|
|
Santi Asoke, Nakon Pathom
During my first visit to Thailand, I had the opportunity to visit the Santi Asok Temple community that is located just a few blocks from the temple of Samaneri Dhammananda, the first Thai female monk. After visiting with Samaneri Dhammananda, I went to Asok in the late afternoon. I was greeted by a woman who has ordained as a female nun in the Asok community for over twenty years. While there, she gave me a brief tour of some of the facilities associated with Asok and explained their views. I knew only that they were a moral reform sect of Buddhism, inspired in part by the teachings of the late Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (click here for more information on his work) The founder of the group is a man known as Phra Bhodirak, who, prior to his ordination as a monk was a famous rock star in Thailand. He is representative of a handful of middle-class men of Chinese origin who have developed programs that are strongly critical of traditional Buddhism. The Santi Asok movement came to public prominence in the 1990's in part because of its association with a former Bangkok governor, Chamlong Simuang, who, prior to his governorship, was a Brigadier-General. His political party, Phalang Tham or The Force for Righteousness, is closely associated with Santi Asoke, gaining him the nickname "Mr. Clean" or "Holy Monk" because of Santi Asoke's moral revival efforts. Since that time, the Phalam Tham has remained a vibrant political voice, making up part of the coalition governments from 1992-1997. Niels Mulder, in his book Inside Thai Society indicates that the presence of Santi Asoke with its visibility, influence, and an independent order of monks, is just one of a number of ways that recent changes within Thai Buddhism is threatening the typically unquestioned integrative function of Thai Buddhism as a national symbol of Thai identity. In the midst of a Thai society that is becoming increasingly consumeristic and materialistic, Santi Asok, with its emphasis on vegetarianism, alternatives to capitalism, and environmental concern becomes more an more a viable alternative to those who are dissatisfied with what Thai society has to offer. While I was at the temple, I learned about many of their work projects: growing mushrooms, organic vegetables, weaving, providing free cremation to anyone who requests it, educating boys and girls within the temple compound, and how all four kinds of Buddhist practitioners (ordained men and women and lay men and women) live within the same temple community. I visited some of their agricultural projects: 
I saw the very simple, open air homes composed of a small raised platform, a shelf, a mosquito net where people who have made a commitment to the ordained life, such as my tour guide Sighamat Rin Fa, live. 
I was shown the crematory, which provides free cremation to anyone who requests it. This, I was told, is quite a revolutionary act in itself as traditional Buddhist temples have a charge for the cremation. In a related vein, I was also shown the recycling area, for recycling is one of the major aspects of the Santi Asoke community. 
I had dinner with some of the school boys in a building that many of them had built with their own hands. I was told how students who are applying to the school must undertake a rigorous kind of "boot camp" prior to acceptance in order to demonstrate not only their superior aptitude in academic subjects but their mental and physical ability to endure hard physical labor as well. 
I left with a feeling that I was somehow seeing a version of an early "Farm School" much like that which birthed Warren Wilson, but without the strict religious ideology. For Santi Asoke identity is formed in opposition to the official Sangha within Buddhism. In fact, during the 1990's the sect was officially removed from within the Buddhist hierarchy, deemed heretical for its teachings for its practice of combining men and women, lay and ordained all within one temple community.
During my second visit to Thailand, I was unable to visit the Asoke community again, as I had to return to the states prior to the end of our travel. My students remained, however, and had the opportunity to spend a day with members of the community. I had been eager to hear their thoughts as the work orientation of the community, the emphasis on vegetarianism, the desire to get at the pure truth of Buddhism that is not corrupted by institutionalization, etc. were aspects of the community that I suspected Warren Wilson students might enjoy. It sounds, however, from all reports as if the students had a quite different response. Their tour guide struck them as a foreigner who knew hardly more about Buddhism than did they. Their visit to a site where bodies were under glass in various modes of decay and where they depicted images of death through torture and mutilation as a way of engendering release from the attachment to an impermanent physical form struck many of the students as a "bit much" to say the least. Of all the communities I have visited in Thailand, Santi Asoke remains of greatest interest to me, for it proposes an interesting study on the relationship of sect, possibly, cult to traditional religious authority and it lives out the principles of Buddhism in active engagement with society as one of its primary tenets. A few short meetings with these folks by either the students or by myself is not enough to even begin to understand the complexity of what makes this movement popular and long standing, despite the way it has been banned by the official Sangha.
|
|
|