Football team, coach rescued from Thailand prepare to ordain as Buddhist novices

Eleven of the boys and the coach prayed to ancient relics and offered drinks and desserts placed in gilded bowls to spirits in a ceremony Tuesday at a temple in northern Thailand.

Thai Buddhist monks carry chairs to prepare for the rescued young soccer teammates and their coach in Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai province, northern Thailand, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. | Associated Press 

MAE SAI: The young soccer teammates and their coach who were trapped in a Thai cave have attended a Buddhist ceremony as they prepare to be ordained to become Buddhist novices and monks.

WATCH | Thai boys shave heads ahead of Buddhist ceremony

Eleven of the boys and the coach prayed to ancient relics and offered drinks and desserts placed in gilded bowls to spirits in a ceremony Tuesday at a temple in northern Thailand.

Soccer coach Ekkapol Chanthawong, front, and members of the soccer
team who were rescued from a flooded cave last week attend a
Buddhist ceremony as they prepare to be ordained as Buddhist monks
and novices in the Mae Sai district, Chiang Rai province, northern
Thailand, Tuesday, July 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

Parchon Pratsakul, governor of Chiang Rai province, says the boys will ordain to become Buddhist novices Wednesday, while the 25-year-old coach will ordain as a monk.

The 12th team member who was trapped in the cave won't take part because he isn't Buddhist.

Buddhist males in predominantly Buddhist Thailand are traditionally expected to ordain and enter the monkhood, often as novices, at some point in their lives.

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