BANGKOK — Two heavily intoxicated monks were arrested Thursday after causing a disturbance at a major Bangkok bus terminal.
Police said Phra Wittaya Pholyano, 45, and Phra Supphachok Katadharmo, 38, were ordered to leave the monkhood today after a security guard found them drunk and making a scene at the Mo Chit 2 Bus Terminal.
According to Maj. Jetnipat Siriwat of the Crime Suppression Division, the two monks were ordained at a Nakhon Phanom provincial temple but had been living in the bus station’s area reserved for monks instead of a temple. He didn’t know how long they had been staying there.
“They were just making a living there,” he said. “A security guard found them with liquor bottles lying next to them,” adding that one of them was “extremely drunk.”
Passengers in the terminal complained to police that the monks were incessantly heckling people waiting nearby and even entered a 7-Eleven store to verbally harass a female employee, Jetnipat said.
He added that the division will step up the efforts to crack down on monks engaging in “inappropriate behavior” across the country to prevent further damage to the reputation of Buddhism.
