More importantly, the Sangha remained as an alternative route to social advancement outside the Lao People's Revolutionary Party or LPRP, the political wing of the Pathet Lao. The Pathet Lao sought to make the Sangha an instrument of party policy. It was also important to control the Sangha as it was one of the few organisations that had penetrated every village in Laos. The sectarian divisions between Maha-nikay and Thammanyut-nikay was abolished and the Sangha was restructured as the Lao United Buddhists Association. This association was placed under the auspices of the Department of Religious Affairs in the Ministry of Education. The traditional Sangha hierarchy, including the Sangharaja was abolished and their elaborate fans which were the symbols of their ranks, were smashed. Executive positions in the Lao United Buddhists Association were filled by Party appointees. All high ranking monks had to attend month long political indoctrination classes. Theravada monks have to attend a fortnightly recitation of the patimokha or the 227 verses of monastic discipline in Pali. This became transformed as a forum to criticise monks who had strayed from the Party line. Monks began to leave the Sangha or flee to Thailand.