PREFACE

This is a revised edition of the earlier publications "Insight into Santi Asoke" Part I and II. Insight into Santi Asoke Part I was edited by Porn Poompanna in November 1989 after the Asoke group had encountered the legal problems. Part II was edited by the same person in 1991 and it deals exclusively with the court case.

In this revised edition we have chosen to make some radical changes. We have preserved the introductory article "The Man Behind Santi Asoke" by the well-known journalist Sanitsuda Ekachai from the "Bangkok Post". The article gives some background information about the founder of the Asoke group, Bodhiraksa, alternatively spelled as Phra Bhodhirak or Photirak. We have decided not to reprint other parts of the earlier editions as the material tends to be somewhat outdated. The court case ended in 1996 in the lower court and in 1997 in the Appeals Court. There is a short article by Sanitsuda Ekachai commenting on the final suspended sentence given to the leader of the group in 1997. The court case caused quite a sensation in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many Thai and Western academics and journalists were then interested in the group, and in the list provided at the end of the booklet, we bring the titles and names of the authors of some of the books and articles which resulted from this interest.

After the court case, the Asoke group has expanded and intensified its work. There are several Asoke centres in Thailand practising natural agriculture, self-sufficiency and simple, modest life style without any luxuries. The movement has become an alternative, anti-consumerist community and receives daily dozens of visitors from near and far. Asoke centres organise training courses for Thai peasants in natural agriculture and Buddhist life style, they produce herbal shampoos, medicines, teas and detergents. They run several vegetarian restaurants in Thailand. They have hundreds of primary and secondary school students in their "Samma Sikkha"-schools.

The Asoke group, which includes the Bangkok-based Santi Asoke, Pathom Asoke, Sali Asoke, Sima Asoke, Sisa Asoke and Ratchathani Asoke, has ordained more than 100 monks and about 25 Ten-Precept nuns called Sikkhamats. Thousands of volunteers work and live in Asoke centres.

The third article in this revised edition of Insight into Santi Asoke discusses the above-mentioned developments and compares the Asoke communities with the Buddhist Economics promoted by E.F. Schumacher in his famous book "Small Is Beautiful".

Bangkok, December 2002

Marja-Leena Heikkilä-Horn
Rassamee Krisanamis

THE MAN BEHIND SANTI ASOKE next