DEC. 20, 2016 New York Times
White-clad devotees at Dhammakaya Wat, Thailand’s largest temple, in February. The number of adherents has grown into the hundreds of thousands both in Thailand and abroad. Credit Nicolas Asfouri/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
PATHUM THANI, Thailand — It is a temple for a changing Thailand: clean, unadorned, high-tech and unashamed of praying for wealth.
“Sit here and get rich,” read small medallions embedded in the floor under each white plastic chair in a vast, open-sided meditation center. In his sermons, the temple’s charismatic 72-year-old leader, Phra Dhammachayo, often exhorts his adherents, “Be rich, be rich, be rich!”
Indonesia Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi walk after they attended ASEAN Foreign Minister Meeting on Rohingya issue in Sedona hotel at Yangon, Myanmar December 19 , 2016. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun
Đọt Chuối Non 