abbot

After Chamroon's passing in 1999, his younger brother Charoen succeeded to the abbotship. Charoen had previously overseen building projects in WTK's inner campus.

He is well-informed of his three disciples; he discerns in his own impenetrable way their lack of acumen necessary for the abbotship; he is quite aware of the visitor's vested interest in Tripitaka's ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], 596-664) hand-written "Mahayana Scroll," and has it hand-copied in numbers; he pretends to die in order to observe the monastery in secret.

The casting of such a statue was very likely inspired by Zhongzong's edict resuming the Baisima construction project, which had been instigated by Huifan and which resulted in the installation of an immense Buddha-statue at the Shengshansi, and the assigning of its abbotship to Huifan.

Yet there are no records of any sexual irregularities at the time (1528) at either institution: the Visitations of Godstow in 1517 and 1520, prior to Burton's abbotship of Osney (1524-1537), make no mention of any,(10) and in 1535 John Tregonwell reported to Cromwell:

Byams pa kun dga' 'byung gnas in his gSang phu gdan rabs even relates a 35-year period of abbotship. (12) However, as Phya pa passed away at the age of 60, this would mean that he was appointed abbot at the age of 25, which seems rather unlikely.