Monkish behaviour

Good to see it's not only Christian clergy who get into trouble, I guess!:

The disappearance of a respected monk from his Buddhist temple in central Bangkok has revealed a sex scandal that has rocked Thailand, with allegations of blackmail, lavish gifts and a string of dismissals raising questions about the money and power enjoyed by the country’s orange-robed clergy.

Investigations into the whereabouts of senior monk Phra Thep Wachirapamok unexpectedly led police to a woman who the police suspect conducted intimate relationships with several senior monks, and then blackmailed them to keep the liaisons quiet.

When police searched her home this month they found mobile phones that reportedly contained tens of thousands of compromising photos and videos of the missing monk, and several other senior Buddhist figures. Police also tracked her finances, which they said showed links to temples.

“We checked her financial trail and found that it involves many temples,”
Jaroonkiat Pankaew, from the Thai police’s central investigation bureau told a press briefing on Tuesday. “After we seized her mobile, we checked and found that there are several monks involved, and several [video] clips and Line chats,” he added, referring to the popular messaging app.

Phra Thep Wachirapamok has not been seen since he left the temple and no charges have been laid over his disappearance. But the woman, Wilawan Emsawat, was arrested on Tuesday, and has been charged with extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods.

The amount of money involved is really significant:

...in an interview with Thai media aired on Wednesday, she admitted to having relationships with two monks and a religious professor. Wilawan also said she received extravagant gifts, including a Mercedes-Benz SLK200 and “millions” of baht, in the form of bank transfers and a personal bank card. She expressed guilt over the relationships, saying she had fallen in love.

Police said that about 385 million baht ($11.9m) had been deposited into Wilawan’s bank accounts in the past three years. In a separate interview, she said she had given money to another monk she was dating.

Given that (I assume) the monks always dress like monks, I wonder how and where they find the privacy for such love affairs.   I mean, having a night in a motel and having a woman come to the door is going to be kind of obvious?   

Anyway, scandalous behaviour of monks in that country seem to have been prominent for many a decade now:

Newspapers in the 1990s were filled with stories of monastic scandals. There were countless reports of sexual misconduct, drinking, gambling, stealing from temple bank accounts, using and selling drugs, and even murder. Now, in the age of social media, these scandals are even more widely publicized. Each time another scandal goes public, Thai lay Buddhists question the role of monks in society as monks themselves consider their own relationship to the sangha.

Parallels to the mistrust of the Catholic priesthood in the United States are instructive. The widely reported pedophile priest scandal has resulted in fewer ordinations and more “priestless parishes.” The current birth rate in Thailand is 1.51 children per mother, even lower than China. Each year there will be fewer and fewer boys who will reach the age of ordination. Parents must decide if they want their son, and it is usually their only son, to pursue the monastic path. These scandals and their amplification through social media mean that having one’s son ordained as a monk is not as prestigious, or as safe, as it once was. Parents may hesitate to entrust the care of their sons to monks whose reputation may not be exemplary.