(Photo: Nils)
Photos of Wat Thammakai - January 3, 2004
Nils reports: This might be of interest: I took these
photos of Wat Thammakai in Pathum Thani when living there
for a short time... (near Nawanakhon - the pics were taken
looking the southeast... ). You once mentioned the strange
Dhammakaya/Thammakai cult on your site. I have been there
once and it was really quite strange - the giant assembly
hall and the spaceship-like structure. (BTW: I wonder
if no pilot ever complained about the bright light - it's
exactly in the path of landing planes, 15 km north of
Don Muang!)...
Earlier: More on Dhammakaya - August 4, 2002
We've had lots of email about the Slate
article on the odd Thai cult of Dhammakaya. Terry
King alerts us to the weird
claims the cult makes about the bombing of Bangkok
during WWII: At that time the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
gazed up at the skies and were surprised to see large
numbers of nuns from Wat Paknam floating in the air, intercepting
the bombs dropped by the bombers and patting them with
their bare hands to fall harmlessly in the water or uninhabited
areas of forest. It is also claimed that the Allies
were going to test the first Atomic bomb by dropping it
on Bangkok and that meditation by holy men prevented this.
Making
fun of Dhammakaya - July
31, 2002
Another example of how things Thai are reported overseas:
a slate.com writer visits the Dhammakaya temple: What
if today is ritual mass suicide day?
(Photo: Nils)
(Photo: Nils)