The
Ancient Guardian Monk –
Luang Pu Thuat
Luang Pu Thuat
Part
I: The Life and Legends of Luang Pu Thuat
People all
over Thailand know the stories of Luang Pu Thuat – Thailand’s
most famous monk. Until recently, most stories of the highly revered
monk were not written, but only passed down through oral tradition.
I will relay a few stories of the legendary monk for those who aren’t
familiar with him. I will tell my own story about how the monk
protected me on two separate occasions in an upcoming post.
Early Life.
The legend
tells that, as an infant, baby Pu’s1
parents put him in a hammock while they worked a rice paddy. While
they were gone, a large reticulated python coiled around him. When
his parents returned, they pleaded with the snake to spare the child.
They suspected that the snake was supernatural, so they decided to
pray and make offerings to it. The snake was appeased and spit up a
glowing crystal onto the baby’s chest while it slithered away. As
long as his parents had the crystal, their fortune improved
dramatically. When a local lord demanded the crystal from the
parents, the lord’s fortune turned sour until he returned the
crystal back to Pu’s parents.
His
parents took him to a local monastery when he was a boy so that he
could be educated. The boy studied diligently. He later ordained as
a novice monk and, through continued diligence, quickly received
full ordination. He traveled to several monasteries in the south of
Thailand, and eventually got permission from his abbot to travel to
Ayuttaya, an ancient capital of Thailand. On the trip there, the
ship he was on encountered rough seas. Some legends also say that he
caused the storm to subside around the ship. The ship couldn’t get
through the storm, but this kept the ship from being destroyed by it.
The crew was stranded for 7 days when they began to run out of food
and water. Luang Pu Thuat got into a row boat and then stepped his
foot on to the ocean water. Legend says that the water all around
the little boat began to sparkle. Some sailors tasted it, and
discovered that the water had turned from salty sea water to fresh
water, which saved the crew.
Luang Pu
Thuat got to Ayuttaya. However he looked too disheveled and most
monasteries refused to accept him, save for an old and run down one.
He continued his diligent study of Buddha’s teachings in the
shadows of the great monasteries of the capital city. Eventually,
one of his greatest challenges would come to him in this city.
The Great Puzzle.
At the
time, Thailand and Sri Lanka were political, cultural, and religious
rivals. The King of Sri Lanka was considering invading Thailand,
but then came up with an alternative. The King of Sri Lanka had gold
coins melted down and shaped like leaves. Then he had the Abhidharma
(the Buddhist bible) imprinted, one letter at a time, onto these
leaves, of which there were 84,0002
in all. The leaves were divided into 7 great big baskets. The king
had seven of his Brahmins take the baskets, along with 7 shiploads of
fine silks and other valuables, to the Thai king. The Brahmins
relayed this challenge from the Sri Lankan king: “My Brahmins have
brought all the letters to write the Abhidharma in these baskets, and
each basket spells a certain section of the Abhidharma. If your
sages can put these 7 puzzles together in 7 days, then you keep these
golden letters, the silks, and everything else on the ships.
However, if they fail, then I replace you as king and Thailand
becomes part of Sri Lanka!”
(A Cultural
Note.)
To give some
background for westerners, there are a lot of cultural ideas at play
in this particular story. The Buddha taught to avoid not just
killing people, and not even to also avoid killing animals. He
taught to avoid causing suffering to any living creature. Emperor
Ashoka, from India, converted to Buddhism after winning a very nasty
war. After converting, he never went to war again, declared that
animals were no longer to be used as food in the royal kitchens, and
undertook building schools and hospitals for his people. He was a
role model that Buddhist king’s were taught to respect and try to
live up to.
There is
also the concept of “losing face” – not causing another person
unnecessary embarrassment3.
That means not engaging in unnecessary conflict that could put a
person in a situation where they might be embarrassed. In contrast
to non-violence, the idea of losing face could be played with a
little bit. Thailand and Sri Lanka had an unspoken contest between
them as to which nation preserved the Dharma (Buddha’s teachings)
better. Here, the Sri Lankan king strategically put the Thai king
between a rock and a hard place. If he refused the challenge, then
it would be seen as a loss by default. If he accepted and lost, then
there would be even greater loss of face (and the kingdom!) The king
would lose face either way. If he brushed it off as a ploy and
challenged the Sri Lankan king to come battle for Ayutthaya, then the
Thai king would still lose face for failing to live up to the Dharma
and Ashoka’s example. The only way out was through. The only way
to not lose face was to accept the challenge and win.
