Thailand
Rescue workers took 10 hours to bring young Buddhist clergyman to safety from remote mountain cave
Wat Tham Sua, a Buddhist temple in Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province. (Photo supplied)
A Buddhist monk who fell 50 meters into a mountain cave in central Thailand where he planned to meditate was saved after a 10-hour rescue mission.
The 29-year-old monk traveled from his monastery in Bangkok to a mountain cave in Kanchanaburi province on March 5 with the aim of meditating in isolation but during his descent a rope ladder broke, causing him to plunge to the cave’s stone floor.
The Buddhist clergyman suffered severe injuries to his hips and both legs but survived the fall.
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Rescuers took 10 hours to reach him and bring him safely out of the cave before he was rushed to hospital for treatment.
The cave in the Khao Kluk Klee mountain has long been popular with monks and nuns who seek to retreat into it so as to meditate in quiet and achieve inner peace.
According to a Buddhist belief, meditating alone at a natural location such as a cave can help practitioners attain a higher state of spirituality on their way toward enlightenment.
The monk died of severe injuries, which villagers believed had been inflicted on him by a wild elephant that came across him while he was meditating
However, meditating at remote locations in Thailand is not without its dangers.
In January 2020, a 33-year-old monk in the southern province of Nakhon Sri Thammarat was found dead at the base of a long slope inside a cave, which is considered to be sacred ground by local Buddhists.
His body was discovered by his fellow monks who were also inside the cave at the time and heard a loud bang. They decided to see what had caused the sound, only to see him lying there face down after apparently falling off a rock platform and plunging 18 meters to his death.
In November the same year, a 21-year-old Buddhist monk was found dead by villagers on a mountain in the northeastern province of Kamphaeng Phet where he had just retreated at dawn to immerse himself in meditation.
The monk died of severe injuries, which villagers believed had been inflicted on him by a wild elephant that came across him while he was meditating.
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