A security perimeter impeding access to a temple near the Government House will be adjusted to allow monks to receive alms.
The announcement by Thai security forces comes after several complaints by monks living at Wat Benchamabopit in the Dusit district, which is under lockdown due to antigovernment demonstrations.
“I’ve already negotiated with the police and they’ve agreed to slightly move the barricades to make way for monks to collect alms and allow Buddhist laymen and tourists to enter the temple more conveniently,” Deputy Abbot Phra Thepkittiweethee told the Bangkok Post. “If not, we’ll have to climb over the barricades.”
Police had volunteered to clean the temple after a senior monk, Apichart Punnachantho, posted a message complaining about the situation last week, but the monk remained unsatisfied by the response.
Thepkittiweethee said the security situation was an imposition on the monks, who could not go out to receive donations of food in the morning.
Known by tourists as the Marble Temple, Wat Benchamabopit houses 109 monks and novices.
Thepkittiweethee said police had also stopped napping and smoking on the temple grounds, which was improper and a turn-off to tourists, Bangkok Post reported.
Photo: Apichart Punnachantho
