The founding and refounding of Wat Bonamron

Meditation
1

Wat Bonamron is a meditation temple located just outside the city of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. It has been a sanctuary for vipassanā meditation since 1975. It houses monastics and mai chee nuns and attracts thousands of meditators each year.

The following is a brief yet interesting account of its origins and its modern re-founding in 1975:

On 15 March 2518 BE (1975)2 the abbot and head meditation teacher of a monastery in Chiang Mai3 re-established Wat Bonamron on the outskirts of the city as a meditation monastery and branch of Wat Mahathat with himself as head and acting abbot. The monastic compound itself was ensconced in the quiet woods and fields on the outskirts of Chiang Mai in an area believed to be dangerous and frequented by thieves and bandits. A foundation-stone inscription in the grounds of the monastery dates back to AD 1492. At the top of the stone is a horoscope that indicates the position of the sun, the moon, Mars and other planets in the zodiac, followed by more astronomical data indicating the day 30 March 1492 at 10 a.m. The main text of the inscription says that at this time there was an assembly at the future site of the monastery, including the ruler of Chiang Mai, King Yot Chiang Rai (1487–95); his queen, Atapa Devi; and 100 senior monks. The queen formally asked the king for permission to found a monastery, which the king gave. He donated a huge annual income, over 3 million cowries meant for the upkeep of the monastery, derived from field taxes.4 The inscription closes with the wish: ‘May the merit resulting from the foundation of the … monastery go to the former king of Chiang Mai, to all people, gods, and all creatures so that they may progress until they reach Nibbna.’ The monastery lay deserted for years and during the Second World War Japanese armed forces camped very close to the compound. Buddha images, the stpa (reliquary monument), ubosot (consecrated assembly hall; Pali: uposatha) and vihra (main temple) built in the reign of King Yot Chiang Chiang Rai were badly damaged. During this time the main Buddha image was moved to Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai city for safekeeping. It was only as part of the Mahanikai sect’s evangelical nationwide programme of meditation propagation that the monastery was re-established in the 1970s.

Cook, Joanna. Meditation in Modern Buddhism: Renunciation and Change in Thai Monastic Life (p. 52). Cambridge University Press. Kindle Edition.

I thought that was a delightful account. :folded_hands:

Renaldo

2

Leaving aside the question of whether the Brits and Soviets would have won the war without any American intervention, and what the ramifications would have been for the Japanese Empire, it’s a lucky thing for the monasteries of Northern Thailand (especially those located in Lampang, Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Chiang Rai, Nan, and Mae Hong Son provinces) that the Japanese Empire fell on August 15th of 1945 because there could have been way more fighting and destruction in the area had that not happened. When the Japanese announced their withdrawal due to their empire falling and the end of WWII, the Seri Thai Movement was allegedly preparing to attack them:

Working underground, the Seri Thai Movement spent years galvanising locals from across the country in training to prepare to attack the Japanese when the time came. Ironically, just days before they were ready to strike the Japanese occupiers, the Asia-Pacific war came to an abrupt end following the dropping of two atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

The forgotten legacy of world war Two in Northern Thailand

And of course, there were ongoing allied air strikes, and so on (luckily, no monasteries were damaged in those), so it is a lucky thing for today’s Buddhists that the Imperial Japanese, led by Prime Minister Tojo under Emperor Hirohito, fell in 1945.

But perhaps I am digressing a little from the celebration of the founding and refounding of Wat Bonamron. :folded_hands:

Renaldo

3

Did you notice Wat Bonamron only exists in this book? Try googling it up :wink: The real name of the place is Wat Ram Poeng.

4

No I didn’t notice it. I am surprised the author went with this spelling (although otherwise it was a great book). I couldn’t find a presence online for it, but then I figured that many Wats do not have one.

Thank you for informing me.

Renaldo

5

I don’t think it is spelling (I know some Thai to be confident about that), it was her way of not exposing identity of the place directly.

6

At the beginning of the book, there is a kind of preface—though she doesn’t call it that. First, there is a section titled Acknowledgements , followed by one titled Notes on Language . In Notes on Language , she explains that she changed all the names of the people and of the monastery to protect their identities. Admittedly, I skipped over these two sections and went straight to Chapter 1, which begins immediately afterward. I guess this is a lesson learned in reading the preface. Thanks for pointing it out.

Renaldo

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