Since the 1950s, there has been an increased interest in the practice of Buddhist meditation throughout Thailand, especially among laypersons. Meditation is now practiced in monasteries throughout Thailand by Thai laypeople, and this is one of the biggest changes in Theravada Buddhist practice since the second world war. This influential meditation movement (which grew rapidly in the 60s and 70s) was sparked by the introduction of the Burmese Vipassana tradition of Mahasi Sayadaw, by figures such as Phra Phimolatham, who was the ecclesiastical minister of the interior and the abbot of Wat Mahathat (the center of the Mahanikai order).