Living ex-crime chief invites people to his ‘cremation’ in December

A former crime suppression chief has surprised friends and relatives by handing out invitations to attend rites for his cremation at a temple in Wiset Chai Chan in December.

Pol Lt Col Kaset Puengyod

A former crime suppression chief has surprised friends and relatives by handing out invitations to attend rites for his cremation at a temple in Wiset Chai Chan in December. Pol Lt Col Kaset Puengyod retired seven years ago after being chief crime buster of Muang district police station and still very much alive. He has invited friends and relatives to attend rites for his cremation at Wat Sala Din in Tambon Muang Tia on Dec 19. The cremation rites will follow all normal procedures. According to the invitation cards, monks will be invited to chant prayers and give a sermon that day. At night, there will be a likely musical folk show at the temple. Pol Lt Col Kaset said he has lived alone at his house in Tambon Muang Tia since his retirement. He has no wife or children and so he had willed his body to Thammasat Hospital for medical students to study after his death.
As his body would not be sent to his house for a religious ceremony, he decided to hold cremation rites for himself and make merit at the same time while he is still alive.

He had invitation cards printed and distributed to relatives and friends and had a large placard with details of his cremation rites put up in front of the temple.
Any cash donated by guests towards his cremation would be used to make a wax model of the late Buddhist monk Luang Phor Phu of Wat Donrak in Samko district, Pol Lt Col Kaset said. It would cost about 350,000 baht, and if donations did not cover it he would top it up with his own money. Source: Bangkok Post