Ridiculous crime. It's a production of iHeartRadio.
Elizabeth Ern So nice to see you, So good to see you.
I got a question for you, sir. And that bright eyes and bushy tail smile. Do you know it's ridiculous?
I do know it's ridiculous. Okay.
You know how people who've been drinking smell like alcohol, Yeah, totally, you know, and.
Like sometimes it's coming out of their pores.
Yes, especially the next day. I have friends who definitely smell like bar rags.
And like, if you get pulled over, you know, it's not just the police will look at how you're driving, is maybe an indication that you've been drinking, but they'll sniff.
Like, oh yeah, they definitely smell their smell the alcohol I've been drinking today, sir.
Yeah, well, so we got a problem here with this is a mashup, and so you.
Take I'm taking it.
I'm starting with Cores.
God, and.
What would you not want to have it.
Mixed with course course your mouth deodorant? What deodorant? So they've teamed up. Cores has teamed up with this company, Dura Chill, which is like a deodorant company, and they've made this like Dura Chill Cours deodorant's supposed to smell like the breeze of the Rocky mountains. It has to be refrigerated before it can be properly.
Applied because it's the coldest beer.
And you know how like the packaging on the cours the mountain changes colorue, Well, that same thing happens with the deodorant. Okay, cores Light is all about helping people, quote choose chill this summer. We wanted to take that to the next level, starting with your armpits. We can blame Marcello pascoa vice president of marketing at cors Light,
in a press release. There, whether you're sweating through a heat wave or just trying to stay chill watching a Leagues Cup match, Dura Chill is like giving your underarms their own ice cold beer.
Is there a competition we don't know about where these companies try to come up with the craziest mashup.
I don't know.
Just the people like us talk about it.
I think it's the people like us talk about it.
We got tipped off by I don't know if it's Charmie or Charmie Cajun on Instagram, right, you know, but the Cajun told us about this.
This is horrendous way to get me rage and care. Well, we got back to.
The point I'm looking at this, and I got back to like, I don't think I want to do these anymore, you.
Know what I mean?
Like, Lord, I do not ask for much.
Takes the wind out of me.
I'll tell you, I've given myself a break, I know, and I come back and I'm just like end of the Empire stuff.
I can't take it.
So anyway, I'm glad I could share my pain course deodorant, Corse deodorant. It's also it's limited, of course, of course, fourteen ninety nine, limited to tu per household, not subject at discounts, and intended for those over the age of twenty one.
But there's no beer in it.
You've done a lot of these mashups over the years. Yeah, I've never heard one that I was like, that's actually a kind of a good No. They're always like one like mad lips, like, all right, name a product, dealt Okay, we're gonna combine that with name another product. Wow, Well I'll give you that. It is ridiculous, Yes it is, Elizabeth, I got something for you it's straight up ridiculous.
Is it ridiculous?
Truly deep levels of ridiculous?
Like it is it cold armpit ridiculous?
Not so much.
It's a better kind.
Now, if I say to you a couple of words like Wu Tang and Shao l in abbots and monks, and then I mentioned crime, right, you may think of the rappers or the Wu Tang class specifically for the children. Yeah, like old dirty bastards mini run ins with the law. In that case, you'd be wrong. Oh why is that great question? Elizabeth? The reason it's simple, Real Buddhist monks keep popping off with legit, wild ass crimes, and I've got a compendium for you today.
This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about absurd and outrageous capers, heights and cons. It's always ninety nine percent murder free and what one hundred percent ridiculous?
Yeah?
Okay, first things first, Yeah, let's comeiver any confusion that I may have started you off with between Wu Tang and Wu Tang clan. Now, if I say Wu Tang, that refers to a holy mountain located in the Hubei Province in central China. It's also known as Wu Tang, which is home to the Daoist and Zen Buddhist traditions. It's also where the birthplace of Kung Fu. The Wu Tang it refers to the Purple imperial city of Emperor yong li Ming, dating back to the fifteenth century. It
was constructive between fourteen oh four and fourteen twenty. Now if I say, w Wu Tang clan that was formed in the late eighties early nineties in Staten Island, and it's a it's a rap group, right, They were formed circa nineteen ninety one. Yeah, the Wu Tang Clan features some of the finest lyricists in the history of hip hop. Specifically, there's the Rizza, the Jizza, Old Dirty Bastard, Inspected Deck, method Man, ghost Face Killer, Ray Kwan, the Chef, You
God and Mastakilla. So Wu Tang Clan, bunch of sick ass rappers from Staten Island. Yeah, Wu Tang Holy Mountain in China. You got it?
Yes? Got it?
Good? Now let's get down to the nitty gritty and the sorry state of criminal Buddhists in Wu Tang and elsewhere. Now, if you follow international news like I do, you easily see that these days Wu Tang and Shallin and crime have become this ongoing news story. It is real a steel because real life Buddhist monks are on some real crime energy these days. It's truly wild. Like I'm like, wait again, Like sometimes I think the story has already been reported. I was like, no, this is a different
version of the same story. They're making Wu Tang clan look like a bunch of kiddy cats, is what I'm saying. For instance, we'll start with case one. It's called the Sika golf sex scandal. Oh have you heard about this?
No?
Yeah, Well, this first story takes place in Thailand, not in Wu Tang And obviously, Thailand is a nation in South South Asia, and it's a nation where ninety percent of the populace are Buddhists. I did not know that it's a really high percentage. Now. Earlier this year, just before the start of the Asala Bukhah Day, which is nicknamed basically Buddhist Lent. Asala Buka Day is a holy day meant to commemorate the first sermon of the Lord Buddha.
