Protesting Monks Besiege Buddhist Clergy Over Stolen Relics

About 200 monks besieged a meeting of senior members of the Buddhist clergy at Phnom Penh’s Chaktomuk Conference Hall on Tuesday, demanding that religious leaders call on Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government to take action over the recent theft of Buddha relics.

The protest lasted for more than an hour as the monks and dozens of supporters blocked roads and entrances to the hall, and loudly demanded that Great Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong issue a statement ordering the government to act over the theft from Odong mountain of the country’s only relics of the Buddha.

Monks protest in front of Phnom Penh's Chaktomuk Conference Hall on Tuesday morning after marching from a CNRP demonstration at Freedom Park. The monks besieged the hall, at which senior Buddhist clergy were hosting an annual conference, to demand that Great Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong call on the CPP government to take action over the theft of Buddha relics last week. (Siv Channa)
Monks protest in front of Phnom Penh’s Chaktomuk Conference Hall on Tuesday morning after marching from a CNRP demonstration at Freedom Park. The monks besieged the hall, at which senior Buddhist clergy were hosting an annual conference, to demand that Great Supreme Patriarch Tep Vong call on the CPP government to take action over the theft of Buddha relics last week. (Siv Channa)

Tep Vong, along with Bou Kry, the supreme patriarch of the Dhammayuttika Buddhist sect, was inside the conference hall with about 100 monks from across the country when the protesting monks gathered in torrential rain on the street outside the hall at around 10 a.m., bearing a banner that said, “The relics were stolen because of corruption.”

Occasionally shouting to the monks inside the hall to “come out” to face the protesters, the monks threatened to storm the building if senior representatives of the clergy did not come out to speak with the demonstrators.

“We demand that the patriarch [Tep Vong] stand down if they cannot find the relics,” one of the monks shouted over a loudspeaker attached to the top of a small truck that briefly blocked an entrance to the hall.

“We do not need the patriarch and the prime minister,” the monk continued in a diatribe that implied official collusion in the loss of the relics.

Inside the besieged conference hall, Tep Vong lambasted the protesting monks and laymen outside, describing them as “stupid people” and “enemies” who did not understand his reasons for not issuing a public statement over the stolen relics of the Buddha.

“Samdechs Heng Samrin, Chea Sim and Hun Sen have already inaugurated and given a stupa,” Tep Vong told the monks inside the building, referring to the CPP leadership’s attendance at a ceremony in 2002 during which the relics were brought to the purpose-built stupa on Odong mountain, and from which they were stolen last week.

“Why don’t the stupa guards protect [the relics]?” Tep Vong asked.

“Why ask me to protect them or to find them? How can I do that now?”

On December 10, security guards at Odong mountain reported that the stupa housing the artifacts had been broken into, and that a golden urn containing the relics of the Buddha, along with a number of gold Buddha statues, had been stolen. Five men, including three security guards at the stupa, have been charged with aggravated theft, though police have yet to announce any progress in locating the stolen artifacts.

Tep Vong also said Tuesday that the protesting monks and laymen were wasting their time in trying to issue demands to Mr. Hun Sen’s government.

“Don’t come to beg from them [the government]. They have no rice for you. They only have dog shit for you,” the Great Supreme Patriarch said, before launching into an attack on the opposition CNRP for allegedly fostering political activity within the Buddhist clergy.

“They have people who are intent on breaking our solidarity—we have obviously seen such a spirit today,” Tep Vong said.

In the early 1980s Tep Vong was elected to the position of vice president of the National Assembly under the People’s Republic of Kampuchea, an earlier incarnation of the current CPP government.

As Tuesday’s noisy protest continued, a delegation of monks led by Khim Sorn, the chief monk of Phnom Penh, and Phlauk Phan, a secretary of state at the Ministry of Cults and Religion, left the conference hall and went to meet the protesters outside in the rain.

“You monks have been in your positions for a long time, and studied for many years and are better educated than me, and so you serve as role models for the Buddhist religion,” Khim Sorn said in an apparent attempt to placate the protesters, before adding that it was nevertheless not the clergy’s responsibility to order the government to recover the relics.

“When we have any problems, the government leaders are here to work for the country and for Buddhism, even if they cannot implement things immediately,” Khim Sorn added.

Despite the explanations, But Buntenh, head of the Independent Monk Network for Social Justice, used a loudspeaker to reiterate the monks’ demands for a statement by religious leaders about the stolen relics.

“Did you come here to explain yourself or chant? Just tell us simply: Is this solved or not? It’s been a very long time without any statement,” But Buntenh said, noting the apparent double standards in the clergy’s other public statements, particularly on monks supporting the political opposition.

“When monks demonstrate you issue so many statements immediately,” But Buntenh said in response to Khim Sorn.

Traditionally CPP-aligned, the Buddhist hierarchy has issued at least three separate statements in the wake of July’s national election telling monks to refrain from entering the political fray.

But that has not stopped a growing number of monks from joining opposition demonstrations and leading their own protests critical of land grabbing and human rights abuses.

A brief back-and-forth ensued at the gate of Chaktomuk Hall before Khim Sorn publicly agreed that a statement would be released on the stolen relics, ending the standoff just before 11 a.m.

“We will write a letter proposing that the government work hard to find the relics and keep them for the people,” Khim Sorn said.

Before the monks dispersed, they joined together in a short prayer chant at the gate to the conference hall.

Last night, Phnom Penh deputy governor Seng Ratanak sent a letter to CNRP leaders complaining about the behavior of the protesting monks, which he described as a violation of the municipality’s agreement allowing demonstrations at Freedom Park.

“The Municipality of Phnom Penh is very regretful because the action plan…did not follow the procedure which has been mentioned in the law on peaceful demonstrations,” Mr. Ratanak said in the letter.

(Additional reporting by Alex Willemyns)

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