The end of Thai Buddhist Monks?

One week before Christmas 2015 we decided to head west to visit Wat Pa Phu Kon and on the way back to Udon Thani, call in to see Wat Baan Waeng as it had been some time since we last visited and were aware that there was ongoing work, which we hoped would completed this time round. Wat Baan Waeng is the Udon Thani Province version of a Heaven and Hell temple, of which there are several in Thailand, and this is what we came to see. While here I saw something that perhaps signals the end of Thai Buddhist monks. Well probably not entirely but it was something I had never seen and found quite amusing, almost to the point of it showing just how ridiculous religions can be, to my mind. (No intention to offend anyone who holds a faith).

At the entrance to the main temple building at Wat Baan Waeng, just on the left, I noticed seven glass cases with six of them housing a Buddha statue, one for each day of the week with the statue for Tuesday missing. Beyond that I did not initially take a great deal of notice as there were a number of local Thai's present and I did not want to disturb them whilst they were performing their worship to Buddha. A few moments later I heard the sound of coins hitting metal and quickly looked around to see a man placing one coin in to each of the alms bowels in front of the seven glass cases. It was what happened next that make me smile and have a bit of a contained chuckle. From each of the glass cases came a chant from a monk, as far as I could hear it was the same chant from each. What a great way to serve the local population was my first thought but thinking about it a little longer I wondered if this was for a number of Thai Buddhist monks. If you have an automated system, for a small cost, then you perhaps don't need a monk sitting on the floor to chant their mantras anymore. I am sure that is not the reason for these money making alms bowl being placed here but is really a cunning way of giving what the public wants, when they want it and a way to generate cold, hard cash. We have since seen other temples that have introduced this cash generating system but the actual number of monks does not appear to have decreased.

Having witnessed this we moved on to see what was new in the temple grounds but were a little disappointed to discover that the huge Buddha statue that was started some years ago was still not completed. There was however one new small section of "Hell" that I do not remember seeing on our previous visit and as with the others was pretty gory.

We will of course need to go back again, perhaps in two years or so to see if the statue is complete and hopefully with the money generated at the temple entrance, it will.

If you have never been to Wat Baan Waeng I would highly recommend a visit as it is something very different from the average temple grounds you will see on your travels in Udon Thani.