It also marks the beginning of the brotherhood of Buddhist monks. And I learned a lot about Buddhism, and so I wanted to share it with you. There's coming called the three gems. Now there's the Buddha, and then Dama or what was what we call it dharma, and then the Sanga. Now, dama or dharma is a Sanskrit word that refers to the law of nature or quote, the truth of life. Now, the law of nature is simple enough. It determines that quote, all beings face death, illness, and old age while life
is suffering kind of thing. Now, the sanga is a word that refers to the monks and the nuns who practice Buddhism, and then obviously the Buddhas, the Buddha. So these are the three gems of Buddhism. They form like a trinity, if you will. The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sanga. Got it, got it okay? So today we'll be focusing on the sanga, the specifically the monk side of things, because I didn't find a lot of the
nuns doing crime. Surprise, surprise. So back to the news that I'd mentioned earlier this year, Elizabeth, the sanga is a shaking because of this major sex scandal that came to lights the Sika Golf scandal burst onto the scene with this woman nicknamed Sika Golf was arrested for sex stortion of multiple high ranking Buddhist monks.
See when you said.
It was the golf scan, I thought it was like a golf club, like a posh resort where they all played golf.
I wish it was that simple. It's more of a nickname. But here Sika it means devotee of a monk okay right, and golf is like her street name.
I guess.
So just like these club there, you know. Now, just like Catholic priests, Buddhist monks are also supposed to maintain a vow of celibacy chastity, but there's a treasure trove of evidence that they often don't, And in this case, it was found in this one woman's cell phone. So police found some eighty thousand photos, videos, and chat logs that made it self evident these Buddhist monks had been not taking their vows very seriously.
Eighty thousands.
Yeah, and I'm talking like a boatload of Buddhist monks that she was hitting. There were fifteen different temples that were embarrassed by this scandal. Oh, it went all the way to the top echelon. Yeah, not that matter. It was focused more on Tai Buddhism. For instance, there was evidence that implicated the abbot of the pra Buddha Chai Temple, the deputy abbot of the Wattsthearn Temple, and the deputy abbot of the paknam Psi Chaaron Temple. So that's basically
like the abbot runs the temper. So each one of them is these powerful, wealthy, deeply respected and review temple. So it was very embarrassing. Yeah, and all told, there were nine abbots, that's the leaders of the temples who were implicated in this sex scandal. So what's the story. How did this all come about? And then how did it just pop into the being? Everyone's like, oh, fully formed sex scandal?
But were there like eighty thousand items like videos or videos and photos and they're nice, so they're under just under like ten thousand photos apiece. Oh yeah, however much I can't do math, but I'm rounding down the eight of them.
She got a lot. Oh, it's a ton. She she was a documentarian, sounds like it. So it all started when this high ranking abbot abruptly left his temple and the monk hould that he led, and that was suspicious, and so it triggered an investigation by the Central Investigation Bureau, which is like the Taie version of the FBI. So the lead investigators they get assigned to this case and they go out and they discover the reason why he
suddenly and abruptly left the temple. Turns out, this sixty seven year old app it was being blackmailed by a thirty five year old woman named Willowan Golf mswat.
Right golf Golf is her.
Nickname, so Willowan mswat Aka Golf. Now, not only that she was also pregnant.
She probably drove a VW golf That would be hilarious, right, she's a name for her car. Now.
When she informed the abbot that she was with child, she demanded he pay her some big money to keep quiet about it because it would be embarrassing to Buddhism, his temple, ham everything. So she's like, you're going to have to pay from a love child son now. According to the Bangkok Coast, this now former abbot transferred thirteen million tie Bot to Sika Golf as hush money slash childcare funds okay, and that I know you're curious about this. That works out to be three hundred and ninety seven.
Eight nine dollars. He's just sitting on that money.
Well, we'll get to whose money that is. So the investigators they take a trip out to the temple to question the abbot, and they learn he's already bounced out, like he's gone, man, you ain't gonna find him here. So they locate him and then he's like, oh, I'll be happy to help with his case. Maybe you can get me justice. Yeah, get to you justice. What do
you mean? So this is the first crack in the sex scandal all told, The investigators determined that this now former abbot had transferred about twelve point eight million bot from his personal bank accounts and an additional three hundred and eighty thousand bought from the temple's bank accounts. Oh yeah, he transferred the cash through mobile banking apps between January and July of twenty twenty four. The investigators learned that initially Sika Golf approached the now former abbot by posing
as this wealthy socialite. She just bounces around in circles, hangs out with the abbots, and she claimed to be connected to other powerful and illustrious abbots from other temples that he knew. So once she earns his trust by going, oh, I was hanging out with you, folks, the pair began this relationship which eventually turned intimate and then it turned into baby making. Now, the monk claimed he sent the money to Sika Golf for a ceramics business.
Despite the huge.
Sums of money he'd transferred, he had no written receipts or business agreement for this.
So much in his personal accounts. He'd been skimming already.
I'm at one would suspect, We'll just say allegedly. So the now former abbot said he'd contacted another former abbot, one of the Watt Tree thoughts to Tep Monastery. He was a fellow temple leader and he'd already fled the country to Laos after he was a target for a corruption probe of his own.
Oh.
