Chapter Seven - Phra Phothirak (Bodhiraks'a) Bhikkhu and Samnak Santi Asok

Summary

The controversial reformist monk Phra Phothirak (Bodhiraks'a) Bhikkhu and his Santi Asok movement provide a clear demonstration of the fundamental practical and organisational incompatibility between middle-class reformist Buddhism and the establishment form of the religion controlled by the sangha hierarchy. The three reformist monks discussed in Chapter Six, Phutthathat, Panyanantha, and Thepwethi, deal with the contradictions between reformist and establishment Buddhism primarily at the theoretical level and all three have remained within the official sangha hierarchy, although firmly aligned with the Mahanikay Order rather than the Thammayut. Phothirak, on the other hand, has acted out Phutthathat's and Panyanantha's theoretical rejection of the teachings of establishment Buddhism at the practical and organisational level by rejecting the administrative authority of the Mahatherasamakhom and of both the Mahanikay and Thammayut Orders. Phothirak claims that if his religious practice is to be truly consistent with reformist critiques of establishment Buddhism he must separate himself from the traditional Thai sangha in deed as well as in word. As a consequence Phothirak's Santi Asok movement effectively represents the formation of a third, although as yet unofficial, nikaya or order within the Thai sangha.

Phra Phothirak (Rak Rakphong) was born in Srisaket province in northeast Thailand in 1934 of a Chinese father, Thorngsuk Sae Ngow, and a Thai mother, Bunhoom Rakphong. When he was ordained, Rak Rakphong took the Pali clerical name of Phothirakkhito (Bodhirakkhito) but he prefers to use the Sanskritised form of this name, Phothirak (Bodhiraks'a). Rak studied fine arts and majored in creative writing at a vocational college in Bangkok, graduating in 1958. Rak subsequently worked at a Bangkok television station in art, design, and directing, and comparing television programmes. After a successful career in television, he became interested in Buddhism and in September 1970 visited Phra Ratchaworakhun (Rajavaraguna), abbot of the Thammayut monastery of Wat Asokaram Paak-naam, south of Bangkok city, and soon after took ordination as a chiipakhaaw, an intermediate ascetic stage between laity and monkhood. One month later, on 7 November 1970, he was fully ordained as a monk by Phra Ratchaworakhun.