girdled and sprayed with herbicide.

 

Full story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/manhunt-for-a-monk-suspected-of-girdling-and-poisoning-over-100-trees-in-temple/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2018-09-03

[George Bowman]

In the past we have help fund and promote various temple related activities which is all part and parcel of living in Thailand. But my wife has stopped supporting the local temples. Here is why.

 

Basically, the popular monk of any year wants his own personal place to meditate and receive guests.The old temple buildings are not to his liking, plus they need some work, so a new pulpit is in order. The building funds are collected through the villagers donations. Workers are hired and the new temple addition is completed. There is corruption from start to finish. 

 

Additionally, we have had more and more unknown monks making rounds after work hours asking for donations. 

 

I have lived here almost 20 years now and I'm still not Thai and will be the first to say that I am ignorant in matters relating to Buddhism and temple issues.  But as a mouthy American, I have often voiced my opinions on such matters. However, after years of being married to a Thai wife, I know when to keep my mouth shut and thank Buddha that donations have stopped...

[bluesofa]

28 minutes ago, missoura said:

{snipped}

Basically, the popular monk of any year wants his own personal place to meditate and receive guests.The old temple buildings are not to his liking, plus they need some work, so a new pulpit is in order. The building funds are collected through the villagers donations. Workers are hired and the new temple addition is completed. There is corruption from start to finish. 

 

Additionally, we have had more and more unknown monks making rounds after work hours asking for donations.

So it's the devious in the temple preying on the gullible in the village. Normal sort of day really.

 

[yougivemebaby]

57 minutes ago, missoura said:

In the past we have help fund and promote various temple related activities which is all part and parcel of living in Thailand. But my wife has stopped supporting the local temples. Here is why.

 

Basically, the popular monk of any year wants his own personal place to meditate and receive guests.The old temple buildings are not to his liking, plus they need some work, so a new pulpit is in order. The building funds are collected through the villagers donations. Workers are hired and the new temple addition is completed. There is corruption from start to finish. 

 

Additionally, we have had more and more unknown monks making rounds after work hours asking for donations. 

 

I have lived here almost 20 years now and I'm still not Thai and will be the first to say that I am ignorant in matters relating to Buddhism and temple issues.  But as a mouthy American, I have often voiced my opinions on such matters. However, after years of being married to a Thai wife, I know when to keep my mouth shut and thank Buddha that donations have stopped...

How is this different from any other religion ? All are scams. 

[canuckamuck]

24 minutes ago, yougivemebaby said:

How is this different from any other religion ? All are scams. 

Well for starters it is not supposed to be a religion, and the monks are supposed to be giving up attachments, not Jonesing for more and more material gains.

[drtreelove]

Frustration with monk behavior and financial misappropriation,and begging and "jonesing" (I love it) for materialism is one thing, but kind of off topic in my opinion. 

 

The news story is about a mass murder in a temple grounds, over a personal issue it appears.  Pretty sick behavior on the part of individual who could do that.  Not much to do with monk status or buddhist religion or temple politics as far as I'm concerned, just plain insanity.  He needs help. Or karmic retribution. 

[SOTIRIOS]

...over 100 trees...???

 

...nobody noticed after the first few trees....???

 

...oh come on.....

[NCC1701A]

there is a lot of plastic ALL these monks could be picking up all over Thailand.

 

Good form of meditation.

[thecyclist]

Most of the monks do very little meditation, at best 5% are seriously pursuing the dharma and detachment. 

[Vacuum]

2 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

and the monks are supposed to be giving up attachments, not Jonesing for more and more material gains.

Yes, supposed to.

[steveyinasia]

Hunt down a tree killing monk yet do nothing to bring Red Bull brat to justice

[drtreelove]

12 hours ago, SOTIRIOS said:

...over 100 trees...???

 

...nobody noticed after the first few trees....???

 

...oh come on.....

Yeah that's what I was thinking; this would have taken time, tools and and materials and some serious pre-meditated intent to kill.  You would think someone would notice a disgruntled monk out there hacking or drilling and poisoning trees.  But the trees wouldn't necessarily die right away and be noticeable, depending on how deep the girdling (ring-barking) penetrated and how much of the trunk circumference was involved. And also depending on what type of herbicide was used and how it was applied and at what concentration. 

 

If a girdling cut  is made around the entire circumference, and at a depth to cut off the entire active xylem (the conductive tissue that transports water up the tree) then the foliar brown-out could occur within a few days or up to a month. But often a girdling action is partial and doesn't involve the entire circumference. In that case there can be some limited uptake remaining, and the decline would be slower and may only cause partial die-back.  And often the girdling cut is not deep enough to sever the xylem vessels, and only affects the phloem (the conductive tissue just under the bark that transports sugary sap down the trunk to nourish the stem and roots.)  In that case the visible effects in the foliar crown and mortality could take up to a year.  

 

So a crime like that doesn't produce a bloody corpse and a noticeable crime scene right away, The perp can be long gone before anyone notices their tree is dead. You wouldn't believe how many times I've had diagnosis calls and requests to provide tree forensics for neighbor actions and vandalism that kills a tree.  And that was in what's supposed to be a civilized country.