That led the former abbot to pra Paron that's the original dude, to try to get back the funds from Sicco Golf. He's like, oh, wow, you're shady. So he contacts her via DMS on social media. Of course, she ghosts him. So when he couldn't get the temple's money back that he'd transferred to her, and then left a paper trail and a huge hole in the temple's finances. It gets discovered by others, he gets kicked out of the monastery, so then the investigators they start to get
a handle on his portion of the story. But this leads to other high ranking and powerful monks because he's remember like, oh, yeah, she told me he hung out with this guy and this abbot. So they go around, they start asking questions, and then this all leads to the arrest of Sika Golf. She gets caught at her house, and this house is in this luxurious housing estate r
she's living large. When she gets busted, the investigators discover evidence that confirms the now former abbot story that he transferred the three hundred and eighty thousand bought from his temple that was in February of twenty twenty four, and then the authorities they start questioning Sika Golf and she admits that she knew the money was from the temple's bank accounts, but that's the former abbot's problem, not hers. She didn't say take it from the temple. She just
said run me my check. So yeah, so she doesn't care. So the police authorities are like, well, that's kind of callous. So she then tells the investigators, Oh, that's just the tip of this little dirty iceberg. Because she also says I had sex with at least nine high ranking abbots and other Buddhist monks. They're like, do you have names? Now? I remind you they swore vows of chastity salada forbidden
from having sex. So just that alone would be you're getting kicked out of Buddhasm, right, and that's why they, to keep their secrets safe, had been paying her. All in all, she had blackmailed the monks and the abbots to the tune of roughly eleven point nine million dollars US. What that's a period over three years. Wow, she was just going through abbot after abbot after abbot and just run in checks.
None of these people believe in karma.
One would think it's kind of their bag. Yeah, right, So what did she do with all this money? I mean other than her having like the nice house and like her her VW golf? What is she doing with that.
Cool ceramics business?
Of course? Well, apparently investigators learned that Sika Golf had been spending the money on online gambling.
Oh no, you know, that's the devil's work.
And she was not good at online gambling because nearly all of the money, all twelve or eleven point nine million, was gone.
I think most people aren't.
Yeah, well, some people, you would hope if they're running like through eleven point nine million, they'd win some when they get to her, Like she was betting, Like her biggest single bet was a five hundred thousand BOT, which is about fifteen grand in US, So she was putting down big bets. So when the investigators catch up to her and they like go through her bank accounts, they find that there is eight thousand BOT left in her bank account, which works out to be two hundred and
forty four dollars America. Out of eleven point nine all she has left is two hundred and forty four dollars.
I wonder if she was playing something that she heard an ad about during a podcast.
It's not really a casino.
It took a fake casino. She doesn't understand. Yeah, so she runs through this twelve million dollars in three years. The whole kit and kaboodle was gone, right, So that's probably why she was blackmailing her latest ABBT for you know, child support payments. Yeah, she asked him. She said she wanted thirty thousand bought every month for the next twenty years. Now, that may sound like a lot of money. That's actually nine hundred and sixteen dollars a month. Yeah, that's that's
or eleven thousand dollars a year eas. So that's really not a big score. So she'd have to get up with another apple.
She's, yeah, exactly, she's gonna have a lot of the scores they add up, you get ten. Those dudes totally keep a couple on a line rand a month.
So when the investigators first visit Seeker Golf's home and they're investigating that first abbot sudden dismissal, that's where they find all the evidence of all how she's been blackmailing all of these monks. So the investigators find on five different cell phones the eighty thousand pictures, the videos, and they're all with different very powerful monks. Okay, so Elizabeth, just to put that into perspective, eighty thousand pictures in videos.
You know me, you're an inbox zero person. Yeah, I am not I have form like years, like more than a decade of emails is one hundred and seventy thousand unread emails. She's got eighty thousand picks just in three years time.
Think about the number of pictures that we have in our phones in the iCloud, I think I eighty. No, I don't, And all I do is take pictures of dogs and tomato plants and the bread click.
Click click click.
I mean it was she was going off.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
So of the nine different abbits.
I mean, I take a lot of pictures.
Oh totally, But I don't think you're anywhere near eighty thousans. So of the nine different abbits in monks that she'd sexed up and blackmailed, eight of them had been now been kicked out, and they have left her straight up fled their temples and monasteries. So far as he could, Golf has largely avoided making any public statements about her
sex stortion ring. Yeah, which, honestly, I don't blame her, you know, like because honestly, in the tie press, she's the one who's getting blamed for the abbots and the monk's bad behavior. She's the one everyone's focusing on. Now, I'm not trying to defend the blackmailer, but I'm saying, is that in this case, you know, it takes two to tango or to break one's chastity valuce. Sure, of course, a walking honey trap.
Yeah, but she's she's not like this, you know, magical seductress. But she is a criminal, she's.
Exactly, And they're doing crimes with other people's money, you know, And everyone's like, well, just look past that and focus on her.
Yeah.
Now, before she was formally arrested, she did deny the charges against her, and then she admitted she had an intimate relationship with one monk and he gave her money. And then her story soon grew and she's like, okay, there may have been like two or three monks. Okay, there's this also, this professor or a religious professor. They're like,
what were you getting? She's like, well, there was that brand new Mercedes SLK two hundred they got me what So they were getting her things that weren't just cash. She was getting gifts, you know, I'm thinking maybe the house payments. Anyway, I agree with there's this Thai op ed writer Sonnet suda Ekachai. She wrote in the Bangkok Post that quote, when the clergy's moral decay is in full view, it's the woman who takes the fall, while
the monks are cast as victims. She also later added about the abbots and monks, they live in privilege, surrounded by wealth and deference. And that's kind of the problem because if you go back to the beginning, the Buddha was a wealthy prince. He renounced and walked away from his life of privilege and had fantastical wealth for a life of devotion and you know, quiet contemplation, and he expressly forbade his followers from these types of earth temptations.
There's no equivocation on this. He's like, avoid money and lust. These are the big ones.
And they're like, I believe I will.
Yeah, And they're like, well he didn't really mean it, Like no, he specifically said this one.
They went back for seconds on both.
Yeah, they doubled it for one hundred percent for real. Now. One abbot I found, who reported that a large fortune of gold had been stolen from him, joked with reporters about his unbelievable wealth and said, quote, I get ten thousand bought per invitation five ceremonies. That's fifty thousand bought. Can you give me that I only socialize with the rich. I don't mix with the krajuk nuguck nogoi people, which means poor people.
