Monk chops off his head for good luck
A BUDDHIST monk cut off his head with a guillotine on his birthday – believing the sacrifice would bring him good luck in the afterlife.
Thammakorn Wangpreecha, 68, built the makeshift device next to a religious statue at his temple portraying the god Indra doing the same thing.
A monk for 11 years, he had told fellow priests he was planning to leave – but did not reveal how.
His bother, Booncherd Boonrod, who found the body, said Thammakorn (pictured) had also left behind a note.
‘It stated that chopping his head off was his way of praising Buddha,’ he said. ‘And he had been planning this for five years now.
‘His wish was to offer his head and soul so the Lord could reincarnate him as a higher spiritual being in the next life.’
After a post-mortem examination, 300 devotees arrived at the Wat Phu Hin temple in Nong Bua Lamphu, north-east Thailand, to
prepare his body for his funeral, laying him in a coffin with his head in a separate casket. Mourners then carried his remains to a forest to be burned. Yu, one of his followers, said: ‘He fulfilled his goal and met enlightenment.’
But the National Office of Buddhism has asked the local government to help spread the message that the practice was not encouraged. Instead, people can give money or free captive birds as a sacrifice.