Picture: Sanook

 

The trouble with Thailand's out of control Buddhist monks continued apace.

 

Following a series of salacious incidents, each one seemingly worse than the one before, comes one to top them all.

 

A tooled up monk in Mae Hong Son in the far north took aim at a group of parishioners with a gun then fled the scene.

 

Police and local officials went to the temple of Wat Doi Jatee where Phra Cheua was nowhere to be found.

 

So they searched his quarters and found three BB guns in the style of M16 assault rifles and another weapon.

 

One of the BB guns had been adapted to fire real bullets. 

 

Phra Cheua, 50, was soon rounded up at a nearby temple, Wat Pa ban Mai.

 

He claimed that "they fired first" and he was only defending himself and needed a lawyer.

 

It was all over a land dispute.

 

Sanook reported that Muang Mae Hong Son police had the errant monk defrocked before doing a reenactment and deciding exactly how to proceed in the case. 

 

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The rate and direction of these 'naughty monk' stories are going, there's bound to be some really serious news in the coming weeks! Any predictions?

"Naked drunken monk hi on ya-ba riding an elephant (that he had just raped) through a kindergarten, killing dozens of children, while shooting blindly at the crowd, and not wearing a mask!"

It seems to me there may be more criminal's in monk hoods then criminal in monkey house... The policeman who killed the nurse on a zebra crossing I believe is now a mook..

Are monks routinely defrocked before they have been found guilty of an offence in either a criminal or religious  court?

The thing is that monks not what they used to be 20-30 years ago many of them are entering the monk hood out of ulterior motives and with completely different ideas what a monk should represent and that is a great pity...

1 hour ago, yeahbutif said:

The policeman who killed the nurse on a zebra crossing I believe is now a mook..

No he is not a mook! He only briefly became a monk until the cremation ceremony of his victim.

 

It's not unusual. My wife's son briefly 'took the robes' when his father died. He's now back in his army uniform following the cremation.

4 minutes ago, HAPPYNUFF said:

Whats the plural of "monk",,,,,"monkeys"

Dunno, but  I am now sure the collective is known as 'a debauchery of Monks'

1 hour ago, DezLez said:

Are monks routinely defrocked before they have been found guilty of an offence in either a criminal or religious  court?

In every case that I've read about on TV/ASEAN, a monk who has committed a criminal offence is immediately defrocked and then charged. And that's a lot of monks in the eight years I've been around here.

 

So I guess it's standard practice.

20 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

In every case that I've read about on TV/ASEAN, a monk who has committed a criminal offence is immediately defrocked and then charged. And that's a lot of monks in the eight years I've been around here.

 

So I guess it's standard practice.

As you say that appears to be the norm but a bit unjust if an "accusation" turn out to be false.

I am not saying that is so in this case has he seems to admit to firing the weapons but is it fair to be unfrocked before conviction?

If they did that in the RC Church there would not be many men wearing priest's collars!

A couple of troll/inflammatory posts have been removed

2 hours ago, webfact said:

He claimed that "they fired first" and he was only defending himself and needed a lawyer.

Buddhism has sunk to an all time low in Thailand.

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't call a few BB guns (even if one was converted to fire real bullets) an arsenal, as specified in the title of the post.

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Dunno, but  I am now sure the collective is known as 'a debauchery of Monks'

Or a gang ...

 

3 hours ago, DezLez said:

As you say that appears to be the norm but a bit unjust if an "accusation" turn out to be false.

I am not saying that is so in this case has he seems to admit to firing the weapons but is it fair to be unfrocked before conviction?

I understand that a practicing monk cannot be brought before a court on criminal charges, understandable in image conscious Thailand.

 

So, two choices. Defrock them or let them get away with it? Personally I'm quite comfortable with latter.

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

many of them are entering the monk hood out of ulterior motives and with completely different ideas

Yep, sex and drugs and rock'n roll.

31 minutes ago, Moonlover said:

I understand that a practicing monk cannot be brought before a court on criminal charges, understandable in image conscious Thailand.

 

So, two choices. Defrock them or let them get away with it? Personally I'm quite comfortable with latter.

If, as you say, that is the situation here in Thailand then I totally agree.

If found not guilty later then their faith should sustain them when they are re-frocked (or whatever they do in that situation)!

7 hours ago, ezzra said:

The thing is that monks not what they used to be 20-30 years ago many of them are entering the monk hood out of ulterior motives and with completely different ideas what a monk should represent and that is a great pity...

 

1 hour ago, DezLez said:

If, as you say, that is the situation here in Thailand then I totally agree.

If found not guilty later then their faith should sustain them when they are re-frocked (or whatever they do in that situation)!

There was an article 2 years ago in the Bangkok Post about criminals entering monkhood to escape from justice. I can't provide the link obviously but a google search soon revealed it to me.

 

CSD had just arrested 18 of them. It would appear that a rigorous 'background check' needs to be carried out before ordination.

 

An off topic post has been removed.

I'm not sure bb guns can be converted to fire live rounds. 

8 hours ago, ezzra said:

The thing is that monks not what they used to be 20-30 years ago many of them are entering the monk hood out of ulterior motives and with completely different ideas what a monk should represent and that is a great pity...

All religions modify themselves after in a while till it become clear they are joke.

Here we come, walkin' down the street.
We get the funniest looks from every one we meet.
Hey, hey, we're the monksees
And people say we monksey around.
But we're too busy begging
To put anybody down.
We go wherever we want to,
Do what we like to do
We don't have time to get restless,
There's always something new.
We're just tryin' to be friendly,
Come and watch us sing and pray,
We're the young de-generation,
And we've got something to say.

Hey, hey, we're the monksees
Any time, or anywhere,
Just look over your shoulder
Guess who'll be standing there
Hey, hey, we're the monksees,
You never know where we'll be found.
So you'd better get ready,
We may be comin' to your town.

Well in Thailand and around the world there are a lot of monks.

  Most of the monks are decent people and are dedicated to Buddhism.

  We read of the ones who do stuff that they are not supposed to do, and they get defrocked.

  It would be nice to hear that they cannot become a monk again, but I guess that

would take a good computer program.  I have met lots of monks who have been monks a lot of years and they do 

not behave like the ones we read about on this forum. I even have a few of my Thai family who are monks, and they

  do not like seeing these, er ...  fake monks who become a monk for any reason other than to do good with 

their lives.

22 hours ago, 2long said:

The rate and direction of these 'naughty monk' stories are going, there's bound to be some really serious news in the coming weeks! Any predictions?

"Naked drunken monk hi on ya-ba riding an elephant (that he had just raped) through a kindergarten, killing dozens of children, while shooting blindly at the crowd, and not wearing a mask!"

And a naked woman riding side saddle.

And all funded by the government department NOB.