December 8, 1998
WECARE Sermons with a smile WE CARE:For more than 20 years, Phra Sompong Mahapunyo's mission has been to make Buddhist teachings fun and memorable for children. His puppet-for-dharma work is now available on CD-Rom. Story by Karnjariya Sukrung Photo by Yingyong Un-Anongrak Many children think sermons are one big bore. Not, however, when they meet Phra Sompong Mahapunyo. "Look here," said the monk, as he took a cartoon illustration from the suitcase he always carries when he gives school sermons. It shows a girl about to empty her dust bin. "When we have rubbish, we need to dump it to keep our place clean, right? But there's another type of rubbish as well. It's in our mind and we need to dump that too." As soon as he finishes his sentence, the litter moves from the girl's hand into the trash can. The students stop chattering and burst out laughing. The monk takes out more paper puppets for his other religious messages. The children are hooked and stay attentive until he is finished. "I've never thought listening to dharma could be fun and so easy to understand," said Pitipong Phasuk, a Mathoyom One student at Kasetsart Demonstration School. "It's not as boring as I used to think. And I can remember what the monk taught me as well." The children's enthusiasm is the reason why Phra Sompong has been committed to his puppets-for-dharma teaching work for more than 20 years. "The puppets help make the learning fun and lively. When they enjoy themselves, the children get the messages more effectively," said the 44-year-old monk. "In addition, many feel awed by dharma, thinking it involves difficult abstract concepts. With illustrations and puppets, however, I can transform the teachings into easy-to-understand messages that children can grasp," he said. For his work, Phra Sompong has selected teachings that are universal and applicable in everyday life regardless of the students' religious beliefs. Many pictures focus on general Thai traditions, culture, etiquette and manners and on living a decent, moral life. "We can't limit our teachings for Buddhists only. Dharma is actually universal and we should teach it universally too," he said. As a result of this, Phra Sompong and his paper-puppet luggage have been good will ambassadors in many parts of the world and in many diverse cultures, languages and religions. One time, he said, during a visit to the Philippines, the monk used his puppets to teach tribal people at Mount Pinatubo volcano. His puppets transcend language barriers. He makes a point, though, to always end his teachings with the Buddhist concept of Paticcasamuppada. In sum, the teachings helps one to understand one's sufferings - a result of complex, inter-related chains of sensory perceptions which shape one's thoughts, prejudices, likes and dislikes - particularly a sense of self - as well as one's attachments to them. If people understand the root of their sufferings, he said, which is basically his or their attachments to ego, greed, and delusions, they will be able transcend their likes and dislikes rationally. According to Buddhist teachings, a combination of morality, insight meditation and the understanding that all is impermanent, subject to suffering, and non-self can help one calm one's worldly desires, and eventually lead to spiritual liberation. "By realising the importance of our actions, we won't be dependent on others. We won't resort to suicide to escape suffering nor resort to black magic," he said. "Many feel this teaching is too abstract for children to grasp. I disagree. I want children to understand right from the start, the heart of Buddhism, so they can differentiate between essence and ritual," he said. The inspiration for his puppet-for-dharma work came about 24 years ago when he first entered the monkhood. The late Buddhadasa Bhikkhu and Phra Panyananda Bhikkhu were my two sources of inspiration, he said. "They devoted their lives to teaching Buddhism in easy-to-understand ways. And I want to follow in their footsteps." During his early years in the monkhood, he met Acharn Tawil Sunyatas who was then experimenting with how to teach dharma to children in the most effective way. Living in southern Thailand, where the Nang Talung or shadow puppet show is a popular form of entertainment, Mr Tawil decided to use the puppetry as an educational tool. Phra Sompong, became his first follower. After a while, Mr Tawil left to pursue other religious activities and Phra Sompong took over the mission. Coming from a farming family and with only Prathom Four education, Phra Sompong taught himself how to draw cartoon illustrations. Learning by imitation, he first practiced by copying comic books. "At first, when I drew a human face it looked like a ghost," he laughed. With conviction and perseverance, though, he gradually acquired drawing skills. Over the years he