The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

122 John P. Ferguson and Shalardchai Ramitanondh
hierarchy also serves as an appeals system of sorts, since a monk dissatisfied
with a decision from his superior can refuse to accept it, and in
such a case, the matter will be sent to the next highest level for review.
Attempts to go over the head of one's superior are not uncommon but
seldom work. Cases where hierarchy officials impose national rules on
abbots are rare in the province, but their very existence now and then
relates to an important change in the abbot's power, an attrition that
adds to the severe damage to his position that modern secular schools
have slowly but surely caused. Despite these changes, for a majority of
those concerned, being abbot is still more important than being a
hierarchy official, at least at the lower levels of the system.
I,
For some monks, being abbot is enough; they act';lally refuse
attempts by the hierarchy to incorporate them into the system. The
reason given for rejecting office or resigning seems to involve always the
administration of their own monastery, often including an extensive
teaching role or a busy life of meeting the needs of a devoted group of
lay supporters. One monk who was temporarily serving as a Commune
Head (Chao Khana Tambon), clearly did not want the job, and the reason
was obvious. He was the most popular monk in the area in terms of a
type of astrology that was combined with good common-sense counseling,
if necessary. His life was filled with more requests from the laity than
he could handle now. He hoped the monkhood would find a replacement
for him soon. Another monk who had resigned from a secretarial post
gave his reasons as focusing around his unwillingness to spend so much
time on recording data and keeping records. He would rather be active
in community affairs. Most monks, apparently, are willing to serve,
however, if they are qualified, and most Commune Heads said they bad
little trouble finding abbots. What trouble they did have relates more to
the chronic shortage of older monks in the northern Sangha (an average
of 2 monks and 8 novices per wat).12
12) Dept,ofRel. Affairs(l9i0):Table 12). Therewere(in 1970) 1,069watsin
the province, with 2,142 monks and 8,06 7 novices. More significantly, only
851 monks have 10 years standing in the monkhood, and there are 991 wats
to be staffed with abbots I