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Concept
Santi Asoke
Summary
The Santi Asoke (สันติอโศก "Peaceful Ashoka") is an ascetic sect of Theravada Buddhism that was established by a former television entertainer and songwriter Phra Bodhirak after he "declared independence from the Ecclesiastical Council in 1975". He had originally ordained within a monastery recognized by the sangha, but left to form his new sect, which he sees as a mixture of Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism. The Santi Asoke has been described as "a radical sectarian movement" that "reflects the forest tradition's ideals of simplicity". Santi Asoke members are strict vegetarians and live an ascetic life. They desire to help people attain "peace without suffering" and lead society back to the basics of Buddhism devoid of superstition.
Phra Bodhirak was born Mongkhon Rakphong in 1934 in northeastern Thailand. He was a popular television entertainer who turned to Buddhism at age 63. He was ordained as a Buddhist monk in 1970 and took the monastic name Bodhirak. He was a strict vegetarian and denounced other monks for eating meat and smoking.
The Santi Asoke movement advocate a strict vegetarian diet, consuming only one meal a day and abstaining from alcohol and sex. The Santi Asoke movement also rejects the magic and superstition of Thai Buddhism. Bodhirak has been highly critical of monks within the sangha and took his teachings to lay Buddhists where he denounced other monks at monasteries for eating meat, consuming cigarettes and engaging in supernatural rituals. He denied membership of the sangha upon establishing his own centre in Nakhon Pathom.
Phothirak was once a bhikkhu of Dhammayuttika Nikaya, but his preceptor refused to take care of him after finding he had repeatedly breached the Buddhist doctrines. Phothirak then resorted to Maha Nikaya at Wat Nong Krathum (วัดหนองกระทุ่ม), Nakhon Pathom Province. As he still repeatedly contravened the doctrines, the community of Thai monks requested the Supreme Sangha Council (SSC) to look into the case.
Official source
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