Operation Transcendence: Wat Pratat and the Golden Teacher

Located about 60km outside of Chiang Mai, Wat Pratat Sri Chom Thong is a temple held in very high esteem amongst the Thai people. Part of that has to do with the precious religious relic it holds – a bone fragment of the Buddha. As one could guess, this is incredibly rare given the 2550 years that have passed since his death. There is actually a special structure just outside the main hall that’s only purpose is to wash the artifact during Songkran. When they rinse it, the runoff flows down a wooden chute and hundreds – if not thousands – of people scramble to touch or bottle-up the water.

The other reason Wat Pratat Sri Chom Thong is so well-regarded is the head abbot of the temple, Ajahn Tong (literally golden teacher). Having entered monk-hood at age 11 and now age 84, Achan Tong has been practicing Buddhism and meditation for almost three lengths of my lifetime. To say he is merely ‘held in high esteem’ would be a gross understatement. For the Thai people, he is something akin to a living Buddha. It is said that he doesn’t experience normal states of feeling and transcends all pain and suffering. The reverence was explained to me like this: the Buddha is quite a distant figure, having lived more than 2550 years ago, and boarders on intangible for most people. Ajahn Tong is basically a living saint, very real, and touches the lives of all the people in the community. When he receives a promotion in the hierarchy of Buddhist positions in Thailand, the whole town holds massive parades with elephants and all. Within the temple complex there is an altar with a statue of the Buddha at the back and a smaller, but equally holy-looking, Ajahn Tong kneeling in front. That’s how much this man is loved.

Anyways, because of both these reasons, absurd amounts of donations flood in from the community, have made possible the creation of the International Meditation Center, and fund the housing, food, and course for community members and inquisitive foreigners – i.e. me – alike.