Armed gang robs temple of precious phayung tree

A stump is all that remains of a 100-year-old siamese rosewood tree that armed men cut down and stole at Wat Pa Seangthem in Tha Uthen district in Nakhon Phanom. The wood is very valuable. (Photo by Pattanapong Sripiachai)

NAKHON PHANOM -- Armed men burst into a temple in Tha Uthen district late on Sunday night, herded monks and laymen into a room, then cut down and stole a very valuable, 100-year-old phayung tree.

Pol Col Thanat Jirathanakul, chief of Tha Uthen station, said witnesses told police there were about 10 men in the gang, all armed and wearing black, whot robbed Wat Pa Saengtham at Ban Laonat in tambon Phanom.

They arrived on a pickup and forced the abbot, Luang Pho Kham Athipatto, 82, a few other monks and five laymen to gather in a single room.

The men then went around to the back of the abbot's living quarters. They took about 20 minutes to fell a phayung tree (siamese rosewood), which was about 100 years old and 60 centimetres in diameter, with chainsaws. The tree trunk was cut into blocks and taken away on the pickup truck.

The timber is worth about 1 million baht.

Police were hunting for the robbers.