Wat Pho Committee shuts down herbal sauna in Baan Tai village on the Island of Koh Phangan
A happy and warm welcome to Koh Phangan Island News – the one and only online news magazine which offers fresh, up-to-date and uncorrupted news from the island of madness, deeply hidden in the Gulf of Thailand.
A couple of weeks ago Koh Phangan Island News headquarters received the shocking news that our beloved abbot, Prasert, from the temple Wat Pho in Ban Tai village was found dead in his room early morning.
Further investigations by Phangan Island News headquarters revealed that our beloved abbot, Prasert, began suicide and hung himself during the night in his room at Wat Pho temple in Baan Tai village.
A few days later first rumors appeared on the Koh Phangan mouth to mouth propaganda network that some individuals don’t believe in the official version of a suicide as our beloved abbot, Prasert, was known as a monk with no intentions of taking his own life.
Another incident happened a few years ago when unknown individuals successfully poisoned our beloved abbot Prasert from the Wat Pho temple with something known as Magic Tomato under the local Thai community.
Magic Tomato is a red fruit and widely found in the natural, organic jungle throughout Koh Phangan’s dense rain forests. As with many psychoactive substances, the effects of the magic tomato are subjective and unpredictable. The experience is typically inwardly oriented, with strong visual and auditory components. Visions and revelations may be experienced and the effect can range from exhilarating to distressing.
No matter what … our beloved abbot Prasert survived this poisoning attack a couple of years ago only to be found committing suicide in his room by hanging himself by the neck with a rope a couple of years later. That’s the official version.
Phangan Island News headquarters hereby wants to send our loveliest and best wishes to our beloved abbot Prasert, one of the greatest souls here on Koh Phangan. God bless your soul!
However … a couple of days after the tragic death of our beloved abbot Prasert the Wat Pho committee immediately had shut down the herbal sauna at the temple, which was open for public service since November 2002.
So far Wat Pho officials haven’t responded to the reason of shutting down this great public service, but word on the island is that it has something to do with missing donation money …
Here’s the official announcement:
Attention – due to the recent death of the abbot of Wat Pho, the sauna will close temporarily starting 26 July 2007. Upon appointment of a new abbot and Wat Pho committee the sauna will re-open. An announcement will be posted advising the new opening date when it is known.
Thank you for your attention & have a nice day!
This death is tragic and has saddened me personally. he was a very good man. His spirit was of genuine kindness and its my opinion that the elements controlling and promoting the full moon party have had an direct influence of the demise of this great man. Poisoning is a common technique and an overdose of such an halluncigen can cause someone to behave to extreme measures. i love this man, his spirit will always be with me. I hope and pray people realize that the full moon is a sacred day and to take drugs on this day is simply wrong. Mai Pen Rai. Love is stronger than evil.
Sorry about the news Becki.
I know you loved your sauna visits and must have had quite a connection with the man.
I know what PRePra means about the drugs on full moon. Seems ironic that on the one day that the moon lights up the landscape, and the insects come alive humans decide to turn on bright coloured lights and loud music. It is almost as if they want to escape nature rather than commune with it.
Surely black moon is better for parties?
Anyhow, most parties on the island are more about hype than substance. I don’t want to be in a foreign land and feel like i am on a bad reality TV show.
How can this be? The poisoning of a Monk! You see how badly those who are considered lower are treated. Bloated bodies with hands and feet tied floating in the shallows. Strange behavior for Buddhists don’t you think? Under paid, abused Burmese working everyday while their Boss stands i the shade with his golden Buddha hang on his golden chain.
It comes down to inability to communicate and greed. Traditionally this is how you sort it out on the island, you don’t discuss, reason come to a compromise. You hit them over the head with a rock when they are not looking, tie them up, put them in a boat and take them swimming. Only their hands are tied and the boat does not wait around for them to get back in.
Those who do not have the courage for the face to face killing, poison. It comes down to I want it and I want it now. I’m going to have it and it does not matter that it is not mine. You might have seen a small child do this when they could not have another biscuit. Jumping up and down, screaming until the parents give the little one another biscuit and so it continues. The problem becomes apparent when the child is a man.
His family, which is most of the Island are related and are running the show. Land owners, police officers, Governors, Fisherman and so on. He wants what you have and is going to take it. The family sticks together, unless another family member has something that they want and then they start killing each other. Why talk about it when it is easier to kill. Have you seen many Islanders be able to express themselves in a time of heated debate. It is not 2007 on the Island.
My perception of Thai Buddhism changed when I came to the Islands. You realise that a religion is only as strong as its people. There are still those few, mostly the monks who have my respect. I can not understand this behavior, it is not possible to think in this way. To think they would murder such a gentle man, a holy man is truly saddening. Their can be no reason for this and it makes me wonder how little value a life has in this place.
Perhaps more tourist should take care before they start abusing the locals. The land of smiles, they are smiling. Not necessarily for the same reason as you would like to think.
Yesterday, I had lunch at the restaurant of my Thai friends in Colorado- Panang curry and the long-simmered Thai tea. They are the most excellent exemplary people and those qualities are in the food, service and the entire business. I am restored by this.
Today, I read a letter about the death of a beloved man, this monk. I am too sad from this.
It is an old story repeated again and again, yet it is not exposed because these actions are not understood by the peaceful people. It is a secret kept by sport murderers.
As a child, my mother said ‘kindness makes a good compass, cargo and destination’. She encouraged me not to fight back, in school, and I quickly noticed how I became the favorite hobby for the ill-mannered bullies. I even got bloody noses in Sunday school!
I kept my peace, I did not retreat, and thereby began to see how these bullies operate, over years of common contacts.
“Cowboys just havin’ a little fun, that’s all’.
When it is a single ‘cowboy’, they are real nice. When there are two or more, watch for ambush. (Hanging is a ‘cowboy’ cover-up method, not a monk method). It disturbs peaceful people to always be watching their back.
I am also sad, but I do not argue, about the last line in the letter- “…they are smiling. Not necessarily for the same reason as you would think.” This is how we too can be seduced into darkness, but we must defend ourselves somehow, yes?
To the unknown friend who wrote this letter, do what you must to keep yourself and an excellent culture safe and happy. Please consider that Thailand may be one of the last on the planet to hold such clean and honorable practices. If we must fight, we must also guard the goodness so that it can return one day still clean.
Money has become too much a part of our health and comfort. Most definitely, never give ‘cowboys’ any alcohol! (or TV). It only invites and incites them and someone else will always gets hurt. (Give them Thai tea, yes!) That’s the way it is with these fighting societies, until they are gone from us. There can be enjoyment without harm, and without them.
There are some people who would like to enjoy a proper amount of the fragile, natural Thai hospitality. I, for one, am grateful and have more to learn from the older, kinder, stronger cultures. Memories and education, not footprints, trash and murder.
Peace and blessings to all,
RA in US