Monk Gives Farang A Slap.

[mick01827]

It's gone viral on FB in Thailand. Apparently the Falung has been in Thailand for 10 years and is a teacher.

His wife is filing charges against the monk.

After 10 years the guy should know a bit of thai.

for next time:

"Kar-tot na crap, hai nang dai mai crap"

not hard. What an oaf

I find your 'what an oaf' remark quite disrespectful to that chap, he did extremely well keeping his cool, maybe he panicked a little bit and was overwhelmed by the situation.

On a different day the monk might have picked on a different person and got more than he bargained for.

I personally could of accepted one slap but once the second one came I think I would have acted differently to the chap in the video.

[klauskunkel]

The foreigner handled himself very well, given the sticky situation.

On the off-chance that he had retaliated it would probably not have ended well for him.

The rest of the train would have probably joined in with the monk and given him a kicking; Thai style.

Yes, he took it like a monk

[HerbalEd]

Monk Mafia. Nothing new in Thailand.

Mafia? Please ... that's rather hyperbolic.

[kennypowers]

I would have smacked him straight in the chops. Monk or no monk.

[teacherpaul]

My Thai wife explained what happened.

The monk asked the white man to give up his seat for him. The man said "fine". The monk mis-heard him, thinking he said "kwai". Then the slap was dispensed.

[jamiesilver]

Go to Pantip on any day - You will find hundreds of Monks wandering around buying Iphones, computers, laptops you name it - All from the money donations given to them. Its absolutely discusting!
Furthermore whenever i take a domenstic flights now - All the monks are flying around Thailand like business men. Seriously! What is wrong with them taking a bus and living by simple means?
They need a damn good shake up!

And lock up that idiot fake monk that keeps wandering around Asoke asking for money all day and all night.

[Jip99]

There is Facebook video circulating with another monk explaining what happened and requesting forgiveness etc.

I understand that the Farang - Geoff? - has accepted this and is still in love with Thailand.

... and so it becomes another non-story.

[teacherpaul]

You have got your problems, haven't you.

Not only have you got bad manners, but you've also got a bad memory.

The foriegn guy was being polite, he wasn't mouthing off. There was nothing on the video to suggest that the monk received any provocation. Looks to me like the monk was a thug in disguise.

I'd love to see your reaction if this ever happened to you.

Who would wanna sit next to a monk anyway i ask you?
How creepy.
dont you people ever go on bts or bus? Would you hassle a monk to moove over? Ive never seen it happen
And they reckon they got a handle on the culture.
the guy should be ashamed to stoop that low.
Please moove it mr monk i am so tired and old.haha

You're not very bright are you?

He was asking permission by the Monk if he could sit next to him. It's called being respectful.

Somehow it got misconstrued and he got a slap for his troubles. Perhaps it was because his Thai is as childlike as yours.

What is creepy about sitting next to a Monk? On a bus or BTS I would stand up for a Monk, or older person or so a young kid could sit down. Most people try to look busy with their iPhones...but guys like you aren't fooling anyone.

You sure are an odd dude.

im not bright hey? Your showing your lights arent on much either.
You probably share same manners as this bloke in your liason with thais...keep jabberring away in English to someone who obviously knows none ( in this case a monk ) and when they cant understand..you just speak louder. The fact the monk thought he called him kwai,was obvious enough the guys body and mouth language was probably rude and condescending.
You like the other guy call me out..where do you get off?
How would you like someone go to your country and mouth off to say a priest? Or whatever your belief?
Iseen even pregnant ladies get up to let a monk sit..its not that a big deal

[geronimo]

Go to Pantip on any day - You will find hundreds of Monks wandering around buying Iphones, computers, laptops you name it - All from the money donations given to them. Its absolutely discusting!

Furthermore whenever i take a domenstic flights now - All the monks are flying around Thailand like business men. Seriously! What is wrong with them taking a bus and living by simple means?

They need a damn good shake up!

And lock up that idiot fake monk that keeps wandering around Asoke asking for money all day and all night.

If we were to look at catholic priests or representatives of other religions, it would become clesr that many people do not adhere to the principles of the thing they subscribe to. There are bad apples everywhere but that doesn't mean apples are bad.

[movsrus]

Kudos to the guy for his patience but that wouldn't happen with me. First slap and it would have been off to the races. I give as good as I get and if it comes down to mixing it up then I am ready.

This whole nonsense about Thai saving face and turning the other cheek might sound good but this is the real world and if it takes blows to get it worked out then let it happen.

[connda]

I've been told by a Thai that the monk is probably not a 'real' monk and that he had been drinking. He apparently hit the farrang because the farrang was 'yak-yaking' him.

