Buddhist Monk, Fashion Victim?

Thai Buddhist monks are not immune to the dictates of fashion, it seems. Not fashion as it refers to dress, of course, but fashion nonetheless. There was an example of this recently when the abbot of Wat Burapha in Phana celebrated his promotion to Phra Kru. Several of the local monasteries now have pictorial maps of their temple compound and the abbot let us know that he thought it would be a good idea if there was such a map for Wat Burapha.

The conversation he had was with Pensri and her friend Yupin. Both of them were students at Matayom Phana, a school which was held in the grounds of Wat Burapha for many years before the Ministry of Education set up Phana Suksa School. Former students of this school hold a meeting at least once a year and a newsletter has been circulated amongst them for several years now. The youngest of these former students are well into their sixties now.

The upshot of the abbot's conversation with Pensri and Yupin was that two maps were produced, one showing Wat Burapha as it is now, and one as it was in the days of Matayom Phana. Here are Pensri, Yupin and another former student, Charatchom, whose husband Samart supervised the production of the maps, offering the 'old' map:

 
And here is me, offering the new version:

 
And here is a clearer view of the two maps. You can click on the pictures to get a larger image.

 

A fad that has largely fallen into disuse in Phana is to inter cremated ashes in small that (the Lao form of chedi).

The problem with this fashion quickly became apparent: there was not enough space in temple compounds. Wat Phra Lao was an example of this, and nowadays the old custom has been reverted to: that is, ashes are interred inside the wall surrounding the compound.

Another fashion that is rapidly filing up space in some temple compounds is for statuary. Again, most of these contain the ashes of members of the family who have donated them. Here is the usbosot at Wat Burapha. If you enlarge the pic below by clicking on it, you will see the small commemorative plaques on the statues.

 
The whole area of donations to a temple is quite complicated. Monks are expected to accept whatever is offered to them, not expressing (or feeling) any liking or disliking. It is possible that a conversation regarding the appropriateness or otherwise of a planned donation can sometimes be skillfully manipulated to the benefit of the temple. This sort of skill is also used to 'suggest' what would be useful or acceptable to a monk, since he is not supposed to ask directly for anything. Lay people can make things easier for a monk by asking him whether there is anything he or the temple needs.

Comments

[Belstaff Shop]

So fun article is! I know more from it.