The Buddhist monk’s role in Thailand

One month ago I drove around 80 miles to witness the initiation of one of my few Thai friends, becoming a Buddhist monk. I had met Ad for the first time about 18 months ago as my local water-delivery man and since then we’ve become good friends. Being curious, I’ve asked him about his decision becoming a monk. A religious philosophical answer is what I did expect but surprisingly his main motive was economic.

During the last 6 months of his job the number of customers increased significantly, whilst his boss’ unreasonable demands steadily rose. As a result he had to expand his deliver area and work more hours trying to get new customers. So after a while he got fed up with the whole situation, quitted and decided to become a Buddhist monk. After doing a little research, It became clear that many people in similar situations made the same decision.

“Hello dear, I’ve become a monk.”

Charitable gifts are mainly what Thai monks live on: the population donates eatable products and other goods as a way of earning merit. However, the more persons decide to become a monk only to escape from economic recession a crunch point will be reached some day. There will be fewer gifts as there are less people to donate while a growing number of monks must compete for them. Guide to Buddhism and Thai culture

In our Western Christian society the monasteries always supported themselves owning livestock and farming ground. Additionally, the Christian monasteries operate hospices, hospitals and schools. They offer lodging to travellers and study various sciences. These institutions are entirely self-supportive communities with their own micro-economy. The civilisation’s collapse and the Dark Ages could be survived due to their self-sufficiency.

The question kept popping up into my mind: besides the spiritual, what is the Thai Buddhist monk’s practical contribution? Might this kind of thinking be considered by the Thais a typical example of another arrogant foreigner attacking their culture, or could there be some validity to my question? You may think I’m totally wrong or perhaps agree with me. What I experienced is what I wrote about here. If I’m wrong, please explain it to me…