Bangkok’s Wat Suthi Wararam will on Saturday – Visakha Bucha Day – unveil a bold effort to try and entice young people back to the faith from which so many have drifted.

The digital-art exhibition “Bodhi Theatre: Buddhist Prayer Retold” combines vivid animation and Buddhist chants set to electronic dance rhythms.

Modern tech magic meets traditional piety in transforming the vihara, the temple’s main chapel, into a lively mini-theatre.

The show will be presented every weekend through June 9 at Wat Suthi on Charoen Krung Road.

“The aim is to encourage more young people to study Buddhism at the temple,” says the abbot, Phra Suthee Rattanapandit.

“We teamed up with young artists and designers who used modern technology to create this contemporary digital art in the temple. The artwork is intended to help people more easily understand Buddhist teachings.”

Supported by the National Innovation Agency, “Bodhi Theatre” was conceived and executed by a network including the Why_Not Social Enterprise, Awakening Creative, Another day Another render, Art of Hongtae, Korky and What_If.

Thawatchai Saengthamchai, managing director at Why_Not and manager of this project, acknowledges that it’s not easy changing the “young generation’s habits”.

“But we decided to find a way to modernise the temple experience to attract a changing society,” he tells The Nation Weekend. “We selected hi-tech tools to get people back to the temple.”

Abbot Suthee says the 35-minute show illustrates “Jayamangala Gatha”, the venerable chant about the triumph of the Buddha over the “eight adversaries” – ignorance, madness, rage, indulgence, accusation, deception, menace and pride.

Most Thais will hear ‘Jayamangala Gatha’ at least once in their lives, but not a lot of people know the meaning,” Thawatchai says.

The idea is to remind people about the teachings of Buddhism, revitalising their interest through visual art and technological flair. “We use projection mapping, a visual-projection technology that creates spatial augmented reality, to transform the temple’s sacred vihara into an immersive art experience,” says Thawatchai.

Projecting moving images onto the walls of the temple will not harm murals or anything else, he promises.

“We proposed the project to Wat Suthi because it has often pioneered modern ways to understanding Buddhist teachings,” he says. “In the meditation hall you can associate your praying with your brainwaves. The bell-ringer boys are allowed to run its coffee shop. We’re glad the abbot has allowed us to introduce this latest idea.”

Every temple is like a learning centre about the Buddha and his teachings and about art as seen in the murals and statues and architecture, Thawatchai said.

“Before we got started,” explains Abbot Sutee, “we discussed the pros and cons and decided that presenting digital art in the temple would be a new way to educate young people about Buddhism and it doesn’t violate any Buddhist law.”

Thawatchai’s team did workshops with the monks, recording them chanting in Pali and mixing in techno music.

There’s a trailer online for the show that resembles the latest Hollywood sci-fi movies, portraying the spiritual yet modern interpretation of traditional Buddhist narratives. Vivid neon lights and other effects depict demons and form abstract images that dance across the chapel walls.

Thawatchai says the chant used is also known as “The Stanzas of Victory” and is believed to bring the faithful happiness as well as success in future ventures.

The team has not only re-visualised and simplified a complex message, but it also created fun activities for visitors to the temple. They can paint cloth bags and send themselves best wishes on a postcard stamped with the chant’s emblem.

All proceeds from the sale of coffee go to the temple. Admission to the event itself is free, but seats can be booked in advance at http://www.BodhiTheater.com.

The show runs every 35 minutes from 2 to 6pm.

Pisanu Damiem is looking for them in Phitsanulok, where he was found abandoned as a four-month-old by residents who gave him the abridged form of the province’s name.

Now a professional dancer in Belgium, Pisanu is quizzing people in Phitsanulok using a translation app because he cannot speak Thai.

He acknowledged that the chances of him locating his biological parents were slim.

But he’s had help from residents including monks at Wat Sutsawat where he was left outside a wall 27 years ago.

A staff member at the hotel where Pisanu is staying has also been helpful.

Pisanu’s adoptive parents knew about his birthplace and some other details and he decided to come to Thailand and search. He knew that, after being found outside the temple, he was taken to the Pakkret nursery shelter in Nonthaburi.

He arrived in Bangkok on May 14 and spoke to officials at the shelter, discovering that police from Phitsanulok had taken him there.

He sought help from the abbot of Wat Sutsawat, Phrakru Prapatsotitikun, who said he was not the abbot at that time but was willing to help.

“The temple has helped by asking around about Pisanu,” the abbot said.

