Bangkok sky

Hall:  The skies above Bangkok can be unpredictable.  But on an unsettled afternoon last October, one prediction came true - at least for some. Just as had been foretold, the sun turned into a crystal, and thousands saw the image of Buddha.

00.12

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Abbot

Hall:  The soothsayer is this man - the Abbot of Wat Dhammakaya. To his followers, he's a saviour, an inspiration, a most holy monk.

00.33

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Hall:  But to the police he's a criminal.

00.47

And the police are closing in on the Abbot of Wat Dhammakaya.

Map Thailand

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Monk with alms bowl

Hall:  At first light every morning they can be seen walking out into their communities. Buddhist monks - the most revered members of Thai society - are not even allowed to touch money, let alone make any. They rely on the offerings of the people.

01.14

It's a daily reminder that Buddhism, the religion at the heart of Thai culture, is about foregoing attachment to material possessions.

01.32

Man on escalator/ Shopping mall

Music

Hall:  But today another religion is challenging Buddhism's place at the centre of Thai society. That religion is money.

01.52

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Hall:  More and more Thais now want instant Nirvana, and a reassurance that greed is good.

02.07

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Wat Dhammakaya worship hall

Hall:  This temple is giving it to them.

02.18

At Wat Dhammakaya followers are welcomed into a clean, modern worship hall with room for 300,000 people and all the latest technology.

02.24

Hall:  Here followers can practice Buddhist meditation while being reassured that donating to the temple will make them wealthy.

02.39

Young man's testimonial

Young man:  And friends just said "It's a miracle." They were so surprised they said "What kind of lucky charm have you got?"

02.57

Hall:  This young follower is taking his turn to give testimony that an amulet sold by the temple will attract money to the wearer. He says it worked for him.

Chatsuman

Dr. Chatsuman:  You have to realise that this globalisation expose our population to consumerism, materialism, and in that process, we are losing the grasp of the real teaching of Buddhism.

03.08

Hall:  Dr. Chatsuman Kabilsingh is a teacher of traditional Buddhism. She's fearful that Wat Dhammakaya is gaining a dangerous stranglehold over many in the Thai middle class.

Dr. Chatsuman:  They have people - disciples -

03.27

who come in to help, to help organise the movement, from business, business, with business mentality and with market purpose. So they are very successful.

Manit:   I think this temple just matching the new lifestyle of the time.

04.02

Super:

MANIT RATTANASUWAN

Marketing Manager

So when we did it, people think about us that we are very aggressive. But I think this is very normal in the modern world.

Chanting

Woman praying

Hall:  What Wat Dhammakaya sells is its own brand of meditation. These people say it's changed their lives.

04.25

Young woman

Young woman:  I think that nowadays our people need more meditation, you know, to relieve their lives.

04.34

Man

Man:  After I joined with the temple, Dhammakaya temple, so my thinking and my heart is cooled down, and then I think more about what I should do in my business.

04.42

Boat on canal

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Kamol in boat

Hall:  Kamol Muttamara is not a Wat Dhammakaya follower. But the temple also changed his life.

05.11

It's now ten months since he's seen his daughter. She cut off contact with him when he criticised the Dhammakaya temple.

05.31

Music

Hall:  The temple tried to stop Kamol talking to us, but he agreed to meet us in an anonymous location.

05.32

Kamol

Kamol:  First time I think it's good.  I'm happy for her to go to Wat Dhammakaya.

05.38

Hall:   When his daughter started attending the Dhammakaya temple last year, Kamol was glad that she seemed to be becoming more devout. But then she started borrowing large sums of money - and he began to get suspicious.

05.48

Kamol

Kamol:  I don't like. And they want to collect money only. Only money, money, so I don't like.

06.03

FX:  Car horn

Hall:  It's the business side of Wat Dhammakaya that's at the heart of the controversy.

06.14

Engineer with Hall in bus

Somsak:  Here this plan is to have approximately 400 staff or volunteer.

06.19

Hall:  In the temple grounds is huge money making operation.

06.26

It's a production line of personalised Buddhas.

06.35

Super:

SOMSAK JONGWATPOL

Chief Engineer

Somsak:  Our production rate, so far we have achieved more than 1000 pieces of work a day.

