Thai Buddhism - Monks, Mercs and Women

[Basil B]

Thai Buddhism was the subject of BBC Radio4's Crossing Continents this week...

I can only sum it up as monks with bad habits, had it been aired yesterday morning I can only imagine the Beeb's switch board jammed with angry callers phoning to say it was an April Fool joke in bad taste...

An unholy spat is stirring the Sangha, Thailand's top Buddhist authority - who will become the next Supreme Patriarch, Thailand's most senior monk? Meanwhile, allegations of 'cheque-book Buddhism', cronyism andcorruption abound - including allegations about tax-evasion on an imported vintage Mercedes car. In Thailand, where the majority of the population profess Buddhism, seeking ordination isn't unusual. But salacious stories about monks who commit serious crimes - everything from sex offences to wildlife trafficking - continue to shock.

-- BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b074zdcv

[Craig krup]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b074zdcv

I listened to it. Quite a lot on female monks. I was surprised to hear that some locals - if they get fed up with the behaviour - stop giving alms. I would have thought that socially that was quite difficult.

Should a farang be seen to toe the line occasionally? "Respect the local gods" is usually sound advice. Would lugging 10kg of rice from Tesco once in a while and handing it over be a useful investment in your social position?

[Basil B]

I assume when some locals stop giving it is not just one or two families but quite a few.

My advice if anyone feels the need to withhold alms would be to say the local monks are getting to fat and be seen to donate to a more worthy cause.

[camerata]

AFAIK, monks can't prepare their own food, so 10kg of rice would only be useful in one of the large temples that have lay people to cook and offer food to monastics.

Thais say that an offering is to the monastic order rather than the individual monk, so they are unlikely to withhold offerings unless they have a problem with an entire temple and its abbot. In the old days, an upcountry abbot came from the local community so he couldn't really get up to much mischief, but it changed somewhat once the Sangha was centralised and abbots were not locals.

The vintage Merc mentioned above is a politically motivated storm in a teacup. Foolish lay persons think they are making merit by donating expensive things to famous monks, but the monks can't exactly refuse donations and they can't know whether tax was paid on them.

[Craig krup]

AFAIK, monks can't prepare their own food, so 10kg of rice would only be useful in one of the large temples that have lay people to cook and offer food to monastics.

Thais say that an offering is to the monastic order rather than the individual monk, so they are unlikely to withhold offerings unless they have a problem with an entire temple and its abbot. In the old days, an upcountry abbot came from the local community so he couldn't really get up to much mischief, but it changed somewhat once the Sangha was centralised and abbots were not locals.

The vintage Merc mentioned above is a politically motivated storm in a teacup. Foolish lay persons think they are making merit by donating expensive things to famous monks, but the monks can't exactly refuse donations and they can't know whether tax was paid on them.

I was told in Nong Khai that it was the temple(s) that was/were feeding the poor, so there must be a big old kitchen churning it out somewhere.

[camerata]

I've read that temples with an excess of alms food will distribute it to the poor.

[honu]

In my experience in Bangkok what Camerata said was correct, that the monks in the temple don't prepare food at all because it's offered to them already cooked through daily offerings. Of course that doesn't mean that's always going to be the case, just my limited experience.

I stayed in a temple outside of the city once, set up as a meditation retreat center, and they did seem to be cooking large amounts of food for the monks that stayed there and serving it, so the opposite seemed to be the case. Of course that also matches what he said, except that I stayed in a larger temple locally in Bangkok and they didn't seem to be doing any cooking.

It seems odd that the local population could support a large monk group of several hundred, or maybe even a few thousand in a limited area where in a sort of temple center, so I'm not sure how other exceptions work out. In terms of what is being contributed matching what is required the offerings seemed more that sufficient, with enough to be dispersed further based on what wasn't consumed, but it still seems like there still might be other types of cases in practice.

[Craig krup]

I've read that temples with an excess of alms food will distribute it to the poor.

I actually slightly shivered with fear when a long-standing Aussie explained the situation in Nong Khai - I was curious about one shoe-less farang in an orange jumpsuit sleeping in the street, and asked about the situation generally.

"Well, the temple feeds them......[pause, looks into mid-distance] Unless they've done something really bad......[pause] In which case they are truly f********"