Forestry Buddhist temple: a specific legal permission for using public forest land, a specific case in Thailand

Abstract

Public land is usually protected by laws and belongs to national government. To use public land by private sector is usually not allowable. However, the special permission might be provided in some specific cases. There are many possible purposes for using public land. Here, the authors discuss on the specific case in Thailand on using public forest, which is a kind of public land, for setting a forestry Buddhist temple.  Since Buddhism is rooted in Thailand, a tropical country in Indochina and there is a specific sect of Buddhist in Thailand namely Aranyasri that Buddhist monk lives and practice in the forest, some forestry Buddhist temples are set and get the legal permission for government for locating in the national public forest areas.