Religion

Thail Buddhist temples join COVID-19 fight with both masks, mantras

Samut Prakan, May 5 (EFE).- The traditional Buddhist temples in Thailand have adopted innovative measures like setting up sanitizing tunnels and making masks to join the fight against COVID-19, apart from holding special prayers for the victims.Those visiting the Wat Chak Daeng temple outside Bangkok have to pass through a tunnel where they are sprayed with disinfectants, and monks equipped with masks and visors check their temperature before allowing them to enter.Not only have the monks added an orange mask to their attire - which has remained largely unchanged since the times of Buddha (2,500 years ago) - but they also make their own sanitizers and distribute food to those in need.Last year Wat Chak Daeng began producing orange robes with threads made out of Polyethylene terephthalate, a type of plastic sorted on the premises and later sent to a recycling plant.Subsequently they also began making air pollution masks which have now been adapted to provide protection from germs amid the spread of the novel coronavirus. (Camera; GAZPAR RUIZ-CANELA/DIEGO AZUBEL).FOOTAGE SHOWS ALMSGIVING IN SAMUT PRAKAN, SOUTH OF BANGKOK, THAILAND AND MONKS OF WAT CHAK DAENG TEMPLE CARRING OUT COVID-19 SCREENING MEASURES AND PRODUCING MASKS.SOUNDBITES: PRANOM DHAMMALANGKARO, 54, THE HEAD MONK OF WAT CHAK DAENG TEMPLE; AND CHAMNANVET, 35, A MONK AT THE TEMPLE (IN THAI). TRANSLATIONS: 1.) PRANOM DHAMMALANGKARO: For those who want to come to the temple, we will take their temperature first. Then, they will go through the sterilization tunnel and they will have to clean their hands before entering. If the temperature is not within the acceptable degree, they have to stay at the entrance. We also do a registration for visitors who enter or exit the temple. (00:22-00:44).2.) PRANOM DHAMMALANGKARO: For the monks who come from risk areas, we place them under quarantine for 14 days. They do not have to participate in the communal activities of the temple. It does not matter if that monk is ill or not, he will have to remain under quarantine. (00:51-01:02).3.) PRANOM DHAMMALANGKARO: Now we can produce the material for the mask. Before, we designed masks to protect PM2.5 particles. But with the COVID-19 situation going on now, We are making them for our monks, for those who reside in our temple, for the communities nearby, and for other temples. Some were sent to the hospitals as well (01:13-01:33).3.) CHAMNANVET: You can read these characters written below as" YA NI RAT TA NANG "which is part of a Buddhist chant from the Rattana Sutra, the chant that Thais believe can drive out ghosts, demons, or disease.(01:44-02:00).5.) CHAMNANVET: Let's say these masks itself can protect you from the infection, but the inscription on them reflect the belief and serves to remind people (who wear them) not to live a careless life ( 02:10-02:26).