Showing 1 - 10 of 32
Real barriers to temple reform
Editorial, Published on 01/02/2026
» After a year of temple scandals, Thailand's top monks have promised a great clean-up. The orders sound bold. The question is whether a feudal system built on censorship, obedience and patronage can truly reform itself.
PC Plod visits female monks
Oped, Editorial, Published on 30/11/2025
» Barely a week after the Anutin government issued its new ministerial regulations to "protect" Buddhism, police last week showed up at a Bhikkhuni monastery in Songkhla.
Honest monks hung out to dry
Editorial, Published on 28/09/2025
» A series of monk scandals and temple corruption cases in recent months has prompted the Ecclesiastical Council to order all temples to make their accounts transparent. But good intentions are not enough. Without systemic support, the order may prove hollow.
Unholy identity crisis
Oped, Editorial, Published on 27/08/2025
» Allegations against Phra Alongkot -- the former abbot of the famous Wat Phrabat Namphu in Lop Buri -- have not only revealed a crisis of faith in Thai Buddhism, but have brought the issues of identity theft and impersonation to the forefront.
Donors must still beware
Oped, Editorial, Published on 21/08/2025
» The Revenue Department's decision to require Buddhist temples to adopt an e-donation system, beginning in January, is a welcome development -- if long overdue.
Reform clergy with your wallet
Editorial, Published on 03/08/2025
» The recent sex scandal involving high-ranking monks has shaken public faith to the core. But the responses from the clergy, the state, and the public all miss the point. This crisis in Thai Buddhism is not about monks and sex -- it's about monks and money. Address the problem incorrectly, and the sex scandals and temple corruption will never end.
Clergy in need of control, not reform
Editorial, Published on 20/07/2025
» After a long silence during Thailand's biggest sex scandal in the clergy, the Ecclesiastical Council and the National Office of Buddhism (NOB) have finally spoken out. Their big idea? A new law to imprison the offending monks and women involved in the scandal.
Corrupt monks have lost their way
Oped, Sanitsuda Ekachai, Published on 14/07/2025
» Just as Thailand was about to celebrate Asalha Bucha Day and the start of Buddhist Lent, the nation was gripped by the biggest sex scandal ever to rock its clergy. How irony.
UN turns 80 amid wave of global crises
Oped, John J Metzler, Published on 02/07/2025
» Amid wars, global strife and massive refugee dislocations, the current global scene is overwhelmed with crises ranging from the Middle East to Ukraine and a dozen African conflicts, which rarely make the news. The contemporary world situation in many ways resembles 1945 and the end of WWII. There's a strange deja vu of a history most people do not know or would rather forget.
Reform temples, or lose public faith
Editorial, Published on 08/06/2025
» Temple corruption no longer raises eyebrows. The Wat Rai Khing scandal is just bigger, louder, and harder to ignore. It demands serious reform before public faith erodes further.