✅ 30,000 Buddhist monks in Myanmar gathered by controversial leader accused of £25m embezzlement

✍ Thirty-thousand monks assembled in the early morning chill in Myanmar today for a spectacular alms-giving event, partly organised by a controversial mega-temple under scrutiny across the border in Thailand.With many barefoot, Buddhist monks from Myanmar and Thailand and senior religious officials from a dozen countries collected alms next to an airport in the central city of Mandalay, that is also a heartland of the faith.The event was the third and largest of its kind since 2015 and comes as one of the organisers, the Thailand-based Dhammakaya foundation, attempts to bounce back from an embezzlement scandal more than two years ago.The Dhammakaya temple's massive compound in northern Bangkok was under siege for two weeks in early 2017 as thousands of officers tried to arrest the sect's spiritual leader. Phra Dhammachayo was accused of colluding in a £25million ($33m) embezzlement scheme and was believed to be hiding somewhere on the temple's sprawling 1,000 acre grounds, an area twic ...
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