Tens of thousands of Buddhist monks yesterday gathered at a Thai temple mired in controversy to join in a ceremony organizers called the world’s largest offering of alms to renunciates.
The temple, 49km north of the capital, Bangkok, is run by the influential, if controversial, Dhammakaya sect and has been dogged by allegations of corruption for years, but has always denied them.
About 50,000 monks clad in orange robes chanted as devotees wearing white to symbolize the purity of the Buddha flocked to give alms at the Wat Phra Dhammakaya, famed for its enormous golden stupa that resembles an unidentified flying object.
Photo: Reuters
“Giving alms to 100,000 monks is a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said one devotee, Patsara Limkangwanmongkol, 47, who added that she had made similar offerings at the temple over the past decade.
“It is a must,” she said.
As many as 100,000 monks and novices took part in the event, organizers said in a statement, calling it the largest of its kind.
Religion in predominantly Buddhist Thailand is fast becoming a proxy war for the country’s divisive color-coded politics and the temple is one of several issues tearing at Thai Buddhism.
Another issue is a battle for the post of supreme patriarch, Thai Buddhism’s top post, which has divided the country between the leading candidate, who has ties to the Dhammakaya temple, and those who oppose him.
The monastery’s abbot was on Monday summoned by Thai Ministry of Justice officials dealing with cases that could affect national security to face charges of money-laundering and receiving illegal donations, among others.
The abbot, Phra Dhammachayo, said he received charitable donations, but did not know where they came from.
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