March 2008-- Ekaphan (pronounced Ekapan) likes to go simply by “Ek.” He doesn’t let foreigners know that one should add “Phra,” the title of respect granted to monks. His young looks and sharp sense of humor make him a striking figure, certainly not what most people think of when they hear “Abbot.” His rise to heading a temple has been meteoric.

Phra Ek started with humble origins in Shan State in Burma. He is the youngest of six children, and by the time he was a teenager, his siblings were scattered throughout Burma and Thailand because of the civil war and economic turmoil in their home state. There are no schools or opportunities for a low-income Shan to gain a good education, and Phra Ek had a thirst for knowledge. Even in the temple, few could read, write, or do basic math. Phra Ek wanted all of this, and he wanted to learn about geography, to speak foreign languages, and to engage with the wider world.

He was also facing huge changes in his hometown. His home state, the Shan State, was at war with the Burmese Army. As a result, the government had put the more cooperative minority groups, such as the Wa, in charge. They also encouraged Chinese entrepreneurs to cross over. The area became a haven for drug (especially opium) traffic, and tons of money flowed into this hometown. This brought fancy cars, hospitals, schools, and new construction in a decidedly Chinese style. Thus, thousands of years’ worth of Shan architecture were erased in the matter of months. Within a couple of years, Mandarin replaced Shan as the lingua franca in town.

The Shan were forcibly told to give up their land and move further and further out of town. They were only compensated with new, smaller plots land, which would again be taken away from them. If anyone spoke up, it “would cause them problems,” in Ek’s understated words. He eloquently noted that, “the Burmese were not just fighting us with guns; they were eviscerating our culture.” He had no home, no hope for education, and couldn’t even access basic medications if he wanted to since everything was now in Chinese (and there was no way for him to learn Chinese).

At age 16, he decided that his only way to go to school would be by becoming a monk in Thailand. He traveled for three days, two by foot and one by car, to cross the border.

Ek began in Mae Sai a border town in the North of Thailand, where he entered the temple (called a “wat” in Thai). Over the next 16 years, he would enter as many temples, always in search of a continuing education. In the first temple, he had a difficult time learning Thai. Fortunately, the Abbot took pity on him and personally paid a Thai novice 200 baht a month to tutor Ek. The tutor hit Ek on the knuckles whenever he didn’t do his homework. And he was wrong a lot. Not only is Thai and amazingly difficult language (there are 22 vowels and 17 unique combinations), but there are distinct versions in Thailand; the Thai spoken in the area he lived, for instance, was different from the Thai spoken in Bangkok. But he persevered and became fluent not only in Thai language, but also in Thai culture.

This allowed him to blend in more easily, and he soon found a temple that taught good English. His voyage from temple to temple looking for the right mentor was not always easy. Sometimes, the other novice monks were harsh with him, discriminating against him for being Shan. Other times, he found entrenched institutional corruption, refused to go along, and moved on to find more spiritual environs.

Along the way, he climbed up through the ranks. He soon ended up in a wat near the BRP community not as a monk, but as an Abbot. When he first showed up, the wat was in a bad state of repair, and there was trash strewn all over the yard. The previous Abbot had died of old age, and it was Phra Ek’s duty to take over.

This wasn’t easy. To teach him that nothing is permanent, Ek was forced to stay with the dead Abbot in the temple by himself. The old temple had a tin roof that banged and howled in the wind at night. He was more worried about the spookiness of the place than any lessons about impermanence.

But Phra Ek soon mobilized the community to clean the yard, to fix up the wat, and to help him take on novice monks. One worshipper donated 50,000 baht, and he managed to get a shining new roof on the place. He also started a community garden out back. (This is not just to feed poor people in the community, but also serves to feed the monks when there aren’t enough alms given to them in the morning.) As his base of followers grew, the wat began to look better, and he was able to hire a full-time staff member. Thus, he went from living in a trash-strewn temple with a dead monk to heading a prosperous temple in the span of a few years.

This development came just in time. During the most recent protests in Burma, a number of monks were forced to flee, and Phra Ek took them in. Now, his family needs help, so he is planning frequent trips to Mae Sai. This is easy as a monk, as he has a “monk card” that allows him to travel wherever he wants. He also has one of the better “green card” equivalents in Thailand. But if he were not a monk, he would need special permission to leave the district stated on his ID card.

Not that this would deter him. In the beginning, he had to walk 3 days through the jungle just to cross into Thailand. This is a voyage not unlike the one spoken of in the many biographies we forward in the pages of this newsletter. Phra Ek’s is perhaps noteworthy not for the huge challenges he faced, but for the fact that he was somehow able to surmount them.

Phra Ek is now working with the Burmese Refugee Project to help bring more culturally sensitive, Shan-specific activities and social work relationships to the communities we serve. He will be following our social workers for the next year, volunteering his time as he gets to know the people in the community.

He is a great asset to the BRP, as he is literate in Shan, Thai, and English, knows the sociopolitical context of Shan State well, and empathizes greatly with our refugee community. We are thankful to have him as a resource in our efforts to improve the lives of the refugee families who have not yet met as much success in their difficult voyages to Thailand.