Famous Aids Temple Attacked In British Press

[metice]

The Sunday Times featured a lengthy article on the well-known AIDS-hospice temple (Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu) in Lopburi. Excerts are below: The full article is on their website

Is the temple of Buddha's footprints the temple of doom?

Andrew Marshall

It's a Buddhist temple that cares for dying Aids patients. It's also a hugely successful money-making operation, attracting thousands of tourists with its displays of mummified corpses. So where does all that money go?

Thai monks generally prefer audiences to interviews. So, one Sunday morning, I join dozens of tourists at the temple kneeling before Alongkot in a room crowded with Buddha statues. (The ward is a stone's throw away.) Many people clutch photos or amulets of him to sign or bless. His words are sometimes lost in the crash of donation boxes being emptied in the room.

Alongkot says the temple has tried and failed to recruit medical staff. "Thai doctors prefer to work at private hospitals. Even the government ones don't have enough medical staff." It still seems inexplicable that, in a prospering country of 65m, there is not a single Thai doctor for hire.

Yet the temple hardly seems in dire financial straits. Pradit Yingyong, the temple's PR officer, says the abbot plans to build a sports centre (cost: the equivalent of £1.6m) and carve a meditation path through the hill above the temple (£8m).

"There's lots of money coming in," says Bassano. "But how it's distributed, who benefits, who gets what – I have no idea." Why, he asks, build the Aids Human Body Part Museum – a room in which hands, feet, hearts, kidneys and other organs are kept in perspiring jars of formaldehyde – when the temple has no ambulance? "And the neglect of the kids… Not just the kids, but the adult patients as well."

The last doctor to work here was a Belgian volunteer named Paul Yves Wery, who left in 2004. He wrote a parting account of his years at the temple, describing it as unsanitary, ill-equipped and mismanaged. Wery calls the staff "slaves" and the tourists "cannibals"; the abbot is an ambiguous figure who runs "what has become a death factory [like] a small family enterprise". After Wery's book was published, all foreign volunteers except Bassano were asked to leave.

It is hard to ask a celebrated monk about money without seeming to accuse him of dishonesty. But then this is one reason why the finances of Thai temples are traditionally so opaque and donations so easy to misappropriate. ("Half for the temple, half for the temple committee," goes an old Thai song.) It costs 4m to 5m baht (£64,000 to £80,000) a month to run the temple, excluding the second project, says Alongkot, and the temple receives "the same" in donations. The finances are not made public. "It's not our duty to make a public declaration," he insists, "but we have a good [accounting] system." Alongkot suggests I ask at the secretary's office to learn how much is spent on the temple. I am then shuttled between four offices before being given a print-out with a totally different figure from the abbot's. Pradit gives me another figure, a committee member yet another. Nobody can explain how the second project, which includes the orphanage, is funded, never mind the sports centre or meditation path.

When Alongkot took in his first HIV sufferers, it was an act of compassion before its time. Sixteen years later – with hundreds of thousands of Thais visiting, and the temple's coffers spilling over – the patients seem overlooked, even as their very public plight keeps the money rolling in.

[Thai at Heart]

The Sunday Times featured a lengthy article on the well-known AIDS-hospice temple (Wat Phra Baht Nam Phu) in Lopburi. Excerts are below: The full article is on their website

Is the temple of Buddha's footprints the temple of doom?

Andrew Marshall

It's a Buddhist temple that cares for dying Aids patients. It's also a hugely successful money-making operation, attracting thousands of tourists with its displays of mummified corpses. So where does all that money go?

Thai monks generally prefer audiences to interviews. So, one Sunday morning, I join dozens of tourists at the temple kneeling before Alongkot in a room crowded with Buddha statues. (The ward is a stone's throw away.) Many people clutch photos or amulets of him to sign or bless. His words are sometimes lost in the crash of donation boxes being emptied in the room.

