Thailand's monk sex scandal

A sex scandal has hit Thailand's Buddhist clergy after a woman allegedly had sexual relationships with several monks and then blackmailed them to keep the liaisons quiet.

The scandal has "rocked" Thailand, said The Guardian, and "raised questions" about the money and power "enjoyed" by the country's "orange-robed clergy".

Vows of chastity

Most monks in Thailand belong to the Theravada sect, which requires them to be celibate and refrain from even touching women.

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They are given a monthly food allowance of between 2,500-34,200 baht (£57-£785), depending on their seniority, but they can also receive private donations that "can prove especially lucrative" for monks of "higher stature", said the broadsheet.

Suspicion that all was not well began last month when an abbot of a famous temple in Bangkok abruptly left the monkhood. Investigators subsequently found he had apparently been blackmailed by a woman who told him she was pregnant by him and demanded 7.2 million baht (£165,000).

The woman, Wilawan Emsawat, "allegedly enticed several Buddhist monks into sexual relationships, and then blackmailed them with videos and photos of the acts", said Euronews. Thai police believe she had sex with at least nine monks, several of whom transferred significant sums of money after she initiated the romantic relationships, police said.

The size of the payoffs highlights the large donations made to the temples that are "controlled by monks", which contrasts sharply with the "abstemious lives they are supposed to lead under Buddhist precepts". After she was arrested on suspicion of extortion, money laundering and receiving stolen goods, police investigators found that around 385 million baht (£8.8 million) had been deposited in Emsawat's bank accounts in the past three years alone.

Moral decay

At least nine abbots and senior monks have been disrobed and thrown out of the monkhood, said the Royal Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau. The Sangha Supreme Council – the governing body for Thai Buddhism – is to form a special committee to review monastic regulations.

Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has ordered a review of existing laws related to monks and temples, including the transparency of temple finances. The government is pressing for harsher penalties, such as fines and jail time, for monks who breach the monastic code.

The scandal is just "the latest" to "rock" Thailand's "much revered" Buddhist institution, said the BBC, after a raft of allegations of monks engaging in sex offences and drug trafficking in recent years. Wirapol Sukphol, a "jet-setting" monk with a "lavish lifestyle" was charged with sex offences, fraud and money laundering in 2017.

It's also led to a discussion around accountability. Despite several high-profile scandals, "many say there has been little real change in the centuries-old institution". Religious scholar Suraphot Thaweesak told BBC Thai that the strict hierarchy within monastic orders means junior members who witness wrongdoing "do not dare to speak up because it is very easy to be kicked out of the temple".

All too often, when the clergy's "moral decay" is in "full view", it's "the woman who takes the fall" while the monks are "cast as victims", wrote Sanitsuda Ekachai, in the Bangkok Post.