“Cool-off’ leads monks to blows

PHUKET: Two monks in the Northern province of Kamphaeng Phet were defrocked last month after getting drunk and beating each other black and blue.lao khao (rice wine) was lying nearby.

Officers separated the two holy men and took them to be defrocked at Wat Bo Sam Saen in Nongpaling Subdistrict. Both were very drunk and had swollen faces from the beatings they had given each other.

As the two monks were waiting to be defrocked, they started shouting at each other again after Phra Seksan pressed a cigarette on Phra Prasit’s face.

Rescue volunteers were forced to separate the two clergymen.

It then emerged that the abbot of the temple was not around, so police took the monks to another temple, Wat Sawang Arom, to be defrocked by a senior monk there.

But the drunken monks continued to squabble, with Phra Seksan lunging forward and punching Phra Prasit in the face and causing more fighting.

Phra Prasit told officers he had been sitting drinking lao khao with Phra Seksan from 6pm that day.

Once they were drunk, an argument broke out on the subject of how good monks from different places were, he said.

Phra Seksan claimed that those from Kamphaeng Phet were best. Phra Prasit could not accept this. He replied that it was monks from Pichit, such as himself, who were superior.

At this point the monks came to blows.

Phra Seksan accepted that the two had been drinking, but claimed he had only drunk one glass of spirits.

He claimed Phra Prasit had gotten drunk and attacked a 70-year-old monk, and that he had intervened to stop him.

He said Phra Prasit then attacked a temple student, forcing him to again hold him back.

At this, Phra Prasit had thrown lao khao over his face, which was the last straw and the fist-fight broke out.

After the two monks had been defrocked, the now-former monk Mr Seksan ran up and again attacked Mr Prasit, trying to pour the contents of a trash can over his head.

Volunteers again had to separate the pair. The commotion finally ended when Mr Seksan’s relatives arrived and took him home.

Mr Prasit was taken to the police station, where was kept until he sobered up.

— Thai Rath