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Acknowledgements
The author's gratitude goes to the monks who generously gave of their time and patience. Pipob Udomittipong and Stephanie Levin both provided assistance and feedback at different points of this project. Research was supported by the Joint Committee on Southeast Asia of the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Hampshire College Faculty Development Funds, and the Jasper and Marion Whiting Foundation.
Notes
1. Environmental monks make up perhaps one to two percent of the total Sangha, a figure difficult to determine because of the shifting number of monks nationwide due to temporary ordinations and the fact that environmental monks are not systematically defined or counted, but self-declared. Members of various NGOs that work with these monks, including the Thai Interreligious Commission for Development, gave the estimated percentage.
2. This section is based on field research conducted in Phrakhru Pitak's village, as well as interviews with him and other activist monks and NGO workers in Nan Province, carried out in 1992–1993, with follow-up visits in 1994, 1995, 1999, and 2006.
3. On Buddhadasa, see Jackson (Citation2003), Swearer (Citation1997), Santikaro Bhikkhu (Citation1996).
4. On the power of ritual as a public expression of acceptance of ideas, see Rappaport (Citation1979).
5. For more detail on the spirit beliefs connected with this ritual, see Darlington (Citation2003c).
6. Personal communication, 30 September 2006.
7. On the Buddha image consecration ceremony, see Swearer (Citation2004).
8. Personal communication, 10 September 2006.
9. I am oversimplifying their analyses here for the sake of space, as most monks and activists recognize the complexities and interactions of behaviors on all levels.
10. Evidence indicated that the scandal surrounding Achan Phongsak was probably fabricated, and it died down quickly. Phra Yantra's case was brought to court, and the monk fled to the United States to avoid prosecution. The Sangha administration officially defrocked him, although he continues to wear orange robes and act as a monk in the United States.
11. The threats do continue, however. One environmental monk, Phra Supoj, was murdered in Chiang Mai Province in June 2005, apparently due to conflict over land he worked to protect. The case remains unsolved.
12. Comment made at the seminar Mountain Peoples' Ecological Conservation Attitudes and Adaptations, Chiang Mai, 4 August 1991.
13. Personal communication, 30 September 2006.