[CPProt.net] Bangkok: Guarding the Gods

[Museum Security Network / Cultural Property Protection Net (Ton Cremers)]

 Guarding the Gods 

Phra Khru Suwithan said the thieves had even made death threats to the monks
in the temple.

He said he wanted the Fine Arts Department and provincial and tambon
administration organisations to pay more attention to protecting national
treasures.

Wat Klang Klong Sabua, in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district, began taking
its own initiatives by installing security grilles on all the windows of its
boht (chapel) where three Buddha images, aged between 250-500 years, are
kept.

The temple's abbot, Phra Athikarn Thawatchai Kutathammo, also had to sleep
in the boht every night to safeguard the statues.

The monk said four Buddha images were once stolen but were later found.

So, in 1970 the then abbot left four of six ancient images of the temple in
the care of Chao Samphraya National Museum.

The other two were kept at the temple for worshippers.

The temple has already taken one of the four images back from the museum and
plans to bring the other three back this year as villagers thought the
chapel was the right place to keep them.

``They said the statues should not be kept in a room in a museum. They
thought that made the images meaningless. They said they were not dolls,''
Phra Athikarn Thawatchai said.

The temple would employ three security guards once all the statues were
under the same roof and he would sleep in the boht as usual.

Meanwhile, Ayutthaya police chief Pol Maj-Gen Wanchai Thanadkij admitted
that preventing theft was difficult because police were not immediately made
aware of temple break-ins and the police budget was insufficient.

However, Pol Maj-Gen Wanchai said police would soon help officials from the
Fine Arts Department take pictures and register Buddha images and
antiquities at all temples in Ayutthaya, which would help in tracking them
down if stolen.



http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/20Mar2005_news13.php\