Woman arrested for bedding monks, sextortion

Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in violation of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts.

The monks are said to have paid nearly $12 million, funnelled out of their monasteries funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation.

In a TV interview, the woman at the heart of the scandal said she had developed a “splurging attitude” as her monk lovers lavished her with shopping trips worth up to $90,000 a day.

The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern their status shields them from scrutiny, and soul-searching across society about the role of religion.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn has cancelled invitations to more than 80 monks who had been due to attend his upcoming 73rd birthday celebrations, citing “inappropriate behaviour that caused mental distress among the Thai people.”

While the 11 monks have been stripped of their robes, the kingdom’s National Office of Buddhism has vowed to “restore public trust” with a sweeping police probe into the grubby affair.

Buddhism scholar Danai Preechapermprasit said repeated scandals — especially among senior monks — have “shaken people to the core.”

“People question whether donations are used for spiritual significance or personal desire,” he told Agence France-Presse.

“I think Thailand has reached a point where it’s difficult for monks to even walk down the street.”

Theravada Buddhism has been the spiritual backbone of Thai identity for more than two millennia, and still shapes national laws banning alcohol on religious holidays and protecting sacred objects.

Thai men are traditionally expected to ordain as monks at least once in their lives for a period lasting as short as a few weeks or as long as decades.

The clergy are bound by 227 strict rules, including a ban on masturbation, touching women and even handling objects directly from them.