BANGKOK – Forensic officials on November 20 exhumed 12 bodies from the grounds of a controversial monastic center in the Chanu Woralak Buri district of Thailand’s Kamphaeng Phet province.

Officials from the Bureau of Forensic Science excavated 17 sites, which appeared to be burial sites, and found bodies at 12.

Four of the bodies exhumed were decomposed, while the rest were just bones.

One of the exhumed bodies was donated to the temple for “dharma practice” just 55 days ago, relatives told police.

The exhumation was carried out after police, public health officials and officials from the Kamphaeng Phet Buddhism Office as well as the district chief gathered to inspect the unnamed monastic center on November 19.

The raid was carried out after a Facebook page well-known to Kamphaeng Phet communities alerted that the temple was using corpses in strange teachings to children. The page showed a video clip where children could correctly guess numbers in front of a group of temple devotees.

When the head of the Wat Chai-apirak district led officials to check the temple, the abbot claimed the clip was an old one, taken about five months ago.

The latter claimed that the clip was taken by a group of dharma students who came to use the temple for their practice. The abbot said the temple did not teach the children how to have magical eyes and ears, as the Facebook page claimed.

But he said the temple used the bodies to get dharma learners to review them to understand the truth of life.

The search for the bodies continued until 18:00 on 20 November.

The bodies were transferred to Wat Kuha Sawan in Tambon Bo Tham in Chanu Woralak Buri district for relatives to claim.

Police said they would compare the DNA of the bodies and relatives before returning the bodies for religious rituals.

The police added that they will seek evidence from temple officials to establish whether the bodies were transferred legally. If not, they would be charged with theft and concealment of the bodies. NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK