Thai Buddhists Fed Up with Disobedient Monks

By Alison Lesley --
05 Mar 2015 --

Thai Buddhists have found themselves ignored and frustrated as corruption is discovered in their leadership.

The Supreme Sangha Council, the body that governs Buddhist monks, has been the subject of repeated revelations of wrong doing. The problems have become so great that the military government has newly classified the situation as one of its main priorities.
Among the problems plaguing the Council are the removal in January of senior abbot Phra Phromsuthi of the Wat Sa Ket monastery and the removal (just two months earlier) of Phra Kru Wisit Seelaporn, an abbot at Wat Hiranyararm. Phromsuthi was accused of embezzling from the budget set aside for the cremation of his predecessor, while Seelaporn invested over a million dollars in the stock market. The invested money was taken from public donations. Another monk was caught with more than 100,000 pills of methamphetamine; another was arrested for driving drunk and a third was fleeing from prosecution on charges of wildlife trafficking.

Local adherents of Buddhism have become tired of the repeated wrongdoing by monks, as well as the seemingly lax response to the illegalities which have been coming to light for years. Fervent Buddhists maintain that the National Office of Buddhism should be taking a firmer stance on the problems of corruption within the monasteries and the Supreme Sangha Council. The National Office of Buddhism has not offered any respite to frustrated Buddhists, as it has come out in defense of the way the Sangha is carrying out regulation of the monkhood.

Thai Buddhists have been demanding change within the Sangha. Some voices from within the Sangha have also iterated a desire for change, especially for more severe punishments for monks who break their vows.

Many devout Buddhists have become so frustrated that they have stopped considering themselves practicing Buddhists.