The Dhammakaya Temple and the Dilemma of Abandoned Temples in Thailand : หน้า 184/207
The Warm Hearted Family : หน้า 184/207 Exploring the resilience of the Dhammakaya Temple amidst media scrutiny and the alarming trend of abandoned temples in Thailand.
In recent years, the Dhammakaya Temple has faced severe media scrutiny yet continues to attract thousands to its ceremonies, indicating a strong community support unlike the fate of many abandoned temples in Thailand. With nearly 8,000 temples reported as abandoned—a third of all temples—questions arise about what causes this neglect. Many old temples built by ancestors, once thriving in a ten-million population Thailand, are now crumbling as no new temples have risen to replace them. Reports also highlight a concerning trend of temple lands being converted into profit-driven enterprises, violating core Buddhist values. The situation raises the issue of maintaining the heritage of these spiritual sites when faced with modern challenges and opportunism. For more insights, visit dmc.tv.
หัวข้อประเด็น
-Resilience of Dhammakaya Temple -Media influence on public perception -Statistics on abandoned temples -Buddhist principles vs capitalistic ventures -Heritage preservation challenges
ข้อความต้นฉบับในหน้า
Of course, people closely followed the news about the
Temple. After two years, the outcome was the reverse.
Unbelievably, the Temple has survived to this day. Many said
that in the same period of time, if the Thai government's
situation paralleled that of Dhammakaya, it would have
collapsed in just a few months. The parliament would certainly
have been dissolved, and a new election would have been
organized.
However, in the midst of the vicious media attack, people
still received leaflets (invitations) from the Dhammakaya
Temple to join its Buddhist ceremonies on Buddhist holidays.
After the events, the Temple reported that a great number of
people, nearly 100,000, attended each of the ceremonies.
Although the Temple was rumored, by the media, to have
bribed people to join its events, I disagree. With due
consideration, I cannot see any possible way that the Temple
could have given away such a sum of money to the nearly
100,000 participants for each Buddhist ceremony. If the bribes
had been paid, it would have immediately bankrupted the
Temple. And significantly, some Temple members are at the
top tier of successful business men and women in Thailand. It
would be impossible to hire these people to come to the temple.
Therefore, we can conclude that the media created their own
version of the truth.
While following the news of the Dhammakaya Temple,
I also tracked the news concerning the increased number of
abandoned temples in Thailand. During those years, a survey
found around 8,000 abandoned temples, nearly one-third of
the total number of temples (estimated 30,000) throughout the
country. If all these temple lands were combined, they would
cover approximately 50,000 acres. This raises an obvious
question: "What caused their abandonment?"
The temples can be grouped into the old and the new
temples. The approximately 30,000 old temples were
established by our country's ancestors in an era when the Thai
population numbered approximately ten million people.
Logically, how many new temples were established in the past
30 years? The fact is that old temples are being abandoned
while new temples have not increased at all.
In reality, the situation of abandoned temples has not
reached its end. There have been growing reports of temple
lands being converted into for-profit enterprises. Such
transgressions severely contravene Buddhist principles and
practices.
Instead of maintaining the old temples of our country's
ancestors, some people take advantage of the situation by
increasing the numbers of abandoned temples. More
importantly, our ancestors constructed them with faith and
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Abandoned Temples and Prosperous Temples
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