Anyone who has information can contact Pisanu on his “Donnez Pisanu” Facebook page or via the shelter at (092) 269 4066.

USING BANGKOK’S extended mass rapid transit system could be too costly for low-income earners unless there are support services in place, including a wider bus network, experts caution.

“Citizens living far from the city centre might shun the BTS even when it’s expanded to the suburbs because the fares could be too high,” said Sumet Ongkittikul, research director for Transportation and Logistics Policy at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).

Four overhead railway lines are now in operation covering 120 kilometres, with seven more under construction covering 173 kilometres, according to Chayatan Phromsorn, deputy director general of the Transport Ministry’s Office of Transport and Traffic Policy and Planning.

The State Railways of Thailand Red Line under development will connect Bang Sue to Rangsit (Dark Red, 26 kilometres) and to Taling Chan (Light Red, 15km). The latter is now ready and the former is 79 per cent complete.

Scheduled to open in 2020, the Red Line is expected to carry 300,000 passengers a day.

The Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) underground Dark Blue Line connecting Hua Lamphong to Bang Khae and Bang Sue to Tha Phra is 95 per cent complete. Hua Lamphong-Bang Khae is expected to open this year, while Bang Sue-Tha Phra has a planned 2020 start.

The Dark Blue Line is projected to carry 490,000 travellers a day, according to Chayatan.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) recently said it aims to ensure that a mass-transit ride costs no more than Bt65 until at least 2029.

The pledge came in response to speculation that it could cost as much as Bt158 per ride if the longer routes open without a defined price ceiling.

“Even if the price is capped at Bt65 per ride, it could still be too expensive for low-income earners, especially those who earn the minimum wage,” Sumet said in an interview with The Nation.

Even at Bt65 per ride, the Bt130 round trip would be close to half the daily minimum wage in Bangkok, which currently stands at Bt325.

“Even if the price was capped at Bt65, the cost for many citizens living outside the city centre could still be well above that, since they might also have to take other means of transportation before and after using the Skytrain or underground,” Sumet said.

These might include public buses or motorcycle taxis getting from home to the closest mass-transit station and again to reach one’s workplace.

Chayatan said the Transport Ministry hopes to add more “feeder” buses to move people from home to the mass-transit stations and from the stations to their workplaces or leisure destinations.

No concrete timeline has been set for this, Sumet pointed out.

“At this rate, it’s possible that the newly opened lines might not see as much traffic as expected due to the disconnect between the mass transit system and other public means of transport,” he said.

Use of the four current mass transit lines varies from 740,000 passengers per day on the BTS Green Line (Sukhumvit Line) to 50,000 on the Purple Line (Ratchadham Line).

To attract more passengers to the system, Sumet said, the government should provide sufficient transportation options in areas around the new stations. It could build walkways linking stations to nearby landmarks or add bus lines dedicated to transporting people from home to the stations at an affordable price.

Manoj Lohatepanont, director of Chulalongkorn University’s Transportation Institute, also called for an improvement to the bus network to support the new BTS lines.

“Bangkok covers around 1,600 square kilometres and the expanded BTS routes will only cover a fraction of that. So it’s clear that expanding the mass-transit routes alone is insufficient,” Manoj said.

“The role of feeders will become crucial in improving the quality of Bangkok’s public transportation system.”

DECHA Siriphat, now in his 70s, could have had a good time taking a rest from his work, climbing up to the treehouse at his Khao Khwan Foundation in Suphan Buri, listening to Mozart’s Godspell melodies or reading good books including Dhamma as he had always done.

Instead, the 71-year-old long-time sustainable agriculture advocate turned newly-endorsed traditional medicine practitioner, has taken on a new challenge to overcome: campaigning for a new round of legal amendments to the already newly amended Narcotics Law in order to free marijuana from any obstacles preventing its use for medical purposes.

So, instead of reading Dhamma and listening to Mozart in his treehouse, the advocate is busy discussing plans with his colleagues and supporters, who will in the next few days launch the country’s first long-distance Cannabis Walk Thailand to raise public awareness on marijuana and surrounding issues.

“If people looked at me from the lens of advocacy and were stuck at my image as a sustainable agriculture advocate, they would never understand why such an advocate has decided to campaign for a plant that has the stigma of narcotics. But if they looked at me as a Dhamma practitioner, they would understand why.

“Marijuana is a more critical issue to fight for than rice, because it’s a drug. Through a Dhamma lens, people can realise what I see in it – its value to help cure people – and wish to bring out to people. This is Dhamma’s way – giving or ‘hai than’ – as I always practice through my work,” said Decha, with his voice low but firm.

