Under the leadership of Luangpu, Wat Paknam grew from a desolate, disheveled, disorderly temple to becoming one of the most well-organized, well-disciplined, well-respected temples in Thailand. The number of monks and novices in the temple grew from the original thirteen to one thousand-then the largest number in Thailand. It also produced the greatest number of Buddhist scholars and meditation masters in the country.
Luangpu always valued the importance of education. He said:
"Education can change the life of a person for the better. One who is well-educated has access to better things in life than one who is not. One who possesses knowledge possesses the king's treasure, never to run out."
Training for monks, novices, laymen and laywomen were conducted by Luangpu every evening. He trained monks to deliver sermons and teach meditation. Proper monastic conduct in the temple started to become the norm. The radiance of goodness was everywhere.
But all was not well at the temple.
There were no schools near Wat Paknam during those days. Children of families who lived around the temple had no place to go for their education unless they were willing to travel far away. Because formal education was not yet made mandatory in Thailand, coupled with the lack of practical means of transportation, parents of these children did not send their children to school. As a result, these children spent most of their time doing nothing or simply making trouble.
Rowdy children ran wild in the temple compound and were disturbing the life of the monks. Gangs of children congregated in the temple and loitered its surrounding. They shot birds and fished in the water around the temple-an outrage in a Buddhist temple. The children would not listen to reason and would refuse even forcible means to remove them from the compound. Dealing with these children left the monks with almost no spare time to attend to their regular duties. The monks had to be wary of escalating the conflict because the children's parents were those same neighbors who were unwilling to cooperate with Luangpu's reforms.
Luangpu was concerned for the future of these children. He said, "These uneducated children are littering up the country and wrecking this temple in their spare time. If I don't help them they will grow up to become hooligans."
The way to help them was to give them education, Luangpu decided. He set up a private school free of charge to the public and garnered enough financial support to hire teachers. Initially ten families signed up for their children. Later on, as the families began to see the benefit, more and more families signed on. The number soon grew to three hundred. With some education the behaviors of the children started to change. Their parents were pleased with the progress of their children. Many of the conspiring neighbors realized what Luangpu was doing for them and started to accept him. The scruffiness of Wat Paknam gradually receded.
Becoming Centers for Education
During that time, Siam underwent country-wide modernization programs initiated by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). Immense government and social reforms were instituted. Education up to primary level was made mandatory. Government-sponsored primary educational programs throughout the kingdom were implemented. Because the policy of the Ministry of Public Instruction was underfinanced and slow to implement, the government utilized the monasteries throughout the kingdom as places to jumpstart the school program and for the introduction of new texts and teaching techniques.
When the abbot of neighboring Wat Koonjan passed away, Luangpu was designated acting abbot. That temple also had a school and Luangpu gradually moved his teaching activities there. Later, when the government was able to organize more schools to handle the load, Luangpu handed over this operation to the government.
In Wat Paknam he developed the old primary school to be used for teaching Pali and Dhamma for the temple's monks and novices. Previously, the monks of Wat Paknam who studied Pali had to travel to other temples such as Wat Anong, Wat Kalyanamitr, Wat Phrayurawong, Wat Mahathat and Wat Phra Chetuphon to receive their education. In those days the only way to travel was by canal boat. Thonburi, for instance, had no roads. The main bridge that crossed between Bangkok and Thonburi had not yet been built. Those studying had to face the same sort of hardships that Luangpu himself had faced in his early years.
Luangpu made sure every monk and novice studied the Scriptures so they could conduct their monastic lifestyle the right way and to have the knowledge to teach others. Scriptural study and meditational study went hand-in-hand. Luangpu said, "Scriptural study is a balm; meditation is a pill."
Whoever had special aptitude for the study of Pali emphasized academic studies. Whoever had special aptitude for the study of meditation emphasized Dhamma practice. If anyone lacked either the aptitude to study or meditate, there was always the choice of helping with the administration of the temple. Everyone had to be active. No one was allowed to sit idle.
The temple was soon established as a seat of learning. It occupied a newly built, three-storied edifice, 59 meters long and 11 meters wide, and cost about 2.6 million baht (a great sum of money at that time). The Pali Institute was on the lower two floors. The top floor was for meditation teaching to the public. The building was eventually used by one thousand monks and novices-not only the resident monks and novices of Wat Paknam, but also those from other temples. It became the nation's biggest school for scriptural studies. Monks from other temples in the Bhasicharoen area changed their place of examination to Wat Paknam and were able to take their midday meals in the temple's refectory, which was able to cater up to
six hundred monks and novices.
The school for scriptural studies that Luangpu established developed into a first-class educational institute which has consistently produced the highest number of Level-Nine Pali graduates (the highest degree in Buddhist academy) in the educational history of Thailand.
To this day, Wat Paknam is one of the most recognized Buddhist institutions in the nation.
Housing for Monks, Novices and Nuns
During those days, accommodation for monks was very limited. Newly arrived monks had to take responsibility for building their own kutis. As the number of monks increased, a sort of shanty town grew up in every available empty space in the temple. The monks knew that without accommodations Luangpu would not allow them to stay. So they took whatever building material, including scraps of wood from broken coffins discarded by the neighboring undertakers, and built macabre kutis looking more like rabbit hutches or bird-houses than accommodation fit for a monk! The huts were built on stilts over stagnant, putrid water. None of the huts had even so much as a bench or a chair. Most monks had nothing more than a thermos container of drinking water.
Luangpu proceeded to construct several permanent buildings to accommodate the increasing number of monks, novices and nuns, using modern facilities available at that time. The housing facilities that he built were able to accommodate as many as six hundred monks, novices and nuns.
Luangpu created a segregated, fenced area in the temple for nuns. Each dormitory was occupied by many nuns. No nun was allowed to sleep alone. Luangpu prohibited contact between monks and nuns without his permission. If a visit between the opposite parties was necessary a third person must be present. Although the number of nuns in the temple grew steadily over the years, there were never any scandals caused by the mixing of monks and nuns. Luangpu took close responsibility for everything that took place in the temple, both in public and behind closed doors.
Feeding a Thousand Mouths
Luangpu had more immediate worries on his mind. The lack of food for monks and novices was a regular occurrence. He himself had personally encountered hunger during his early days at Wat Phra Chetuphon. He had made a pledge to himself that as soon as he was in a position to do so he would build a kitchen big enough to cater to all the monks, novices and nuns so they could concentrate their energy on monastic training and meditation and not have to worry about having enough food to survive. Through the growing support of his benefactors, over time, he finally was able to fulfill this aspiration.
A refectory large enough to cater to one-thousand strong community of monks, novices, nuns and laypeople was finally built-the first of its kind in Thailand. In addition, with the help of a capable monk, he devised a water delivery system to deliver clean drinking water from artesian wells to the temple. With this in place, the temple always had plenty of drinking water.
The nuns were assigned to run the kitchen. In the beginning rice had to be shipped from his family farm in Songpinong. Later, help came from local lay folk and this tradition continues down to the present day. Luangpu took upon himself the responsibility to provide for all the monks and novices in the temple. He began this effort in 1918 and continued to do so for another forty-one years. By the time of his death, the number of monks, novices, nuns and laypeople that he managed to feed daily grew to twelve hundred. Many called him the "Miracle Monk" for what he was able to achieve.
