Buddhadasa is regarded as a radical vector and narrator of Siamese religious culture through the crucial period when Siam moved away from an absolute monarchy in 1932 and then underwent a fascist revolution in 1939 when it changed its name to Thailand. In the 1960s Buddhadasa became a great inspiration for a certain circle of Thai social activists and artists, some of whom – most notably the painter-poet K. Khemananda[5] – were like Buddhadasa himself branded as communists. In the case of some students, they were forced to flee the country while the teacher was nearly made to cease wearing robes'