Amid Thailand's Jatukam Ramathep craze, Phra Payom Kalayano, abbot of Wat Suan Kaew in Nonthaburi, yesterday launched "Chatu Kham: four words to supreme wealth series" temple-made cookies in a bid to teach people about the Lord Buddha's teachings.

Poking fun at the Thai Buddhist community and the laymen who have been caught up in the amulet craze, Phra Payom revealed to the public his Chatu Kham series, which loosely translates as "four bites". Each can - costing Bt60 - has four round, palm-sized cookies, currently available only at the temple, although they will be hitting the shopping-mall shelves later.

One side of the cookie has Chatu Kham imprinted on it and the Sanskrit letters "U - A - Ka - Sa" on the other side. The Sanskrit is from a Buddhist teaching that to be wealthy one must be industrious (uthansampatha); to save up what has honestly been earned (arakkhasampatha); surround oneself with good friends who do not lead one to vices (kalayanamitra) and have prudent spending habits (samachivata).

Questioning the craze of the Jatukam talisman, and noting it was not exactly compatible with the essence of Buddhism, Phra Payom said his Chatu Kham cookies were a simple way to teach the Lord Buddha's teachings so that Thai people would be aware and refrain from getting "unreasonably attached" to material wealth.

In related news, the chief Buddhist monk of Tambon Samor Khae in Phitsanulok's Muang district yesterday ordered a probe into the alleged non-transparency of Wat Thepkunchorn's "Endless Wealth series" Jatukam Ramathep talisman.

The move followed a compliant filed by four of the talisman-producing committee members, that the abbot Phra Maha Nipon Chanthawathi had refused to let them check the talisman orders and related bank accounts.

The chief monk, Phrakru Athornatthasarn, went with senior monks and the four plaintiffs to meet the abbot yesterday.

He asked Phra Maha Nipon to leave related bank-account books with him pending the probe, during which the abbot was not allowed to leave the temple or move any assets.

As the four plaintiffs also resigned yesterday, a new committee will be set up before Monday, when the temple's financial state will be made public.

Phra Maha Nipon insisted he had done nothing wrong and the talisman production, which had seen orders for 200,000 pieces priced from Bt99 to Bt499, was to raise money for the Bt200-million temple development project, which included buying seven rai of nearby land and building a nine-tier pagoda.

However, the talisman-making contractor, Channarong Sriwiset, yesterday revealed he had revoked the contract with the temple because the abbot had failed to pay the second payment of Bt6.5 million, due on Wednesday.

The Nation

Nonthaburi