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

MONKS AN]) H!EHARCIIY IN NOHTHERN THAILAND 131
felt that governing took the most time, but some would meet monthly
with all the Commune Heads (Chao Khana Tambon) and all the abbots,
while others brought only the Commune Heads together two or three
times a year. Some seemed to stress their role as monastic policeman
and defrocker of bad monks, while others said discipline problems were
rare. While the average number of monastenes per district is 60, the
range is great between 10 (for Omkoi) and 117 (for Chiengmai Muang);
thus the degree of responsibility represented by their office varies considerably
also. Some administer prosperous districts and say that laymen
are eager to give whatever the monks need, and others note that in the
rural areas inflation has made it difficult for many to feed monks and
therefore some mon~teries were constructing kitchens. to be used for
preparing the food no longer available on morning rounds. Some took
great pride in teaching Northern (Lanna) Thai to their novices and in
continuing Lanna rituals, where others taught no Lanna Thai at all and
performed no Lanna language rituals.21 Some were in favor of mote
secular education for the Sangha, while others bemoaned the resulting
loss of Pali learning and the lack of respect for tradition that modern
ideas bring. Some District Heads find it extremely difficult to find qualified
abbots (particularly in rural areas) and others have no trouble. Our
own figures obtained from the monks show that 413 abbots out of 1089
in the province are "acting abbots," usually because they have not the
five-year minimum service in the monkhood to qualify, but some districts
have no acting abbots and others have 50% in that category. In a few
districts there are half a dozen monasteries with no abbot at all. One
thus has to be prepared for great differences in the District Head's realms
and concerns.
Some officials stand out in on~'s memory as individualists. One
had a fine little museum and was deeply interested in the arts of Buddhism.
Another was a sophisticated follower of tfe nationally famous
21) A ritual which suffers particularly from the failure to teach Lanna Thai in the
monasteries is the Tet Mahachat, the recital of .the Vessantara Jataka. This
intricately beautiful rit~al which reached the peak of its popularity before the
last World War depends upon the training of special chanters (monks) to tell
the story.