It's Tuesday morning and 67-year-old Thanachai Maipradith is sitting at his desk in the donation room at Wat Phrabatnampu, a temple in Lop Buri which is home to 153 HIV patients.
Bags of bones: The remains of all the patients that have died at Wat Phrabatnampu since it was founded in 1992 are stored on site. Some of the bones are broken down and mixed with resin to make sculptures displayed around the temple.
"Come in, come in, take a seat," Mr Thanachai tells new visitors every 15 minutes or so. "Just fill in the pink donation form."
Behind him on the left hangs a big portrait of the temple's abbott Phra Alongkot Tikkapanyo, above the King's portrait on the right.
"We have created a large community — a city," Phra Alongkot tells Spectrum, as visitors queue to donate goods and money at another room 50 metres away.
Phra Alongkot's empire, which covers almost 3,000 rai across two sites, includes a clinic, school and a museum where the mummified corpses of dead patients are displayed to illustrate the fragility of human life.
Construction of a new 20 million baht building is due to be completed in January to support an additional 50 patients.
But amid a national drive to stamp out corruption, Wat Phrabatnampu is facing renewed criticism from those who fear the temple may be using HIV patients as a tool to solicit cash.
Missionary monk: Phra Alogkot Tikkapanyo has dedicated the past 20 years to caring for people with HIV at his temple in Lop Buri.
THE STENCH OF DEATH
The rotten smell is the first thing that hits visitors to the main ward, which houses 35 patients who are either disabled, paralysed or in a critical condition.
The facility is watched by a closed-circuit television camera connected to the donation room that Mr Thanachai looks after. One patient, whose legs have been amputated, sits naked on his bed, using a cloth to clean his private parts. It's the afternoon, but the lights are off and most patients are asleep.
Back before antiretroviral (ARV) drugs were available in Thailand, the moans of the sick and dying could be heard on a daily basis. At least one or two people would die each day, but last year there were less than five deaths per month.
There is no cure for HIV infection. However, effective treatment with ARV drugs helps stop the virus from replicating in the cells of an HIV-positive person, killing the virus before it can build its presence.
ARV drugs became available in Thailand in 2004, when Chureeratana Bowonwatnuwong, an HIV specialist at Chon Buri Hospital, worked as a volunteer at Wat Phrabatnampu.
Dr Chureeratana said she sat down with Phra Alongkot back then and explained the benefits of the drugs to him using her laptop. But the abbott was less than enthusiastic.
Ten years later, Dr Chureeratana said the message is still not getting through.
"He was not at all eager to provide ARV drugs to the patients," Dr Chureeratana told Spectrum.
The volunteers at the time, which included Thai and foreign doctors and nurses, were able to get 53 patients onto ARV. The rest had to be treated for complications associated with HIV first.
The number of new HIV infections, Aids-related deaths and people living with HIV in Thailand is steadily declining. However, the pace of decline has slowed over the past few years, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids (Unaids).
Unaids estimates that there were 45,335 new infections, 67,567 deaths and 901,701 people living with HIV in the year 2000. By 2013, new infections had dropped to 10,491, deaths to 27,402, and those living with the virus to 653,653.
Since Oct 2005, HIV medication has been covered by the 30-baht healthcare scheme. Around 300,000 Thais now have access to ARV drugs.
"There are no 'final stages' of HIV now, since everyone survives," Dr Chureeratana said. "Even though they are not cured, they are well enough to live their lives like normal within five years."
EXPLOITING THE SICK
An online awareness campaign to stop HIV patients being used to solicit money was set up on change.org in April.
Launched by the Disease Control Department, the Thai Aids Society, the Thai Red Cross Aids Research Centre and the Foundation for Aids Rights, the campaign has attracted 282 supporters so far.
Praphan Phanuphak, director of the Thai Red Cross Aids Research Centre, says many organisations in Thailand still use HIV sufferers "as tools for their own benefit".
An online search for "ARV drugs" in Thai results in numerous advertisements for herbs and vitamins claiming to cure HIV, while warning people to stop taking their ARV drugs for the treatment to be effective.
These supposed wonder drugs can cost more than 2,000 baht per bottle, but medication for HIV treatment can now be sourced privately for as little as 540 baht a month, Dr Praphan said.
"Patients don't need to go to the [Wat Phrabatnampu] temple to wait to die," he said. "I am pretty certain that 80-90% of the patients there are able to leave the temple without having to wait for donations."
Supporters of the campaign argue that HIV sufferers don't need help from Wat Phrabatnampu and claim the temple overstates the amount of money it needs for medical costs.
