Luangta Maha Bua Dies At 97

[sabaijai]

Religion Obituaries

Luangta Maha Bua

Friday 04 March 2011, The Telegraph

Luangta Maha Bua, who died on Sunday aged 97, was a senior Buddhist "forest monk" who used his standing as a living saint to help salvage Thailand's economy after the Asian economic meltdown of 1997.

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Monks play a central role in the daily life of Thais, from the daily alms round to weekend temple visits. Senior monks command immense respect – even King Bhumibol bends the knee before them. While urban monks focus on studies of Buddhist texts, forest monks devote themselves to meditation and a life of simplicity as the path to spiritual liberation. As abbot of the Wat Pa Ban Tat Forest Monastery in Udon Thani, near Thailand's northern border with Laos, Luangta Maha Bua was widely regarded as an "arahant'' – a monk who has attained spiritual liberation after having rid himself of worldly desires.

Bua's finest hour came in 1997 when Thailand's economic growth rate fell from 5.5 per cent in 1996 to minus 0.4 per cent, inflation rose and the country's foreign currency reserves fell from $38.7 billion to less than $27 billion following a failed bid to defend the baht.

Emerging from his forest retreat, Bua decided to make resuscitating Thailand's economy a personal crusade and launched a fund-raising drive to replenish state coffers. If Thais did not donate, he threatened to commit suicide, or "leave his earthly body".

On the last day of his campaign, an estimated 100,000 people lined up for five miles at his forest temple to give gold, jewellery and cash to save the monk's life and in 2001 Bua proudly presented some 12 tonnes and 79.8kg of gold, plus 10.2 million US dollars to the Bank of Thailand.

One of 16 children of a family of rice farmers, he was born Bua Lohitdee on August 12 1913 in the village of Ban Tad in Udon Thani. Ordained in 1934 at the age of 21, he became a disciple of Ajarn Mun Bhuridatto, a leader of the forest monk tradition in northeast Thailand. In 1955 he built his own monastery. After decades of contemplation, in 1997 he announced that this lifetime was his last and he would never be reincarnated, a sign, according to followers, that he had achieved spiritual enlightenment.

Bua's efforts on behalf of the Thai economy seem to have whetted his appetite for politics and from time to time he emerged to cause consternation in the corridors of power. In 2001, after the Bank of Thailand announced it would consolidate its currency reserves, including Bua's donations, to pay off Thailand's debts, a furious Bua said that the funds should be called on only in dire emergency and accused government ministers of being "ravenous ghouls seeking to eat the people's guts". He insisted the cash and gold must be kept untouched in what he called "the national vault". Meanwhile his followers demonstrated in Bangkok, demanding the impeachment of finance minister Tarrin Nimmanahaeminda and prime minister Chuan Leekpai. Within months the government had been forced to shelve its plans and the two ministers bowed down to Bua and offered him flowers.

The following year Bua publicly criticised Leekpai's successor Thaksin Shinawatra, who had upset him by appointing Somdet Phra Phuttacharn, abbot of Wat Saket in Bangkok, and a member of a different order of monks, as acting supreme patriarch – the effective leader of all Buddhist monks in Thailand.

The appointment, Bua argued in a sermon, was a flagrant attempt to control the Buddhist clergy and usurp royal authority. "I feel Thailand is now under a dark influence. Bad people are in power and good people are being dominated. Not only ordinary people but also monks are now in trouble," he was quoted as saying. The following year he called on Thaksin to resign, describing his government as "wicked, corrupt, power-hungry, and greedy". Thaksin was subsequently deposed in a military coup.

Perhaps surprisingly, given his clashes with the authorities, Luangta Maha Bua ordered in his will that all gold ornaments, bars and other donated assets in his custody be handed to the Bank of Thailand as gold and cash reserves.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/religion-obituaries/8296853/Luangta-Maha-Bua.html

[lungmi]

My wife and her family have been there for the funeral rituals last week. Yesterday and today the TV doesn't stop. I'm overwhelmed by the honest devotion. I know Catholic devotion, when the pilgrims go to see the Pope, to Lourdes etc. Here it's another dimension.

People in my village rented Mini-Vans and asked me to go with them. I wanted to go, but my Luang Pho said, it's very good for Thai people and not bad for you. They invited you and you can say "no" with a smile , saying "my heart goes with you". Enough.

[theanimaster]

WOW. I had been going w my wife to see Luangta when he would visit Bangkok and all this time I hadn't know about the donations he made. I think that's a pretty dam_n large feat to have been 'missed' by this clueless farang.

Most farangs who witness something like this think the obvious. Now there's another side of this revered monk's story that I can think hard about. I wish I had gone w my wife to Udon the week of the cremation, but nevertheless, it was an honour to have bowed before him and to have paid my respects when he was alive. I knew he was a great figure -- but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

[bankei]

Strange behaviour for an 'arahat'.

[khaowong1]

Strange behaviour for an 'arahat'.

[khaowong1]

WOW. I had been going w my wife to see Luangta when he would visit Bangkok and all this time I hadn't know about the donations he made. I think that's a pretty dam_n large feat to have been 'missed' by this clueless farang.

Most farangs who witness something like this think the obvious. Now there's another side of this revered monk's story that I can think hard about. I wish I had gone w my wife to Udon the week of the cremation, but nevertheless, it was an honour to have bowed before him and to have paid my respects when he was alive. I knew he was a great figure -- but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Most farangs have no clue when it comes to Buddhism or Buddhist monks.. period...

[christiaan]

WOW. I had been going w my wife to see Luangta when he would visit Bangkok and all this time I hadn't know about the donations he made. I think that's a pretty dam_n large feat to have been 'missed' by this clueless farang.

Most farangs who witness something like this think the obvious. Now there's another side of this revered monk's story that I can think hard about. I wish I had gone w my wife to Udon the week of the cremation, but nevertheless, it was an honour to have bowed before him and to have paid my respects when he was alive. I knew he was a great figure -- but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Most farangs have no clue when it comes to Buddhism or Buddhist monks.. period...

Does this mean, as I read out of the text, that Farangs cannot understand a Buddhist Munk to threat his people to commit suicide?

Astonishing, very astonishing, how is this possible?