969 Burmese Buddhist Event in Thailand’s Mahachai

(The news article direct from LuduMaungKarLu Blog on 01 May 2013.)

This is the feel-good story about a significant Burmese-Buddhist event in Thailand. The event was held on yesterday May 1 in Mahachai town, well known as another Little Burma in Thailand, about one hour train ride from Bangkok.

And the Buddhist event was managed by extremely popular 969 Buddhist movement now spreading all over Burma and also to other Buddhist countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and even to faraway Sri Lanka, I have been informed.

The event was basically the night-long deliverance of Buddhist sermons in Burmese language by Burmese-Buddhist monks from both Burma and Thailand. The event was held in the spacious Khone-khu-thai Monastery in Mahachai.

Thousands and thousands of Burmese migrant workers both legal and illegal and also many Burmese expatriates working and living in Thailand attended the event. Some local Thai-Buddhists were also in the large crowd.

But a group of Thai-Muslims and illegal Bengali-Muslims from Burma tried unsuccessfully to stop the Buddhist event from happening there in Mahachai. They even physically threatened with guns and other weapons during last night but the Burmese youths put their lives on line and repelled the attacks from the Muslim thugs.

To protect the attending crowd and the Buddhist monks hundreds of these Burmese youths basically formed a human-wall around the event tent and also guarded the entrances and exits of the Thai monastery where the event was held. When guns were fired and weapons were brandished by the Muslim thugs the Buddhist youths armed themselves with bamboo sticks and repelled the Muslim attacks.

The Burmese were already aware of the Muslim thugs’ plan to attack the 969 Buddhist event well before last night. They had discovered that every one of the event posters they put up in the town were immediately removed by a large group of Muslims.

So they re-posted their posters again and then guarded every single poster in public places. Once Burmese men were guarding the posters the Muslims didn’t dare to remove the posters again. But they still came to disturb the 969 event that night.

Even the local Thai-Buddhist youths descended from Bamar, Mons, Karens, Shans, and Tavoy ethnic immigrants from Burma came and helped defend the 969 event at Mahachai that night.

Please enjoy following photos of the May 1 event from Ludu Maung Kar Lu Blog in Burma.