When Panom was young, the government only paid for kids to go to primary school. Any further education was at a cost to the family. Since his parents were farmers, they could not afford to pay for him to continue school. So, Panom became a monk at age 14, like many other boys his age. He studied under a very famous monk who brought him from his home town of Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai. (His temple in Chiang Mai was the one that we visited.) While living in Chiang Mai, the government decided that they needed land in the temple's area for military use. They began forcing the local people to give up their land and move. According to Panom, he led the people to fight back against the government, a fight that the people would later win. Many years later, after Panom had retired from being a monk and was getting married, the people in the area presented Panom and his new wife with a plot of land as a thank you for helping them fight for their land.
Nowadays, there are significantly fewer monks than their used to be. Panom attributes this to the fact that the government now pays for and requires all children to attend not just primary, but secondary school as well. After secondary school, many kids then continue their education with University. Today, he thinks that the number of monks in Thailand has been cut in half.
Why become a monk? Panom explains that the best way to think of it, is that people are like green mangoes. The only way to mature and become sweet and yellow is to become a monk. Becoming a monk is not required by Thai law. However, it is Buddhist rules that say a man must become a monk even if for only a few weeks.
Monks are not necessarily vegetarian. They eat whatever is donated to them by the people each day. Early each morning, the monks leave their temples and walk the street collecting food from the people. This food is for breakfast and lunch - there's no consumption of food after noon.
Buddhists have a three month period (lent) where they "should" give up meat, alcohol, and the killing of any things - even mosquitoes. (Todd was kinda on board with Buddhism until the mosquito thing.)
The King of Thailand visited the Chiang Mai temple where Panom lived while he was there because his teacher was very famous. As a gift to the temple/teacher, the King gave them a buddha statue made entirely out of gold. (The last photo in our previous posting shows the golden buddha housed in the back.)
There are many many teak trees growing wild throughout Chiang Mai. Panom said that at one point teak trees were not protected and everyone was cutting them down. Now, the government protects the trees and it is illegal to cut down wild teak trees. It is, however, ok to grow teak trees on your own land and cut them down. But, in oder to cut down a tree on your own land, you must ask the government for permission, state how many trees and how big the trees. That way, if someone gets caught with teak wood, they can prove that it's from their own land and avoid a penalty. It also seems that the government is subsidizing teak tree reforestation. They provide loans with no interest to farmers willing to devote some of their land to growing teak.
