The Burmese Monastery named “Old Tawya Tawkyaung” in Mae Sot is the only place for the immigrants from Burma to pray, to do their charity works and to celebrate their religious ceremonies. It was built in 1902.
On October 20, 2011, eight days after the full-moon day, Burmese traditional religious charity ceremony named “Bon Kahtein” to hold at the monastery was blocked and barred by a Buddhist monk named U Nandiya aka Phatanai, a Thai resident card holder, who tried to take over the monastery in 2005, by systematically rejecting the legitimacy of the current abbot named U Maheinda who has been residing at the monastery for four decades.
After his failure attempt that was rejected by the chairperson on the Thai Buddhist Monks Association, the monk left the monastery in 2005. About one and half years ago, he came back and stayed at the monastery by the abbot’s forgiveness. Then he moved to the other monastery run by a monk named U Kmar by opposing the abbot again. The worse thing he did this time was that he came back to the abbot’s monastery and held the “Bon Kahtein” four days ahead of the original schedule without the abbot’s permission on October 16, 2011.
On October 20, when the formal “Bon Kahtein” day had come, Phatanai had reported to Thai police and authorities for holding the same ceremony twice at the monastery. Thus, the ceremony had turn into a regular “saffron robes offering” event by the obstruction of Thai authorities eventually. The confrontation between the authorities and the migrant community had led to hold a hearing at the monastery on October 25 at noon by the authorities.
U Maheinda was the sixth abbot of the monastery since 1902. He took over the monastery for 22 years after the recent abbot U Pannisa was passes away in 1989. The abbot, a Karen ethnic man, had resided at the monastery for 38 years. His weakness for failure to obtain the legal status in Thailand was the key factor for the other monk to sabotage him in this regard, according to the senior residents in Mae Sot.
The public hearing was held as promised, and 300 Burmese migrants attended it on October 25. Immediately before the coming of the members of the Thai Buddhist Monks Association, the local paramilitary troops named Chawlaubau got into the monastery without taking their shoes off. The audiences had to call them out of the monastery if they couldn’t take their shoes off.
The Mae Sot representative monk of Thai Buddhist Monks Association, after hearing the arguments of both parties, had decided in favor of the abbot to remain at the monastery for one and half years, and commanded him to apply for the legal status by his help in the meantime. The happiness of the audiences had overwhelmed for the judgment. The representative monk also preached the audiences to follow the Buddhist religious accordingly later.
Some Thai people, who supported the other monk even though they officially didn’t reject the representative monk’s decision, returned back to the monastery along with the police and the paramilitary troops at about 6pm to look for more trouble. They threatened to arrest all the monks residing there. The monks had to lock themselves inside the monastery. These people still kept calling the monks to come out. The abbot finally called the community for help.
All the Thai supporters of the abbot and the Burmese community including PVA rushed to the monastery to protect them. The Thai TV and the police investigation personnel were also there to intervene. The Thai supporters insisted to file them for their trespassing in the premise of the monastery at the police station. The opposition groups left the monastery at 9pm. However, the community and PVA had to rush back to the monastery to contain the situation at 2am when they learnt that the opposition group had come back there for more trouble.