Alongkot says the temple has tried and failed to recruit medical staff. "Thai doctors prefer to work at private hospitals. Even the government ones don't have enough medical staff." It still seems inexplicable that, in a prospering country of 65m, there is not a single Thai doctor for hire.

Yet the temple hardly seems in dire financial straits. Pradit Yingyong, the temple's PR officer, says the abbot plans to build a sports centre (cost: the equivalent of £1.6m) and carve a meditation path through the hill above the temple (£8m).

"There's lots of money coming in," says Bassano. "But how it's distributed, who benefits, who gets what – I have no idea." Why, he asks, build the Aids Human Body Part Museum – a room in which hands, feet, hearts, kidneys and other organs are kept in perspiring jars of formaldehyde – when the temple has no ambulance? "And the neglect of the kids… Not just the kids, but the adult patients as well."

The last doctor to work here was a Belgian volunteer named Paul Yves Wery, who left in 2004. He wrote a parting account of his years at the temple, describing it as unsanitary, ill-equipped and mismanaged. Wery calls the staff "slaves" and the tourists "cannibals"; the abbot is an ambiguous figure who runs "what has become a death factory [like] a small family enterprise". After Wery's book was published, all foreign volunteers except Bassano were asked to leave.

It is hard to ask a celebrated monk about money without seeming to accuse him of dishonesty. But then this is one reason why the finances of Thai temples are traditionally so opaque and donations so easy to misappropriate. ("Half for the temple, half for the temple committee," goes an old Thai song.) It costs 4m to 5m baht (£64,000 to £80,000) a month to run the temple, excluding the second project, says Alongkot, and the temple receives "the same" in donations. The finances are not made public. "It's not our duty to make a public declaration," he insists, "but we have a good [accounting] system." Alongkot suggests I ask at the secretary's office to learn how much is spent on the temple. I am then shuttled between four offices before being given a print-out with a totally different figure from the abbot's. Pradit gives me another figure, a committee member yet another. Nobody can explain how the second project, which includes the orphanage, is funded, never mind the sports centre or meditation path.

When Alongkot took in his first HIV sufferers, it was an act of compassion before its time. Sixteen years later – with hundreds of thousands of Thais visiting, and the temple's coffers spilling over – the patients seem overlooked, even as their very public plight keeps the money rolling in.

This is a shame if it is true. I bumped into a German volunteer who works there about a week ago while he was having some time off. It sounds like a truly harrowing experience working there. I was thinking to donate after hearing his stories, but may reconsider.

[garro]

I think the real shame would be that if people made up their minds about this temple on the basis of this report. Journalists go to find a story and it t is how they make their money. The fact that you met a volunteer already disproves one claim of the story which states,

'After Wery's book was published, all foreign volunteers except Bassano were asked to leave.'

Make your own mind up.

[PJ28UK]

I think the article is fair and accurate. Its sad that the Temple is wasting so much money on football machines 5.2 million baht, and plans to build a sports centre for 104 million baht and a mediation walk in the hills about the temple for 520 million baht seem crazy. Sounds more to me like the Abbot is trying to make merit for himself rather than caring for the needs of those with HIV / AIDS.

I personally know a Thai doctor, a leading Immunologist working in the HIV/AIDS field, who offered to set up a Laboratory at the Temple many years ago for the Abbot to assist in treating those with HIV / AIDS. He declined the offer, what does this tell you ?

Edited April 14, 2008 by PJ28UK

[geedels]

On the contrary, I can confirm, having been a volunteer at the hospice that all foreign volunteers were asked to leave after the publication of the book by the volunteer doctor a few years ago. This article does have a few inaccuracies, but what is important is that the subject of this temple is discussed openly in Thailand. I think it is a mistake to be over-critical of this article which brings many important issues to the attention of the public.

