Drug addicts vomit out their ills in Thai monastery

By Ed Cropley

THAM KRABOK, Thailand (Reuters) - An obscure Buddhist monastery in central Thailand that advocates a secret herbal potion and ritual vomiting for drug addicts has become a final source of hope for thousands of Thais and Westerners. Since its foundation in 1959, Wat Tham Krabok, 140 km (85 miles) north of Bangkok, has put nearly 100,000 addicts through its "cold turkey" detox program and given them a grounding in meditation to help them keep on the straight and narrow. The treatment -- a far cry from the picture postcard beaches, jungle trekking and wild nightlife that draw millions of visitors to Thailand each year -- is not for the faint-hearted.

Dressed in red hospital-style overalls, patients have to stay for a minimum of 10 days, during which they are subject to a strict regimen of leaf-sweeping, steam baths, herbal medication and group vomiting.

"Invariably, the people who end up here come as a last resort," said Phra Hans, a Swiss psychologist who became a Buddhist monk -- with the title "Phra" -- after visiting Tham Krabok seven years ago.

"Everybody who comes here must come as a warrior, ready to fight for their life."

MAGIC POTION

Sitting in the shadow of an imposing limestone crag, the monastery was founded in the late 1950s by a group of monks who decided to renounce all earthly pleasures and live out the rest of their days in a cave.

However, the military rulers of the day, keen to rid the capital of its opium dens, encouraged them to accept a large plot of land in return for taking care of the drug addicts the army was booting out of Bangkok.

Using a complex herbal medicine whose ingredients were revealed to the aunt of one of the monks in a dream, the monastery started treating its first opium addicts in 1959.