Heartland

July 15, 2007

Is Buddha tooth here the real McCoy?

By Tan Dawn Wei & Mavis Toh

WHEN it comes to housing a relic as sacred as a Buddha tooth, devotees spare no expense – as was the case for the new Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Chinatown. More than 60,000 donors poured $45 million and 270kg of gold into the four-storey building, where a tooth believed to be one of Buddha’s molars now resides in a 3.6m-high stupa made out of worshippers’ gold donations.

But now, doubts have been cast over whether this tooth belonged to Buddha -or even a human being. And they range from the historical and political to the anatomical.

Mr Yap Kok Feng, a paralegal executive, wrote to Lianhe Zaobao recently claiming that the relic looks nothing like a human tooth. Continue Reading »

Here are some replies in the ST Forum on the Fake monks in Singapore:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Talk/Story/STIStory_139141.html

July 15, 2007

How to spot a fake monk

AS THE Ambassador of Thailand to Singapore, I write in response to the articles, ‘Exposed: 50 fake monks & nuns – All holed up in Geylang’ and ‘Cat-and-mouse stake-out’ (The Sunday Times, July 8).

I applaud the efforts by all three journalists who co-authored this exclusive report, and would like to share with your readers that the Thai government and several organisations in Thailand, such as the Office of National Buddhism, the Foreign Ministry, and the Royal Thai Police, have never taken this problem lightly.
Continue Reading »

Two stories from the Straits Times on fake monks in Singapore:

July 8, 2007
EXPOSED: 50 FAKED MONKS & NUNS

All holed up in Geylang

By Ben Nadarajan & Teh Joo Lin

A FOUR-STOREY motel smack in the red light district of Geylang has been the hideaway for groups of bogus monks and nuns who make their way from northern Thailand in and out of Singapore for quick pickings.

Numbering as many as 100, they take refuge in Lorong 28 in Geylang, venturing out in the mornings for their ‘alms’ rounds.

At any one time, there could be 20 or 30 of them. Last week, there were about 50 of them.

They are Thais on social visit passes who use the guise of religious robes to prey on the sensibilities of HDB heartlanders. The scam has been going on for at least two years.

The whole group made a quick exit on Friday afternoon, after police came sniffing around their lodgings the night before.

In twos and threes, they lugged their backpacks and trolley bags onto taxis and made their way to Golden Mile Complex in Beach Road.

After exchanging Singapore currency for Thai baht, they boarded coaches headed for Johor Baru, herded by a Thai man who appeared to be in charge of the logistics.
Continue Reading »

From BuddhistChannel TV

Fake Thai monks beg in Singapore
DPA, Jull 9, 2007

Singapore — Bogus monks and nuns from Thailand have been collecting alms from Singaporeans and evading police by making speedy getaways, The Sunday Times reported.
Numbering as many as 100, they take refuge in a four-storey hotel in the red-light district of Geyland.

Arriving on social visit passes, they don religious robes in the morning and make their rounds, the newspaper said. Many then shed their robes and emerge in civilian clothing, heading for nearby coffee shops.

A large group made a quick exit after police were seen near their lodgings.
After exchanging Singapore currency for Thai baht, they boarded coaches headed for Malaysia.

“I am scared I’ll get arrested,” the newspaper quoted a 21-year-old man as saying. “If I am thrown in jail, I will have no future.”

Anyone who collects alms or solicits charitable contributions under false pretences can be fined up to 2,000 Singapore dollars (1,315 US dollars) or jailed up to three months, or both.

The fake monks operate from syndicates which are based in Johor in Malaysia and Hatyai in southern Thailand, said a spokesman for the Thai Buddhist Temple in Singapore.

The gang leaders work closely with their partners in the city-state, who pocket 30 per cent of their collections, he added.

A fake monk can make as much as 800 Singapore dollars (526 US dollars) a day, but usually the amount is far less.

Article from Straits Times dated May 4, 2007

BUDDHISM IN THAILAND
Official status a risky path
By Sunanda K. Datta-Ray

TWO ornate gilt chairs are set aside for monks in a glass enclosure of the viewing gallery on the sixth floor of Bangkok’s new Suvarnabhumi Airport. There are so many such indications of reverence for Buddhism that the recent demonstration to recognise it as the national religion seemed unnecessary to many who watched the saffron-draped monks, the devotees in pure white and the nine lumbering elephants. They had walked 18km in the gruelling heat.

As Thailand’s Constitution Drafting Committee chairman Prasong Soonsui put it, while he does not object to Buddhism being the state religion, formal recognition does not seem important.

There is no doubt that in self-perception as well as in the world’s eyes, Thailand already is a Buddhist nation. The dharma will gain nothing from official status. Nor will the kingdom.

Continue Reading »