About 200 residents in Ranong's Muang district have succeeded in forcing a mass merit-making ceremony linked to the Wat Phra Dhammakaya to be moved elsewhere.
The residents gathered late on Saturday night to protest against plans to block a road for the ceremony connected to the controversial temple, linked to an embezzlement scandal.
The ceremony in which a throng of monks would collect alms was planned for a main road cutting through the downtown area of the province. Residents wanted it moved as they said it would hold up traffic and disrupt trade.
About 1,000 monks, including some from Myanmar, were planning to walk along the road to take alms. The organiser is reported to be the provincial chapter of the Kalayanamitr Centre linked to the temple.
The residents picketed along the road demanding the ceremony be shifted to a local temple away from the busy area of the city. Police mediated talks between the protesters and the organiser, who later agreed to move the ceremony to Wat Wareebanpot, also in Muang district.
Meanwhile, two Buddhist organisations in India have written to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha expressing their concerns over the conflicts in Buddhism in Thailand, according to a Facebook page of Wat Sa Ket's morality promotion office.
The Facebook page showed letters sent from the government of the Uttrakhand Minority Commission and the International Buddha Education Institute.
The letter from the commission was addressed to the National Reform Council, and the institute's letter to Gen Prayut and the NRC. They conveyed concerns over the current division among Buddhists in Thailand.
The commission's letter called on the NRC to look into the problem and insisted religion must be kept separate from politics while the institute said Gen Prayut should find a middle path to solve the problem.
In another development, a group calling itself a new generation Sangha organisation has again accused the NRC's committee on religious affairs of threatening Buddhism and the Supreme Sangha Council.
The committee recently turned the spotlight on Wat Phra Dhammakaya and its abbot, Phra Dhammachayo, after members claimed to have found Phra Dhammachayo violated the Buddhist monks' code of conduct and should have been defrocked more than a decade ago.