Nope. The monk was sleeping and the monk and the farang were sitting across from each other. Two women boarded the train and the farang moved to give them his seat and he sat next to the monk. The monk woke, said something, and the farang said, "I'm fine." The monk heard, "Buffalo". Then a big dust up. Bad farang!!!

Edited December 15, 2014 by connda

[connda]

I read the Thai writeup of the event.

The foreign man was sitting across the aisle on the train from the monk. Monk was laying down sleeping or just sleeping. Two foreign women got on and the foreign man got up to allow the two women to sit together. The man woke up the monk to explain/ask (in English) if he can sit beside him. The monk spoke fairly rudely to the guy saying in Thai he didn't understand. Convo went back and forth with foreigner speaking English and monk speaking Thai. The write up said the foreigner kinda of gave up and said ok, fine, fine. Monk misheard this as ควายๆ (kwai/buffalo) even though their entire ordeal had been because of language barrier so kind of ironic he thinks this guy is insulting him.. ends up slapping him three times in auspicious fashion. The video shows the last slap and then the train official coming.

The monk looks like the bit of a rougher type. Doing the ol enter the monastery trick perhaps?

super props to the foreigner (seems like a brit/mate) for being so chilled and not even raising his voice. Monk is getting shamed via Thai social media. Hopefully he gets some more repercussions than outrage and online derision

Yeah, that's the gist of it. Also read that the farang being aware the lady could not sit next to the monk offered his own seat. Thais pretty upset about the whole thing, from those saying they would have hit the monk back to he should be defrocked.

I agree. Not 'monk-like' behavior. If a novice monk, he should probably be set straight my the abbot. If a senior monk, he should probably be dis-robed. I've seen this on Thai news. Thai's are not happy with this.

[Thaiready]

What else can he do? Certainly getting in a fight with a monk is lose-lose.

I would have handed him his @ss.

[Neeranam]

Go to Pantip on any day - You will find hundreds of Monks wandering around buying Iphones, computers, laptops you name it - All from the money donations given to them. Its absolutely discusting!

Furthermore whenever i take a domenstic flights now - All the monks are flying around Thailand like business men. Seriously! What is wrong with them taking a bus and living by simple means?

They need a damn good shake up!

And lock up that idiot fake monk that keeps wandering around Asoke asking for money all day and all night.

You have no idea.

Go stay in a temple and you'll see what being a monk is like - it isn't easy.

[thailiketoo]

What else can he do? Certainly getting in a fight with a monk is lose-lose.

I would have handed him his @ss.

That is the moral equivalent in Thailand of knocking out a 3 year old handicapped child. (In case you wonder how your actions would be seen by Thai people.).

[KhnomKhnom]

Slapee sounds like a Brit, and if so, the slap is deserved prima facie. I wish monks would do more slapping of weird, out of line foreigners.

Zen Buddhists slap students and others all the time. Does them good.

[kannot]

Go to Pantip on any day - You will find hundreds of Monks wandering around buying Iphones, computers, laptops you name it - All from the money donations given to them. Its absolutely discusting!

Furthermore whenever i take a domenstic flights now - All the monks are flying around Thailand like business men. Seriously! What is wrong with them taking a bus and living by simple means?

They need a damn good shake up!

And lock up that idiot fake monk that keeps wandering around Asoke asking for money all day and all night.

If we were to look at catholic priests or representatives of other religions, it would become clesr that many people do not adhere to the principles of the thing they subscribe to. There are bad apples everywhere but that doesn't mean apples are bad.

Adam n Evesubscribed to it if u believe that nonsense

[Don Aleman]

I think everyone needs a little " comeuppance" once in a while but anyone, in robes or not, who slaps my face, is getting a knuckle sandwich in return

[Zooheekock]

I saw on a Thai Facebook group that a guy was offering to go and beat the shɪt out of the monk if he could get his expenses paid. It was obviously not an entirely serious offer but I read a fair few comments about how badly this monk needed a good kicking so not all Thais would have objected if the monk had got a smack back. I'm not sure, in that situation, I'd like to see how it would go down with the rest of the carriage but it would be pretty hard to resist the urge.

Edited December 15, 2014 by Zooheekock

[Chonburiram]

Who would wanna sit next to a monk anyway i ask you?

How creepy.

dont you people ever go on bts or bus? Would you hassle a monk to moove over? Ive never seen it happen

And they reckon they got a handle on the culture.

the guy should be ashamed to stoop that low.

Please moove it mr monk i am so tired and old.haha

So you think it's fine for the monk to abuse his position and religion, first by taking more space than needed so others are uncomfortable and secondly for physically attacking someone who cannot defend himself for fear of the reaction of others?

