Iconoclasm & Heresy in Bangkok

Hi Justin,

   (1) I had seen this website before, but didn't know that you were
affiliated with it.

   (2) There are big gaps in the text provided on the web-page, e.g., a
missing page when one clicks on "Membership"; however, at least in
theory, this would be an association that I'd like to be a member of.
I hope it isn't expensive; perhaps you'll send me details off-list.
Do you have an "Unsalaried Palicist" membership rate?

   (3) An interesting landmark in the history of Thai Buddhism: a man
smashed the famous golden Brahma image near Siam Skytrain Station (in
front of the Erawan hotel) --and the offending iconoclast was
summarily beaten to death (!) on the spot by devotees of the statue.
The coverage in the _Bangkok Post_ seems suspiciously vague (as with
so many things in Thai polity); the paper suggests that the iconoclast
was "mentally deranged" (unlike the people who beat him to death?),
and does not specify how many devotees participated in reducing him to
a red puddle on the concrete in the ensuing outpouring of rage.  This
is the sort of thing that is supposed to "never happen" in Thai
Theravada Buddhism's opinion of itself; but I would also be interested
to know if the iconoclast had a political or religious motivation for
the act.  The Bangkok Post did review the origin and history of the
statue --it was minted in the 1950s to allay the fears of construction
worker that the site was haunted.

E.M.