Ajarn Chum Wat Khao Or
Ajahn Chum Chaikiri :
Ajahn Chum was born in BE2450 (1907) in a family of Military Soldiers. Ajahn Chum Chaikiri is the great grandchild of Khun Chaikiri (Khun mean nobility).
Khun Chaikiri was a Khao Or disciple who helped Phraya Chuattukaraj, the governor of Phatthalung Province to protect Phatthalung Province and Southern Thailand from an invasion of Myanmar army about 250 years ago.
Khun Chaikiri has many sons and daughters. He studied white magic from Wat Khao Or and later taught the art to his children.
One of Khun Chaikiri’s children with the name "Muean Siri Panpirun" learn the art of white magic from him and further his studies on the art from Wat Khao Or. He too has many children and one of them is the father of Ajahn Chum.
Ajahn Chum Fathers :
Ajahn Chum’s father was a soldier and governor in Khao Chai Son district of Phatthalung city.
Ajahn Chum Chaikiri's father was the friend of Luang Por Kong, Wat Chaimongkol in Songkhla province.
Luang Por Kong came to see the baby after he was borned and many people came to greet Ajahn Chum's father, since he was so popular, Luang Por Kong gave the name “Chum” to him which means popular.
At a young age, Ajahn Chum had an immense interest in magic and studied magic from his father and family.
When Ajahn Chum was 5 years old he can cast a spell to hypnotize poisonous snake to stop it from opening its mouth, as well as shutting the dog’s mouth so that the dog can't bite.
When he was a little older around 7 years old, he learnt how to cast a spell of 11 words to a hand gun and the gun will be broken into pieces upon shooting.
This happened in an incident when his father’s friend colleague came to his house and left his gun on the table.
Ajahn Chum took the chance to perform what he had learnt. So he took the gun on the table and started to cast the spell.
However before even trying to shoot, the gun gave way and was broken. Ajahn Chum’s father’s friend was furious and told him not to use that spell unless in danger.
This shows that Ajahn Chum had mastered the art so well that even before trying to fire the gun, it will give way. Ajahn Chum had a great talent to learn white magic and he could pick up very fast.
He is able to perform a whole lot of magic that usually would take double or even triple the time to master.
He first went to see Ajahn Tong Tao to further his study under Ajahn Tong Tao tutelage.
By then Ajahn Tong Tao was already very old, he initiated Ajahn Chum but referred him to Ajahn Yied who was a direct disciple of Ajahn Tong Tao.
However Ajahn Yied wasn’t please with Ajahn Chum as he would always have a different girl by his side.
Ajahn Chum then seek the help of his friend, Khun Pan Tharak Rachadej who was a disciple of Ajahn Yied, to be a guarantor for Ajahn Chum's behaviour.
Thereafter, Ajahn Chum began to further his study on the art of Khao Or from Ajahn Yied who later became the abbot of Wat Donsala.
When Ajahn Chum was 20 years old (2470), he became a monk under Luang Por Kong at Wat Chaimongkol in Songkhla province and study Dhamma from Luang Por Kong. He advanced his magical study from Khao Or.
When Ajahn Chum was a monk he became good friend with Ajahn Kong of Wat Ban Suan who was also a disciple of Ajahn Yied.
Initially Ajahn Chum intended to become a monk for 1 year but remained as a monk for 15 years. Ajahn Chum was very popular when he goes to Pintabat and received many offerings.
In 2484, age 34, under advice of Ajahn Kong, Ajahn Chum created his first batch of amulets with the support of Ajahn Yied who provided him some of the balance “Phong Mahawan” to be mixed in the powder formula.
Ajahn Yied, Ajahn Kong and many Kao Or's Masters joined him in the blessing ceremony.
Many people said that wearing Ajahn Chum’s Pra Buddha Nimit is equivalent to wearing Ajahn Yied’s Phra Kleep Bua Mahawan. Ajahn Chum copied ancient amulets such as Tarul and Nangta to derive at Pra Buddha Nimit.