Confronting the
Challenge.
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| Luang Pu Thuat and Elephant at Wat Huai Mongkhon |
So, the
Thai king accepted the challenge and had his most erudite monks begin
working on the puzzle. To their embarrassment, they were stuck and
unable to solve a single puzzle in the first 4 days. That night, the
Thai king dreamt of a white elephant coming from the west into the
palace and trumpeting throughout the palace with his trunk. One of
his advisors said that it meant help would come and bring victory for
the Thai king. With only a couple days left, the king reasoned that
the help he needed would come from a monk who was probably already in
the capitol city, and sent senior monks to find this monk.
Luang Pu
Thuat was found late on the 6th day. A devout Buddhist
homeowner told him about the challenge, what was at stake for Siam
(as Thailand was called then), and how the senior monks had been
thwarted by the puzzle. The homeowner who told Luang Pu Thuat about
the challenge begged him to hurry to the king’s mansion
immediately. However, the young master told the homeowner not to
worry and that he would go to the king in the morning.
On the
final day of the challenge, Luang Pu Thuat arrived at the king’s
mansion after his morning meditation and study. The king had already
been alerted to the young monk’s arrival and had him brought in
immediately. The young master began to work and had all 7 nearly
complete by the end of the day. Each puzzle was missing one single
piece to complete them. The young master recited a simple phrase.
The phrase was a teaching acronym that helps young monks organize the
Amithaba as they learn. The young master then turned to the Brahmins
and asked them for the remaining pieces. Much chagrined, each
Brahmin admitted that they had individually decided to retain one
piece of their puzzle in order to ensure victory for their king. The
young monk took each coin and arranged them to make the acronym that
he just said. By this, he showed his deep understanding of the
Dharma. Thus, the young Luang Pu Thuat preserved the sovereignty of
the nation and the nobility of the Dharma teachings at once. The
king was very grateful and offered the monk riches, land, and the
right to be king for a week. Luang Pu Thuat stayed true to his
monastic vows and declined them all.
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| The biggest statue of Luang Pu Thuat (born 2125 BE (1582 CE), died 2225 BE (1682 CE)) Wat Huai Mongkhon, Hua Hin, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand |
Later Life.
Years
later, there was a horrible plague in Ayuttaya. The illness began
to spread ever rapidly the city’s doctors were unable to find a
cure. Finally, it was brought to Luang Pu Thuat’s attention. He
meditated and then recited some prayers over a vat of holy water. He
took the water all around the city, blessing the entire city. The
plague stopped spreading immediately, and those who were ill began to
recover.
Shortly
after that, the revered monk decided that he needed to return to his
home province. His hometown monastery had become quite dilapidated,
and the monk began to work to restore the temple. Word reached back
to the Thai king who sent several ships full of building supplies and
the king’s personal architects to restore the temple. Some time
later, a provincial governor sought out the master monk to help
build a new temple. The master monk obliged, and eventually settled
down to become the abbot of that temple, named Wat Changhai.
Luang Pu
Thuat eventually passed away when he was 120 years old. His students
began to see the monk in their dreams, helping them to learn the
Dharma and grow spiritually. This phenomena grew over the years.
Eventually, monks began to make amulets in the image of the revered
master, and the amulets are reported to have great powers that
protect the wearer from evil spirits, black magic, accidents, and
even gunfire4!
Footnotes:
1This was his original name, which means “Crab”. Sources show that he was given the name Pu in different contexts, even after being given a new religious name as a monk. This happened a few times during his life, and Pu seems to be he most recognized part of his name.
2The numbers 84 and 108 are special numbers in Buddhism, and they come up repeatedly.
3Losing face is more broadly cultural as opposed to being part of Buddhism in particular.
4 It is said that the holy monk cannot protect someone from their own bad karma, so don’t confuse an amulet with a kevlar vest!
Sources:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Great_statue_of_Luang_Pu_Thuat,_Wat_Huai_Mongkol,_Prachuap_Khiri_Khan.jpg
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