A free electronic version of the fascinating book by the doctor who worked at this temple is available in English, Thai, French, Japanese at http://www.stylite.net/MMB/telech-chronicles.htm

Paper versions are available on http://stores.lulu.com/paulyveswery

He also created a website which is a valuable medical resource for any doctor, nurse or volunteer working with patients with advanced AIDS. It contains many photographs helpful for diagnostic purposes or just general interest. Please see:

www.aids-hospice.com illustrate the article

[garro]

On the contrary, I can confirm, having been a volunteer at the hospice that all foreign volunteers were asked to leave after the publication of the book by the volunteer doctor a few years ago. This article does have a few inaccuracies, but what is important is that the subject of this temple is discussed openly in Thailand. I think it is a mistake to be over-critical of this article which brings many important issues to the attention of the public.

A free electronic version of the fascinating book by the doctor who worked at this temple is available in English, Thai, French, Japanese at http://www.stylite.net/MMB/telech-chronicles.htm

Paper versions are available on http://stores.lulu.com/paulyveswery

He also created a website which is a valuable medical resource for any doctor, nurse or volunteer working with patients with advanced AIDS. It contains many photographs helpful for diagnostic purposes or just general interest. Please see:

www.aids-hospice.com illustrate the article

As you have volunteered at the temple I would be more concerned with your criticisms. I have great suspicion about these reports in the western media which try to do a hatchet job on Thai temples which are devoted to helping people.

A temple which I am close to, and owe my life to, suffered such an attack a few years back. The only accurate item in the article was the color of the patients uniforms. The article was also the only time in British press history where they used Pete Doherty as a star witness for the prosecution. Every other utterance he makes is ridiculed by the press, but when he decides to badmouth a Thai temple his words are treated like gospel.

I do know quite a bit about palliative care as I'm a trained nurse with experience working in this area. It is hard to get right. Even the hospice care offered by Mother Theresa has suffered severe criticism while others claim she was a saint. What is the truth?

[taxexile]

do a hatchet job on Thai temples which are devoted to helping people.

there seem to be a lot of thai temples solely devoted to helping themselves , witness the proliferation of shiny , gaudy , spangly and oversized new temples going up , the increase in celebrity monks ..... and the increase in marketing of pseudo religious junk in order to fund the millions of billboards littering the roadsides advertising yet another miracle working monk or new roof construction for these places and to boost the egos and balance sheets of the monks.

whilst the rich can afford to give , the poor certainly cant , and for a religion where giving is seen as buying a first class ticket for the next life , its the poor who suffer most by this cruel (yet brilliant) marketing hoax , and the temples and those who run them who gain the most.

this aids temple seems to just another example of thai buddhist cynicism.

The Thai staff oversee the suffering but are “not really hands-on”, says Bassano. He partly blames the Buddhist notion of karma. “When anyone’s near death, usually the staff will tell me, ‘Don’t bother with them. The next life will be better.’” When one dying man screamed like an animal, some Thai staff believed he was being punished for his former profession: he had worked in a slaughterhouse.

...... and still the donations come pouring in , do people donate out of genuine pity for the sufferers , or to buy a soft bed in the next life.

[geriatrickid]

I agree with the general assessment about the AIDS Temple and the Tiger Temple as well. There is no oversight, no checks and balances. As Lord Acton observed, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The patients are emotionally and physically vulnerable and are easily exploited. The Temple exists because there are few if any alternatives. It's the old shove the problem off on someone else mentality. I'm surprised the article didn't mention the allegations of body part sales.

Having been in enough temples and watched the simple minded being taken advantage of, I have no sympathy for the industry of religion in this country. The current practices are no different than the old christian practices of selling indulgences.

[rgs2001uk]

why does this remind me of the lieutenant, in graham greenes the power and the glory ?

[metice]

I would be interested to know what Thai people think about this. The monk is well known in this country and many people have supported this project. Do they know what is going on and how the money is spent? And do they really care?

The impression that I get is that merit making is selfishly driven i.e. you donate in order to improve your chances of a better life next time around. It seems that genuinly helping the recipients is not the priority. If this is the case then I wouldn't be surprised if Thais are prepared to 'look the other way' and the place will continue as before.

