https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210422-thai-buddhist-sect-attempts-world-record-with-330-000-candles

Thai Buddhist sect attempts world record with 330,000 candles

Buddhist monks chanted around a spaceship-shaped golden shrine, as a controversial Thai sect burned 330,000 candles attempting a Guinness World Record for the largest flaming image on Thursday – all to commemorate Earth Day.

The candles, in the shape of a map of the world and a Buddha figure, were arranged around the central shrine at the Dhammakaya sect's 78-acre compound, in a province north of Bangkok.

"Cleanse the mind, cleanse the world" was also spelled out in the flickering light, and organisers said the objective was "to encourage people of any nationality, race and religion to join together in the activities of chanting and group meditation, sharing loving kindness".

The ceremony was timed to coincide with Earth Day, a worldwide event which aims to raise awareness about ecological issues – raising questions about whether the burning of so many candles was in itself bad for the environment.

It was not immediately clear whether the world record had been achieved, or how it was being monitored.

The Dhammakaya sect is a wealthy Buddhist order founded in 1970, which was steered to riches by the septuagenarian monk Phra Dhammachayo.

From unorthodox animated Buddhist teachings to alleged ties with former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, the Dhammakaya temple's reputation has been embedded with controversies.

In 2017 Phra Dhammachayo was the subject of a massive police hunt at the Dhammakaya temple complex, with officers uncovering secret tunnels as they sought his arrest over allegations of money laundering and a massive embezzlement of $33 million.

The former abbott, who was 72 at the time, remains at large.

Buddhist authorities have accused Dhammakaya of peddling a pay-your-way to nirvana philosophy, spreading the sect's popularity through public relations events.

The temple denies the allegations and says the charges are politically motivated.

It has since quietly rebounded and continues to hold several high-profile annual events.

With "world peace as inner peace" as its motto, the sect has 84 centres in 31 countries worldwide, from Belgium and Canada to the Solomon Islands and South Africa.

>>13494137

https://coconuts.co/bangkok/news/cops-find-secret-tunnel-dhammakaya-temple-manhunt-abbot/

Cops find secret tunnel under Dhammakaya temple in manhunt for abbot

In 2017 Phra Dhammachayo was the subject of a massive police hunt at the Dhammakaya temple complex, with officers uncovering secret tunnels as they sought his arrest over allegations of money laundering and a massive embezzlement of $33 million.

Police have discovered a secret tunnel running underneath the space-age temple of the controversial Dhammakaya Buddhist sect, as their manhunt for Phra Dhammachayo, the elusive elderly monk accused of massive embezzlement, entered its second day.

Thousands of officers are involved in the search for the 72-year-old monk, who is believed to be holed up somewhere on the vast Wat Dhammakaya temple grounds on the outskirts of Bangkok.

The former abbot, who founded the breakaway Buddhist order in 1970 and has marshalled its prodigious rise, is accused of money laundering and accepting embezzled funds worth USD33 million from the jailed owner of a cooperative bank.

But in an increasingly bizarre cat-and-mouse game, cops were frustrated for a second day running as they were led by orange-robed monks through endless rooms and hallways on the 1,000-acre site.

Yesterday, police found a 1.5 kilometer tunnel — split into two routes — dug under the UFO-like temple that dominates the site, which may have been used by the ex-abbot as a way to move around the grounds.

“It only has one entrance but it does not go outside of the temple,” Pol. Col. Worranan Srilum, deputy spokesman for the DSI — Thailand’s equivalent of the FBI — told reporters.

They also searched a sick bay used by the former abbot, but instead of finding their target, they pulled back a yellow blanket to reveal several pillows arranged to look like a sleeping person.

“The Dhammakaya temple area is sprawling so it will have to take time to search…we can’t find him yet, but our intelligence insists that he is still inside (the) temple,” he added.

The search of the powerful and ultra-rich Wat Dhammakaya temple comes after Thailand’s PM invoked special powers to put its sprawling compound under military control.

Temple officials say the ex-abbot is innocent and deny knowledge of his whereabouts.

Thailand’s secular authorities are normally reluctant to intervene in the affairs of the clergy in the Buddhist-majority country.

But the Dhammakaya sect has long been in the firing line. Critics accuse the temple of promoting a pay-your-way to nirvana philosophy, burnished with “cultish” mass shows of devotion and a sophisticated PR machine.

The temple is also mired in the kingdom’s treacherous politics, with rumoured links to ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and still hated by the Bangkok elite and their military allies.

>>13494084

>Dough

>>13494137

>330,000 candles

>In 2017 Phra Dhammachayo was the subject of a massive police hunt at the Dhammakaya temple complex, with officers uncovering secret tunnels as they sought his arrest over allegations of money laundering and a massive embezzlement of $33 million.

>The former abbott, who was 72 at the time, remains at large.

>>13494143

well I for one think it's quite notable