PHATTALUNG: Wat Na Tom temple, hitherto a landmark of the faithful in Phattalung’s Muang District, final week spawned one of those scandals which, after hitting newsstands, has elicited sighs and perhaps uncharitable tittering. In this case, chance of the latter is high: some 70 full-color pictures help allegations by unidentified native folks that the abbot of Wat Na Tom not solely engaged frequently in fornication, but had as lovers two canines and three ladies. Senior monks from the provincial Buddhist Governing Board, its Muang district counterpart, and Phattalung’s Office of the Buddhist Religion, after inspecting the photos, announced they were real and enjoined the press to “beware of publishing them and casting Buddhism in a bad light,” which is a criminal matter underneath Thai law. The chief of Thailand’s Mental Health Department also warned in opposition to publication of the photos, saying they have been proof of mental illness and will have evil results on youngsters incapable of interpreting them properly. The admonitions got here too late, nonetheless, as two of the pictures had already been printed in a mass-circulation daily. The whereabouts of Wat Na Tom’s abbot were not reported; senior clergy urged him to resign instantly from the monkhood. The erring abbot was apparently caught fully unawares by villagers who climbed up to the roof to spy on him and photograph his lurid actions. The story surfaced on the morning of June 21, when unidentified native persons contacted reporters with pictures showing one of the province’s finest identified and most revered monks in flagrante delicto. “People residing across the temple have been aware of his actions for months,” reporters realized, “but they lacked evidence with which to eliminate his toxic influence…Two or three girls were sneaking in at evening to sleep with him, prompting native people to climb up and spy through a crack. “They found that on nights when no women got here to sleep with him, he had intercourse with the canine.” “Were the pictures unclear or concocted, evidence could be insufficient for an arrest,” Deputy Provincial Chief Abbot Pra Kru Methi Ratanakorn was quoted as saying. “But here Insane are unmistakable.” “It is actually him,” mentioned provincial Buddhist Office Director Koonapoongs Taharn-Thai. “He is type of well-known; villagers in the space have always accorded him a high diploma of respect. We’ve long had dealings frequently; but I never may have guessed such evil might affect a Phattalung monk!” Provincial Deputy Police Commander Pol Col Torsak Chukam Thursday ordered detectives to track down and arrest the abbot, recognized as Phra Kru Sopit Tamapimol (phra kru denotes a senior teaching monk; the the rest of the title means “Beautiful Enlightenment comes undefiled”). The suspect is described as aged about sixty one years, having joined the monkhood in 1957. He became abbot in 1994, and was commissioned phra kru in 2005; until fleeing he also operated a school teaching Buddhism on Sundays. Frenzy -haired” white canine, and one black dog, each females, had been found loc