Today, the 10th of December in 1968, the American Trappist monk, mystic, spiritual writer, social justice activist, and advocate of interreligious dialogue, Thomas Merton died.
The Episcopal church marks this date as a feast for a saint. And in my own way I try to keep this small feast, as well. What follows is part of my ongoing celebration of his life, together with a small recollection of my pilgrimage to the site of his death.
At the time Merton was on an extended Asian adventure, having met at various places with prominent spiritual figures, many of whom were Buddhists, including the Dalai Lama and DT Suzuki.
On this day he was attending a monastic conference at the Red Cross retreat at Sawang Kaniwat in Samut Prakan, Thailand. After giving a talk in the morning, in the afternoon his body was found in his room with a fan lying across his body. The conference organizer Rembert Weakland, then abbot primate of the Benedictine order anointed the body. The body was returned to Merton’s home, Gethsemani Abbey, outside of Louisville. There was no autopsy.
For various reasons there has been an ongoing controversy about his death. Some opining suicide, others assassination. As with prominent and controversial people stories just seem to invent themselves.
Me, I go with the generally accepted view that he had taken a shower and then coming out touched the fan which was shorted and it either sparked a heart attack or he had a heart attack as he grasped the shorted fan.
Whatever the circumstances of his death, his life touched many people. Including me. He has been profoundly influential in my life. I looked at my blog postings and see that I referenced him in numerous entries. Several were dedicated to him, specifically. Among them an account of my going to his grave site at Gethsemani and another at the famous marker of his great awakening in Louisville.
So, in 2019 when I was invited to be a presenter for a tour of Bhutan and I learned we would start in Bangkok, immediately the most important thing for me was to try and find that spot where he died, go there, and to offer my prayers and gratitude.
There weren’t a lot of details I could find about the place. It was a Red Cross conference center, apparently, and it was about twenty-five miles or so outside of Bangkok. But not a ton more. I turned to Facebook and posted a request. My old friend the Buddhist scholar Justin Whitaker put me in touch with a retired academic Will Yaryan (who has since died). Through Will I was able to correspond with several people and eventually meet two, Joe Shakarchi (very much alive), and through connections given Joe by Will, finally Voravit Chansiri (whom I hope is well and thriving). Quite the chain of connections, mysterious and wonderful.
So, Voravit and Joe showed up at my hotel and together we drove off to the Red Cross center. As it happens Voravit, a devout Buddhist with deep interests in the interreligious encounter had been able to take several other of Merton’s admirers to the site.
It was a bit more than an hours drive, traffic here is pretty fierce, giving LA a real run for the money.
The Red Cross center is humungous, housing many different activities.
Sadly, the building where Fr Merton died has been closed and is in serious derelict condition. Voravit told me it has been scheduled to be demolished.
All things pass. As I write this I don’t know if the site exists anymore, or not.
A talk on Merton & His Legacy by Paul Pearson.
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