Bangkok: Hundreds of police reinforcements have been deployed to Thailand's largest temple, where worshippers and monks are vowing to prevent the arrest of a prominent monk wanted on embezzlement charges.
Tensions are high at the 400-hectare Dhammakaya temple complex on the outskirts of Bangkok, where an operation has been underway for days to arrest 72-year-old that Phra Dhammajayo, the temple's former abbot.
![Monks protest against the attempted arrest of 72-year-old monk Phra Dhammajayo, the temple’s former abbot.](/web/20170221214018im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/g/h/k/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gughkj.png/1487589982485.jpg)
However Phra Thammasak Jaruthammo, a monk who has lived at the temple for 30 years, told reporters that Phra Dhammajayo fled the temple last Thursday without being seen by police and is hiding nearby because he is too unwell to travel.
Thousands of worshippers broke through official barricades and formed a human shield with monks at the temple on Sunday.
As officers threaten to storm the temple, #Dhammakaya devotees sit in front one of the gates peacefully chanting the Dhammajak.#Dhammakaya pic.twitter.com/2OlJfgly89
— Dhammakaya Media (@DhammakayaMedia) 19 February 2017
8.30 pm still surrounded. Chanting and praying for peace continue. Will we survive tonight? Will police have mercy for us? #Dhammakaya pic.twitter.com/1BE0IX23fl
— Dantamano Bhikkhu (@Dantamano) 19 February 2017
Authorities had ordered all worshippers to leave the compound by 3pm so they could intensify their search.
Several thousand security forces have been surrounding the temple since Thursday and power and water have been cut off. But buses carrying more worshippers were arriving at the temple early on Monday.
![Monks and worshippers block the road outside the Dhammakaya, north of Bangkok, last year.](/web/20170221214018im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/g/h/l/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gughkj.png/1487589982485.jpg)
Under a special emergency law, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has declared the temple a "special control zone", allowing it to be placed under military control.
The stand-off has exposed deep religious divides in the predominantly Buddhist country where the military has silenced opposition parties and activists since Mr Prayuth led a coup to topple an elected government in 2014, after months of political instability.
![Wat Dhammakaya, Thailand's largest temple, during quieter times.](/web/20170221214018im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/g/h/k/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gughkj.png/1487589982485.jpg)
The Dhammakaya sect, founded in 1970, has attracted millions of followers in Thailand and across Asia, Europe and the United States, unsettling the traditional Buddhist hierarchy with its endorsement of worldly comforts and its no-nonsense approach to ritual.
Phra Dhammajayo is a magnetic figure who is seen by his disciples as an inspirational teacher and meditation guru.
Critics accuse him of promoting donations as a short-cut to good fortune and a path to heaven, a departure from traditional Thai Buddhism.
Cash machines at the temple have screens that declare "Shortcut to making Merit".
"Buddha never taught us to live in hardship," said the temple spokesman Phra Pasura Dantamano.
Phra Dhammajayo's aides dismiss the charges against him relating to more than $30 million of allegedly embezzled money, receiving stolen property and unlawfully taking over land to build meditation centres, saying the accusations are politically motivated.
Disciples of the Dhammakaya sect have been linked in the past to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a divisive figure who was deposed in 2006 coup and lives in exile to avoid a jail sentence on fraud charges.
Police have been trying for months to arrest Phra Dhammajayo, while monks vowed to lay down their lives to protect him.
"We're asking authorities to suspend the emergency law and lift their siege," said Phra Pasura, the spokesman.
"Our supplies are low and we have been without power and water for three days," he added.
Police searching the complex, which is 10 times the size of the Vatican, and found a large basement under a golden stupa meditation hall.
The basement houses 200 hydraulic machines linked to a fountain.