Global InformationMano Laohavanich information
Mano Laohavanich (Thai: มโน เลาหวณิช RTGS: Mano Laohawanit; monastic name Mettanando Bhikkhu) is a Thai politician, former professor of Buddhism at Thammasat University, and former Buddhist monk. He is most famous for his public statements against Wat Phra Dhammakaya, the largest Buddhist temple in Thailand.
Mano was born in 1956 and attended several competitive schools in Thailand in his childhood. After graduating from Chulalongkorn University he ordained as a Buddhist monk at Wat Paknam Bhasicharoen in 1982. While still a monk, Mano studied abroad and earned degrees from Oxford, Harvard and Hamburg University.[1][2] He later returned to Thailand and stayed at Wat Phra Dhammakaya for two years before leaving in 1994, with Mano and Wat Phra Dhammakaya giving highly conflicting accounts about his time there. Afterwards Mano published various Buddhist scholarly works while moving around different temples in Bangkok. Mano's theories were often considered unorthodox and the cause of major controversy in Thailand, leading to Mano leaving the monkhood in 2007. He then became a professor at Thammasat University.
Following the 2014 coup d'etat, Thailand's newly established military junta appointed Mano to its National Reform Council, a committee the ruling junta described as preparing Thailand for return to democracy.[3] After his appointment Mano appeared in the Thai media extensively, criticizing various groups including Wat Phra Dhammakaya in a manner critics described as 'fake news'.[4] Mano was later also hired as a special consultant by Thailand's Department of Special Investigation during the 2016–17 legal case against the honorary abbot of Wat Phra Dhammakaya, Luang Por Dhammajayo.[5] Following his work on the military junta's National Reform Council, Mano began a political campaign as secretary-general of the Prachachon Patiroob (People Reform Party), a pro-junta political party that advocated military dictator Prayut Chan-O-Cha remaining in power after the 2019 Thai general election.
- ^ Mettanando Bhikkhu (1999). Meditation and Healing in the Theravada Buddhist Order of Thailand and Laos (Ph.D. thesis). University of Hamburg. OCLC 41603105.
- ^ "Politics in Religion". Foreign Correspondents Club Thailand. Archived from the original on 2016-07-01. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
- ^ "Buddhist scholar shares his view about Wat Phra Dhammakaya". Pattaya Mail. 6 October 2016. Archived from the original on 2016-12-27. Retrieved 26 December 2016.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
:15was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Secret Sanctum Helps Abbot Take Refuge". Bangkok Post. The Post Publishing. 5 June 2016. Archived from the original on 2017-01-16. Retrieved 10 June 2016 – via Pressreader.com.