The sacred unborn baby of Village 11

SUPHAN BURI: For 10 months now, residents of a village in Suphan Buri province have been wondering when Niphawan Bunjaroen, 35, is going to give birth.

Niphawan, who lives in Village 11 in Nong Makha Mong subdistrict, claims to have been pregnant with her fourth child for a rather long time: 19 months, to be precise.

Doctors say the maybe-mother-to-be, whose weight has shot up from 60 to 89 kilos since she got “pregnant”, has a build-up of fluid in her abdomen.

But neither Niphawan nor husband Thanonsak Saetang, 45, believe that. They insist Niphawan is with child, and not just any child. The baby, they claim, is sacred.

This strange tale came to the attention of a Daily News reporter who visited the couple at their home on January 20, finding Niphawan looking every bit like a woman in the final stages of pregnancy.

Niphawan, who makes a living selling chicken at the local fresh market, said she had three children with a previous husband before the marriage ended. Since then, she has lived with widower Thanongsak, whose previous wife died about three years ago.

In 2009, the couple decided they wanted a baby together, but try as they might, Niphawan could not get pregnant. So Niphawan’s sister recommended she go ask a famous mystic, Father Pu Saming Dam, to help her have a baby.

Niphawan did as her sister suggested, travelling to Kanchanaburi province to visit Father Pu Saming Dam. The medium told her she would have a baby: a holy baby that would make the family rich.

Sure enough, in June 2009, Niphawan started to get morning sickness and put on weight and became convinced she was pregnant.

In August 2009, she went to a clinic, but the doctor there told her she was not pregnant. In fact, the doctor said, she was suffering from an enlarged heart.

Niphawan returned home and since then has got bigger and bigger. Nineteen months later, she still gets morning sickness and cannot eat any meat.

Thanongsak said that before they visited Father Pu Saming Dam, the family was very poor. But since then they have sold so much chicken that they have become rich and now have a car and a house.

They believe, just as the mystic said, that the unborn child has brought them good fortune.

Thanongsak, therefore, said he wasn’t worried that his wife was still pregnant after 19 months. His child, he said, was holy and would be born when the time came.