Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - Sunday 28 September 2003
Aphaluck Bhatiasevi
The temple has turned into a hospice in Lop Buri, with the display of over 20 sculptures created out of bone fossils mixed with resin, and placed in various outdoor areas, with the largest set up outside its medical building.
The images depict different modes of transmission of Aids. Images range from that of a mother carrying a child, to that of a man and woman in an intimate pose to indicate the different modes of transmission of the virus from mothers to children and through sexual transmission.
They were crafted by an artist, whose relative, also suffering from Aids, stays at the temple. The work was inspired by the relative on the power of faith.
He had proposed the idea to the temple because it always had problems in dealing with the bones of people who died of Aids. These are kept separately for about three months after the bodies are cremated with the hope their family members would come to take them away.
It has become a rule for the temple to get in touch with all family members of the people who live at the temple, but despite doing so, many of the patients are ignored by their relatives.
"It's depressing. Many families don't even want to take the bones of these people back for religious rites," said Charin Khonmun, head of the Dhammarak Nives Foundation Office which was established to run the temple's hospice services.
The temple has bones kept in cream-coloured linen bags piled up near a Buddha image in the temple's meditation hall as the storage room located under the monk's prayer hall is now full.
"We've had to use grinding machines to crush the bones into small pieces because otherwise it would become too big to keep," Mr Charin said.
The temple currently houses some 25 families in addition to another 400 people with Aids, 30 of them in critical condition who are being referred to the provincial hospital almost every day.
In the first half of this year alone, 172 patients died and 1,399 were being cared for at the temple.
The museum, which was initiated in 1999, was shifted from a small stuffy room located at the back of the temple to an airy room located at the entrance to the hospital in April this year.
Framed pictures and brief biographies of the 12 bodies, seven of which are in glass cases while the rest lay on wooden stands, are displayed to inform visitors of the causes of HIV infection.
The bodies at the museum include one of a transvestite who had undergone a sexual transplant and contracted the virus from his customers; a gay man who contracted Aids from his partner; a man who contracted the virus from a sex worker; a woman who contracted the virus from her husband, and three children below six years of age who contracted the virus from their mothers.
Mr Charin said temple administrators believed that both the sculptures and the museum would be educational for the public.
The temple receives at least five groups of visitors comprising 20 to 100 people each day, ranging from students, civil servants and foreigners.
Even though nowadays many people were aware of Aids, it did not mean the level of discrimination against people with the virus had improved, said Mr Charin. "Many people are still afraid and want to avoid contact with people suffering from HIV/Aids," he said.
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