BUDDHIST Thai soldiers and police are flocking to a temple in the kingdom's restive south seeking special tattoos to protect them from the violence that has rocked the region this year, media reported. The head monk of Pattani's Sathit Chonlantan temple has been so overwhelmed by requests for the religious tattoos that he has had to abandon the traditional hand-tapping method and buy a tattoo machine, according to the Bangkok Post. "Every day since January there are people asking for tattoos," Abbot Phra Chaiya Opaso was quoted as saying, adding he estimated the number of uniformed clients who had received the free service to be in the thousands. The tattoos, which often include Buddha images, are believed to have supernatural powers protecting the wearer from physical harm, and do not start to function until the head monk has given the recipient a firm kick with his right leg, the daily reported. Those who did not want to go under the needle could also reportedly use a special bullet shell filled with 108 herbs and blessed by the monk.
A Muslim insurgency raged in the south until the 1980s, but attacks had dropped off until January when a raid on an army weapons depot killed four soldiers and heralded a new wave of violence. A policeman gunned down in Pattani province Saturday became latest victim of the rising unrest, which has claimed nearly 300 lives this year. |