Cambodian police detained the leader of an extremist Buddhist cult after a group suicide in which three people burned to death in bathtubs of gasoline and three suffered multiple stab wounds. Handcuffed and stripped of his saffron robes, Dem Mam, 54, was taken in for questioning Tuesday night after the weekend suicide bid in the eastern province of Prey Veng. Two nuns and a monk at the centuries-old Wat Thmar Sar, known for its strict meditation techniques, died Sunday evening after stepping into bathtubs of gasoline, which they then set alight. Three other members of the fringe Buddhist cult tried to stab themselves to death in the belief that ritual suicide was the only way to get to heaven.
Well, I guess being dead is the way to get to heaven. Self-immolation in a bathtub seems a rather painful way to get dead, though...
Dem Mam has denied any wrongdoing. "I did nothing wrong, I did not force them to do it. It was their fault," local police chief Chhim Sakhon quoted him as saying.
"Nope. Wudn't me. Nope, nope."
He said Dem Mam told officers he had not killed himself because he was already holy enough to enter heaven.
Perhaps someone should test that thesis in the near future. How 'bout tomorrow morning? |