Stop giving bogus monks money

GIVING money to Buddhist monks may cause them to commit an offence under their code of monastic discipline known as the Dhamma-Vinaya.

While well-intentioned Penangites are happy to donate, they are unaware of the rules that these monks observe.

More and more wayward and bogus monks are going around every morning with alms bowls openly asking for money, that even Penang Island City Council (MBPP) is alarmed.

Three city councillors recently held a press conference at the Batu Lanchang market food court, accompanied by the police and members of Penang Harmony Corporation.

In the din of the food court, they sat with reporters and made a public plea to Penang folk not to donate money to such monks.

Monks who go around begging are breaking three monastic rules where money is involved.

Firstly – monks cannot accept gold and silver; secondly, they cannot buy and sell and lastly, they are barred from engaging in any form of trade, not even barter trade.

Though “gold and silver” are mentioned in the Vinaya, these were the instruments of exchange back when Buddha lived over 2,500 years ago.

Today, this rule is understood to cover all other forms of exchange including electronic money and cheques.

Monks who break these rules must make an open confession to their peers or elders, and the money or goods must be surrendered to temple management committees, who are lay people entrusted with handling such worldly affairs.

If a monk needs something that can only be obtained with money – say if the monk is ill and needs to see a doctor – there are other monastic rules governing how they can voice such needs.

They, however, cannot openly ask lay people for help.

Money is the measure of material wealth, something monks renounce when they shave their heads and don saffron robes.

This is particularly fundamental for monks to follow the Theravada (way of the elders) tradition, but yet one sees those wearing the robes in the Theravada manner walking around morning markets asking for money.

Some of them “sell” coloured strings or beads, while others hawk prayer amulets.

I have spoken with several of them a few times telling them (in Bahasa Malaysia) that they are not allowed to beg for money.

They replied in Thai and I did not know what was said.

Many of them do not even use the saffron robes in the required manner.

They wrap, drape or lash on the robes any which way they see fit.

As a Buddhist who has spent decades interacting with monks, I am familiar with how monks wear their robes, especially when they step out of monasteries.

Seeing monks in their robes begging for money convinces me that those are bogus monks, so I refrain from putting my hands together in reverence when addressing them.

They differ from actual Theravada monks I know, who stand silently at unobtrusive corners in public and wait for people to offer them food.

MBPP issued a statement expressing concern that a syndicate may be bringing such “monks” from Thailand.

George Town police’s Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department head Deputy Supt Salim Emin said such monks would invariably enter with short-term social visit passes and their acts of soliciting money constituted an Immigration offence which could lead to them being fined, jailed or deported.

“We work with the Immigration Department and will help MBPP enforce the law,” he said.

City councillor Tan Soo Siang said MBPP lacked legal power to detain such monks without the police’s help.

“But when our enforcers find them soliciting for money in food courts and markets under MBPP’s control, we have the power to tell them to leave the premises immediately, and that is what we do,” she said.

So tell your friends and family not to give money to monks in markets and food courts, to prevent them from exploiting the generosity of Penangites.