06.44

Buddhas

Hall:  The fund raising strategy here is that followers buy their own statue and have their name engraved on it before it's placed on a new temple for posterity. It's not exactly in the Buddhist spirit of letting go of the self.

06.51

And at 30,000 baht a piece, about $1,200 dollars, these Buddhas don't come cheap.

07.07

Santikaro

Santikaro:  I've heard them compared to Amway.

07.14

Hall:  Tan Santikaro Bikkhu has been a monk in Thailand for almost 20 years. But he sees in Dhammakaya the slick marketing of his home country. And the same appeal to the hip pocket.

07.18

Santikaro:  Techniques that all focussed on money, or gaining control over other people, these are profoundly unhealthy, whether they're happening within religious institutions, within corporations, within government bureaucracies, these are not healthy for people.

07.31

Woman puts money in temple box

Hall:  The leaders at the Dhammakaya temple deny they're obsessed with extracting money from devotees. But they do concede they have trained followers in pyramid style selling techniques. And Manit, if a little reluctantly, also explains another of the temple's marketing devices.

07.56

Manit

Hall:  ...called the millionaire forever concept. How does that one work?

Manit:  I don't understand that.

Hall:  Millionaire forever.

Manit:  Millionaire forever - when people come to temple sometime they would like to pray, and what they pray, normally the first basic thing, how can they become successful? How can they become rich? And what the monk here do is to blessing.

08.20

We bless you to be the millionaire forever. That's a blessing.

08.38

Money changer

Hall:  A blessing for those prepared to donate the right amounts of money.

08.45

Professor:  This is not Buddhism, it is a cult - profiteering cult.

08.51

Hall:  One of Thailand's learning Buddhist scholars simply dismisses the temple's leaders as charlatans.

08.59

Professor.

Super:

Prof. SATHIENPONG WANNAPOK

Buddhist Scholar

Professor:  They claim they are the followers of the Buddha. But actually they are not.

09.05

Hall:  So if they're not Buddhists, why do they claim to be?

09.12

Professor:  I think that if they pretend to be monks they can get, you know, more money.

09.15

Music

09.24

Hall in car/ New temple

Hall:  I'm now on my way to the Abbot's new monument to modern Buddhism - a startling looking temple on the outskirts of Bangkok.

09.31

Somsak:  That's fantastic, right?

09.39

Hall:  And all those, all that gold there is all those Buddhas we've seen?

09.43

Somsak:  Yes.

Hall:  It's not actually gold, it's 2,000 tons of silicon bronze. But glittering across the 200 metre span of the building it's impressive.

09.50

Somsak:  According to our design standard, we make it last longer than 1,000 years. And that is the concept and the requirement from the abbot of this temple.

10.12

Buddhas on roof

Hall:  The abbot certainly knows what sells, even at exorbitant  prices. These personalised Buddhas are proving so popular he's ordered a million of them.

10.28

Police station

But the abbot's money raising skills are catching up with him.

10.44

Policeman:  We feel we have enough evidence so we sent in the file to the Crown Prosecutor.

Hall:  Police have charged the Abbot of Wat Dhammakaya with embezzlement and fraud, over a complex chain of financial transactions involving temple funds and lands donated to the temple.

11.00

Inside temple

Hall:  If the charges against the abbot are upheld, he'll be defrocked and could be gaoled for life.

11.17

For the moment he's been released on bail, but is refusing interviews.

11.23

Instead, the vice-abbot has agreed to answer some questions.

11.34

Hall with Vice Abbot

Vice Abbot:  I'm trying to explain you what is meditation.

11.38

Hall:  The vice abbot had many answers on the subject of meditation.

11.55

Vice Abbot:  It leads to less metabolism rate - right.

Hall:  He was less forthcoming on the subject of money.

Vice Abbot

Vice Abbot:  I build meditation assembly, because the people ask for it. Not because I want to show my power. No, I have no money. They give me no power. Please, bigger, because we have not enough place to sit. Is it my fault?

Roof of new temple

Music

Hall:  It is now up the Thai courts to decide if this is a case of monks behaving badly. But for now, the abbot's followers remain loyal.

Abbot:  I bless you to acquire much wealth - and after paying your debts you will have lots and lots of money left.

Hall:  These devotees obviously like the abbot's twentieth century approach to ancient wisdom.