Wat Phra Dhammakaya
By Patrick Shaw
Thailand
2008-05-14
Those of you who have flown into Bangkok's Don Muang Airport in recent years may have stared out of the window on approach and wondered about the curious structures being assembled a few kilometres to the north. From the air, they resemble odd looking gold coloured flying saucers. They're not of course and by chance, I recently had the opportunity to visit the site and was given a personal tour.
The entire compound is owned by the Dhammakaya Foundation (http://www.dhammakaya.or.th/), a Bhuddist movement founded in the 1970's. My girlfriend, who practises Bhuddism, is keen to visit a temple each weekend to relax and meditate. I also enjoy the opportunity to wander around the grounds of the various temples in Bangkok and relax. Each week, we will visit a different temple and on this particular week, it was the turn of Wat Phra Dhammakaya.
Arriving at the grounds, one of the first things you can see is a shopping mall and and apartment complex. Above the mall is a sign that reads 'City of Meditation' and honestly speaking, the cynic in me was already on high alert, as such a sign is more akin to a commercial enterprise. The temple grounds are vast and cover an area similar to an international airport. It's is clearly visible on Google Earth, as is the large scale construction currently underway at the site. We had arrived on a public holiday and there were no guided tours operating. We felt a little lost and didn't know which way to turn. The scale of this place is overwhelming and certainly not somewhere to tour on foot on a hot day.
We found the information centre and office building, where we picked up a few leaflets and were introduced to a volunteer staff member who was willing to show us around the grounds personally in a pick up truck. After being shown a video about the Dhammakaya Movement and being shown the unusually utilitarian main temple, we were driven to The Dhammakaya chedi and Grand Meditation Amphitheatre, a two story cloister for prayer and meditation. As I was unaware of this place beforehand, nothing could prepare me for the sheer scale of it. I was astonished. Believe it or not, they are building a place so vast, upon completion, they expect to accommodate a million monks, at the same time and in the same place, all meditating at the same time... and when you see this place, you can believe it.
As you approach, it looks exactly like an airport terminal building and I couldn't help but imaging 747s parked at the numbered gates. Walking through to the main amphitheatre, I couldn't help but wonder if it was being constructed by the same people that built Suvarnabhumi Airport. All it is lacking is a runway and they will be able to receive monks by the plane load.
At the centre of the amphitheatre is the Chedi itself. The bright gold coloured terrace and dome of the Chedi is actually made up of 300,000 titanium and gold coated Bhudda images, made of silicon bronze. Within the Chedi there is room for another 700,000 of the same design of statues, making one million altogether. A donation of 15,000 Baht will get you your own statue with your name on the underside.
The floor of the amphitheatre is made up of around 400,000 one metre square concrete tiles, which themselves can be 'sponsored' by anyone making a donation of 5000 Baht and if you choose to do so, your fingerprint and name will be engraved onto one of these squares. So, with all of those blocks and all of those Bhudda statues up for sponsorship... do the maths.
By this point, I was starting to become a little overwhelmed at the scale of cash investment here. So when we were then driven over to The Great Sapha Dhammakaya Hall, I found myself wondering how many A380 aircraft it could house. The Hall is a gigantic aircraft hangar like construction, on two levels, the lower level serving the dual purpose of being a vast underground car park, or worship/meditation area, complete with multiple toilets, for the vast numbers of people expected to use the building, for monastic conferences etc... up to 300,000 people if necessary. It is thought to be the largest assembly hall in the world.
This vast hall also houses the studio for (http://www.dmc.tv/) which is the movement's very own satellite broadcasting channel. DMC TV broadcast around the world daily, spreading the word of Dhammakaya on their free to view station... be in no doubt, this is a major Buddhist operation.
As I said earlier, I had no idea this place existed until this visit. As soon as I mentioned to my guide that I wrote for a website and planned to write an article about the Dhammakaya Movement, the mood seemed to change rapidly, which surprised me. My guide started asking questions about the website, it's audience, visitor numbers... and crucially, what I planned to say exactly. Ordinarily, this would be quite normal but I sensed a certain paranoia and this intrigued me. Furthermore, she was keen to point out to me that Thailand has 'laws' regarding the media and the representation of Buddhism, which I took as a warning of sorts.
Before I knew it, I found myself sitting in the organisation's international foreign affairs department, where this website was examined and I was given 'permission' to write my article. To be fair however, when asking why they were so concerned about what someone would write, it was stated to me that most outsiders do not understand what the foundation is trying to achieve... they are quite right about that... I certainly don't understand.
I started asking questions and it soon became clear that the foundation have suffered a lot of bad publicity. Allegations of large scale embezzlement, government protectionism, and alleged distortion of Buddhist teachings echo around the Buddhist community worldwide. Even those within other Buddhist organisations describe the foundation as 'cult like'. Court cases regarding missing funds and widespread rumours of connections to high level government officials have left Dhammakaya's reputation in tatters with ordinary Thai people.
Coming to Thailand? Take a look at our hotel rates: Thailand Hotels
You may think this easy to say with a little research. However, I am in a unique position of being able to readily ask the opinion of working class Thais from a broad spectrum of Thai society. After our visit, my girlfriend wanted to go elsewhere to meditate, as she didn't feel she had truly had a Buddhist experience. This was a remarkable statement, as she has never made such a claim in all the temples we have ever visited in the past.
Asking around in a restaurant in a Bangkok suburb, the statement that we had visited Wat Dhammakaya was sometimes met with laughter, sometimes with derision, sometimes with a wall of silence. The overall impression I got is that most of the people I spoke to are either unwilling to discuss the matter, or simply view the organisation as not even worthy of discussion at all. It's apparently an embarrassment to ordinary Thais that practice what they describe as 'genuine Buddhism'.
That said, the movement has a large scale following in the urban middle classes, where a substantial amount of their funding comes from. I do not profess to understand where Dhammakaya fits into the overall makeup of Thai society or indeed Thai Buddhism. I can only tell you what I observe in the circles in which I move and my own feelings.
Over the years and as a result of the time I have spent in various Buddhist countries in the region, I have taken a passing interest in that particular way of life. I have been enjoying reading a book sent to me by a friend and trying to absorb Buddhist precepts, as I have often longed for a frame of mind where I can be at ease with the mad world around me and the madness within my own mind. I am a socialist and have egalitarian views but I will not be critical of how others choose to spend their personal wealth. That said, when I observe that vast expenditure at this temple, I find it hard not to imagine what good could otherwise have been done with such monies... for I don't believe any true Buddhist would require such an extravagance to practice their way of life. Honestly, my interest in Buddhism has been set back years, as I personally find such extravagance with donated money to be quite ugly... and Dhammakaya left me feeling like I had visited a cult.
Comment on this article in our forum thread: Wat Dhammakaya - Industrial Scale Buddhism
Need advice? Got a question? Go to our Thailand Forum
