Myself with the holy monk Luang Phor Thong

Many years ago, I went to visit Pastor Patsy who lives in the northern Malaysian state of Penang which is an island. I stayed with her and her family for a few months and during that time, Pastor Patsy kindly offered to take me on a weekend trip to Thailand for a short break. Penang is very close to the Thai border so it is quite easy to fly or even drive there. Anyway, a small group of us went to Thailand and while we were there, we heard that there was a very holy and old teacher living nearby in Hat Yai. He was the abbot of a very famous temple called Wat Pako Suwannaram and was apparently quite famous and highly respected.

Later, I learnt that this holy monk’s name was Luang Phor Thong Susangwaro, or Ajahn Thong. Born in 1909, Luang Phor Thong was one of three children. His mother passed away when he was just three years old. Unable to care for him, his father left Luang Phor Thong in the care of his uncle and aunt. When he was six years old, his uncle enrolled him into school; later on, Luang Phor Thong helped on a farm until he was 20 years old, when he received his ordination vows which he held for the rest of his life.

By the time I heard about Luang Phor Thong, he was already very old, in his late 80s. When I heard about him, I immediately wanted to go and pay my respects to him. Luang Phor Thong was so respected that, I have been told, even royalty in Thailand consulted him. He was known to be highly clairvoyant and adept in the control of spirits, as well as protection against and curing black magic problems. The talismans and amulets that he made and consecrated are still highly sought-after to this day.

A print of Luang Phor Thong produced by his temple and disciples for them to worship and remember this kind master.

So I wanted to see him, not because he was famous but because being of such an advanced age and having held his monk vows for over 70 years, he was very senior to me. To make offerings to someone like that is an incredible blessing for us. Even if a real Bodhisattva makes offerings to such a senior monk, they will collect a tremendous amount of merit. So imagine for someone like you and me.

Actually, the Thai tradition has many, many great masters like this. It is just that we do not hear about them mostly because of the language barrier. But there are many such meditation masters that have arisen in their tradition and the Thais really love, respect, cherish and support their genuine senior monks. I have always admired the Thai tradition, especially their devotion to their lamas. It is something that I can identify with, the veneration of one’s teacher as the gateway to the path. Wherever you go in Thailand, you can see huge outdoor statues of holy old monks everywhere. That makes me so happy, to see that the Thais still have this level of devotion towards their teachers.

So my friends and I went to the temple, wanting to perhaps make offerings to the holy Luang Phor Thong who we soon learnt was meeting people every day. We were granted an audience with this senior monk so we walked in and he was sitting on his daybed, glowing and radiating kindness. He asked me where I came from so I told Luang Phor Thong a little bit about myself. I said that I was living in Malaysia and giving Dharma teachings there, and that I was facing some difficulties and obstacles, including with sponsorship.

Luang Phor Thong told me that in the future, I would be able to become like him, that I can build a big temple. I was thinking “how?” and “really?”, not because I didn’t believe him but because I couldn’t see how it was possible given the obstacles I was facing in Malaysia. Luang Phor Thong also told me that I will always have funding and not to worry about this. Then he gifted me with a statue and advised me to recite a certain mantra every time I was facing financial difficulties. He said I would receive the assistance I needed. I thanked Luang Phor Thong for his advice and after we took photos with this master, my students and I left the temple.

As we were walking away, a huge rainbow appeared over the temple. It hadn’t been raining so there was no reason for the rainbow to appear. Immediately, I had one of my students snap this photograph of myself and this auspicious sign. To me, it was an indication that whatever Luang Phor Thong had predicted would come true and it gave me a lot of encouragement which I needed at the time.

After our meeting with the holy Luang Phor Thong, a huge rainbow appeared over the temple. I took this as an auspicious sign and immediately requested one of my students to take some photographs.

A few months later, Pastor Chia and Pastor Patsy went back to Thailand to tour some friends around so I asked them to go to the temple again. I wanted them to update Luang Phor Thong that things were getting better and everything was okay. I wanted them to thank him for his blessings. Later, Pastor Chia and Pastor Patsy told me that Luang Phor Thong was already quite ill at the time but still meeting people and helping them. They showed Luang Phor Thong my picture and according to them, he remembered me.

