Bangkok (AFP) – From a working-class childhood on the southern English coast to the top foreign-born monk in Thailand, Shaun Chiverton’s quest for a better life has taken him further than most. Five decades after he travelled to India to follow the Buddha’s teachings, the 68-year-old this summer became the first non-Thai to be elevated to rank of Somdet Phra Rachakhana, or royal monastic leader — the second-highest level in Thailand’s monkhood.
