13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Anything and everything about Thailand
Post Reply
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Gaybutton »

To view the photos, click the right and left arrows embedded on the story's first photo.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... l/30350758

See also: https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... ion-begins

The Bangkok Post article contains a video of the ceremony.
_______________________________________________________________

Photos : Mu Pa boys and coach shave heads ahead of ordination ceremony

July 25, 2018

Mae Sai - Thai boys rescued from deep inside a flooded cave in a dramatic mission had their heads shaved Tuesday before a Buddhist ordination ceremony in honour of a diver who died during the operation.

The saga of the "Wild Boars" football team transfixed the world as divers worked to get them out of the Tham Luang cave where they spent up to 18 days.

The 12 boys and their coach were sedated and carried through the waterlogged chambers by the divers. After recuperating in hospital for a week they were sent home with clean bills of health.

Now eleven of the footballers are preparing to live as novice monks and stay in monasteries for nine days to "make merit" for former Thai Navy SEAL diver Saman Kunan, who died while installing oxygen tanks along the rescue route.

"It's something we've been thinking to do since they got out of the cave," Aisha Wiboonrungrueang, mother of 11-year-old Chanin, told AFP. "Now it's about time."

Their coach will also enter the monkhood as an adult. One player, Adul Sam-on, attended the event but will not be ordained as he is a Christian.

Dressed in white robes, the teammates gathered at the Wat Pha That Doi Wao temple in northern Thailand's Mae Sai district.

They had their heads shaved and sat on the floor in the monastery where they prayed together.

Chanin's mother said the purpose of the ceremony was also to appease local spirits and sacred beings believed to protect the mountains and people in the north.

Thailand is a majority Buddhist country but the faith blends with regional rituals and traditions.

Authorities have told the media to give the teammates time to adjust to their lives. But interest remains high both in and outside Thailand, where production houses are looking to make a Hollywood-style film.

Closer to home they have also been an inspiration.

Chinnakorn Kuadchaiyaphum, an 11-year-old student, travelled to the monastery just to get a glimpse of the team.

"I came here to see (the Wild Boars) brothers... I admire them because they are really strong. They survived in the cave for many days," he told AFP.

After entering Tham Luang following football practice on June 23, the children and coach were quickly pushed deeper inside by monsoon flooding, and were only found nine days later on a ledge by British divers.

They had no food and survived on rainwater dripping from rocks.

The experts involved in the rescue mission which began days later were not sure it could succeed, and Saman Kunan died in the planning stages, highlighting the difficulty.

But all made it out safely. While experts have warned of lingering trauma, officials and families have reported a drumbeat of good news since they returned.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/ ... l/30350758
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Gaybutton »

Ashes of ex-Seal Saman scattered on Mekong River

by Pattanapong Sripiachai

July 29, 2018

Image
Bangkok Post Photo


NAKHON PHANOM: The ashes of ex-Seal Saman Gunan, who died in the operation to rescue the 12 Wild Boar Academy football players and their coach from Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province, were scattered in the Mekong River in a ceremony on Sunday morning.

The ceremony was held in the middle of the Mekong River in front of the Indochina Market in Nakhon Phanom Municipality, and was chaired by Nakhon Phanom governor Somchai Witdamrong.

Eleven young Moo Paa Academy footballers and the coach, who were all ordained into the monkhood last week in Chiang Rai's Mae Sai district, were present at the ceremony.

Mrs Waleeporn, wife of the late ex-Seal member Saman, and her relatives were also at the ceremony. The 11 Wild Boars, their coach, Mrs Waleeporn and her relatives were all taken in a Mekong Riverine Unit boat to the middle of the Mekong River, where Lt Cdr Saman's ashes were scattered according to local tradition.

Mrs Waleeporn said she chose the Mekong River as the site for scattering the ashes because her late husband loved the river and she herself is a native of Nakhon Phanom. Moreover, the town is where sheand Lt Cdr Saman first met 15 years ago, she said.

The ceremony was watched from the bank by a large number of people.

Lt Cdr Saman passed out and died while diving as part of the part of the rescue operation in the cave on June 6.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... kong-river
Josan

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Josan »

Gaybutton, THANK YOU for keeping on top of this new story and sharing with all of us!
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Gaybutton »

Josan wrote:Gaybutton, THANK YOU for keeping on top of this new story and sharing with all of us!
I very much appreciate that, but I should say I certainly have had lots of help and cooperation. Several other board members have also been keeping up with this and have been posting information. I'm sure we'll keep on posting whenever new information becomes available.
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Gaybutton »

Cave museum 'ready by New Year

August 3, 2018




CHIANG RAI: Construction of both a museum commemorating the rescue of the 12 Wild Boars and a statue of the ex-Navy Seal who lost his life during the mission has begun.

