Thai cave survivors being ordained as Buddhist novices

MAE SAI, Thailand: The young soccer teammates and their coach who were rescued after being trapped in a cave in northern Thailand took part in a Buddhist ceremony yesterday as they prepared to be ordained to become 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 in a ceremony at a Buddhist temple.

The 12th team member who was trapped in the cave won’t take part because he isn’t Buddhist.

The boys, aged from 11 to 16, were due to be ordained in a ceremony today, while the 25-year-old coach will be ordained as a monk, said Parchon Pratsakul, the governor of Chiang Rai province.

The ceremony was to take place at another temple on a Chiang Rai mountaintop before the group return to live for more than a week at the Wat Pha That Doi Wao temple near Thailand’s northern border with Myanmar. That temple is close to the group’s homes, making it easier for friends and relatives to visit them.

“This temple will be where they will reside after the ordination and I hope they will find peace, strength and wisdom from practising Buddha’s teaching,” said the temple’s acting abbot, Phra Khru Prayutjetiyanukarn.

Buddhist males in Thailand are traditionally expected to enter the monkhood, often 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 Sangiemjit Wongsukchan, the mother of Ekarat Wongsukchan, 14, one of the boys who was trapped in the cave. 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 where they became trapped on June 23. They were brought out of the cave in a daring rescue mission that ended on July 10.

Praphun Khomjoi, chief of Chiang Rai’s Buddhism office, said the 12 boys would dedicate their act of entering the monkhood to volunteer diver and former Thai navy SEAL, Samarn Gunan, who died during the rescue mission. – AP/ANA

PICTURE: AP MONKHOOD: Soccer coach Ekkapol Chantawong, left, and teammates who were rescued from a flooded cave have their heads shaved in a traditional Buddhist ceremony in Mae Sai district, northern Thailand.