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Luang Pho Ngun (หลวงพ่อเงิน)
Thai.
Name of a revered Buddhist monk from
the
Rattanakosin
Period, who
was the abbot of Wat Bang Khlan, a
Buddhist temple in
Phichit.
He
is
fully known as
Luang Pho
Ngun
Phuttachot (พุทธโชติ) and was born on
16
September 1810, in the reign of King
Rama II,
and passed away on 20 September 1921,
in the reign of
Rama VI,
having lived through five different reigns, to the blessed age of 111.
His name Ngun, sometimes transliterated Ngurn or Ngeun, translates as ‘Silver’
or ‘Money’.
Hence, he is often depicted in between two other
revered
monks, namely Luang Pho Chob (ชอบ) and
Luang Pho Sot (สด). Together, their names read Chob Ngun Sot (ชอบเงินสด), which
literally means ‘[to] Like Cash
Money’. Frames with images of these
three monks, in this particular order, as well as small statuettes thereof are
sold at religious shops and temples, as they are assumed by devotees to be
charms for good fortune.
At the age of three, his uncle took Ngun to Bangkok to
study at Wat Chana Songkhram (วัดชนะสงคราม). Nine years later, at the age of 12,
he was ordained as a
samanaen
(novice) at this temple, where he studied the
Vinay,
i.e. the canonical organ or ecclesiastical doctrine for
rules on monastic discipline, as well as the
Dhamma, i.e. the Buddhist Law or the teachings
of the
Buddha,
as described in the
Tripitaka. At the age of
20, he ordained as a monk and was given the Buddhist cognomen
Phuttachot. He stayed in
Wat Chana Songkhram
for three more years before moving to Wat Khongkharam (วัดคงคาราม), i.e. Wat
Bang Khlan Tai (วัดบางคลานใต้). Later, he moved to Wang Tako (วังตะโก) Village,
where he planted a cutting of the sacred
bodhi tree
(fig.)
which he had brought along. He decided to see what would happen. If a tree would
grow from the cutting, he would take it as a sign to stay here and establish a
temple, if the cutting would die, he would take it as a sign to move on. The
cutting ended growing into a big tree and hence Ngun founded
Wat Bang Khlan,
the temple of which
he became the livelong abbot.
See also POSTAGE STAMP.
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