What what?
This is why I'm not castigating Sika Golf. She went after these guys because you got a bunch of corrupt monks in abbits. She's like, well, I'm gonna get my taste too, right, right. So, the one bit of good news is the Thai police have opened a phone line up to report any quote misbehaving monks. Yeah, so, I suspect and expect that this is just the beginning of the stories of the bad monks acting badly. Let's take a little break and we'll be back with more Buddhist
monks attcking badly. And we'll also dip over to China and visit the home of Kung Fu Zen Buddhism and check in on their inspiration for the Wu Tang clan back in too.
Yeah too, Elizabeth, We're back, Yes, we are.
Now I've got another question for you. Uh huh, what do you know about Shaolin?
I have a friend who does like that shaolin like martial arts stuff like kung fu. No, you know how like they balance out and kick.
And spin around. Sure, I think he was trained by shaolin monks.
Okay, cool. I'm suspecting he as a form of kung fu or I guess.
I don't know. But he's a musician and when he's warming.
Up maybe Taoism, not that, but the tai chi No.
It's not taichi. It's before he gets on stage. She does this like whole routine. It's pretty cool to work.
That's cool. Yeah, I should have been.
It's the same one that the monks do, okay with like sticks kicking.
I'm guessing that's gongo, but yeah, who knows. Going back to Shaolin and earlier I said that, uh you know Shaolin is also Staten Island. Yeah, you remember talking about the Wu Tang Clan. On their first album, Enter the thirty six Chambers, all nine mcs of the Wu Tang Clan rhymed about how their home on Strong Island aka Staten Island was their spiritual chaolin right, and this was intended to connect them to the ways of kung fu.
Films the seventies and the early eighties and the Shaolin Temple and of Central China and his long story traditions of Zen Buddhism in the kung fu masters. Yeah, okay, So keep that in mind, that inspiration that they hold and revere and like are inspired by. That's where this
next story takes place. And just keep the Wu Tang and all their reverence for that in mind and measure it on the scales of justice against what I'm about to tell you of the actual real deal Shaolin Temple Boom to three thousand monks and the Central Theater for their next crimetale. Now, Elizabeth, I'd like you to meet the abbot Shi yong Xin. This cat is no stranger to controversy. In the late eighties, he was kicked out
of the Shaolin Temple by his own master. You're alleged bad behavior, but somehow over time he managed to finesse his way back in.
Yeah, you talked to him into putting out a calendar of like bad boys of Sin pretty much.
You have no idea how close you are. No, Yeah, So I think like his master may have passed away and he was able to get back in, because eventually he became the self dubbed quote CEO of the Shaolin Temple.
Wait, that's what he calls himself. So that is the worst buddhen right.
That is up until this year, when allegations on Chinese social media unseated him from his throne of power. He now stands accused of being a womanizer, a father of multiple illegitimate children, an embezzler of mad money from the Shaowin Temple. Now his main accuser who took the Chinese social media. They call themselves she Jiangxi, which means interpreting justice. And once again I would like to apologize her if I getting these names wrong in terms of my pronunciation.
I looked up how to say them, but I still may not get them exactly correct, So please be generous with me. So interpreting justice she Jiangxi is a fitting self applied nickname because he's taking on the most high of the temple and is literally trying to interpret justice. Now old interpreting justice, he came with the receipts when he posted. He posted photos of one of the women who hit the disgraced child and master had been sleeping with. He posted pictures of their love child. He posted the
birth certificate. I mean he had receipts.
Wow.
Yeah, So now this is not the CEO of Shaolin's first brush with infamy, not only in the eighties when he first got kicked out, but before that allegedly. You know, he'd been the recipient of all kinds of ill god in gifts over the years, such as luxury cars. One town gave him a twenty five thousand dollars like gilded robe. There has always been these rumors of women and mistresses
from local women, also professional sex workers. I mean, he's dipping his wick everywhere and all this made headlines dating back, as I said, to the early eighties. But then he kept sidestepping these controversies. Somehow he was able to avoid it all. Old Shi Xiang Xin became the abbot of the Shaolin Temple in nineteen ninety nine. That's why I think his master may have passed away.
It had been long enough.
So this then makes him a powerful member of the Chinese Parliament as a representative of the Zen Buddhist monastery. So he's up in the high ash lines of power. Oh yeah, so before he was a monk, he was known as lu Ying Sheng and in eighty one, that's when he first joined the Shaolin Temple, it becomes a novice monk, and as I said earlier, his master kicks him out for bad behavior. He finesses his way back in. By nineteen ninety nine, he's now in the halls of power.
He wins admirers for how committed he is to reviving the long neglected Shaolin Temple. He basically had it fallen into disrepair. Yeah, so the temple complex, which is this vast complex, was in desperate need of not just paint job, but I mean like real attention, like repair the wood, all sorts of stuffah, which he does. He leads this, he brings it back to its former glory of the ancient days of the past. Now it's like, oh, this is how it would have looked, you know, hundreds of
years ago. That wins in all sorts of social currency in the party, and later that turns into power. So guess what he did with that power, Elizabeth. That's right, he got to criming God. Of course. So these days the Shaolin Temple, it's this major money maker. It's a home of tourism. It's like the Disneyland of Zen Buddhism. And it's not like that's a shot. That was the abbot's own words.
That's what you're he can't.
Back in twenty fifteen, he was attempting to export the successes of the Shaolin Temple to Australia, and he said to the state news agency in China, Xinhua, and I quote, if China can import Disney resorts, why can't other countries import the Shaolin Monastery.
So he put them franchises.
