Phra Bua, Forest/Meditation Monk

One of the more famous forest monks, Phra Bua, decided after the financial crisis of the 1990's to donate the monies that devotees offered him (dana) for the making of merit (puna) to the Thai National Treasury, in order to help alleviate the country's great debt. Since that time, he has collected the equivalent of millions of dollars in baht and gold bouillon which he has donated to the state.

During my time in Chiangmai, I had the opportunity to attend a Buddhist ceremony that featured Phra Bua. He brought with him, to Wat Chedi Luang, the molars (relics) of the great forest ascetic Achan Mun, who used to be the abbot of Chedi Luant temple long ago.

When he came, there was a great deal of ceremony at the temple. Hundreds of devotees gathered from all over the country. The military escorted him into the temple complex and remained seated around the center area where the ritual of enshrinement occurred and where the great monk was seated. People donated their money by placing them on something I would call a money tree. After the relics were enshrined devotees came up to the pusapot where they were kept and kissed the glass, prayed, and cried before the shrine.

Monks from Wat Chedi Luang sat on a raised, covered platform next to where the devotees sat. After the main part of the ceremony, a young monk came around with bags filled with cold Pepsi's and gave one to each of the monks. They promptly popped open a can. It was quite the conflation of the secular and the sacred. Monks can't eat after noon, but that doesn't mean they can't drink.

Having the experience with Phra Bua was just one more case of the complexity of socially engaged Buddhism. On the one hand, monks are not to be involved in politics, yet here is a monk who is donating his temple's wealth directly to the state and receiving armed guards on account of it. Of all the experiences I had in Thailand, this was one of the most interesting and one about which I plan to do more research, for I understand that Phra Bua has also been actively involved in Sangha Reform but most likely for very different reasons than someone like Phra Paisal.