Wat Tham Krabok

Wat Thamkrabok (Thai: วัดถ้ำกระบอก, literally Temple of the Bamboo Cave) is a Buddhist temple (wat) in Thailand, located in the Phra Phutthabat district of Saraburi Province, Thailand.

The temple was first established as a monastery in 1957 by the Buddhist nun Mian Parnchand (generally known as Luang Por Yai) and her two nephews, Chamroon and Charoen Parnchand, who had both ordained as monks at Wat Khlong Mao in Lopburi Province, Thailand. Luang Por Chamroon, a former Thai policeman, was the first abbot, although Wat Thamkrabok is not officially a Buddhist temple, but is a "Samnak Song", because it follows the teachings of Luang Por Yai, a woman. Still, the entrance claims it is a temple or Wat. The temple is majestic in its appearance, with two elephants supporting a globe marking its entrance. There are many large Buddha images on the temple grounds.

Following the end of the Vietnam War, in the late 1970s, Wat Thamkrabok hosted Hmong refugees in a camp on its grounds as result of losing the Secret War, most of whom fled Laos alleging that they were persecuted by the communist government that has ruled Laos since 1975. Many thousands of the Laotian and Hmong refugees and asylum seekers at Wat Thamkrabok had also sought refuge at the Temple after fleeing forced repatriation efforts at other refugee camps in Thailand, because they did not want to return to the Marxist government in Laos that they fled. More Lao and Hmong refugees continued to arrive and seek sanctuary at Wat Thamkrabok until over 15,000 Hmong were eventually allowed, after a long policy battle in both the United States and Thailand, to go to the USA in 2004 and 2005 as political refugees, instead of being forced back to Laos. However, some even moved to the United States as early as in 2001.

In the late 1970s Wat Thamkrabok, and particularly its abbot, Luang Por Chamroon, supported the Hmong armed resistance against the Lao PDR government, particularly the Neo Hom led by General Vang Pao and other Laotian leaders, independent Chao Fa groups, and one sub-faction of the Chao Fa led by Pa Kao Her. The Hmong were United States war allies in the Secret War against the communist Pathet Lao, the Viet Cong and North Vietnam.

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