The Community Of Spiritual Seekers In Thailand

[tc101]

In India there are thousands of westerners who you might call "spiritual seekers". They travel around the country visiting various ashrams, temples, famous masters and so on. Sometimes they settle down in one place that feels right and go deeply into spiritual practice. Because India is so cheap, some of these people are there for years. There are certain places you can stay and meet a fairly interesting flow of people coming and going as they drift around the spiritual circuit.

Does something similar exist in Thailand? If so, where are a few places you might go to connect with this community?

[Grover]

In India there are thousands of westerners who you might call "spiritual seekers". They travel around the country visiting various ashrams, temples, famous masters and so on. Sometimes they settle down in one place that feels right and go deeply into spiritual practice. Because India is so cheap, some of these people are there for years. There are certain places you can stay and meet a fairly interesting flow of people coming and going as they drift around the spiritual circuit.

Does something similar exist in Thailand? If so, where are a few places you might go to connect with this community?

If you can speak thai, it is much much easier.

You could go to a forest temple, ordain as a monk, learn the chantings and other basics etc for a year or so then go on Tudong around the country, living in caves, forests, etc, & meeting various 'masters' etc. but it can be rough & is not for everyone

you could also pack some white clothes & donation money into a small bag, shave your head, then go travelling to some upcountry meditation temples.

Edited October 23, 2006 by Grover

[tc101]

Thanks for the info Grover. I can't speak Thai. If I move to Thailand I will study and will learn to speak Thai as best I can, but I think it would be years before I could speak it well enough to talk about spiritual matters. My experience with Spanish was that I was quickly able to learn enough to get around and be polite, but I never got good enough with it to talk about philosophy or religion.

[sabaijai]

In India there are thousands of westerners who you might call "spiritual seekers". They travel around the country visiting various ashrams, temples, famous masters and so on. Sometimes they settle down in one place that feels right and go deeply into spiritual practice. Because India is so cheap, some of these people are there for years. There are certain places you can stay and meet a fairly interesting flow of people coming and going as they drift around the spiritual circuit.

Does something similar exist in Thailand? If so, where are a few places you might go to connect with this community?

I'd say the answer is no, nothing on the scale of the community you find in India. The eclecticism of Indian religions, particularly Hinduism, is a magnet for what you might call 'hippie spirituality', for a lack of a better term. Thailand offers just one school of Buddhism, by and large, so the spiritually-minded westerners you find in Thailand tend to be focussed on Theravada, and a more narrow focus means there's a smaller number of 'seekers' here, or at least that's my impression.

Of course there are plenty of people here in Thailand who are on the same 'trail' as in India, Tibet, etc, dabbling in New Age spirituality, yoga, meditation, reiki, etc. Ko Pha-Ngan is probably the biggest centre of such activity, followed by Pai and Chiang Mai. In Nong Khai there's one soi populated with New Agers.