They are expected to be completed and ready for visitors within the next five months, or before the New Year's tourist season.

The design of the museum and the statue of Lt Cdr Saman Gunan is being overseen by national artist Chalermchai Kositpipat at a site near Tham Luang cave in Mae Sai district, where the 12 boys and their coach were trapped in the flooded cave from June 23 to July 10.

Local artists and senior officials from the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the Royal Forest Department gathered outside the cave in Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Nong Forest Park to launch the start of the project on Wednesday.

A religious ceremony was also conducted to honour certain deities and seek their blessing for the project.

The centre will memorialise the epic rescue of the 12 young footballers.

Mr Chalermchai, who is funding the 10-million-baht complex, said he was pleased the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment supported breaking ground on the project early.

The gallery will house a 3-metre by 13 metre canvas painted by artists at the Art Bridge Chiang Rai centre as well as photographs of the rescue operation, he said.

Image

Meanwhile, in Bangkok, some members of the media voiced support for anti-press steps taken by the government during the rescue operation.

Responsible news reporting sometimes has to be restrained above the importance of media freedom, said some participants at a seminar on "lessons learned" by the media from the rescue operation at the Tham Luang cave.

"More important than media freedom is the safety of humans," said Thapanee Ietsrichai, an assistant news editor with Channel 3 who has been covering various major disasters in Thailand and overseas over the past 18 years in her journalistic career.

Speakers atd the seminar at Thammasat University included some of the Thai journalists covering the incident.

Media freedom must be "balanced" with responsible reporting, especially when it came to a matter of life and death, she said, adding that every second in the operation counted as it could affect the lives of the children.

And there were more options to choose from in searching for news during the operation without affecting or disrupting such an important and difficult operation, she said.

She admitted to sneaking, in the beginning, into the rescue zone along with the rescuers and as well as asking some of them to carry her camera to film the operation for her.

But she later learned that that wouldn't do anyone any good and she should follow the rules and stick to the government-issued "information" about the operation provided by the official operation centre.

More than 1,400 members of the media from all over the world converged at the cave area to cover this operation around the clock, which in part helped broaden the local media's perspective on covering news in a crisis, she said.

"On the day those children were taken to a press conference for the first time, of course, everyone wanted to interview them all by his or herself. But we had to cooperate with the Department of Mental Health and abide by the child protection law," she said.

Benjapoj Thipkamosaeng, a crime reporter with Thai PBS, on the other hand viewed the sedating matter as something of a grey area, saying he thought it might be insensitive to reveal details about the need to sedate the boys to their concerned parents, through the media, even before the extraction operation began because that could unnecessarily add to their worries.

"The Tham Luang cave incident has pointed to the need for members of the media to change as the speed in breaking news isn't any longer most important," said Dumrongkiat Mala, a Bangkok Post reporter.

"Sensationalism by the media is being increasingly scrutinised by the audience."

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... y-new-year
fountainhall

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by fountainhall »

It is a fact that we depend on a free and fair media, if only to point out the escalating number of Trump’s daily lies! But when the issue becomes a matter of life and death - or rescuers as much as rescued - I do not believe the media should have an automatic right to information about what is actually happening.

In the case of the cave rescue, we now know the expert divers themselves did not believe they would achieve 100% success. What would those poor families have felt if an American or British diver had been interviewed on television and informed the world that the expected success rate was only 60% or 70% and he fully expected 4 or 5 boys to die during the rescue attempt? We now know that is what they believed. For the divers it was virtually mission impossible.

Prior to the three days of the rescue, the media printed a lot of information - some extremely useful, especially the layout inside the cave and the deteriorating oxygen levels. A lot, though, appears now to have been speculation from one source or another that was quite wrong. In such cases I believe human lives and personal agonies take precedence over what the media should be allowed to publish.
Captain Swing
Posts: 230
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:12 pm
Has thanked: 13 times
Been thanked: 43 times

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Captain Swing »

Thailand’s rescued cave boys end stay at Buddhist temple

With their heads bowed and wearing orange robes, the members of the boys' soccer team rescued from almost three weeks trapped in a cave in northern Thailand on Saturday completed their time as novice Buddhist monks.

