Thai Buddhist monk wants to clean up

his countrys religious institutions

Phra Buddha Issara walks inside his garden at Wat Ornoi in Nakhon Pathom. From his
Buddhist temple near Bangkok, he is calling for a radical overhaul of Thai Buddhism.
(Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

By Anna Fifield-April 29

NAKHON PATHOM, Thailand Think Buddhist monk, and bodyguards and bomb
threats probably dont spring to mind. But thats exactly what Phra Buddha Issara is
dealing with as he mounts a campaign to overhaul Thailands religious institutions.
The activist monk has earned plenty of enemies since he launched a campaign to
clean up Buddhism in Thailand, urging the countrys 300,000 monks to be more
transparent in their financial dealings and the religions governing body, the Supreme
Sangha Council, to crack down on wrongdoing.
Thai Buddhism, much like Thai democracy, is in a state of upheaval.
There is more open crisis in the Sangha then has been seen in living memory, said

Michael Montesano, a Thailand expert at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

This is a crisis in yet another Thai institution.
Monks have long been revered here, in a country where 95 percent of the population
is Buddhist. They have their own fast-track lane at the airport and designated priority
seats on the metro.
But in recent months, there have been tales of monastic misbehavior that would seem
to belong in the most gossipy tabloids.
There have been monks with girlfriends (and boyfriends), drunk monks crashing cars,
monks pocketing wads of cash meant for funerals or playing the stock market. And
thats not even mentioning the monks-on-meth or the selfie-snapping, Louis Vuitton
bag-wielding, private jet-taking monk scandals of 2013.
Buddha Issara has been leading the charge against financial misconduct and says
that, far from rocking another core pillar of Thai society, this is the perfect time to be
overhauling religious institutions, too.
For the past year, Thailand has been governed by a military-led junta that has used
ever more dictatorial powers to crack down on opposition politicians, human rights
activists and the press.
Since we are cleaning our house, we should leave no dirt anywhere, we should clean
every corner, Buddha Issara said in an interview in an open-air pavilion at Wat Ornoi,
his temple on the outskirts of Nakhon Pathom, a city vaunted as the place where
Buddhism first flourished in Thailand.
A hardliner who upends the stereotype of the friendly, chuckling monk, Buddha Issara
had a video camera recording the interview, while tattoo-covered men of uncertain role
skulked around in the background.
He supported the overthrow of the democratically elected but polarizing prime minister,
Yingluck Shinawatra, last year and is said to be close to Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, the
junta leader.
With the military junta now cleaning up politics and the economy, it would be ill-advised
to leave out religion, the monk said.
We will be a bit more tired, but the whole house will be clean if Buddhism is also
overhauled, he said. This is better than leaving some corners dirty. If we do that, the
dirt will spread to the whole house eventually.
Although scandals are hardly uncommon here, Buddha Issara was incensed when the
Sangha earlier this year cleared the abbot of Thailands largest temple of misconduct
after he was accused of embezzling almost $30 million. Because the abbot returned
most of the money, the council ruled there was no wrongdoing.
Thailands 38,000 temples traditionally rely on donations from the faithful, receiving

between $3 billion and $3.6 billion a year, according to a National Institute of

Development Administration report.
Buddha Issara wants more transparency in donations so that these temples can be rid
of corruption. He is calling on the military-led government to set up a new committee to
control Buddhisms coffers and earlier this month filed a petition urging the National
Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the top two Buddhist institutions for fraud.
Don Pramudwinai, deputy minister of foreign affairs, said that many in the government
have concerns about abuses in Buddhist institutions.
Wed like to see that reform being taken up by [the monks] themselves, rather than be
imposed by our side, he said. But this hasnt yet taken off.
The Sangha declined an interview request and did not respond to a written list of
questions.
It is perhaps no surprise that this campaign has won Buddha Issara few friends, but
the extent of his enemies wrath is something else. Gunmen wielding M-16 assault
rifles last year opened fire on the temple compound, and the monk has received
abduction threats.
Police guards now sit in a sandbag encampment at the entrance to Wat Ornoi, and
visitors must be led along the banana-tree-lined roads of the compound by men on
motorbikes.
If I can let people know about the problems in the clergy that have been piling up for
a long time and find solutions, Im glad to do this, even if I die in the process, Buddha
Issara said.
Sulak Sivaraksa, an 82-year-old authority on Thai Buddhism, does not like Buddha
Issaras chances of success.
The fundamental teachings of the Buddha are that we should be transforming greed
into generosity and hatred into loving kindness, Sulak said. But the new religions in
this country are consumerism and capitalism. We have more Buddhist images then
monks and all of these Buddhist images are for sale.
Now, many Thai men become monks for the benefits included a free university
education.
To be a monk is a commitment to a noble life, theyre supposed to be better than
ordinary people, Sulak said in the garden of his house in Bangkok. We give monks
clothing and food and housing because we believe they are leading a better life. So if
they misbehave we should chuck them out.
But there was no moral leadership in the Sangha now, he said, so misconduct went
unpunished.
Indeed, within the institution, Buddha Issara has little support.
I think this is just a human problem. We are living in society and sometimes in

societies things go wrong, said Anil Sakya, a senior official at Mahamakut Buddhist
University in Bangkok, dismissing the suggestion that reforms were needed to weed
out bad apples.
Every country, every religion has good and bad people. Look at Christianity and all
the bad Catholic fathers, look at the bad people in Islam. Its not a religious problem,
its a problem with certain people.
Out in Nakhon Pathom, in the shadow of the tallest stupa in the world, the faithful also
seemed unfazed by the increasingly lurid headlines.
Ubol Wongrukthai, a retired school teacher who now runs a Buddhist meditation
program, echoed Sakyas thoughts. This is the result of individual factors, of people
getting greedy, she said. Those people are not real monks, theyre just people
wearing monks robes.
But Sulak, the scholar, said it was inevitable that the religion would go through its own
regeneration to deal with an increasing incidence of scandals.
In Buddhism, we believe that things will die and will be reborn, he said. So in the
future, maybe we will have fewer monks but better monks.
Will Englund in Washington contributed reporting.
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Anna Fifield is The Posts bureau chief in Tokyo, focusing on Japan and the Koreas.
She previously reported for the Financial Times from Washington DC, Seoul, Sydney,
London and from across the Middle East.
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