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Dan


September 27, 2008
For a Fee, a Thai Temple Offers a Head Start on Rebirth
By SETH MYDANS
NAKHON NAYOK, Thailand - It is the ultimate in second chances: a Buddhist
temple here offers, for a small fee, an opportunity to die, rise up again
newborn and make a fresh start in life.

Nine big pink coffins dominate the grand hall of the temple, and every day
hundreds of people take their turns climbing in for a few moments as monks
chant a dirge. Then, at a command, the visitors clamber out again cleansed -
they believe - of the past.

It is a renewal for our times, as recent economic hardship brings
uncertainty and people try seeking a bailout on life. In growing numbers,
they come here from around Thailand to join what has become an assembly line
of resurrection.

"When the economy is down, we latch our hopes onto some supernatural power,"
said Ekachai Uekrongtham, the writer-director whose movie "The Coffin" is in
Thai cinemas now with a plot revolving around such funerals for the living.

"When I went in I felt warm, and when I came out I felt released," said Nual
Chaichamni, 52, a masseuse who visited recently and who said she liked the
feeling so much that she had done it six times.

"As I lay there and listened to the chanting of the monks, I felt relaxed,"
she said. "When I got up, I was thinking of good things, thinking of the
Buddha image in the hall. I felt good."

Buddhism in Thailand can take unexpected forms, embracing animist
superstition, magical practices - and the entrepreneurial spirit of many
senior monks. Many Thais say that the true spirit of Buddhism is being lost.

Many temples have become centers of enterprise that parallel Thailand's
economic growth over the past few decades, selling good-luck amulets,
holding boisterous fairs and telling fortunes.

This temple, Wat Prommanee, 66 miles northeast of Bangkok, has offered its
unusual daily resurrection service for more than three years, and its
clientele keeps growing, said an attendant, Pradap Butcharerm, 69.

On weekends as many as 700 people a day pay 180 baht each, a little more
than $5, for the ceremony and much more for amulets that are auctioned off
by temple acolytes.

"We have only 50 of these, a limited edition, the price is up to you!" they
cry. "Twenty baht, 50 baht, did I hear 300 baht? Someone has run into luck."
As the number of visitors has grown, their dip into the supernatural has
become more perfunctory; now a monk with a bullhorn herds worshipers through
the row of coffins, nine at a time.

Like Charlie Chaplin on an out-of-control assembly line, they follow the
monks' commands: into the coffin, down on their backs, eyes closed, shroud
on, shroud off, up on their feet, quick prayer and scramble out into a new
life.

The whole process takes a minute and a half. The next group of nine is
waiting.

A cardboard sign warns visitors not to stand behind the coffins, where bad
karma sucked from the "dying" devotees may still be hovering.

The rebirth ceremony is unusual, but not surprising, said Suwannan
Sathta-Anand, an associate professor of philosophy at Chulalongkorn
University in Bangkok.

"These days, a lot of people in Thai society are creating new kinds of
rituals and practices to suit whatever purposes they have," she said.

With the hierarchy of organized Buddhism slow to adapt to changing times,
she said, "people are looking for their own expression of Buddhism that
could be relevant to their lives."

Along with the religion of their past, a tide of modern capitalism has
seized the imagination of Thais as their country has rapidly developed in
the past three decades.

Two years ago, Thailand was gripped by a frenzy for a magical amulet called
Jatukam that sold in several versions with unambiguous names like "Super
Rich," "Immediately Rich," "Rich Without Reason" and "Miracle Rich."

The people who come to be reborn here at Wat Prommanee are seeking help for
many of the ailments and aspirations of life.

Jirapat Winarungruang, 37, a lawyer, came one recent day to complete a
transformation that he began four years ago when he changed his name from
the less auspicious Suthep Wina. His new name includes the suffix rungruang,
which means prosperity.

Fifty percent of a person's destiny is determined by his name, Mr. Jirapat
said, and the other 50 percent by his date of birth. When he arose from the
coffin, born again, he said, the last vestiges of the old Suthep Wina would
be gone.

Woraphot Sriboonyang, 30, an engineer, said he had come with Mr. Jirapat and
four other family members to rid himself of bad karma. Within just a few
weeks, he said, he had suffered a break-in and a bad car accident. He wanted
his run of bad luck to stop at two.

Sangkhom Thani, 37, who sells subsidized food for the government, said he
hoped for luck in business and relief for his aching back and knees. "If I
lie down in the coffin, it will give me a new lease on life," he said as he
examined an expensive new amulet.

Chalida Muansawang, 33, a hairdresser, brought her 12-year-old daughter,
Saksithorn, in the hope that a few moments in a coffin would help cure her
hyperactivity.

"I'm excited and a little bit scared," said the girl, who proceeded bravely
through the process with her mother lying next to her in an adjacent coffin.

As the morning's ceremony ended, a long line had already formed for the
afternoon shift. Among the newcomers was the entire 36-man Royal Thai Army
soccer team, in bright red jerseys, preparing for a match the next day.

"We'll lie in the coffins and then we'll go to practice," said one of the
players, Nippon Khamthong, 22. Asked what he hoped his rebirth would bring
him, he said, "We just want to win tomorrow."