Police and health officials in Phichit province will visit a monastery in Ban Noi sub-district of Pho Thale district today, to investigate the presence of 41 corpses, reported to be used in meditation course.
The officials will determine whether the monastery has the proper and required documentation to allow them to keep the corpses in the compound, including death certificates and approvals from the relatives of the deceased.
They will also determine, through forensic investigation, whether the 41 people died from natural causes.
One of the followers, ‘Prapawarin’, told the media that she came to the monastery to meditate, claiming that it made her feel more clam and less obsessive. She disclosed that the meditation course includes an hour of walking slowly in a circle and an hour of seated meditation, adding that there are three courses a day.
Furthermore, she said that she would meditate for two hours at night in front of some corpses in coffins. She admitted that she was afraid at the beginning but, after a while, she got used to it.
Meanwhile, in Khanu Woralaksaburi district of Kamphaeng Phet province, forensic officers have managed to identify all 12 corpses found in an unlicensed monastery. No charges have been filed against the abbot so far.
An official of the National Office of Buddhism in Kamphaeng Phet said that the monastery no longer offers the strange meditation course, which claims that the participants will gain magical sight and hearing.
