The members of the Thai youth football team who were trapped in a flooded cave are staying in a monastery for nine days while they are ordained as Buddhistnovices and monks.
The coach and the entire team, excluding one of the boys who is a Christian, are having their heads shaved as they spend time getting “spiritually cleansed” in a monastery.
The 12 boys and their coach were released from hospital last Wednesday, more than a week after they were rescued from the flooded cave.
They became trapped on 23 June and were finally found by two British divers on 2 July.
They were brought out of the cave in a daring rescue mission that ended on 10 July.
Eleven of the boys and the coach prayed in front of ancient relics and offered drinks and desserts placed in gilded bowls to spirits in a ceremony at a temple in northern Thailand.
Parchon Pratsakul, the governor of Chiang Rai province, said the boys will be ordained to become Buddhist novices, while the 25-year-old coach will be ordained as a monk.
The ceremony will take place at another temple on a Chiang Rai mountaintop before the group returns to reside for more than a week at the Wat Phra That Doi Wao temple, near Thailand’s northern border with Myanmar.
That temple is close to the group’s homes, making it easier for friends and relatives to visit.
“This temple will be where they will reside after the ordination and I hope they will find peace, strength and wisdom from practising Buddha’s teaching,” said the temple’s acting abbot, Phra Khru Prayutjetiyanukarn.
Buddhist males in predominantly Buddhist Thailand are traditionally expected to enter the monkhood, often as novices, at some point in their lives.
“Ordinations are supposed to give us peace of mind,” said Sangiemjit Wongsukchan, mother of Ekarat Wongsukchan, 14, one of the boys who was trapped in the cave.
“We can only do this for nine days because then he will have to go back to study and prepare for exams. Back to his normal life.”
Agencies contributed to this report
