To provide monks with money for essentials and bills
Images adapted from: Siamrath
Thailand has been implementing a state lockdown for 2 months now, after COVID-19 first broke out in January this year. People have all been urged to stay at home as much as possible to prevent infections from spreading.
With no merit events and merit making in the morning, Thai monks are a group of people that have been affected by the pandemic, requiring support from the government.
Support for over 200,000 monks nationwide
Image credit: Gemunu Amarasinghe
All events that involve large crowds are temporarily cancelled, which include all religious activities. Moreover, people try to avoid going out for their safety.
For the Buddhist community, this means that all temples have gone quiet, affecting merit making in the morning.
Thai monks cannot afford food and essentials, and there are water and electricity bills to pay. So, the government plans to offer a budget of around ฿400-฿500 billion per month to support them during this time.
Image credit: Nation
The money will go to over 200,000 monks from 40,000 temples all around the country at ฿100/day for each of them.
Though bigger events with large groups of people are banned, people are still allowed to visit temples and make merit as usual. If you are interested in making merit at temples and lending them a helping hand, don’t forget to follow the proper measures to keep everyone safe.
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