Yeah, like Disneyland, Shaldon Monastery, these are kind of the same thing. So in order to win favor for that idea of importing Shaolin Monastery to Australia, the quote CEO of Shaolin Temple, he wrote a three million dollar check to a town in Australia to basically bribe them into building a branch of the Shaolin Temple there. Now, yeah,
that's his attitude. Yeah, but these days, if you visit the Shaolin Temple, the major takeaway you would come away with is how dedicated they are to monetizing the home.
Of kung Fu and gift shop.
Oh girl, there's not only will they sell you all kinds of trinkets and souvenirs, but just like a museum, when you leave the temple complex. You exit through the gift shop stop Swear to God, and inside the complex you're pitched all kinds of crap. There's refrigerator magnets, there's Buddhist Kung Fu action figures and statuettes. You can get hats, t shirts, sneakers. They now sell La Boo boo dolls.
What this is crazy and I want some of this. You know my friend who's been doing that, he's been doing this since like their early nineties.
Oh, I'm sure he's dedicated.
Eighties.
Yeah, and it wasn't something that was on everyone's radar.
Wow, but now my star.
Yeah, now it's the Disneyland of Buddhism.
I want a truck her hat, Dude.
I recommend going to there and you can be a truck her hat and then you also you can you can buy a ticket for the calligraphy demonstration.
Well I do.
You can also hit up the food court of snacks, dolls.
It's all vegetarian. I pray I would.
Yeah. You can rent an electric cart and tour the complex and be given a tour. Yeah, you can pay for a tour guide. They will share the history of the ancient home of Zen Buddhism with you. Yeah, it's basically Disneyland.
That's totally something I would do on like a vacation and be like that'd be really interesting, and then like halfway through, I'm like, I've got to get it.
Remember, Yeah, you're also going to be sitting with like German tourist, Canadian tourists, like some Mexican family. There are everybody's going, oh yes, loud American. Yeah, definitely loud Americans. You know you would be one of them, or maybe not you, but I would be one of them. I'm no, not generally. Now, obviously when you're there, they still have monks like in meditation in the halls because you got to.
And you also have kung fu demos like what you're talking about the Flying Kicks, because yeah, you gotta have something to sell the people. You gotta have a show for the folks to come. So now, over the years, this place has been home to many famous visitors. The late Queen of England, Elizabeth II, she went there. Stevie Wonder went there. I don't I guess you just wanted to hear how it all was. Mike Tyson went there, Nelson Mandela went there, Tim cook of Apple. He's definitely been there.
Tim Apple was there.
Henry Kissinger was up in there. He's like, I never bummed this. No, then there was Robert Robert Downey Jo regrets. Now all these famous names I know about because they're prominently displayed on tab Let's see. You know famous people have been here.
When you go into like a deli and there's all.
That's exactly like the picture frames picture. Now, this gross commercialization of the Shaolin brand, it doesn't sit well with many of the monks and other abbots. You Yeah, they don't really like the quote ceo of the challintel.
Their little secret girlfriends look at that and they're like, this is look at this is gross.
Isn't that right?
Sweetheart?
Love child? This picture? So the CEO of the Shaolin Temple, he is the first Chinese abbot to hold an MBA degree, So he wants everyone to know like I'm good at this, okay, like I've been trained. He's also equally proud how under his leadership, the Shaolin Temple has basically come the shen Yun of kung food. Right. He now has monks traveling the world putting on kung fu.
Demonstration wires everywhere, commercials.
Everywhere, and they come around every three months.
It seems like I was in France last year and there were shen Yun on the streets.
There's multiple crews.
There's not just like one.
But I thought it was just for a while. I'm so self centered, bear are you a thing? Then I find out it's all over the country. Now I find out Zeron, it's global.
It's worldwide.
Oh yeah.
So Also because he's trying to, you know, do all this commercialization of the Shaolin brand, he's also approved video games, movies, cartoons. He will rent out the name for traditional Chinese medicine companies, for book deals, real estate deals like.
Real estate deals, say the hotel.
Totally brought to you a boy Shaolin temple, this new tract of condos, yeah, homes. When asked about it, as he put a quote, cultural promotion is a very dignified undertaking. Well sure if you says so now in Chinese state media. As for any benefit that he may receive for his works selling kung Fu and Buddhism all around the world, such as perhaps luxury cars or money, he has said,
and I quote monks are also citizens. We have fulfilled our duties and made contributions to society, so it is only right that we receive rewards.
It seems like a very capitalist venture.
I don't think that Lord Budda would be too in now. In twenty fifteen, that was the first time he was credibly accused of misdeeds. Allegedly. This was for embezzling from all the vast wealth that he's generating as rewards. An anonymous letter accused him of not only embezzlement, but that he'd been siphoning off big, big money to pay off his several mistresses and pay for his love children. Yeah, this anonymous letter caused an uproar in China. Right, so
the claims now have to be investigated. Everyone's talking about it. So the Shaolin Temple says we'll look into the matter, and as did some local authorities. Now in his own defense, Shi Jong Xin, he said to the BBC in China, quote, if there were a problem, it would have surfaced long ago.
That's a great way to address in any accusations.
Totally, this new one couldn't be because there's no.
Old one now.
Ultimately, both investigations by the local authorities and by the Shaolin Temple itself determined that, surprise, surprise, he was innocent of all charges. Of course, in fact, the Shaolin Temple not only defended him, but they did so with this like angry vigor investigations that were all dropped in twenty seventeen based on quote, insufficient evidence. And then he was later re elected as the Deputy head of the Buddhist Association of China, which is the state aligned like supervisory
board for all policing of misdeeds by Buddhists. Oh so they put the wolf in charge.
Yeah, the fox in charge of the him.