It sounds like he was a gentleman offering his own seat to the female passengers.

Had he retaliated to the slaps he would already be on his way home. He did the right thing and so did the person filming. Well done!

Yeah right,

he was a gentleman to the ladies (couldn't help it, seeing a skirt...) and a smart arse to the monk.

Did you see the monk gear the monk was dragging around with him? Do you know how many hours of sleep a monk gets per day?

[Zooheekock]

he was a gentleman to the ladies (couldn't help it, seeing a skirt...) and a smart arse to the monk.

Did you see the monk gear the monk was dragging around with him? Do you know how many hours of sleep a monk gets per day?

You seem to think that (i) the foreigner did something wrong and that (ii) the monk can be excused on the grounds that he might have been a bit sleepy. That's interesting. I read a ton of comments on Facebook (from Thais, in Thai), all of which had some variant of: the foreigner behaved admirably, the poster feels embarrassed that this happened, the poster would like to apologize on behalf of the monk, the monk was totally out of order, the monk behaved so badly that he should not be considered a monk, and the one above about how the monk deserved a good hiding (though that was a lot less common than the others). Perhaps in some hardcore, foreigner-hating, fundamentalist group people think differently but I haven't seen much evidence of that.

[Chonburiram]

he was a gentleman to the ladies (couldn't help it, seeing a skirt...) and a smart arse to the monk.

Did you see the monk gear the monk was dragging around with him? Do you know how many hours of sleep a monk gets per day?

You seem to think that (i) the foreigner did something wrong and that (ii) the monk can be excused on the grounds that he might have been a bit sleepy. That's interesting. I read a ton of comments on Facebook (from Thais, in Thai), all of which had some variant of: the foreigner behaved admirably, the poster feels embarrassed that this happened, the poster would like to apologize on behalf of the monk, the monk was totally out of order, the monk behaved so badly that he should not be considered a monk, and the one above about how the monk deserved a good hiding (though that was a lot less common than the others). Perhaps in some hardcore, foreigner-hating, fundamentalist group people think differently but I haven't seen much evidence of that.

Reading tons of comments on facebook in Thai (from mostly females or guys who cannot bear more than 15 days in monkhood in their lifetime) just mirrors the disconnection of the fb generation with their religious roots.

[mauGR1]

he was a gentleman to the ladies (couldn't help it, seeing a skirt...) and a smart arse to the monk.

Did you see the monk gear the monk was dragging around with him? Do you know how many hours of sleep a monk gets per day?

You seem to think that (i) the foreigner did something wrong and that (ii) the monk can be excused on the grounds that he might have been a bit sleepy. That's interesting. I read a ton of comments on Facebook (from Thais, in Thai), all of which had some variant of: the foreigner behaved admirably, the poster feels embarrassed that this happened, the poster would like to apologize on behalf of the monk, the monk was totally out of order, the monk behaved so badly that he should not be considered a monk, and the one above about how the monk deserved a good hiding (though that was a lot less common than the others). Perhaps in some hardcore, foreigner-hating, fundamentalist group people think differently but I haven't seen much evidence of that.

Reading tons of comments on facebook in Thai (from mostly females or guys who cannot bear more than 15 days in monkhood in their lifetime) just mirrors the disconnection of the fb generation with their religious roots.

I think the disconnection will grow bigger and bigger, given the disgusting behaviour of this pathetic travesty of a monk...not to mention many other bad examples.

In the while, try to connect with reality, only a blinkered bigot would defend that thug disguised as a monk.

[Zooheekock]

he was a gentleman to the ladies (couldn't help it, seeing a skirt...) and a smart arse to the monk.

Did you see the monk gear the monk was dragging around with him? Do you know how many hours of sleep a monk gets per day?

You seem to think that (i) the foreigner did something wrong and that (ii) the monk can be excused on the grounds that he might have been a bit sleepy. That's interesting. I read a ton of comments on Facebook (from Thais, in Thai), all of which had some variant of: the foreigner behaved admirably, the poster feels embarrassed that this happened, the poster would like to apologize on behalf of the monk, the monk was totally out of order, the monk behaved so badly that he should not be considered a monk, and the one above about how the monk deserved a good hiding (though that was a lot less common than the others). Perhaps in some hardcore, foreigner-hating, fundamentalist group people think differently but I haven't seen much evidence of that.

Reading tons of comments on facebook in Thai (from mostly females or guys who cannot bear more than 15 days in monkhood in their lifetime) just mirrors the disconnection of the fb generation with their religious roots.

*removed*

And how lucky for them that some white guy has taken it upon himself to show them the errors of their ways.