Decha’s work would not have been guided by Dhamma if he had not met the late revered monk, Buddhadasa Bhikkhu at Suan Mokkhaphalaram Temple in Surat Thani province, renowned for a modest middle path of Dhamma practice.

Born to and familiar with life in the rice fields as the son of a landlord in Suphan Buri, one of the country’s richest rice bowls, Decha could not know that he would one day return to his roots, working on sustainable rice production to save farmers.

Young Decha grew up playing in the rice fields of his father, which were leased to neighbouring farm families and well absorbed the lives of traditional Thai farmers. He learned about the indigenous rice varieties grown by the tenant farmers, long before he applied the knowledge to save them through his foundation’s work.

But the young Decha heavily inspired by the cowboy movies he watched, wished to ride like a cowboy and own a farmspread somewhere. He decided to pursue undergraduate study in livestock.

It took the young undergraduate from Khon Kaen University some four years to learn a cowboy’s way, working as a livestock official for the Agriculture Ministry.

Encountering injustice in bureaucratic life, Decha called it quits and moved back to his home to start his own farm. There, Decha practised a farming style similar to what is today known as sustainable farming, in which livestock are raised along with a variety of plant species to provide year-round income.

However, even as his farm was large, so were his livestock, raising concerns in mother that her son was committing bad karma, via raising and killing livestock.

Decha’s mother begged him to quit that farm and try something else, such as vegetable farming. She soon passed away and Decha decided to leave his livestock business to get ordained for her.

At Suan Mokkh, or the Garden of Liberation, Decha learned the Dhamma of Suan Mokkh’s way. And Buddhadasa Bhikkhu taught him that Dhamma could be practised anywhere when pursuing an ordinary life, and especially when working for other people.

“I didn’t know whether or not my mother could get ‘boon’ or ‘barmi’ from my monkhood, but it was good for my life. It was a turning point in my life,” recalled Decha as he reflected on his three month ordainment at the temple.

“Small is beautiful”

Upon returning to the layman’s life, he left the livestock farm business to his brothers and turned to a new life advocating for the Appropriate Technology Association (ATA) that was inspired by the world-renowned educator EF Schumacher.

Decha spent five years promoting the “small is beautiful” idea inspired by Schumacher’s book of the same name, through using “appropriate technology” to guide alternative economics in Isaan areas.

It was there that Decha said his life journey really began, both physically and spiritually.

Decha travelled a lot to help people. He also exposed himself to new knowledge, both modern and indigenous, gleaned from the people and places on his travels at home and overseas.

Decha met a number of so-called “local wisdom leaders” as well as learning local wisdom held by communities. He learned about sustainable agriculture, for example, from wise local leaders, including Mahayoo Sunthornthai of Surin province, Decha’s first “kuru” of the practice of sustainable agriculture.

Seed banks of indigenous plant varieties became another mission for Decha.

His work life having become serious, Decha decided to set up his own organisation to translate his own ideas into practice. He set up the Technology for Rural and Ecological Enrichment Centre (TREE) at his home to disseminate ideas about sustainable agriculture, a buzz word at that time as people had no idea what it actually was.

His centre, in the late 1980s, was turned into a foundation for sustainable rice production. Its name, Khao Khawn (the spirit and soul of the rice), was derived from the sacred ritual of morale boosting for farmers using rice as a vehicle.

It was during these years that the country’s so-called alternative sustainable agriculture network was set up, with Decha spearheading and disseminating the idea of sustainable agriculture nationwide and through a number of the country’s critical policies, including the national social and economic development plans.

But Dhamma led, and hard work does not always guarantee success. Despite successful demonstrations in several areas, not all farmers followed his example.

It was their biases as much as a lack of knowledge that blinded them from the helpful path, Decha concluded.

Over the years, and working with allies, Decha found he had to switch between the so-called “cool” work to its opposite “hot” ones in order to push for change.

While promoting sustainable agricultural knowledge, Decha and his network had to step out to fight farm chemical firms and past governments to influence their decision-making on several farm issues, including excessive use of farm chemicals.

At Khao Khawn, Decha also set up a farmers’ school as a vehicle to deliver a vision of sustainable rice farming so as to help clear their biases and empower them.

A quest for the cure

It was his family members’ cancers that drew Decha to the narcotic plant of marijuana.

His mother had died of cancer, as did his uncles. Decha later delved into the alleged curative power of marijuana in an attempt to find other medical treatment that would leave him a little more chance of surviving cancer.

