Bulletproof Robes For Buddhist Monks In The South

[george]

Tough robes

SOUTH THAILAND: -- A vocational school has designed bulletproof robes for Buddhist monks in the three southern border provinces, a senior education official said yesterday.

Weerask Wongsombat, secretary-general of Office of the Vocational Education Commission, said his office would produce the robes and give them to monks in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat if they wanted them.

-- The Nation 2005-07-09

[Simpleton]

Wasn't "Bulletproof Monk" the title of a Hong Kong chop-socky?

[siamkia8]

dee mahk,chalat jing jing...complete with helmet?

[Gazza]

Why don't the monks simply wear one of those amulets that they're always blessing that protects the wearer from bullets, spirits, car accidents, pointy carrots, flobby knobbies etc.?

[Pattaya_Fox]

Wasn't "Bulletproof Monk" the title of a Hong Kong chop-socky?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah it was about a monk who escaped the Nazis and spent the next 60 years protecting the monastic scroll.

[thaibebop]

Wasn't "Bulletproof Monk" the title of a Hong Kong chop-socky?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah it was about a monk who escaped the Nazis and spent the next 60 years protecting the monastic scroll.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It wasn't Hong Kong, it was Hollywood, that's why it sucked.

[Oleg_Rus]

Why don't the monks simply wear one of those amulets that they're always blessing that protects the wearer from bullets, spirits, car accidents, pointy carrots, flobby knobbies etc.?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, right!

what about thouse amulets ? Won't rely on them when sh*t hit the fan ?

[george]

Update:

Safety plan takes flak from monk

The deputy abbot of Wat Chang Hai yesterday slammed a government proposal to issue Buddhist monks with bullet-proof vests, saying the money would be better spent on other programmes.

Phra Mahacharat Uchucharo said monks wearing flak jackets would not only send the wrong message about the state of the Buddhist community, but would also violate the principles of being a monk.

Senator Kamphol Phumani said one of the main reasons for entering the monkhood was to leave behind all worldly possessions and the comforts of ordinary life.

“A monk makes a concerted decision to walk away from the life we all know and prepare for whatever the future may bring, even if that means death,” the Prachin Buri senator said.

Senator Chumphol Silpa-archa blasted the government’s plan to arm teachers in the three southernmost provinces.

He said the measure was the wrong way to counter the ongoing spate of violence, which has claimed nearly 800 lives since January last year.

“This is like turning the clock back to a primitive time,” said the Bangkok senator and former education minister.

Despite growing objections to the idea of arming government employees in the restive south, the Interior Ministry has ordered 10,000 pistols to be issued to officials assigned to the three southernmost provinces.

A source at the ministry said the handguns would be issued to non-security officials in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces.

The 9mm, 6.35mm and .38 weapons will be sold to the civil servants at a discounted price, he said, but the ministry has not yet decided how much of a discount to give.

The authorities have blamed most of the killings on Islamic insurgents looking to carve out a separate homeland.

In a related development Deputy Prime Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng arrived in Pattani yesterday to distribute Bt12 million in education funds to 970 individuals who have lost family members in the violence.

Meanwhile attacks continue in the deep South.

Yesterday suspected insurgents shot at an official police residence in Narathiwat’s Bajo district, seriously injuring an officer and his wife.

Immediately after the attack a Marine outpost in a nearby village came under siege, reportedly by the same group.

The gunfight lasted for about five minutes. The insurgents escaped by back roads, officials said.

--The Nation 2005-07-10