Thailand's floating nun
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from January 1997.
Brought to you by
Normally, Buddhist nuns perform their devotions and meditate on dry land like everybody else.
But at the Tham Mangkon Thong temple in Kanchanaburi, 110 kilometers (70 miles) west of Bangkok, a 52-year-old nun who goes by the single name Anong does things differently.
Ten times a day Anong, fully clad in a white nun's habit, takes a dip in a temple pond and spends 10 minutes raising her arms and crossing her legs to imitate the Buddha and Hindu deities.
Though she never treads water or touches bottom, her face never falls below the surface. Anong says total concentration and the pond spirits keep her serenely on top. Anong has floated to worship for four years, starting after a vigil.
"After I went into the nunhood, I went to a mountaintop for three days. On the fourth day, I came down and went to the sea," Anong said. "There, I saw a friend of mine doing these poses in the water and she tried to teach me."
The notorious bridge on the River Kwai, built by Allied prisoners of war during World War II, draws most of Kanchanaburi's tourists. But Anong has become an attraction herself. An average of 100 tourists, mostly Thai, visit the temple each day, paying 10 baht (40 cents) each to cram around the pond's edge. Most come for the novelty, rather than a religious experience.
