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felt a hint of envy. If Wat Paknam had been a royal temple anywhere else with so many activities, Luang Phaw would have been showered with monastic titles and these in turn would have given him the influence and acceptance to go much further in his work. He received the humble title of Phra Kru Samanatham-samathan in 1921. But as it turned out, the title of Preceptor which he really needed for his work, to enable him to conduct his own ordinations was withheld by the authorities for over thirty years. He would have to wait until 1949 for his first royal title. Luang Phaw had more immediate worries on his mind. The lack of food for the monks was a regular occurrence. Now that he was abbot of Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen, for the princely sum of 360,000 baht he was able to build a kitchen sufficiently large to cater for a one-thousand strong community of monks, novices, laymen and nuns. The nuns were detailed to run the kitchen. In the beginning rice had to be shipped from the family farm in Songpingong. Later, however, help came from local layfolk and this tradition continues down to the present day. It was the first temple refectory to be built in Thailand. Luang Phaw took upon himself the responsibility to provide for all the monks and novices in the temple. He said: "Eat alone and there's never enough — eat together and there will be too much to finish — just you wait, success is only around the corner!" In actual fact, Luang Phaw himself, always had sufficient to eat, because supporters would always single out the abbot for special attention, however he couldn't let the rest of his monks go hungry. That