About 300 people gathered for the ceremony on a rainy morning that saw the boys leave temple life to return to their families. Those present gave alms — flowers, food, money — as a gesture of their religious devotion.

The July 25 ordination of 11 boys of the Wild Boars soccer team along with the 25-year-old coach was especially dedicated to a former Thai navy SEAL, Saman Gunan, who died while diving during a volunteer mission to supply the cave with oxygen tanks essential to a successful rescue. A twelfth boy did not go through the religious ritual because he isn't Buddhist.

With heads bowed, they prayed, fidgeted and occasionally yawned as monks chanted sacred texts. They then placed new monks' robes on a table in front of a large photo of Saman.

They afterward changed into white shirts and blue pants. Coach Ekapol "Ake" Chanthawong remained in his Buddhist robe, as he has committed to an extended period in the monkhood.

Although they will be giving up their Buddhist robes, it is likely that the boys will retain some of the solitude of temple life, as the government has discouraged for the time being any interviews with them, wielding the threat of legal action under child protection laws.

While there has been some criticism that the government wants to control the narrative of the boys' ordeal to exploit for political purposes — Thailand's military rulers are seeking to booster their popularity ahead of a possible election next year — psychologists agree that the boys may be vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder. Both their physical and mental health has been judged fine.

According Dr. Paul Auerbach of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Stanford University's medical school, it's possible that they might suffer withdrawal or perhaps post-traumatic stress disorder, which is characterized by symptoms that include insomnia, nightmares, hypervigilance, low mood, difficulty concentrating on schoolwork, flashbacks and avoidance of situations similar to those that caused the original trauma.......


https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation ... 01040.html
User avatar
Gaybutton
Posts: 21459
Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:21 am
Location: Thailand
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 1306 times

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by Gaybutton »

Wild Boars leave temple

by Theerawat Khamthita

August 4, 2018

Image
Bangkok Post photo

CHIANG RAI: The members of the Wild Boars football team, whose rescue from the flooded Tham Luang cave gripped global audiences, have completed their time as novice Buddhist monks.

Eleven young footballers and their 25-year-old coach were ordained 10 days ago to give thanks and show gratitude to all those who helped throughout their three-week ordeal. One team member, 14-year-old Adul Sam-on, is a Christian and was not ordained.

A religious ceremony was held on Saturday to mark the end of the boys’ stay at Wat Phra That Doi Wao in tambon Wiang Pangkham. Phra Ekapol Wisarntho, formerly coach Ekapol "Ake" Chanthawong, is remaining at the temple as a monk for an extended period.

About 300 people gathered for the ceremony on a rainy Saturday morning as the boys prepared to return to their families. Those attending gave alms -- flowers, food and money -- as a gesture of their devotion.

With their heads bowed, the boys prayed as monks chanted sacred texts. They placed new monks' robes on a table beneath a portrait of Saman Gunan, the former Thai Navy Seal who died while diving during a mission to resupply the cave with air tanks.

They then changed into white shirts and blue trousers to signal their return to their regular lives.

Mae Sai monk chief Phra Putthiwongwiwat and Mae Sai district chief Somsak Khanakham co-chaired the ceremony.

Twelve boys, aged 11-16, and their coach went into the Tham Luang cave complex on June 23 after a football practice and were trapped by floods from monsoon rains.

A daring and risky international rescue effort involving hundreds of volunteers succeeded in extracting them from the cave.

Image
Bangkok Post photo

The ordination of boys and their coach was especially dedicated to Saman.

An exhibition was planned later on Saturday at the temple to thank all the people involved in the rescue operation. More than 4,000 photos about the rescue mission were on display at the exhibition. Various other activities and performances are also planned.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/genera ... ave-temple
fountainhall

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by fountainhall »

We have seen the world marvel at the rescue of these boys from the cave. I cannot praise too highly the boys and their coach, the way they have dealt with their ordeal and the way they have conducted themselves in the aftermath. I have absolutely no idea how they have kept their composure and their spirits seemingly sky-high throughout. The whole world should look on them as an example of how to face extreme adversity.
odd

Re: 13 Thais Missing during Caving Expedition

Post by odd »

fountainhall wrote:We have seen the world marvel at the rescue of these boys from the cave. I cannot praise too highly the boys and their coach, the way they have dealt with their ordeal and the way they have conducted themselves in the aftermath. I have absolutely no idea how they have kept their composure and their spirits seemingly sky-high throughout. The whole world should look on them as an example of how to face extreme adversity.
Yet again, I could not agree more
Post Reply