by Dr Rahim Said
It was once believed that the only temptations monks faced were second helpings at alms round and the occasional urge to scratch an itch during meditation.
But welcome to 2025, where even the saffron robes can’t shield a man from a determined woman with a smartphone and a bank account.
Thailand, home to Theravada Buddhism, the strictest of the strict, is now grappling with a scandal so sordid it would make the Vatican’s worst look like a PTA meeting.
At the heart of this modern morality tale is one Wilawan Emsawat — part femme fatale, part financial planner — who allegedly seduced at least nine senior monks before relieving them not just of their vows, but also of considerable sums from temple coffers.
For good measure, she spent most of it on online gambling. Because if you’re going to sin, might as well do it with style.
Now, I’ve heard plenty about priests and choirboys, of cardinals with mistresses and televangelists with private jets, but monks? Celibate, meditating monks? Entangled in romantic liaisons and extortion plots? That’s a plot twist worthy of long-running TV’s next docuseries: “Monk Money: Love and Lies Behind the Robes.”
The numbers alone are impressive — 385 million baht (about RM50+ million) moved through Wilawan’s accounts in three years. That’s not your average love offering.
One abbot alone reportedly paid her 7.2 million baht (RM937K) after she claimed she was pregnant, a bold statement considering monks aren’t even supposed to brush against women, let alone, well… you get the idea.
The ramifications? For starters, several high-ranking monks have been swiftly defrocked. Not for mishandling millions — that seems a minor concern — but for breaking celibacy vows.
Because in the eternal ledger of religious improprieties, touching a woman still ranks higher than financial impropriety. Misconduct with cash is a sin; misconduct with women is a scandal.
Now the government, in classic Southeast Asian crisis management fashion, has promised to tighten laws and set up a Facebook page where people can report “misbehaving monks.”
Why a Facebook page? Obviously, nothing restores public faith in religious integrity quite like a community-led online snitch portal.
This scandal also shines a rather unflattering light on the vast sums controlled by temples in Thailand, where donations flow like holy water and abbots often live lives far removed from the modesty prescribed by Buddhist teachings.
For decades, temples have operated as both spiritual centres and lucrative enterprises, a paradox politely ignored in public discourse. Until, of course, one of their leaders starts Venmo-ing hush money to his girlfriend-turned-blackmailer.
But let’s not be too hard on these monks. After all, they, too, are products of their time. In an age where temptation arrives via Instagram DMs and bank transfers take seconds, perhaps monkhood itself needs a 21st-century reboot.
Maybe the ancient Pali texts should be updated to include a clause about Tinder, or at least a footnote about online gambling.
What does this say about faith, institutions, and human nature? Perhaps nothing we didn’t already know. Power, even when draped in orange robes, tends to corrupt. Desire finds a way.
And when religious men fall, it’s rarely into a pit of philosophical doubt but into the arms of someone with a phone and a bank account.
The monks may have lost their robes, but Wilawan? She’s now a household name, a cautionary tale, and perhaps a candidate for her own reality show.
As for Buddhism in Thailand, it’ll survive, as it always has, with a few new rules, a couple of fresh scandalous sermons, and maybe an extra clause in the monkhood application form: “Are you on dating apps? (Yes/No)”
Because enlightenment, it seems, is one thing. But temptation, dear reader, is eternal.
The views of the writer are entirely his own