A Buddhist monk in Thailand’s northern province of Chiang Rai has made an online complaint about some novices in his temple receiving condoms among the offerings made by some followers.
Phra Chingchai Itthitecho, of Sri Kerd Temple, posted a picture on Facebook of the condoms allegedly found by two novices, aged about 15, among the offerings in their alms bowls on May 6th.
The two novices told Phra Chingchai they did not recognise the man who might have put the condoms in their alms bowls in front of a pawn shop in the Muang district’s municipal area.
They said that there were several novices and monks waiting to receive offerings and some others might have also received condoms.
Phra Chingchai said the man might have mistaken the condoms as sachets of tomato or chili sauce, because they are the same size but, if the condom offerings were intentional, he said that would be highly inappropriate.
He admitted that some people might view monks in a negative light, in the wake of frequent media reports of scandals involving monks, but he appealed to Buddhist followers not to be biased against monks in general for the misconduct of a few rogue monks.
