For Buddhist monks in Thailand, life is strict with loads of rules. Days are spent meditating and chanting. This apparent monk, however, spent his day doing something else.
As pointed out by Coconuts Bangkok, these images first appeared on Facebook site FuckGhost, and they apparently show a Thai monk looking at adult movies. The one he is supposedly holding looks to be titled “Nipples”. The story has even spread to the Taiwanese and major Chinese site Xinhua.
What’s the big deal? As ThaiWorldView.com explains, “According to monastic discipline, a monk cannot be alone with a woman. A woman cannot touch a monk and she cannot give something directly to a monk to avoid any contact.” (Here’s even more context.)
Here is how people usually think of Buddhist monks in Thailand:
[Photo: Wasu Watcharadchapong / Shutterstock]
The alleged monk spent a long time looking at the movies and apparently ended up buying three pornos.
Of course, this shopper might be a fake monk or this could be a Photoshop hoax. Coconuts Bangkok reports that the photo was taken at Khlong Thom Center, an electronics market with a vast selection of pornography for those unfamiliar with a new invention they’re calling “the internet”.
Back in 2012, the Bangkok Post ran a story titled, “Partying monks had drugs, gun, porn.” Of course, not all Buddhist monks in Thailand are like this! So, please, don’t think that. Still, the country’s National Office of Buddhism launched a hotline earlier this month for people to report bad monk behaviour.
ฟักโกสต์ : สมาคมต่อต้านสิ่งงมงาย’s Photos [FuckGhost via Coconuts Bangkok]
Comments
18 responses to “The Path To Enlightenment? For This Man, Pornography”
Well… there is no such thing as God. Making all religions STUPID and irrelevant.
Let the Monk enjoy the nipples I say.
I agree on the no god thing…funnily enough so do Buddhists (or at least that Buddha isn’t a god)…like the monk looking at the nipples.
Wow. Firstly be careful, your fedora is falling off. Secondly, Buddhism is a non theistic religion so they don’t believe in any gods to begin with. Thirdly, Buddhism is a religion of peace and harmony and always teach about being calm and all that shit so if it’s going to help people be better about themselves, then let them be and quit being such a fucking critic. I hate people like you
There is also no metaphysical realm, afterlife, reincarnation, or anything else like that.
So sorry to ruin your day loser.
If Buddhists wanna preach calmness and peace, great.
But don’t give this guy a hard time about the Nipps.
Militant theists and atheists are just as bad as each other, neither can prove their side conclusively.
This means the most logical stance to take is agnosticism.
I was raised secular and generally feel very uneasy with organised religion. By most metrics, I’m probably a dyed-in-the-wool atheist. If you don’t go squawking about the existence or non-existence of an unprovable god, there’s no beef. You are the calling people ‘losers’ and using offensively broad statements like all religions being ‘stupid and irrelevant.’
People have the right to believe what they want without a dude in a trench coat calling them an idiot. Militant atheists like yourself are jamming your own ideology down peoples throats, that very thing you people purport to hate.
I never said anything about an after life or even believing in one. All I was saying was that you need to step off that high horse of yours and let people believe what they want to believe. If it makes their life that much easier without forcing their beliefs onto others, then why should you have to force yours onto theirs? You’ve only made yourself look like a complete twat by marching in here with your militant remarks.
My remarks weren’t militant. I’m simply saying nobody should restrain from doing things they want to do because an imaginary space wizard told them they cannot.
Even if they are a monk that wants to look at porn, or even have sex.
Plus I did not tell anyone what to beleive. You are putting words in my mouth.
Guys, live every day now! Life is beautiful, don’t take it for granted because this is all there is.
I’m not so sure that religion is as stupid and irrelevant as it can sometimes seem. It would be interesting to know what the world would have been like without it. I don’t think that it would necessarily be an improvement.
I do agree that the monk should have his nipples. Let nothing come between a man and his porn collection, not even religion.
Why would it be a “Photoshop hoax”? There’s this idea that perversity only exists in the catholic church, and yet there have been recorded instances of the same behaviour as well as all manner of other sexual hijinks on a broad scale within every other religious group- from back in history all the way up to today.
The belief that the people in any religious group are somehow pure or more likely to stick with the moral rules of their faith is the truly perverse thing, not the fact of the behaviour itself.
-Of course criminal sexual behaviour is always perverse and inexcusable.
Sex is a natural part of biology. Simple as that.
It’s not criminal to look at porn! (depending on the variety of course).
Tibetan Buddhist monks perform tantric rituals like Yab Yum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yab-Yum as a vehicle to enlightenment.
It is in some countries. Not sure about Thailand, but the illegality of the act is not in question here, it’s the hypocrisy.
Considering the title and author, I thought this was going to be an autobiographical piece.
So back to gaming right?
This website is not just about gaming, it also posts articles about random Asian things.
Hence the ‘Otaku’ in Kotaku.
That seems almost racist in my mind for some reason.
I figured this website should be mostly about gaming, anime and other such pop-culture related news.
Automatically throwing in anything “just because it’s Asian” feels to me like they’re assuming that all Asians are geeks. As a geeky Asian, I find that thought’s actually kinda offensive.
And vica-versa – like only Asian is geek… I get what your sayin. Don’t worry. No-one is geekier than a Western Nerd 😛
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rjIo2n82zwk/T1GC91YU2XI/AAAAAAAACk8/RgO0iLZd2eU/s1600/Napoleon+Dyamite+&+Kip.jpg