A fight between an elderly woman and a Cambodian Buddhist monk over an allegedly magic turtle required the reptile to be rescued and landed the monk in court on charges of impersonating a god, police said on Thursday.
The trouble began when monk Khong Chantha (26) sold a turtle with Buddhist inscriptions carved into its shell to an elderly local woman for $1,25, according to Ros Vanna, deputy police chief of the southern province of Prey Veng.
But when he heard the woman had begun her own money-making business with the turtle, claiming it invoked miracles, he returned and tried to reclaim the reptile by force, Ros Vanna said.
”However, the old lady would not give the turtle back, and there was a fight,” Ros Vanna said.
The woman subsequently reported the monk to police, who then found a forged letter purportedly signed by Prime Minister Hun Sen in the monk’s possession which gave fake government backing to Chantha’s claims he was a living reincarnation of the Buddha, said Vanna.
Secretary of State for the Ministry of Cults and Religions, Chhorn Iem, said he had lost count of the number of fraudulent monks and gods that came to his ministry’s attention, but that it lacked legal experts to intervene and ensure these religious frauds felt the full weight of the law.
”People are always trying to cheat each other with stories of miracles, and it’s all rubbish. We need legal people in the ministry to explain to and work out punishment for ‘instant’ monks and gods,” Chhorn Iem said.
”Unfortunately, there is big money in cheating people, but we try to stop them bringing the Buddhist religion into disrepute. Miracles are supposed to be honest.”
Police said the turtle was confiscated from the elderly woman, whom they did not name, and taken into protective custody before later being handed over into the guardianship of a local pagoda.
The monk was released with a caution. – Sapa-DPA