Phra Ram

We had the opportunity to meet Phra Ram in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand in 2019. As a Buddhist wandering monk, this was the first time he stood so close in front of a camera. The interview took place in the Buddhist temple (Wat) Suandok under the Buddha tree.

His life as a monk is characterized by meditation, the study of sacred scriptures and lively philosophical exchange with other monks and foreign scholars. To implement the virtues of charity, kindness and mercy in everyday life leads to a spiritual and happier existence. This also reflects his personal faith and way of life.

Interview quotes:

“In Buddhism we strongly believe in Karma, which means that there are three ways of making karma. We have mental karma, moral karma and physical karma right? When you think that you are going to harm someone, your mental karma is already that your bad thinking leads to that kind of thing. Simply how you can explain that is – what goes around comes around. When you do that you’ll get that, right.”

“Buddhism refers more to self practicing and self belief. In Hinduism there are spiritual Deities, who can be summoned to do bad things to someone else. There are people who feed spiritually ghosts and spirits. The reason for that could be that they don’t like someone or want to take revenge on him.”

“Its more the cultural influence from Cambodia. They have some kind of magic that say, it protects you from different evil things. In Thailand we don’t really have that kind of belief. But of course there are people, who believe in the power of an amulet. Which means that they think and believe that your amulets, or your tattoos can support or help you. It depends on their cultural background. I don’t have any kind of amulets, because I don’t believe in it.”