has drawn more than 500 cartoon illustrations. "I learn from what I've created. If we don't stop ourselves from thinking, or imagining, we will develop better things. Learning is endless," said Phra Sompong, who is also the advisory member for the Cartoon Society of Thailand. Most of the time, if he is not invited to teach at schools or educational institutions, he is busy in the studio - a medium-size room adjacent to his kuti in Wat Chalaprathan. The room is packed with cards bearing words drawn from dharma teachings, cartoon puppets, paper puppet cards, slides, photo files, and drawing and painting materials. In one corner there is a computer. His mission is not only to create fun educational tools with which to teach children, Phra Sompong now trains teachers to do his job. After several years of dharma-teaching tours, he realised one monk could not do everything. So in 1982, he started workshops for teachers who might learn and use his techniques. For more than 10 years now, more than 1,000 groups of teachers have attended his sessions. He gives adult students colour-printed copies of his cartoons and teaches them how to put the bits and pieces together. "I won't give them the final product. It's too easy and recipients won't learn a thing that way. I want them to learn how to make paper puppets so they can apply the art for their own stories." Phra Sompong notes many students at teachers' colleges have adapted and developed the art to teach children about the environment, culture and health issues. "If you have ideas, you can create a fun medium to express them," he said. "Isan people use the medium to teach people not to eat raw fish, it's used in Phuket to remind people not to litter the beach, and in Chiang Rai it is used to teach about hilltribers way of life," he said. "Paper puppets are cheap and accessible in all regions. They don't need gas, or batteries or electricity to operate, so it's useful in remote rural areas." After success with paper puppets, he moved on to slides of cartoon characters for his bigger audiences. Then, since computers were becoming increasingly available in many classrooms, he taught himself computer skills to produce more modern teaching tools. One day his efforts were rewarded. On his second visit to the US, an owner of Multimedia Asia Co. Ltd, a multimedia software company, happened to sit next to him. The men got talking and after hearing of the monk's efforts, the businessman offered to put his paper puppets on CD-Rom, free of charge. The first 2,000 copies of Suphasit Thai were completed in 1997 and donated to several schools and other institutions. This year, a second CD, Miti Mai Mongkol Cheewit (New Dimensions of Happiness) has been released to celebrate the 88th birthday anniversary of Phra Dhammakosajarn also known as Phra Panyananda Bhikkhu. The CD-Rom series provides both Thai and English descriptions on a number of themes including sections on Learning from Culture, Path of the Good, Guideposts for Happiness, and Biography of Phra Dhammakosajarn or Phra Panyananda Bhikkhu. There are also sections on how to make paper puppets and colouring sections for children. Animation technology allows cartoon characters to move easily and naturally, but Phra Sompong has chosen to keep some of the more traditional movements of the puppets. "These types of cartoon movements come from local Thai culture. They can be claimed as a typically Thai style of comic. That's a thing to be proud of," said Phra Sompong. "If we make them look like other animated cartoons, we will lose our identity," he said. Working with multimedia is Phra Sompong's latest project and he calls it Dharma Through Paper Puppet Fund for World Peace. Through it he aims to transfer and develop the paper puppet techniques in multimedia. "Paper puppets will decompose as time passes. If I keep my knowledge and the paper puppet making techniques on CD-Rom, then people now, and in the future, can make use of it. "Most importantly, I want to plant the seeds of dharma in people's hearts and hopefully one day, they will understand it and learn to apply this truth in their life," he said. Info for donations: Name: Dharma Through Paper Puppet Fund for World Peace Founder: Phra Sompong Mahapunya Address: 78/8 Wat Chalapratanrungsarit, Tiwanon Road, Bang Ta-Lad, Parkkret, Nontaburi 11120 Tel: 584-3074 Fax: 583-4243		Bangkok Post Asian Games Web pages Classifieds Jobs Property Entertainment Investment Education Travel Sales Learn English Weekly Database Horizons NiteOwl Student Weekly Real Time Special We Care Street Art Back Issues Last Month Archive Company Servcies Subscriptions Advertising Annual Report
© Copyright The Post Publishing Public Co., Ltd. 1998 Last Modified: Tue, Dec 8, 1998 For comments and letters to the editor see : notes Comments to: Webmaster Advertising enquiries to Internet Marketing