ကမၻာပ်က္ကပ္အတြင္ း ျမန္မာ ျပည္ပ်က္မည္ဟု ထိုင္း ဆရာေတာ္ ပရာ့ စံုခ်ိဳင္ း ေဟာကိန္ းထုတ္

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/228293/council-to-probedoomsayer-monk

Council to probe doomsayer monk

• Published: 24/03/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

The Secretariat of the Sangha Supreme Council will send officials to a temple in Loei province to determine whether a well-known preacher who last month predicted the end of the world was near has breached Buddhist teachings.

Phra Somchai: End of the world is nigh

The council's move follows allegations that Phra Somchai, known as Luang Phor Porsrisuriya Khemato, a popular preacher at Wat Romportitham in Loei's Nong Hin district, has engaged in conduct unbecoming of a monk.

He reportedly allows fellow monks to wear long hair, grow beards and tells them not to perform routine prayers, which is against the Sangha rules.

Phra Somchai was also thrust into the media spotlight after scores of panic-stricken people flocked to his highland temple after he predicted last month the world would end soon.

Amnart Buasiri, director of the Secretariat of the Sangha Supreme Council, said officials have been sent to the temple in Loei province to check if Phra Somchai had broken any rules.

If Phra Somchai considered himself to be a monk, he must not behave improperly. Monks must have their heads shaved and take morning alms, said Mr Amnart. The preacher would be defrocked if he was found to have acted against Buddhist teachings, said the director of the council, the clergy's governing body.

Phra Somchai had predicted the natural disasters that struck several countries this year and this made his followers believe his forecasts were accurate.

Many relocated to his highland temple fearing a great flood.

In his preachings last month, Phra Somchai said that in March all continents would collapse and be wiped out by giant waves.

He warned that Vietnam would be completely destroyed while small areas of Burma would remain intact. Bangkok would disappear but much of the Northeast spared the catastrophe due to its large concentration of Buddhist sites.

Around 300 resort-like houses were built in the vast temple area, which was expanded from 800 rai to 1,000 rai. Most of the temple land was degraded forest land which was donated to the temple. It houses about 150 monks. Owners of most of the houses were wealthy people.