Edited December 15, 2014 by cdnvic
Non-English script removed

[CLW]

So much for peaceful and being a buddhist monk at the same time...

[khaowong1]

Looks to me as if he was either stealing into the monk's bag, touching the monk's bag, or such. In the very first second his hand is on the monk's saffron gear/clothing. But a monk smacking another man... Gosh, seems quite unmonk=like.

The monk looks like a phony monk to me (robes the wrong color). Monks only beg early in the morning and then go back to the wat.

First off, the robes are the right color, second off, the monk was not out begging, looks like he was traveling from one temple to another. Third, the farang must have said something or done something that really pissed this guy off, because monks don't slap people. Maybe someone will correctly tell what happened.

[khaowong1]

I've been told by a Thai that the monk is probably not a 'real' monk and that he had been drinking. He apparently hit the farrang because the farrang was 'yak-yaking' him.

Nope. The monk was sleeping and the monk and the farang were sitting across from each other. Two women boarded the train and the farang moved to give them his seat and he sat next to the monk. The monk woke, said something, and the farang said, "I'm fine." The monk heard, "Buffalo". Then a big dust up. Bad farang!!!

"Fine" to a lot of Thai's sounds like "Kwai" which means buffalo. Telling Thai's their a buffalo is like calling a farang a son of a bitch. The monk must have been in a really bad mood to slap someone. I was a monk for 7 years and never seen it happen before. Not excusing him, just saying.

[arjunadawn]

Looks to me as if he was either stealing into the monk's bag, touching the monk's bag, or such. In the very first second his hand is on the monk's saffron gear/clothing. But a monk smacking another man... Gosh, seems quite unmonk=like.

The monk looks like a phony monk to me (robes the wrong color). Monks only beg early in the morning and then go back to the wat.

First off, the robes are the right color, second off, the monk was not out begging, looks like he was traveling from one temple to another. Third, the farang must have said something or done something that really pissed this guy off, because monks don't slap people. Maybe someone will correctly tell what happened.

Yea, I agree; looks like monk to me. In fact, I have no sense that he is not. I still think the guy reached for or touched the monks carry bag but there must have been something that set this in motion prior, that would have promoted the camera to go on, and then the bag touching just escalated it. I have often thought that were I a monk I would be the warrior type who would slap the crap out of someone. This is just hollywood boyhood wing chun fantasy crap. The truth remains, a monk should actually not be digressing into slapping another human being. I realize they are an elevated station of society but I just cannot rationalize a monk slapping someone save imminent danger to self or others, or other profound escalation.

[tingtongtourist]

Seems like the reporting is bad on this as usual. Didnt get to hear this through good speakers until today.

does sound to me like the foriegn guy can speak thai quite well actually.

if i heard it right you can hear him ask 'pai kee-mong?' at one stage and then 'por laew' a few times (thats enough or ive had enough) after the monk hits him.

It is the monk who says rather loudly "ai kwai" an even worse version and im sure you can hear another very bad phrase that starts with h that i wont mention.

If thats right it does change the story a bit in that there was seemingly no language barrier.

seeing thats the case i wouldnt put much belief in the reported version as kwai and fine sounds nothing alike to thai ears.

looks like the farang wanted to test out his speaking skills on the monk and it hasnt gone down to well.

that monk sure does have a potty mouth though

[khaowong1]

Looks to me as if he was either stealing into the monk's bag, touching the monk's bag, or such. In the very first second his hand is on the monk's saffron gear/clothing. But a monk smacking another man... Gosh, seems quite unmonk=like.

The monk looks like a phony monk to me (robes the wrong color). Monks only beg early in the morning and then go back to the wat.

First off, the robes are the right color, second off, the monk was not out begging, looks like he was traveling from one temple to another. Third, the farang must have said something or done something that really pissed this guy off, because monks don't slap people. Maybe someone will correctly tell what happened.

Yea, I agree; looks like monk to me. In fact, I have no sense that he is not. I still think the guy reached for or touched the monks carry bag but there must have been something that set this in motion prior, that would have promoted the camera to go on, and then the bag touching just escalated it. I have often thought that were I a monk I would be the warrior type who would slap the crap out of someone. This is just hollywood boyhood wing chun fantasy crap. The truth remains, a monk should actually not be digressing into slapping another human being. I realize they are an elevated station of society but I just cannot rationalize a monk slapping someone save imminent danger to self or others, or other profound escalation.

This I totally agree with.. There must have been something else going on that we aren't aware of. Monks don't slap people for no good reason, or for almost any reason actually. I've seen dek-wats get slapped in the back of the head but other than that, never.

Edited December 15, 2014 by khaowong1