But Phra Alongkot argues the temple is a place of shelter for those who have nowhere else to go.
"I am not campaigning for people to come to my temple, but not everyone has a home. Some were thrown out on the streets — where would you expect them to go?" he said.
"The temple does not need to justify itself by using sick people, because people would donate money to us anyway."
GRIM REMINDER: The mummified corpses of patients from the hospice are on show in a museum at the temple, a poignant reminder of the fragility of human life.
RELIGIOUS REMEDY
Wat Phrabatnampu advertises itself as a hospice for HIV sufferers to come and die peacefully, where they can be treated in accordance with Buddhist principles.
"Normally people don't talk about dhamma in relation to HIV treatment. Doctors in general provide medication, but we use Buddhist philosophy to purify the soul," said 61-year-old Phra Alongkot, who founded the temple in 1992.
Back then, the King's mother HRH Srinagarindra donated 300,000 baht to set up the Dhammaraksa Foundation, which oversees the temple's affairs.
It provided only 20 beds in its first year, but the 52-rai temple now has 153 patients, who receive free ARV drugs from King Narai Hospital in Lop Buri's Muang district. Not all the patients can take the ARVs due to complications from HIV.
Healthy patients are moved from the main four-storey building to individual houses scattered around the temple, but the centre of the operation is the nursing ward, which has 35 beds, with visitors free to come and go.
Phra Alongkot is the sole monk at Wat Phrabatnampu and is active in raising funds for the temple's HIV sufferers. Sometimes he can be seen asking for donations at local markets or shopping malls.
Wat Phrabatnampu faced its first major upheaval during the 1997 financial crisis, when it was forced to ask about half its patients to go home. Since then, the temple has had to lower costs and seek new ways of earning revenue, such as producing goods under its own brand.
"It's a blessing that we have credibility and barami [charisma], so a lot of people buy our products," Phra Alongkot said with pride as he asked an assistant to show off a basil-seed drink and rice packaged under the "9 Auspicious Rice" brand.
Now the temple faces an increasing burden caring for elderly patients, including those who are not related to HIV sufferers. Phra Alongkot said the temple now looks after more than 2,000 people, plus around 500 dogs, 300 cats and 600 cows and buffalo at its second site in the same province.
CASH PLEASE: From left to far right: The donation room at Wat Phrabatnampu; offerings given by members of the public; inside the main ward for HIV/Aids patients; and staff supplying a meal to a patient.
UNHEALTHY MOTIVATION
Lesley (not her real name) first went to Wat Phrabatnampu late 2003. The Swiss nurse had 15 years of work experience at the time, as well as a university degree in psychology and philosophy.
Her daily tasks included performing X-rays and blood checks and creating files and lists, but many essential items were lacking, and often the volunteers had to put their own money into buying bed sheets, medical supplies, incontinence products and food for the patients.
At one point, Lesley and other volunteers, including Dr Chureeratana, managed to get 53 patients on ARV drugs, but things became difficult. They were not allowed to perform blood tests or look into the medical files of patients. Then the ARV drugs disappeared, and Lesley was threatened.
"I was told that I should stop giving ARV drugs and leave this place, otherwise I would be killed," said Lesley, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.
One day, the tyres of her motorcycle were slashed. She finally left in Nov 2004. Since then, no doctors or nurses have worked at the temple.
In her last days there, Lesley and other volunteers tried to support the patients into leaving; to go back to life on the outside, or if they were weak, to get hospital treatment.
Some 95% of patients at Wat Phrabatnampu were left at the temple by their relatives, according to a number of temple staff interviewed by Spectrum, while only about 5% of the patients receive visits from relatives.
"The [patients] are stripped of their last private things; their shoes and rings, and are left to die as fast as possible, so the shame is taken away from the clan," said Lesley, who is now 50.
"Some would be brought in in horrible condition — long nails, never washed, half dead or dead already. Some families don't know that ARV drugs are free and available for everyone at hospitals, but they know from TV that there is an Aids temple in Lop Buri."
As long as a place like this exists, she said, some people will let their relatives die without the chance of taking ARV.
"It has nothing to do with religion, as many westerners believe, but with social stigmatisation," she said. "The temple is a perfect loophole."
Up to this day, Lesley is unclear exactly why she was asked to leave the temple. But her theory is that the patients looked too healthy on ARV drugs, which could have stopped donations from coming in.
"If patients had ARV and stayed with their families, society would be forced to deal with them and Wat Phrabatnampu would not exist any more," she said.
