Rescued boys prepare to ordain as Buddhist novices
11 soccer team members, coach to dedicate act to diver who died in rescue
The young soccer teammates and their coach who were rescued after being trapped in a cave in northern Thailand had their heads shaved in a ceremony Tuesday as they prepared to be ordained as Buddhist novices and monks.
Eleven of the 12 boys and their coach prayed to ancient relics and offered drinks and desserts in gilded bowls to spirits at a Buddhist temple. The 12th team member who was trapped in the cave didn’t take part because he isn’t Buddhist.
The boys, whose ages range from 11 to 16, will be ordained to become Buddhist novices in a ceremony on Wednesday, while the 25-year-old coach will be ordained as a monk, said Parchon Pratsakul, the governor of Chiang Rai province.
Wednesday’s ordainment ceremony will take place at another temple on a Chiang Rai mountaintop before the group returns to reside for more than a week at the Wat Pha That Doi Wao temple near Thailand’s border with Myanmar.
Buddhist males in Thailand are traditionally expected to enter the monkhood, usually as novices, at some point in their lives to show gratitude, often toward their parents for raising them. It’s believed that once a person is ordained they gain merit that is also extended to their parents.
“Ordinations are supposed to give us peace of mind,” said San- giemjit Wongsukchan, the mother of Ekarat Wongsukchan, 14, one of the boys who was trapped in the cave. “We can only do this for nine days because then he will have to go back to study and prepare for exams. Back to his normal life.”
Praphun Khomjoi, chief of Chiang Rai’s Buddhism office, said the 12 to be ordained will dedicate their merit-generating act to volunteer diver, Samarn Gunan, who died while diving during a mission to supply the cave with oxygen tanks essential to helping the boys escape.
The 12 boys and their coach were released from a hospital last Wednesday, more than a week after they were rescued from the flooded cave. They became trapped on June 23. They were brought out of the cave in a daring rescue mission that ended on July 10.