I was so thankful that they could go because just three weeks later, Luang Phor Thong passed away at 12:08pm on November 21, 2000. This grand master, who had been the abbot of his temple for over half a century, was 92 years old. According to some accounts, on the morning of his passing, Luang Phor Thong warned his students that the area would experience natural disasters, leading to heavy losses, a lot of people suffering and many fatalities. Sure enough, on the day the temple held the funeral rituals for Luang Phor Thong, at the completion of the ceremony, it began to rain very heavily. In the end, Hat Yai experienced some extremely serious and damaging flooding. It was the worst they had experienced in living memory; many lives were lost and a lot of property was severely damaged, just as Luang Phor Thong had warned.

A year later, Pastor Patsy, her husband (pictured in this photograph), Pastor Chia and a group of people went to see Luang Phor Thong again. Notice the date on the photo. Just three weeks later, Luang Phor Thong passed away. I am grateful that they had the opportunity to update Luang Phor Thong before he entered clear light.

When Pastor Chia and Pastor Patsy returned to Malaysia, they said that Luang Phor Thong had told them this life would be his last. After he passed away, he did not want to come back. So when I heard about his passing, I immediately instructed Pastor Chia to light many candles and offer them to the Buddhas. I instructed him to make prayers and strongly request the Three Jewels for Luang Phor Thong’s incarnation to come back. I felt very strongly that he was some kind of living arhat or, at the very least, not an ordinary monk any more and that if people did not make fervent requests, he would not come back.

After his passing, his devotees enshrined his body in glass in Wat Pako for people to come and pray, and seek his blessings. Incredibly, in the humid heat of Southern Thailand, his body shows no signs of decomposition. In fact, it is said that his hair and nails continue to grow and from time to time, they even remove the glass casing to trim them.

Myself at Luang Phor Thong’s temple which is called Wat Pako Suwannaram.

Before he passed away, just like some Tibetan lamas, Luang Phor Thong also left instructions on what to do with his body. The normal procedure for practitioners of rank or attainments is to cremate the body and for the relics to be enshrined in a reliquary stupa. However, Luang Phor Thong had instructed his disciples not to cremate his body. He wanted it to remain to inspire future generations in the region, so they would develop faith in the Three Jewels after seeing the results of Dharma practice as demonstrated by his body which does not decompose. This is just like in the Tibetan tradition, where we have countless examples of advanced practitioners going into meditation, passing away then remaining in a meditative state known as tukdam. They can stay like this for hours, days and sometimes even weeks, and their bodies do not decompose, rot or smell, even in the Indian heat. So it just goes to show that if you practise, hold your vows and keep your commitments, you can definitely accomplish something and there is no difference between the different traditions. The result of practice is the same.

A beautiful shrine set up by Luang Phor Thong’s students at Wat Pako Suwannaram in Hat Yai, to commemorate their guru. Tibetans have a similar tradition of making statues of their teachers, to commemorate their kindness because our teachers are the foundation of all attainments we will develop.

Hence the fact Luang Phor Thong’s body has not decomposed is believed to be a sign of a very advanced practitioner. For the rest of us, as soon as we pass away, within hours our bodies begin to rot, smell or stiffen. But this has not happened to Luang Phor Thong’s body. And so Luang Phor Thong’s prediction is accurate because people have been inspired by his body and deeds. It is said that his temple never stops construction because so many people, having benefited from his help, come back to offer assistance and make donations. I really rejoice for this because through his compassion towards others, now his temple continues to spread the Dharma long after he is gone.

I was very fortunate to have met and received the blessings of someone like him, not because he was famous or anything like that. I was very fortunate to have met such a senior, old and holy monk, who became holy by virtue of keeping his monk vows purely for 75 years.

So that is the story of how I met such a holy monk in Thailand and the advice he gave to me. Thank you.

Tsem Rinpoche

Pastor Patsy and myself at Luang Phor Thong’s temple. We had travelled to Hat Yai, Thailand with a small group of students and had the opportunity to visit the temple.

Another image produced by Luang Phor Thong’s disciples to venerate their teacher

For more interesting information:

• New Zealand TV reports Thupten Rinpoche’s death meditation
• What’s Inside This Buddha Statue?
• You won’t believe the result of this CT scan!
• Bangkok Monks and Why Make Offerings
• The Jolenpa (Bodhisattva) Gen Nyima
• My Precious Teachers

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