When people think of a "dharma book", they may imagine a pocket book offering insights about the Lord Buddha's dharma principles.

Chakrit Achava-amrung, left, and Punyamon Amornnimit, the cartoonist.

Some are so complicated even adults find them hard to understand.

But a series of dharma books produced by Chakrit Achava-amrung, a flight attendant for Thai Air, and his friends are different. They are simpler and easier to read. Most importantly, they are specially designed as cartoon colouring books for children.

The books are 20-24 pages long, with each page featuring a cartoon with a simple explanation to make it easy for young readers to understand.

"Most dharma books rarely have pictures, and that makes our books different and more attractive to kids," said Chakrit.

The idea came to him while he was ordained at Wat Nyanavesakavan in Nakhon Pathom three years ago. During a conversation with the abbot Phra Bhrama Khunabarana (Venerable Bhikkhu Prayudh Payutto), one of his fellow monks asked the abbot why he never created dharma media for kids.

The abbot answered he was not keen on that, and did not have enough time to carry it out. The monk kept questioning why others didn't do it, and the answer was that making children's books had limitations concerning time and profits.

"Listening to the abbot, I thought it would be good if one day I had a chance to do that, for the children and for the religion," Chakrit said.

He kept that dream in his mind until one day, a kindergarten school near the temple planned activities for its students at the temple to mark Maka Bucha Day. Chakrit, still a monk, volunteered to be in charge.

A monk uses the cartoon books to teach dharma to children.

First he thought of lecturing about Maka Bucha Day, but was worried it might bore the children. Finally he came up with the idea of teaching them through cartoon colouring. He called his friend Punyamon Amornnimit, who had skills in drawing, for help.

The project was a success. The children enjoyed colouring while he explained the importance and meaning of the scenes they had coloured.

After that first activity, Chakrit thought of educating children about other important religious days, including Asarnha Bucha, Visaka Bucha and the Buddhist Lent days. All the lessons were then compiled into a book, with the help of a few more friends with experience in publishing.

The first book was entitled The Important Buddhist Days. Hundreds of copies were produced in the first printing and given to temple visitors for free.

The series continues

Chakrit continued his dhamma cartoon project even after he left the monkhood. The second book was called My Temple (Wat Khong Noo). It explains what a temple is for, the role of monks, and the duty of laymen towards monks and temples.

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"I was thinking how to make a temple visit no longer boring to children, to make them feel that a temple belongs to them and everyone," said Chakrit.

After the second book, demand had increased so sharply that the temple fund and his own savings were not enough to bear the expenses, so he decided to take purchase orders and charge 10 baht for the printing and mailing of each book.

With such a positive response, Chakrit and friends produced a third book, Inviting parents to pay homage to Buddha images (Chuan-khun-por-khun-mae-pai-wai-phra), which teaches the importance of images that depict the Lord Buddha, and describes the different postures of the Buddha images.

The fourth is called I'm a good person (Noo-pen-khon-dee). It suggests ways for kids to do good deeds.

"I often hear people say they are so busy that they don't have time for making merit. This book suggests several ways to do good deeds without having to go to the temple. Being polite and generous to others are one of those means," he said.

The last issue of the series, Salutation to the Triple Gem (Bucha-Phra-Ratana-Trai), explains why Buddhists have to pay respect to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

"This book suggests that after paying respect to the Triple Gem, we should remain commited to making good deeds. Don't expect a miracle from the Three Treasures if you are lazy and live your life carelessly," said Chakrit.

Chakrit later found out from an Education Ministry survey that more than 60% of Thai schools either don't have a library or have one that's below standard due to budget constraints. Besides, most books donated for those schools usually do not suit the ages of children.

That's when he began to think of making non-dharma books for children and the result is a pocket-sized cartoon book.

The first book in this new series, Building self-confidence is easy (Mun-jai-dai-ngai-nid-diew), teaches children to be self-confident to get over any obstacles and achieve success.

It gives examples of outstanding Thai people who have been successful after overcoming hardship.

"I think the success of our books lies with the nice cartoon illustrations that capture the children's attention and makes them more familiar with the temples, the monks and the Buddha's teachings," said Chakrit.

Enjoying the fruits of labour

For Chakrit and his friends, the warm response from people who ordered the books are a source of pride. Most of their clients are parents, teachers, schools and temples that will use the books to teach children.

Chakrit recalled his conversation with a mother who called him from Ratchaburi province, applauding the books for getting her child to start reading dharma.

"The woman told me she is a local publisher of dharma books in her province. She always tried to convince her son to read them, but her efforts always failed. One day she got a book from our series and left it at home. When she came back she found her son reading it, and he asked why she never published books of this kind. So she placed a large order with us," he said.

"A grandma from Bangkok also called me with excitement. She said she had just ordered our books, and they became the favourites of her four- and six-year-old grandchildren. They often asked her to read it aloud for them," he said. "Every time people call to applaud our work, I and my friends feel happy and inspired to keep up our project. I really feel good that we can help produce inexpensive and good media for children."

Chakrit plans to produce at least one book each year. Some have suggested that he translate his books into English and other languages for Thai children who live abroad and cannot read Thai. He is also thinking of making audio books so the work will be more accessible to disabled children.

With the new year coming, Chakrit has plans to make a calendar by using content from his books.

"By putting the contents in a calendar, they'll get more chances to be seen and read," he said.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/life/education/27728/cartoon-dharma-for-kids