Final resting place: A 400-bed hospital is under construction at the temple's second site. It will house HIV patients and elderly people.
KINDNESS COSTS
Located in Nong Muang district, 84km from Wat Phrabatnampu, is the temple's second site, which was founded to accommodate HIV-positive children and orphans.
The place is at least 40 times as large as the temple itself — covering an area of over 2,000 rai — but with only 152 permanent inhabitants consisting of 50 HIV positive children, 87 adults and 15 elderly people.
The second project was partly supported by the Germany-based Tara Foundation, but none of the temple's schemes are currently being sponsored by any international NGOs.
Right at the entrance is a biomass power plant that generates electricity from white popinac trees and sells it to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
The temple's business model has been mainly dependent on donations for the past 20 years, but Phra Alongkot said he must now look for other ways to make the temple self-sustainable.
The biomass company was registered as A+ Power Co in July 2007, with capital of 100 million baht, including paid-up shares of 75 million baht, according to documents Spectrum requested from the Department of Business Development.
Mr Thanachai, who is head of finance at the Dhammaraksa Foundation and works out of the donation room at Wat Phrabatnampu, is listed as a board director.
He told Spectrum that Phra Alongkot asked him to carry out the role of board chairman, and said he does not receive any benefits from the position.
The company has seven shareholders, with Mr Thanachai holding half of the shares. But it has faced losses every year since it was set up. In its latest annual report ending June 2013, the company recorded 5.3 million baht in losses, while revenue totalled 578,294 baht.
Phra Alongkot said the power plant was the result of an attempt to help create jobs for the HIV sufferers, who also work as security guards, assist patients and perform housekeeping roles.
Given the role of the temple is not limited to helping people with HIV, Phra Alongkot said budget constraints justify his efforts to find ways to bring in more money.
Schools, for instance, approach the temple and ask for cash to build libraries and restrooms, he said.
"If you ask me, it's pretty tiring, and it's actually none of our business," the monk said.
"But they think I am kind and come up here with all sorts of requests. So on the other hand, it is an opportunity for us to do good for society.
"As a result, we have had to think outside the box to figure out how we will be able to sustain ourselves for the next 20 years without having to decline the requests."
Phra Alongkor brushes aside rumours the temple will soon close down due to a shortage of donations. The temple is in the process of constructing a new two-storey building, which will be able to support an additional 50 patients. The building has an elevator and will be operational next month.
"Our temple is only seeing an increase in buildings and beds," he said.
Mr Thanachai estimates that the temple needs 130,000 baht to run on a daily basis.
The costs include food, maintenance, electricity, money for patients and staff salaries. Very little cash is needed for medication, since patients from both sites receive free ARV drugs from King Narai and Nong Muang hospitals, under the government's healthcare scheme.
"Everything single baht we receive is put into the financial records," he told Spectrum. "We have evidence of everything."
Home from home: Patients who are well enough to care for themselves live in individual houses.
MONEY AND MIRRORS
The temple explicitly advertises for donations on its Facebook page and website, where Thais and foreigners can choose to give cash through up to eight bank accounts.
What they fail to make clear is that only two of the bank accounts are linked to the Dhammaraksa Foundation, which relies solely on donations.
The rest are Phra Alongkot's personal accounts, which hold revenue from selling goods under the temple's brand and donations, said Mr Thanachai, who started working at the temple three years after it was founded.
"No one can interfere with his [Phra Alongkot's] money," he said.
Showing Spectrum the details of the foundation's two bank accounts, he said donations from 34 donors the day before came to 70,150 baht. But sometimes, on a lucky day, a single individual can donate up to four million baht.
Mr Thanachai started overseeing the temple's finances on Oct 19, 2004. In the decade since then, the temple received 446.5 million baht in donations, according to documents shown to Spectrum.
Donations ranged from 24 million baht to 90 million baht a year.
Mr Thanachai calls himself uncle, and switches from talking about Buddhist philosophy to reciting poetry and anecdotes about love and life, as well as media censorship under the military junta.
At one point he urges the government to help shoulder the burden of the temple by setting up more houses for children and sufferers, while later suggesting that a new law should require temples to operate checks and balances to show where their money goes. We don't want any corruption on our watch, he says.
"It's actually good when foreigners criticise the temple, so we can tidy up ourselves," Mr Thanachai said.
"It's a reflection of ourselves, so we can see if we look good on the outside — whether our hair is alright, or if the left sideburn needs to be cut to look the same as the right. If it's not, then we will just adjust it." n
