Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
old. The image has been in the possession of the foundation since 1958. Thian Fa works
closely with the Poh Teck Tung Foundation, a charity organisation that collects the bod-
ies of accident victims and if the deceased has no known relatives, arranges burial. The
tradition is an old one in China, based on the work of a Song dynasty monk named Tai
Hong, who became greatly revered. Chinese immigrants in Bangkok raised a statue to the
monk in Wat Liab, and when a plague descended on the city, many devotees went to the
statue and asked for blessings, donating money and coffins, and funding a graveyard. In
1909 these efforts came together under a group of twelve Chinese merchants who estab-
lished the foundation, hiring employees and engaging volunteers to go out and collect un-
claimed corpses. The foundation bought land on Plub Phla Chai Road where today the
offices stand, opposite a shrine dedicated to Tai Hong, whose followers are of the Mahay-
ana school of Buddhism, rather than the Theravada school that is dominant in Thailand.
A new graveyard was opened outside of Bangkok about twenty years ago, and the bod-
ies are buried there in numbered graves. Photographs are taken of the corpses so that any
families recognising the deceased can have the remains disinterred and buried elsewhere.
Members of the public can make donations to purchase a coffin, at a cost of 650 baht. Poh
Teck Tung has a fleet of well-maintained ambulances and fire engines in the car park of
its modern office building: the Chinese character above the door is
shan
, which means
“to perform a meritorious deed”. The shops immediately surrounding the foundation have
large displays of fake money, clothes, houses and cars that are burned to provide for the
souls of the dead.
The Poh Tek Tung Foundation is a charity that collects unclaimed bodies.
The temple mentioned earlier as having been built by a famous madame is Wat
Kanikapon, erected in 1833 during the reign of Rama
III
, and located adjacent to the Tai
Hong Shrine. She was known as Khun Yai Faeng, which means “Grandmother Faeng”, and
the house of prostitution was located in Trok Tao, just of Sampeng Lane. Madame Faeng
was a devout Buddhist of the Maha Nikaya sect, and she and her girls raised the funds to
build the temple. As was often the case in that era, the temple was not given a name and
