Thailand: rescued children became Buddhist monks for a few days

They spent more than two weeks in the darkness of a cave, a week in the hospital and now they will stay nine days in a monastery: 11 of the 12 boys in the lodge. Surviving football team from a cave and their coach participated today Pre-admission Ceremony for a spiritual retreat in a Buddhist temple.

The time spent at the monastery will serve to "purify" them from their negative experiences, in this case fear and suffering during the 17 days they spent underground. 19659002] Early on Tuesday, the group joined the monks of Wat Pha That Doi Wao temple in Chiang Rai Province, to the north, in a series of rituals and spiritual offerings, which continued with the rites of purification, where shaves the hair of the future monks

"This temple is where they will reside after their ordination and I hope that they will find peace, strength and wisdom in the practice of Buddha's teachings " says the monk sup Phra Khru Prayutjetiyanukarn

The governor of Chiang Rai, Prachon Pratsakul stated that" Eleven of the twelve children will be novices and their trainer will become a monk ", he explained with reference to the coach. Ekkapol Chantawong, who was a novice for 10 years.

According to the boys, training as an Ekkapol monk was the key for them to survive during the nine days they spent alone in the cave, until that day. rescuers They will find

Read more: After the rescue, the Thai boys return home

Ekkapol showed them how to drink the water that flowed stalactites, not the dirty one of the current, rationed them some provisions they had He helped them to meditate and ordered them to rest as much as possible to save energy.

At the beginning of the ceremony, the children surrounded three times a shrine in one of the many temples of Chiang Ra, all dressed in white, to thank for their rescue. Then, at a complicated ceremony, monks, their parents and government officials cut their hair with scissors. Finally, the monks shaved their heads

The estimated 70 million Thais are mbadively Buddhist and it is common for teenagers or adults to enter the monastery for a while. The families of the survivors promised that the children would enter monasticism after being saved to thank their return and in honor of the deceased volunteer diver, the Thai Saman Kunan.

The proceedings will end Wednesday at another religious site in the region, where they will remain in order until August 3, the provincial government said in a statement. One of the twelve boys, Adul Sam-on, belongs to a Christian ethnic minority from neighboring Burma, so that he did not participate in the rites.