There you go, Yes, this irony is not small. So he remained CEO of the Shaolin Temple until now a decade later, when Homie showed up with not an anonymous letter, but the photo, the birth certificate, the pictures. Now people were like, oh, that's gonna be harder to deny the new campaign to expose his misdeeds. You know, it points out the same improper relationships, It points out the love child, and now if he's violating his vows of celibacy, that's
a serious deal. So at this point, the now fifty nine year old abbot Shi Yong xin aka the CEO Monk of Shaolin. He's in hot water with Chinese authorities because he's making all of Buddhism look bad. And they're like, we can't have that man. You gotta be cool. And the Shaolin Temple leadership took the same view. They're like, we're now a money maker. You're risking like our our you know our check, right, you can't be doing this.
So they accused him of quote suspected criminal offenses, including embezzlement, misappropriation of project funds and temple assets. You're messing with the money, you messing with my mind smoking. The official statement in Chinese stated that quote she is currently under joint investigation by multiple departments. Further information will be released to the public in due course. Now a lot of people thought this means, oh, they're going to sweep it
under the rug once people forget about it. But there's a big change. The President of China, Jijiingping, has launched this nationwide crackdown on corruption and abuses of power. Yeah. He stated repeatedly that his campaign is aimed to root out corruption. That is both quote the tigers and the flies. That means from the lowest public service to the most powerful ministers, religious leaders, like our CEO of Shaolin Temple. Yeah. So far under Jijiingping, thousands of people have been arrested
and they faced corruption charges. Looks like the CEO of the Shaolin Temple is next. Because in July late July this year, the Buddhist Association of China released a statement about old shi jiang Xin, and they said that he's been decertified of his ordination, meaning he's lost his official certificate and he's no longer a monk. Yeah, so he's been basically kicked out of the temple and the order
of Monks. As the Buddhist Association of China put it, quote, she yong Xin's actions are of an extremely egregious nature, severely tarnishing the reputation of the Buddhist community and damaging the image of monastics. And they later added, and I quote the Buddhist Association of China firmly supports and endorses the decision to handle Shei juang Xin's case in accordance with the law. So they're basically like, we're gonna let
Jijingping break them down something. Now, if you ask she Jiang Xin what he's thinking and feeling about these statements and his tenuous future these days, he told state media, and I quote, I haven't done anything guilty, so I'm not afraid of devil's knocking on the door. Now, that may not sound like mighty thing, but that references an old Chinese and I don't know enough old Chinese sangs to make sense of that. But I do know about the words of the Taoist masters Lausu and Shuangsu, which
I will not quote here today specifically. So does sound like I'm pulling some like oh ancient Chinese? Probably right. Instead, I'll go with the much more level headed statement, you better watch it because yijingpang don't play right. There you go. That's my ancient Chinese proverb now basically temporary.
No.
When it comes to like a devil's knocking on the door, it did call to mind something that Bob Dylan sang in Highway sixty one. Yeah, Abe says man, you must be putting me on sun And God said no. Abe said what God said? You can do what you want a but the next time you see me coming, you better runs. So bang on that note, Let's take another break, and when we get back, I got one more tale Buddhist monks behaving badly, and this one's wildly.
Can't wait, Elizabeth, We're back, Hi, you're ready to get freaky again with some more badly.
Baby Burists is ready to get freaky now.
I could tell you about Fra Komb, the Buddhist monk down in Thailand who got popped in April of twenty twenty three when investigators got to work and they found that the monk head quote buried gold bars in the hills outside of his monastery and also transferred two point two million dollars to bank accounts in his sister's name, right, and also he and his fellow monks conspired to embezzle about twelve million from their loyal and faithful followers, who largely live in near poverty.
Yeah.
Now, my favorite part of that story is how he ultimately got caught. Right, He was busted by local police, but they didn't have much evidence against him, so Fracom, being like abundantly overconfident, he phoned his monastery from the police station where he was being questioned, and he ordered his fellow monks to go and hide their loot. I don't know if the cops were listening in or if
he was just loud talking on the phone. Either way, the cops drove out there and they watched the monks hide the stuff, so they knew where all of it was. As one of the officers told local media quote, some had hidden it in the bell tower, some had buried in the hills behind the temple, and they covered it with monks robes. Our investigation team was stunned. It was a huge amount. But these people, they took it for themselves.
This is going to be an ongoing theme, right So after he and the other six monks were busted, they caught serious charges because Thailand is in a grip of this problem right now with bad Buddhist monks. So they hundred and sixty eight years behind bars. Wow, sixty eight that'll get your attention if you think you're untouchable.
Yeah.
Now I can also tell you about the monk Fracado, who was apparently this very handsome monk. He was a social media influencer, and he got caught in a sexual relationship with his forbidden. His date was a really attractive model that everybody was also very familiar with. So obviously he's violating the valve celibacy with this other famous influencer.
And an influencer has to have like ego. Oh yeah, wait, how does that work?
Right? Well, that's kind of how he got caught because once the news was tightening, he tried to bribe both his lover, the model and the journalist who was writing about their affair. No way, and he tried to do it with money he'd embezzled from the monastery. And then he got caught in a secret audio recording which doomed his planet hush money.
Oh my god.
Yes, So both of those feel vaguely similar to the stories I've already told you. So I've got a whole different story to tell you. Yes, And I think, actually, I've got a couple stories, And I think these next tales are my favorite from the genre of Buddhist monks behaving badly. Yeah, because first up, we have the story of a senior Buddhist monk who was caught at a tie resort by local authorities are investigating a major drug
smuggling operation in the area. They were not investigating him. Yeah, the local police busted the senior monk after they discovered four point eight million methan fetamine pills he was smuggling in his minivan.
Okay, wait, stop, stop, we have to stop and take take inventory here. Okay, so four point eight million.
