Dharma Art of Suan Moke, Chaiya, Surat Thani, Thailand

May 30, 2021

Chaiya, small town in the mid-South of Thailand, was probably one of the functional centres of the ancient Srivijayan empire that dominated the region between the 8th and 12th Centuries.

The Wat Thannamalai or Suan Moke monastery was founded by a Buddhist monk named Buddhathat Bhikkhu back in 1932 on a 60 Hectare piece of land (now expanded to almost 180 Hectares). Suan Moke is different from other temples in that it doesn’t have an ordination hall.

Buddhathat Bhikkhu was an influential (still very much so today) philosopher who reinterpreted Buddhist doctrine. Early in his dharma training in the temples of Bangkok Buddhathat found that the Sangha itself was corrupt and preoccupied with rank, prestige, and comfort, rather than the highest ideals of Buddhism. As a result, he returned back to his rural home and founded Sun Moke as a place to meditate in the forest. Buddhathat kept a simple lifestyle, avoiding the customary ritualism and internal politics of the Sangha. Buddhathat rejected the concept of rebirth, no ongoing entity or soul afterlife. This is because there is no one, there is no one who dies and is reborn.

Buddhathat Bhikkhu’s ideas are grounded in a view that the essential nature of all religions is the same. The three resolutions of Buddhathat are;

1. That all people strive to realize the heart of their own religions

2. That all people make mutual good understanding of essential principles among the religions

3. That all people liberate themselves from the power of materialism

Those who have the highest understanding of the dharma will feel there is no religion.

Progressive people within Thai society have been inspired by Buddhathat’s ideas in the areas of education, ecology, social welfare, traditional medicine, and rural development. His views on gender equality, the environment, human rights, and social justice created a doctrine of dhammanic socialism. This in the 1950s projected Buddhathat as a pro-communist monk, often seen as challenging the establishment, although his concepts had nothing to do with Marxism.

In 2006, UNESCO named Buddhathat Bhikkhu as one of the world’s great personalities.

Suan Moke means “a forest of the untying of sorrow”. If one wonders around the complex, the spiritualism within the place won’t go unnoticed. The art gallery symbolizes the Buddhathat approach to dharma through the thought systems of the Tao, Hinduism, Confucianism, Jainism, and natural science.

In the end Buddhathat Bhikkhu wondered if the only real reason why so many people visited Suan Moke was just to visit the rest rooms.