Thread: Thai monk beheads himself with guillotine in attempt to reach nirvana

A monk, apparently ‘seeking nirvana’, has beheaded himself with a handmade guillotine in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu. Police are now investigating to determine if any of the monk’s followers should be charged for helping the abbot with his untidy path to enlightenment.


The monk, Dhammakorn Wangphrecha, reportedly spent 5 years planning his death and believed it would help him reach nirvana, his followers say. They say he decided to die last Thursday, on his 68th birthday. The guillotine was made with a metre-long blade and 2 buckets of cement held up by rope. It was placed near a statue of a beheaded deity. Followers say the monk cut the ropes himself.

While police say evidence say it’s a case of suicide, followers who moved Dhammakorn’s body could face charges for concealing a corpse. The guillotine had also been disassembled when police arrived, and followers could face other charges for tampering with evidence. If police discover that followers helped the monk build the guillotine, they could be charged with conspiracy to commit murder.


Police found the monk’s body in a wooden coffin at the Wat Phuhingong Monastery. They say around 300 people attended the monk’s funeral just hours after his death. Police did not say how many followers are now suspects in the investigation.


PM Prayut Chan-o-cha spoke after the death of the monk, warning Thais not to put too much faith in superstition, and psychiatrists visited the monastery to do mental health checks.


“I ask you to not put too much faith in something unscientific, as the Buddha taught that his words can be proved… Everybody must have some logic to believing or respecting something. I don’t think anybody wants to imitate.”


Thai monk beheads himself with guillotine in attempt to reach nirvana, followers could face charges | Thaiger

This is local to me. The wat is beside Thao To Waterfall Park, I posted a few pictures not long ago.
It isn't clear from the local gossip how many people were present at his suicide. Possibly quite a few. Astonishing that all these adherents didn't try to stop him. So far as I know, there is no teaching that suggests this is the way to Nirvana. This is Nongbua, if he had just waited a little longer he could have been bored to death naturally.

chickenhead is as chickenhead does.


the monk obviously, and like many others of the robe is/was seriously deranged and quite how he was allowed to minister to and influence his disciples unchallenged for 5 years speaks volumes about the psyche, intelligence and capacity of the upcountry thai bumpkin.

and 2 buckets of cement held up by rope

you couldnt make it up if you tried!

A monk, apparently ‘seeking nirvana’, has beheaded himself with a handmade guillotine in the northeastern province of Nong Bua Lamphu.

...a senseless and sad incident.

Originally Posted by taxexile

chickenhead is as chickenhead does.

...a septuagenarian based in Yorkshire, England.

Was he found with flaccid slug in hand sans noggin?

Maybe he got a bad google mistranslation of the David Carradine Bangkok hotel wardrobe Auto-asphyxiation nirvana attempt fail and got the guillotine mixed up with the noose

Or ...plot twist... He knew what he was doing, he wanted to end it all but he needed some help and convinced "followers" to help him by disguising his intentions.

Based

Originally Posted by Farang Ky Ay

Or ...plot twist... He knew what he was doing, he wanted to end it all but he needed some help and convinced "followers" to help him by disguising his intentions.

I think this is the most likely explanation.

It's certainly an unconventional path to enlightenment.

Unconventional, you say?

Morbid curiosity I suppose but I was wandering how the whole episode unfolded. I guess there was a rope that pulled the blade and weights up and it was then tethered to a stake of some sort.

The monk must have then laid himself down with neck positioned under the blade. But did he then cut the rope? If so, it would have been much easier if he was facing upwards but that wouldn't be too pleasant, watching the blade plummeting earthwards.

A more relaxed method would be to lie face down after putting a lit candle under the securing rope, let it burn through until failure and ...bob's your uncle...

i'm sure one of the watching ghouls will have taken a video of the ceremony, its probably somewhere on line or bumpkinbook.

Originally Posted by Shutree

It isn't clear from the local gossip how many people were present at his suicide. Possibly quite a few.

I'd imagine the whole town, with their phones out, if word had gotten round.


It's not everyday a bloke guillotines himself. Would be surprised if one of the monks didn't have a camera under his robes.

^ ^^ Good Lord! You don't expect me to watch such horror do you?

Originally Posted by misskit

If police discover that followers helped the monk build the guillotine, they could be charged with conspiracy to commit murder.

If that monk had really cared about his followers, he would have given them a heads up on the danger they were in by helping him.

Originally Posted by Troy

^ ^^ Good Lord! You don't expect me to watch such horror do you?

Aren't you German?

It was only 2 generations ago you were..... never mind.

Basil Fawlty started it.

"Buddhism discourages suicide for any reason, seeing it as an undesirable act resulting in negative karma"

he would have given them a heads up

thats exactly what he did.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Aren't you German?

It was only 2 generations ago you were..... never mind.

Basil Fawlty started it.

No I'm still English. Plenty of graves with my surname on from both wars.

The monk was probably reading Troys latest book, The benefits of EU membership and my love for Angela. The book now comes with a suicide warning, similar to the one on Cyrilles classroom door.

Originally Posted by Edmond

Would be surprised if one of the monks didn't have a camera under his robes.

The gf showed me a photo of the guillotine, before it was used. There must have been plenty of people who knew that it was there. Probably there are videos. I don't want to see them.

Savages, plain and simple, just savages.

An entire community colludes in a demented fantasy ending in a ritualised suicide by a deranged buffoon rooted in the absurd belief that the idiot's exit will transform him into a higher being.

Christ on a bike, these savages are no better than the Incas.

Not a single day passes without more evidence this country's society is still in the Stone Age.

^ don't let it get to you, work your frustrations out in the pool

Originally Posted by cyrille

Unconventional, you say?

The authorities were up there yesterday, removing the staue and some other bits. I guess they don't want it to become somewhere for bizarre pilgrimages.
The future of the wat is uncertain, it was not registered as a wat and the land around there is all owned by the military.

Originally Posted by russellsimpson

"Buddhism discourages suicide for any reason, seeing it as an undesirable act resulting in negative karma"

I read once that the Buddha himself forbade it

Originally Posted by Latindancer

I read once that the Buddha himself forbade it

But you somehow missed all the teachings about "compassion?

Selective reading or selective understanding?