Million meth pills meth pills, and they are just happened to be there. They're already investigating. They're trying to figure out how this drug cartel's moving pills, and then they see this mini van.
And more point eight million pills is a lot.
Yes, oh yeah, and in a mini hidden in cardboard boxes along with like a handgun.
He had to be jam packed. He could not see out the back windows totally.
It's not safe.
It was definitely overloaded minivan and the bottom screeping.
He can't go over speedbump.
No, he's going at an angle over the speed bump. So also, by the way, he had a handgun with fourteen bullets in the magazine and yeah, one in the chamber.
Okay, yeah, sure.
The monk didn't deny any of this. Instead he goes, I am the victim here. Yes, the senior monk told the police that, yes, he was a courier for the local drug kingpins. That was true, and all told he'd been paid about three hundred thousand tie bot, which is a roughly equivalent to ten thousand dollars US. Okay, The deal was he would drive the van through checkpoints, knowing that the local police would never question a minivan driven by a high ranking monk.
Yeah.
Right, So he's like, what's in the back, uh, books, prayer, rugs, and the rod. Yeah. So this wasn't his first run. He'd done it twice before he got caught. So he pleads poverty when the cops bust him, He's like, I need the money, man, I got my studies and they're expensive, and so they worked me over and I said I'll take the money.
No.
So his story isn't my favorite though, yet, because I've got more. There was the story of a flashy monk who drove around at a brand new BMW while he ran meth. I don't know how he thought he wouldn't get caught. There's a lot of meth in Thailand apparently. Yeah, he's like I used to hear about the goal like Thai speed whiskey. They've moved on to just mess thills. So it's twenty eighteen right and up in the northeastern
province of Colisne, Thailand. This dude is roaming around and is like flashy BMW ferrying meth for the local drug card. When the police busted him, he had eight thousand red speed pills and plastic baggies, along with some pot, some crystal meth, not one, not two, but three handguns because I guess he was a bad shot and he needed a couple times.
Yeah.
He confesses that it wasn't just him, but his fellow monks were all doing meth together, and I guess that was like there what, Yeah, there was their secret to reaching Nirvana speed meditation. Yeah. So also, by the way, it turns out he wasn't really a monk so much because he'd been a street criminal. First he thought, you know, if I posed as a monk, that would be good cover. So he joined up, put on the saffron robes and
then he started running met for the crew. Then now he gets popped, He gets defrocked and expelled from the order on that totally pulled down the whole order. Yeah, exactly, as one police officer put it, quote, the suspect enjoyed a luxury lifestyle with over ten million bots circulating his bank accounts. He drove his BMW to deliver speed pills and crystal meth to his clients, mostly nightclubbers. Now we get to my favorite of these Buddhists behaving badly. This
one comes to us from twenty twenty one. Now, rather than me tell you about this one, Elizabeth, I'd like you to close your eyes my eyes, and I'd like you to picture it. It's November twenty twenty one and you are in the southern Thai province of Chumpong. You're riding shotgun in a police truck. No sirens. There's just the sound of the steady hum of the engine, the wheels as they splash through shallow puddles that gather in
the ruts of the jungle road. There's also the speed of the wind as it whips passed your open windows. At the moment, your eyes are trained on the softly swaying trees from a plantation of palm trees. It's a rather idyllic scene. And you're working as an international journalist for the BBC. You're on a ride along with a squad of Thai police. They've decided to give you an exclusive story to cover, one that maybe the local press
wouldn't do fair justice. At the moment You're headed towards a Buddhist temple that's nestled in the lush southern jungle. The officer you're riding with says very little to you, which is fine with you. You're busy jotting down notes from what you recall earlier of the police briefing. So far, this day has felt like a rare adventure. And then you spot it, the spire of the central pagoda of the temple complex. It competes with the jungle trees and
the palm tree plantation. The officer driving the police truck smiles at you and points and says that's it. You smile and nod back. The truck draws closer and closer, until finally the line of police trucks drives right through the open gates, and one by one, the truck's pull to a stop. Cops spring from their vehicles and you follow them, taking notes on everything you see. You even lift your camera, the one dangling against your chest, and
you snap a few photos. Meanwhile, the police are all business. They rush into the temple hall and they round up the monks, who are deep in meditative prayer. The abbot of the temple stands up and greets the police. He's all smiles and offers a warm welcome. With his hands pressed together, he approaches them. The monk's saffron robes are spotless. The police are all business. They tell the abbot why they've come. One cop lifts up a plastic container for
a urine sample, and he shakes it. The Abbot's warm smile falls. You scribble more notes. After a quick exchange between the police and the abbot, he and the other meditating monks are led out of the temple hall and brought outside, where they are lined up. Each monk is handed a plastic container and told to fill it. The monks look annoyed, dismayed, irritated, but they do as instructive
there before the watching eyes of the police. One by one, the monks lift their saffron robes and fill the plastic container with fresh, warm urine. Then they hamm the container over to the waiting officers. The urine samples normally would be sent to a lab technician, but instead the cops place them on the hood of their police trucks, and one by one the urine samples are opened. A chemical is added. You ask the lead officer what they're testing for.
