In December 1998, at the intersection of Phetburi and Ratchadamri roads in the heart of the busy Pratunam shopping district of Bangkok, passers-by were confronted by a massive electronic billboard displaying flashing photographs of the Dhammakāya Temple (Wat Phra Thammakai), one of Thailand's largest modern temples. This grand, public slide-show moved through a sequence of images which included photographs of Dhammakāya practitioners meditating and offering gifts to monks, photographs of the Temple's new reliquary monument, the Mahādhammakāya Chedi, which was the site of the much-publicized “miracle in the sky,” and photographs of weeping Dhammakāya practitioners looking with amazement at the sky. For tourists shopping in this area of Bangkok, which encompasses the World Trade Center (one of Bangkok's largest shopping malls) and Pantip Plaza (a paradise of technological gadgetry), the sight of such overt religious advertising must have seemed curious, especially for those who envision Buddhism as a quiet, contemplative tradition with an ethos of simplicity and renunciation. Had one reacted in this way to the in-your-face, larger-than-life automated billboard, she would not have been alone, for in 1998 and 1999 the Dhammakāya Temple was embroiled in a nation-wide controversy over its so-called aggressive marketing techniques and its dissemination of alleged heretical ideas about nirvāņa.

In this essay, I explore the discourses and technologies of Dhammakāya proselytization within a context typified by the competing forces of globalization and localization. I will demonstrate how the Temple adapts its message to suit the differing needs and sensibilities of divergent local and global audiences.