Chulalongkorn medical faculty organise cremation ceremony for cadavers

BANGKOK, April 25 (TNA) -- The faculty of medicine from one of Thailand's top five universities, Chulalongkorn, has planned to organised a royally-sponsored cremation ceremony for 253 cadavers. Director-general of the Surgical Training Centre, Asst Prof Dr Thanwa Tansatit, on Sunday, said the cremation ceremony would entail the burning of some of the body parts from the 253 cadavers in order for the 2nd year students, which are currently using the cadavers for their studies to pay their last respect, as well as to honour them for sacrificing their bodies for medical studies. The ceremony is set to begin after the a symbolic symbol of the fire, bestowed upon by HM the King has arrived at 1 pm, then all of the cadavers would be cremated in 18 temples across Bangkok from Monday to Friday. Dr Thanwa, however, noted that more than 10,000 bodies are donated for medical studies every year, but only about 200 are chosen for the purpose, adding that there are not enough temples in the capital city to cater to the high volume of bodies to be cremated. The assistant professor then encouraged the public to make the body donations and temples to help organise cremation ceremonies for the cadavers, informing that around 350 more cadavers would need to be cremated next year, meaning an addition of 12 temples are needed to carry out all the necessary cremation of the bodies. (END)