He nods and says methamphetamy, and then you watch as, one by one the one the urine samples turn purple. It's the telltale marker that the urine samples contain meth. The lead officer gives the sign to a squad of cops. They handcuffs the monks and the abbot, since even his urine samples showed signs of met After the urine tester completed, you follow the officers as they investigate the compound. You
snap photos as the officers scour their sleeping quarters. The cops find meth pipes, You snap a photo of vat The cops pull out of baggies of meth pills. You snap pictures of that. The cops also find bottles of urine from underneath the monk's beds. Who knows why those are there? You dutifully snap photos of that too. The evidence is all gathered up, bagged, tagged, and loaded into the police trucks. At the gate of the compound, you see locals watching the progress of this police raid. You
wander over to get quotes from the locals. You find a man who speaks English. He tells you quote finally the police have come. These monks are not good people. You both watch as all of the monks and the abbot are arrested and loaded into the police trucks, and then he says something that staves with you. If all monks were arrested and taken away along with the abbot,
who will do merit making? Now you ask what he means, and he explains that the locals donate food and what little money they have to these monks so that they will spiritually protect the villagers. But now, who will do spiritual battle for the locals? He says, these monks on the meth are better than no monks at all. Oh no, So there you go, Elizabeth, you just covered the story of a whole Buddhist temple getting busted for being high
on even the abbot. A reporter for the Agency French Press also covered this drug raid and they interviewed a local village chief named turdsack Pudwana, who spoke of the surprise of this drug bust as he told the AFP quote, if you ask me, was I shocked? I could not imagine all the monks in this temple were addicted. And he later added, and I quote when those monks were arrested for using narcotics, the villagers who still had faith felt like they've been betrayed. And that's key, the ones
who still had faith. Yeah, these monks are eroding the faith of the ninety percent of Buddhist population.
Like, look, it's either meth monks or no monks. It's like, well, maybe maybe this time for no monks. Yes, that's the best you can do.
How about the nuns? Can we give the nuns a shot?
Uns?
I haven't heard a single story but the nuns doing the meth with the monks. So the punishments, by the way, we're all swift. All of the monks and the abbot were disrobed and kicked out of the monk could they're losing monks as fast as they can. The locals chiefs point though, those who still had faith, right, and they felt like they had been betrayed. That's because you have to understand how big a business Buddhism is in Thailand. There are roughly forty three thousand temples which raise an
estimated four billion dollars each year from donations. What from donations from poor poverished people. The government tosses in some coins too, to the tune of about one hundred and seventy million a year. But the four billion comes from people who were like, they could really use this money, just like.
The flashier ones get a lot of tourist money too, like people who are like, oh, we want to do it, but yeah, the port's mostly the locals like what they can't afford to get exactly.
Yeah, it's giving big time medieval Catholic church energy here, so you know, like me buy an indulgence, but they're getting no indulgence.
You know.
So when you have mets smuggling, meth pill popping monks, and monks paying off blackmail to keep their bad behavior secret and their love child behind doors, the people in the government they start feeling like fools essentially, right. Yeah, So the cops, they sure, they're trying to root out these bad monks, but the number of news stories I found, and the number of news stories that appear every year
is really having an impact on the faith of these people. Sure, And so that means at this point a lot of the bad behavior gets overlooke because they don't want to keep growing the story and further embarrass the Buddhist monks it's the exact opposite of what you would hope they would do.
Right.
Like, for instance, I found some claim that cops will often work with the National Office of Buddhism to allow cover ups. Allegedly, the director of the nob he recently said, quote, right now, if monks commit wrongdoing, the National Office of Buddhism can only report that information and evidence to administrative monks to review. The monk process is slow, I must admit, right. So this is how I found the Serpico of Thailand.
There is a true believer in both Buddhism and the law right, and he launches his one man undercover operation to run out bad.
Monks totally right.
So he entered the police. Lieutenant Colonel Sayumpu Kalu jichis radom okay right, He went and got himself ordained, and then he went undercover as a monk. No, yes, he put it quote being a police officer one has to be ready in both body and mind. The best thing for me was to try to become a monk.
Yes.
So, hiding out at the temple, he waited for the drugs to arrive and then he would bust everyone involved. I love it, as he tells a quote, I just covered myself with the rope. That way a weapon and camera could be hidden. Oh no, and hidden behind his saffron robes. He was able to bust two monks, two math dealers, and a bunch of drug smugglers. His one man operation lasted a few weeks, and he recounted the quote generally, the public appreciated what we did and admired
us for eliminating an enemy of religion. So there you go, our little hope.
Is this one man, one guy? He's the one man army.
Yeah. So the mini stories of badly behaving Buddhist monks.
I love it.
It's like they always say, the last refuge for the scoundrel is the church or in this case, the Buddhist temple. Yes, So what's so ridiculous takeaway here? Elizabeth?
You know, I am just personally, this is just my own personal take my takeaway. I am distrustful. I do not trust people who broadcast their belief system. Yes, it's in such an in an aggressive way. And you've listed all these bad Buddhists. They are not good at being Buddhists.
Yes.
And I used to have a neighbor who was like that who all he did was like broadcast out that he was this Buddhist and it was like his business was part of that everything. Sure, and he was the most selfish, manipulative, like he had zero compassion. He's with you know, nasty gossip about.
Other people in the building. Yure, horrible person.
But yet it was such a part of like his broadcast identity. And so I think, if you really have a faith system and you believe in it and you think other people should have it and share it, if you just live the right way, and people be like.
Oh, what's your secret?
You know what I mean, and then ask, But if you go around and so you craft this identity.
All these bad monks they had.
This identity that got them all all power, all sorts of other stuff. But in the they're rotten at the core. They're just bad at it was there And what's your ridiculous takeaway?
Thank you Elizabeth for asking, I actually have one. It's it's kind of ridiculous, But you know me, I side with the Taoists. That's like out of all the spiritual religious traditions on the planet. I was raised Catholic, but I really ultimately side with the Taoist, and it comes down to a very simple Dawist saying, there is those who know, don't say, and those who say don't know.
Yeah, and I believe.
So if I hear somebody telling me about their faith, I usually don't believe them, but if I see the acts of their faith, I totally believe them. Correct. So in this case, we saw no acts of face zero crow zero. Now you in the mood of for a talkback to wash this all down? Oh God.
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Finally didn't I didn't think we stood a chance on.
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