The Thailand expat forum for Travel, Lifestyle and Fun.

Mid

Israeli boy lives in Thailand monastery
Itamar Eichner
Noam Barkan contributed to this report
02.20.13

Tourists visiting Bangkok encounter Hebrew-speaking 12-year-old in Buddhist robe. Boy, a former cancer patient, sent to monastery by parents at the advice of monks

Israeli tourists visiting a shrine in Bangkok were shocked when a child, dressed in an orange Buddhist monk's robe, approached them and began speaking in perfect Hebrew.

The 12-year-old Israeli boy has been staying in a monastery in northern Thailand, and has no idea until when he will remain there. When asked whether he wanted to be taken back home, he answered: "I told everyone already, it's fine, I'm used to it."

The story was revealed on Tuesday by Israel's Channel 2 TV, which aired the tourists' conversation with the child.

According to an inquiry by the Foreign Ministry, the child is the son of divorced parents who live in a southern Israel community and lead a Buddhist way of life.

The child was diagnosed with blood cancer when he was three and has undergone a series of treatments, the last of which was a bone-marrow transplant more than two years ago.

According to the parents and the social worker who handled the case, the medical treatment failed, and the parents, at the advice of monks, decided to send him to a Buddhist monastery in Thailand.

(Archive photo: AP)

The mother explained that thanks to the care he received in the monastery, his blood tests had improved. "There's an enlightened man in the monastery, and he is keeping the boy alive," she told Channel 2 News.

"It's life energy. Do only doctors heal? Doctors don't know how to heal. Doctors can only dismantle the harmful elements. That's a different concept."

When she was informed of her child's wishes to return home, she answered: "When he's 18 he'll decide what he wants to do."

She stressed, "Those who didn't live in the Oncology Ward for four years, who didn't see the children who don't come out, the children twisted from treatment, all the suffering, have no right to judge me when my child is healthy and I'm not willing to take the risk that he'll live in wonderful Israel and come back to the ward."

The mother visits the boy in Thailand alternately with his father. "My boy has been healthy for a year, my boy is learning, my boy is growing, my boy will be a wonderful man and he'll be alive," she said.

The hospital that treated the child said in response that he had undergone a life-saving treatment, including a successful bone-marrow transplant, but follow-ups on his condition were discontinued after a year.

The hospital claimed that without the treatment the child would not have recovered from the disease, and the doctors' opinion is that the follow-ups must continue.


The hospital stressed that treatment in Thailand could not be considered an ample substitute to medical care.

The issue is currently being handled by the Foreign and Welfare ministries, which will decide whether the State should intervene.

ynetnews.com

__________________
"Keeping quiet while monks and other peaceful protesters are murdered and jailed is not evidence of constructive engagement." - Arvind Ganesan, Human Rights Watch.

"I think...I think it's in my basement. Let me go upstairs and check" - M.C. Escher

sabang

Hear, hear. I sure wouldn't want to spend my last days in an Oncology ward.

Submaniac

Makes sense to me. Who could blame him for not wanting to die in a hospital? If he is a true believer in Buddhism, then this is the way he should want to go out.

StrontiumDog

Rights Activists: Bring Bangkok Monastery Boy Home - Jewish World - News - Israel National News

Rights Activists: Bring Bangkok Monastery Boy Home

Child welfare activists: Israeli child sent alone to Thailand monastery must be returned home.

By Maayana Miskin First Publish: 2/20/2013, 3:01 PM


Bangkok, Thailand
Flash 90

The 12-year-old Israeli boy sent to live in a Buddhist monastery in Thailand must be returned home, Dr. Yitzchak Kadmon of the Israeli National Council for the Child said Wednesday.

The child was discovered living in Thailand by Israeli tourists in the country. He was sent there by his parents, who believe that the Buddhist monks living there give him “life energy” that helps keep his cancer at bay.

“A 12-year-old child cannot be sent to a country so far away, cut off from his family and friends,” Kadmon told Army Radio (Galei Tzahal).

“I’m not getting into the medical debate, but if his parents want him to undergo meditation, that can be done here,” he continued. “Or his family could go live with him there.”

The Ministry for Social Services must get a court order to bring the boy back to Israel, Kadmon said. “The State of Israel has responsibility for its children even if they live in a far-off land.”

“A child is not his parent’s property in the sense that the parent can do what they want with the child,” Kadmon added. “The child is a person, too, and his opinion, his health and welfare need to be taken into consideration.”

When asked if he wanted to be taken home, the boy living in Thailand said, “I told everyone already – it’s fine. I’m used to it.” However, he indicated he would prefer to return home.

When asked for a response to her son’s comments, his mother said, “When he’s 18 he’ll decide what he wants to do.”

__________________
"Slavery is the daughter of darkness; an ignorant people is the blind instrument of its own destruction; ambition and intrigue take advantage of the credulity and inexperience of men who have no political, economic or civil knowledge. They mistake pure illusion for reality, license for freedom, treason for patriotism, vengeance for justice."-Simón Bolívar

ENT

I think that this is a case of,"If it ain't broken, why fix it?"

The boy had a successful bone-marrow transplant with follow-up treatment for a year.

That was over a year ago, and he then went to live in a wat in Thailand where he's being well cared for according to Buddhist practice, and in that time his blood test results have improved.

If his condition deteriorates, then he'll need more expert care than the wat can provide.

The Israeli government is miffed by the fact that a non-kosher religious practice is proving successful in caring for the boy, while an Israeli, kosher state run oncology ward's treatment, has been rejected by the boy's Buddhist parents, as has an Israeli based state approved (kosher permitted) Buddhist facility.

So Israel's Orhodox Zionists lose face over the issue. It's a religious conflict, not a medical one.

sunsetter

wonder how his visa situation is looking? havent seen anything similar to this before. good luck to the lad.