Decha started to self-study medicines based on marijuana, searching the internet for knowledge and case studies. He learned how to extract marijuana oil from a Canadian man who said it had helped him cure the cancer.

But the same formula of medicine did not work when he tried it in Thailand, using it on an acquaintance who was sick with the disease.

Decha then turned to “knowledge of the East”, consulting with a monk who he believed to be self-trained in Dhamma until he possessed an intuition, the supreme knowledge to learn and know things from meditation.

Decha consulted him on using medicines made from marijuana until he obtained his own formula. Mixed with cool extracted coconut oil, some few drops of marijuana oil performed a miracle. It helped cure another patient of his after six months of use, Decha claimed.

But this came with two other rules. The patient had to cease all injurious food and items, and he or she had to hold the Five Precepts.

The injurious food and items were believed to reinforce cancers, while the Five Precepts was believed to relieve “karma” contributing to the person’s illness.

After that patient, Decha then tried using the oil himself. He started to cure his deteriorating sight and his shaking hands returned almost to normal, he claimed. Decha has since claimed the power of medicines made with marijuana and began to distribute them to others for free through temples he knew.

“From what happened, I realised that this would be the best for me, who was prone to getting cancer. And then it could cure other illnesses, so I realised that its power was unlimited in curing people. So, I started to give the medicine to others,” said Decha.

Since last year, Decha’s marijuana medicines have been distributed in a few temples in Phichit province and Suphan Buri, while he launched training classes at his foundation.

The activities were last month disrupted when he was threatened with arrest as a result of the newly amended narcotics law.

The law allows only certain groups of people to produce marijuana-based medicine, and strict conditions are imposed to ensure the safety of patients. Among those are that the healer must be a medical practitioner, using either modern or traditional knowledge.

The conditions caused several public health and consumer advocacy groups to help push for the registration of Decha as a traditional medical practitioner so he could continue producing his medicines.

However, several other hurdles – rules and procedures – must first be cleared, demonstrating how difficult it is for a single traditional medical practitioner to produce a remedy.

The groups, including the notable BioThai, decided to push for additional changes to the law, with the key message focusing on the need to ensure the right of patients to access marijuana for medical purposes without any obstacles.

Cannabis Walk

The long Cannabis Walk will start on Monday and run for 20 days from Phichit province to Suphan Buri, with Decha taking the lead.

The problem, said Decha, is the viewpoint that marijuana should remain a narcotic under the law. Instead, it should be treated as a “controlled substances” in which it good properties are allowed to be utilised while its negative properties are put under control as they are with tobacco.

Decha does not place much hope that change will come within a day. People, he said, must help push for the change they want.

“For me, I’m just practising Dhamma like I always do. And as I practice Dhamma through my work as always, I think we will win because ‘the angels’ are on our sides.

“The point is to achieve a peaceful society, so any rules or regulation must be written to serve Dhamma and not greed. If not, we need to correct it.

“As the angels and Dhamma are by my side, there is nothing to fear,” said Decha, who several times in the past has confronted major interest groups while presenting his modest and calm personality.

Dr Wijarn Phanich, the country’s leading specialist in knowledge management for society, once said of Decha in the preface of the book, The Soul in Rice Grains, the Work and Life of Decha Siriphat; “A life based on the learning of Dhamma and led by Dhamma can truly transform into a life that benefits society at large, as demonstrated by Decha.”

Read: SPECIAL REPORT: Medical marijuana’s LONG ROAD BACK

With widespread poverty, lax laws, and creaking judicial systems, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and the Philippines have long been seen as soft spots by foreign and local paedophiles seeking out underage sex in person.

Tougher policing and greater awareness has deterred some offenders, but technology has shifted the patterns of abuse in a region with growing access to broadband internet and encrypted technology.

Paedophiles can now use an array of mobile and online tools — including social networks, video-sharing sites, and the dark web — to direct and watch child rape and sexual abuse with anonymity, experts warn.

“Predators watch the rapes on large platforms that are not likely to close,” said Fran็ois Xavier Souchet, of Thai-based NGO Terre des Hommes.

“It’s live, nothing is recorded… everything is encrypted. They pay more and more in Bitcoins, encrypted money makes their transactions as secure as possible,” he added.

This week online giants including Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook are giving evidence to the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA), which is being held in London and will look at how to prevent online sex crimes as part of its remit.

