What do readers think of today’s episode of Behind the Bamboo Curtain. We’d all like to know your views in the comment box below.
Today, Sunantaa told me that Kitaloo, her one year old puppy, had been killed in a road accident. He had escaped from their fenced garden. Unusually for a Thai, she was very tearful on the phone.
Some monks had said that a hill tribe family had accidentally ran him over and brought him to the temple (wat) for them to bury. Then, he could be born again.
Sunantaa’s husband, Surachai, wasn’t so sure. He employs Burmese and hill tribe workers. He knows they eat dog flesh.
Despite not believing the monks, he was wise enough not to tell his wife that.
Although his sister said she’d seen the puppy’s grave in the temple, Surachai had his doubts about that too. He’d never heard of monks burying dogs in temples.
If it were true, he wanted the dog to be buried in its own garden. When Surachai went to the wat himself, the monks explained that he couldn’t take Kitaloo home for reburial.
But Surachai could not go against the monks. That would be a taboo in Thai culture.
He still has his doubts about what really happened. He’s is too old in the tooth to think that what you are told in Thailand is always correct. Monks or not.
His wife, Sunantaa, is quite content to think that Kitaloo is now resting on holy ground.
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