The sequel to Bangkok 8 (previously reviewed here) once again takes place in Krung Thep, otherwise known to farangs as Bangkok, and is narrated by arhat (i.e., Buddhist saint, a person who has attained liberation and is thus free from cyclic existence) police detective Sonchai Jitpleecheep.
It’s an issue that infuses the worldview of John Burdett’s Bangkok Tattoo. This is a controversial idea to be sure, especially to the Western mind. Prostitution itself is not Right Employment in the eyes of the Buddha, but a whore has the rest of her life after retirement (usually in her late twenties) to rectify any bad karma produced in her early profession. These women, transsexuals (called katoeys), and men provide a service that briefly relieves a source of suffering, and in return receive both money and the knowledge that they have given comfort and sympathy to another human being. This is exemplified in Metta Bhavana, the cultivation of loving-kindness, practiced by Buddhists all over the world, including sex workers in Thailand.
One of the most important precepts in Buddhism is compassion, manifested as readiness to give comfort, sympathy, and concern.
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