Any thoughts on this?

[kmart]

Seems that a lot of monks spend time blessing lottery tickets; fridges; and and pick-ups. I just think that this is Buddhism tailored to suit their flock. Spirituality is probably an indulgence most of them cannot afford anyway.

[metice]

A friend just told me that the monk has appeared on tv news channels attemting to defend himself against the newspaper article. Would be interested to know what was said. Anybody see it?

[naka]

Seems that a lot of monks spend time blessing lottery tickets; fridges; and and pick-ups. I just think that this is Buddhism tailored to suit their flock. Spirituality is probably an indulgence most of them cannot afford anyway.

How true.

Naka.

[loplenie]

Ask yourself why Thai newspapers dont write the truth!

Ask yourself why Thai people dont see the truth!

Ask yourself why Thai Doctors who know the truth inside the temple dont dare to speek!

Ask yourself why patients who luckely did survive dont dare to speek the truth!

Ask yourself why!!! I dont have to ask myself...I know!!! I worked there for years and left....not because the book of Dr. Wery, but because Pra Ajaan (the Temple org.)refused to allow us to give futher ARV to the patients!

I could keep my eyes closed for many bad things that happend there because it was the only way to stay and take care of the patients but refuse the ARV was to much!

Now I'm sad and wait untill there is a Thai brave enough to make an end on this Temple, or at least an end of the abuse of patients and workers.

As long as the so called celebrities prays this monk no thai will believe my words!

[Etrigan]

Ask yourself why Thai newspapers dont write the truth!

Ask yourself why Thai people dont see the truth!

Ask yourself why Thai Doctors who know the truth inside the temple dont dare to speek!

Ask yourself why patients who luckely did survive dont dare to speek the truth!

Ask yourself why!!! I dont have to ask myself...I know!!! I worked there for years and left....not because the book of Dr. Wery, but because Pra Ajaan (the Temple org.)refused to allow us to give futher ARV to the patients!

I could keep my eyes closed for many bad things that happend there because it was the only way to stay and take care of the patients but refuse the ARV was to much!

Now I'm sad and wait untill there is a Thai brave enough to make an end on this Temple, or at least an end of the abuse of patients and workers.

As long as the so called celebrities prays this monk no thai will believe my words!

Shouldn't your first post be a friendly introduction?

Ask yourself why you suddenly out of nowhere jumped on this bandwagon.

Ask yourself why only Thais won't believe you, and not others.

Ask yourself do you really think we believe your claims.

Ask yourself does this irritable style of writing get right up your nose.

[geriatrickid]

Shouldn't your first post be a friendly introduction? Why?

Ask yourself why you suddenly out of nowhere jumped on this bandwagon.

I don't see any bandwagons. Rather, the mere mention of what goes on at the "death camp" as some call it, causes many folks to flee and give thanks along the lines of "Glad they don't care for any of these people near my home".

Ask yourself why only Thais won't believe you, and not others. Ummm, perhaps the problem is more along the lines that no one wants to deal with the mess, so it's deny, and not investigate, lest someone scream out, "Yo, Chanarong, can you send one of the garbage trucks over to the place where we warehouse the dying poor people and get rid of the dead and soon to be dead, cuz they're scaring off the donors."

Ask yourself do you really think we believe your claims. Is that the royal we? Cuz the folks I have met in healthcare that have visited the place have their concerns.

Ask yourself does this irritable style of writing get right up your nose.

So it gets up his nose. It's not your nose, nor my nose. Strikes me as being somewhat better than those that have a thumb up their arse.

Tell ya what, if you want some fun, go and ask to see the books. Do you think there are audited financial statements available? Do you think anyone would be willing to discuss the monies raised and where the monies go?

[loplenie]

Ask yourself why Thai newspapers dont write the truth!

