King Rama IV opened the royal gate

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

This young man, he got over to Thailand to do Peace Corps work. So two years over in Thailand, doing Peace Corps work. And then, before he went back to the United States and just... get a job, get married, and all of that sort of stuff, he decided to try to be a monk. A Buddhist monk just for a short time. But he didn't know what to do. How do you become a monk? In Thailand. And so, he was staying at a hotel on the outskirts of Bangkok, and he asked the concierge. The concierge knows other places to send Americans, but not, sort of, monasteries. But he did hear that there was one monastery in the centre of Bangkok, Wat Bowon, which sometimes had Western monks. So he said: Go there, go to this place Wat Bowon, in the centre of Bangkok, and go there early in the morning, take some food and wait for the monks to come out and put some food into one of the monks' bowls and just ask them.' He knew a little bit of Thai, not that much. Ask them he wants to become a monk. So that's what he did. The advice wasn't very clear or precise. So he went there really early in the morning. About 4 o'clock, 4:30 or something. And the monastery was all locked up. It was closed, no one was around. So he was walking up and down outside this monastery Wat Bowon, not knowing what to do. And this Thai man came up to him and asked him: 'Who are you? How can I help?' Because Thais are, certainly in those days, were very polite and very helpful. So he said he was American, he wanted to become a monk, and the Thai man said: 'You're really early, you've come a couple of hours too early.' But the Thai man said: 'Never mind. I've got the keys, I can let you inside.' So he took this Westerner inside the monastery. He opened the doors, it was a metal door in front of the Uposatha hall, the boat. You're Thai, it's called the Royal Gate. I'll tell you why afterwards, if you don't already know. And then went into the main hall, turned on the electric lights, he had the key, opened the main hall, the holy of holies there, and he described all the paintings, all the murals on this 200-year-old hall. And who painted them, why they were painted, and the story which those murals told. And if you know that Thai art in those days, every one of those murals told a story, it's like a cartoon, but cartoons in the West they would start from the left and they go to the right, then the next level... These go around all sorts of different... trajectories. If you know the story, you can actually tell what they are, but even sometimes I know those stories, but I can't actually figure out how they all connect together. But the two hours went past so quickly. He was so fascinated by all this history of the temple that this Thai man knew. Then the Thai man said: 'It's about time now, to... the monks will be coming out any minute, so go out the gate again, turn right, and then wait for this old monk – he's the one you should speak to.' That's what this Westerner did. This American. I know this American. It's a true story. Happened in my lifetime, in Thailand. And soon that monk came out and he put some food in the bowl, asked him he wanted to become a monk, and this American was told to wait and was taken to start the training, being a monk. And after a few days, the American said: 'Look, the monk you've given me to teach me all the chanting, and the rules and stuff, I can't understand him, his English is no good. And the other monk said 'This is the best English speaker we've got in the whole monastery'. And that is where this American said: 'What about that temple attendant who I met on the first day?' 'What temple attendant?' 'The guy who opened the door for me.' 'You can't go through that door. That gate is the Royal Gate. The only people allowed through that gate at Wat Bowon are members of the royal family.' You know how much they hold their tradition. And you can't turn the electricity on there. And, and... not even the Abbot knows all the stories behind those paintings. They took him straight to the Abbot. That was Somdet Nyanasamvara. He became the Head Monk of Thailand. But at that time, he was the Abbot of the temple. The Abbot was listening to all of this and stopped him. And said: 'Wait' and called in the secretary, 'This needs to be recorded.' And this is pretty much a true story. I did tell this story in the Thai Embassy in Singapore, once. And the Ambassador there, interrupted me. Eventually afterwards he said 'Yes, I've seen that story written down, it's true, it actually happened.' But anyway, the Abbot wrote it all down. Or the secretary, rather. But the end of the story. Of course, they asked the question: 'What did that man look like? That temple attendant we don't know, exists. The one who opened doors which only royal family can open.' No one's got the key, no temple attendant's got the key to the main hall. Only a couple of monks have that key. Not even the old Abbot knew all the stories behind the paintings. He said: 'What did he look like?' You know what happens when you have to try and describe a person, especially if you're from a different country; 'I don't know, he just... was Thai.' 'He was wearing traditional Thai clothes,' he said. That was one interesting thing. Not modern clothes. Traditional Thai clothes. 'But what did he look like?' And this American couldn't think exactly what this guy looked like. So he was scratching his head, literally, because that's what Westerners do, Thais don't do that. Scratching his head. And he stopped. He was looking at a portrait in the Abbot's office. 'It's him!' 'That's the one.' 'That's the one I met'. That was a portrait of one of the sponsors of that temple when it was first built. His Majesty King Rama V who died about 150 years prior to that incident. That went down in the books. A heavenly being coming down to help a young man become a monk

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 42:01 (to 49:44)