– ‘I want to die’ –

Demand for child sexual abuse via webcam is an increasing cause of human trafficking, according to a UN report, with suggestions Thailand has become a hub in the trade, as well as the Philippines.

Cassie, a Filipina victim, said she was just 12 when she was forced to commit sexual acts — both with an adult man and alone — in front of a webcam.

She moved to Manila to work as a maid but was exploited by her mother’s employer. The torment went on for five years.

She said “I felt trapped, betrayed and alone. I was thinking, ‘I want to die, I want to die because of this pain, but I can’t’.”

Her abuser received a two year jail term in 2017.

Last month, advocacy and legal aid group International Justice Mission (IJM) warned Philippine children were at risk of being forced into live streamed sex abuse, where paedophiles pay to direct so-called “shows” online.

“Easy access to the web and money transfer services make the country a global hotspot for this problem,” said IJM, noting that it is often parents or family members that organise or even commit the abuse.

Terre des Hommes drew attention to the problem using a computer-generated girl nicknamed “Sweetie” that hung out in chatrooms and was approached by about 20,000 people — mostly men — in a matter of weeks.

Last year a report by the Internet Watch Foundation found online child abuse imagery had increased by a third in 2017.

– Death penalty –

In March, a teacher was arrested and charged in his native France with rape, abuse of minors and possession of child pornography.

The 51-year-old, who worked in schools in Asia, is alleged to have befriended kids in a working-class Bangkok neighbourhood before building a rapport on social networks, police sources told AFP.

The same month, prosecutors charged another Frenchman with ordering videos of rape and sexual assaults of Filipino children.

The suspect, a 55-year-old former police officer, was arrested after a seizure of computers and live-streaming equipment in the Philippines.

In late April, former British Army officer Andrew Whiddett, 70, was found guilty by a London court of spending thousands of pounds paying for live-streamed sexual abuse of children from the Philippines.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) estimates 80,000 people in the UK present some kind of sexual threat to children online.

The cyber-abuse phenomenon is reaching “Cambodia and Vietnam”, warned Damian Kean, of the Thai-based NGO ECPAT, which specialises in combating the sexual exploitation of children.

In hyperconnected Vietnam, foreign paedophiles are increasingly targeting young victims online, often on social media.

The communist state last year instated harsher penalties to combat the crime — anyone guilty of molesting a child under 16 faces 12 years in prison, while child rape comes with a maximum sentence of death.

But catching a paedophile requires help from the communities within which they operate – communities which are often marginalised, poor and mistrustful.

Souchet of Terre des Hommes explained: “Particularly ethnic minority communities across the region do not trust local authorities.”

Pol Lt-General Withoon Nitiwarangkul, director of Police General Hospital, where Pol Lt Colonel Dr Anchulee (Teerawongpaisan) Phetcharat – colloquially known as Dr Air – serves in the Department of  of Psychiatry and Drug Dependence, said on Friday he had instructed public relations officials at the hospital to look into the matter.

Their findings would determine whether Anchulee violating any rule, he said, and if so, would lead to an official probe.

Withoon stressed that there was no fact-finding or disciplinary probe underway as yet.

Medical Council secretary-general Dr Itthiporn Khanacharoen said his agency was checking whether Anchulee’s “personal post” online had breached medical professional ethics.

Anchulee, who gave birth to a son earlier this month, drew criticism after posting a photo of herself pregnant on May 14 with a message inscribed on her belly in Thai.

The caption invited interested mothers-to-be to give birth in the US to secure a better future and good opportunities for their child. It said they could get free counselling from a private-sector service.

Anchulee deleted the post in the wake of numerous negative comments, including some questioning whether abuse of the claimed legal loophole was fair to American taxpayers.

The US constitution deems anyone born in the country an American citizen. Thousands of foreigners go there every year to give birth and thus gain for their children US citizenship and the privileges it offers, including free primary and secondary education.

US citizens can also apply for permission for their parents, spouses and children under 21 who live abroad to relocate to the US.

The Centre for Migration Studies puts the figure at 36,000 foreign women giving birth in the US each year, with many coming from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Nigeria, Turkey, Russia, Brazil and Mexico.

The administrator of the US-based Facebook page “CSI LA” criticised Anchulee’s post.

“I don’t know if Dr Air knows she is breaking US law by posting such an invitation to pregnant women to give birth in the US,” it said.

“US Immigration Police have been suppressing gangs for such ‘birth tourism’. Many Chinese agents were arrested and jailed. How can Dr Air [do this, since she serves] as a police officer and a doctor? Is it for financial gain, a commission fee from the private sector?”