Ask yourself why Thai people dont see the truth!

Ask yourself why Thai Doctors who know the truth inside the temple dont dare to speek!

Ask yourself why patients who luckely did survive dont dare to speek the truth!

Ask yourself why!!! I dont have to ask myself...I know!!! I worked there for years and left....not because the book of Dr. Wery, but because Pra Ajaan (the Temple org.)refused to allow us to give futher ARV to the patients!

I could keep my eyes closed for many bad things that happend there because it was the only way to stay and take care of the patients but refuse the ARV was to much!

Now I'm sad and wait untill there is a Thai brave enough to make an end on this Temple, or at least an end of the abuse of patients and workers.

As long as the so called celebrities prays this monk no thai will believe my words!

Shouldn't your first post be a friendly introduction?

Cannot see anything unfriendly written! I introduced myself..former volonteer for over 5 years in this Temple.

Ask yourself why you suddenly out of nowhere jumped on this bandwagon.

Ask yourself why only Thais won't believe you, and not others.

As soon as Thai people understand that its not an attack on them or budisme,I hope they investigate this place Thai and others know I speek the truth

Ask yourself do you really think we believe your claims.

No, thats my concern!

Ask yourself does this irritable style of writing get right up your nose

Not at all! seems you like it because you copied

Have a nice day

[toptuan]

A free electronic version of the fascinating book by the doctor who worked at this temple is available in English, Thai, French, Japanese at http://www.stylite.net/MMB/telech-chronicles.htm

Thank you for posting this link.

I read the on-line book this morning, and it's one of the most compelling written works I've read in years, despite some minor English-language version glitches. You can't help but laugh, cry (lots of this), seethe, and rejoice throughout the story. French doctor and author, Yves, has an uncanny gift to analyze human nature and put it into a philosophical framework which is very rich in insight.

Most importantly, for anyone who works in Thailand, it is an extremely valuable dissection of work-place politics and what makes various classes of Thai society "tick." I wish I had read this early-on in my career in Thailand--I could have avoided a number of pitfalls years ago just by being aware of this author's experience.

I highly recommend it!

[garro]

I read the book and it's well written and honest. I have worked as a nurse in palliative care in hospices in Ireland. I am not that shocked by the goings on in the temple that are described in this book. The writer himself admits that it is far better than what was there previously.

Dying in a hospice is never nice. I have worked in a couple and despite having all the best of equipment and plush furniture patients still have miserable deaths. I have also seen people in the west dying while begging to be kept alive, so it is not really the fault of this temple.

In a western hospice more of an effort is made to hide deaths, but all the patients know what is going on. We would have up to five deaths a night in some places and you can't hide that.

There is a lot of debate among those involved in palliative care about how much it should be medicalised. Death is a natural process and it is customary for all aggressive treatment to be held once somebody is declared palliative and let nature take its course. Anti-biotics and the other aggressive treatments are frowned upon. Artificial feeding likewise. Prolonging death, because we have the technology, can mean a longer and more painful death.

I know that this Doctor has many valid points, but I'm left with the question what is the alternative? Reading the account it is obvious that this doctor is very influenced by a Christian sense of morality, but this is a different culture.

I know that my view might be annoying for those who have actually worked at the temple, but that is how I see it.

Edited May 2, 2008 by garro

[colino]

I went there last year and it was a horrible experience for me

i refused to walk through the AIDS ward (not because of AIDS)

but because i felt that the people in there should have some privacy and not be on a ward where all the world and his mate can stroll through ,

Thais go there to gain merit, Fair enough

As for the mummy's they would be better at the airport so all arrivals have to walk through an educational area on the way to the bangkok and pattaya bus routes

i have seen the mummy's including the bar girl , and the katoe and worst of all the young baby's

it was the most hard hitting thing iv seen about HIV and Aids

after seeing all this i was shocked to talk to two monks who wanted me to stay over at there cabin to watch football on there TV fitted with True

colino