Luang Nui the Jatukam Priest

The Dhammapada says:

"Those who mistake the unreal to be real, and the real to be unreal;
dwelling thus in wrong thoughts, (they) will never arrive at reality."

Malaysia's New Life Post paper on 2.7.2008 did a report on Luang Nui, the celebrity monk of Wat Korhong in Hadyai. The 51 yr old Ajarn Luang Nui is famous for his mediumship of the guardian deity Jatukam Ramathep, and invited to participate in many consecration ceremonies involving the deity. The Jatukam shrine of Wat Korhong. Although there are quite a few other famous Jatukam priests after the demise of Khun Phan, he stands out from the rest as he is a monk and all the others are white-robe laymen. A few years ago at a big consecration ceremony, he shocked everyone present when he did a long deity dance under the possession of Jatukam. However, the Vinaya forbids monks from deity mediumship and priesthood. A close up of the Jatukam statue in the shrine. According to Thai Buddhist tradition, this role is reserved solely for white-robe priests or Lersi ascetics. Because of that Luang Nui came under a lot of criticisms, but at the same time there are many fans who support him as well.
People started to support him since 2004 after they witnessed a miracle during a Jatukam ceremony at Wat Korhong. The skies were originally clear and sunny, but soon after Luang Nui started chanting to invite Jatukam, storm clouds quickly gathered out of nowhere. A great downpour with strong winds followed, but the miraculous thing was that it only rained heavily outside the temple; within the temple there was no more than a light drizzle, as if the gods were sprinkling everyone there with holy water. This story spread like wildfire and soon many people started to become very interested in Luang Nui. So much so he was even invited to Bangkok to meet with the Princess as well as Phra Sangharaj. Phra Sangharaj heard of Luang Nui's unconventional behavior during consecration ceremonies, but he did not censure him; instead he just advised him to exercise more caution and be mindful of his position as a monk in public. Luang Nui took it as encouragement and continued to do what he believed was right.

So in future ceremonies, not only were there wind, rain and deity dances; more and more exciting stuff started to get featured, like slashing himself with a sword, shooting with bow and arrows, chanting on elephants etc. But Luang Nui's performances does not come cheaply - he asks for 500,000 baht (21,000 SGD) for every performance! During the peak of the Jatukam craze he was virtually earning millions of baht everyday. Some thought of him as a mercenary monk and shunned him. Despite the controversy, he explained that he does not keep any of the wealth for himself, but spend every cent to help charities, schools, hospitals and temples (including his own of course). In fact, he even owe many people money due to this overspending.

When he was invited to Singapore earlier this year, I went down to take a look and saw that he was still quite popular here, at least among Jatukam fans. Either people took no notice of all the negative comments towards him or they are ignorant of them. Now he is invited to Penang and I suppose the same thing would happen there. Despite his controversial behaviour nobody can deny that he is favoured by Jatukam and the amulets he consecrated does give "good vibes" to many a wearer. Putting the Vinaya aside one can say Luang Nui makes a great Jatukam priest, but by that very same fact he would always remain a "Luang" but never a "Luang Por", one that can be a refuge for the world of gods and men. Perhaps it is better for him to disrobe and become a lay priest instead?

A Vihara which pays homage to the chedi of the past abbot of Wat Korhong.

A tent with various Buddha images for people to give donations. When I was there on 16.7.2008 it happened to be Khao Pansa, so there was a lot of people praying in the temple. I asked for Ajarn Nui, but the temple assistant replied he was not feeling well and could not receive visitors. Have all the Jatukam blessing ceremonies taken its toll on him?