When Ajahn Chum was 35 years old, he left the Buddhist monkhood (2485) and got married. Even after he left monkhood, his interest to study white magic did not end.
As long as he heard of any famous Ajahn or Luang Por, he will not hesitate to go and pay his respects to them and learned from them.
Once when Ajahn Chum came across an old man in the mountains and followed this old man in learning white magic for 3 years.
At the end of 3 years, the old man taught him only 2 spells of 4 words. “NA UT AH MI” and “ BA SU WU CHA”. These 2 spells made Ajahn Chum realized that a person’s belief is above all.
He helped Wat Khao Or, Wat Ban Suan and more than 200 temples to create amulets for fund raising which is why the people of Southern Thai gave him a title of 'The Magician of Khao Or'.
When Ajahn Chum was in his fifties, he was seriously ill. Ajahn Kong decided to pass on some of his lifespan to Ajahn Chum with his meditation wicha and advice Ajahn Chum to continue helping people and the temples.
However Ajahn Kong forbid Ajahn Chum from making Buddha amulets for commercial profit which Ajahn Chum kept his promise till he passed away.
Ajahn Kong passed away in 2516 and Ajahn Chum became a monk on 2517 for 1 year in gratitude of Ajahn Kong. In the same year 2517, Ajahn Chum created a batch of amulet rian of himself in monk robe.
On 2518, Ajahn Chum derobed and his family moved to Bangkok. He created the batch of Pidta coin with Ajahn Chum face behind in 2518. There are 2518 pieces made.
It was agreed between Ajahn Chum and Ajahn Kong that whoever survived shall keep the amulets they created together.
In Bangkok, Ajahn Chum opened a Wicha School of Magic (Samnak Kunjae Saiyasak) where he taught his students on Maha Ut and Kongkapan. During the peak, he had more than 100,000 students.
Ajahn Chum recorded all the initiated students names in a large log book as a prove of authenticity of discipleship and to track anyone who misbehave or misuse the wicha Ajahn Chum taught.
All amulets created by Ajahn Chum were between 2484 - 2524. From 2484 - 2516 he created only Buddha amulets as his promised to Ajahn Kong for Temple fund raising. After 2516 onwards, he created Buddha amulets on request by Buddhist masters.
Ajahn Chum became ill and he passed away on 9th August 2525 (1982, 75 years old) due to kidney failure.
During his funeral procession, many monks, Ajahn and disciples pull the two 30 meters ropes of the Coffin van to send him off.
The number of people who came to the procession was as much as the crowd in Ajahn Khun Pan funeral. The first person who pulled one of the rope was a young Singaporean disciple.
Ajahn Chum undecayed body remained in a glass coffin in his samnak. He wore the famous Yod Khun Pom on his neck.
His body was later cremated together with his wife's body after she passed away.
Both together forever. Ajahn Chum lived his life as a lay Ajahn who followed the Dhamma practice and kept his precepts pure.
He had never used his wicha to create harm intentionally, to accumulate wealth and attract ladies even its as easy as a snap of his fingers with his Wicha.
Ajahn Chum had one son, a god son and three daughters. Both his son, Ajahn Na Long Li and his god son learned Ajahn Chum Wicha. His wife, Khun Mae “Ser” learned and specialised in the Wicha of Metta and Chok Lap.
Ajahn Na Long Li died in his fifties from head injury, he hit his head while descending the stairs and died instantly. His god son died soon after.
One of his daughter was married and the other two are spinsters. None of them learned any of his wicha.
Currently as in 2558 his daughters are still living and rumors had it that the daughters are building a temple and remaking their father amulets.
These rumors were denied by the daughters as they do not have any knowledge on wicha and amulets makings.
Majority of Ajahn Chum's earlier disciples were Thai and a large number of disciples are from Singapore and Malaysia.
In the sixties to seventies, many Singaporean travelled to meet Ajahn Chum to be his disciples and learned from him. Most of these senior disciples have passed on.
Apart from the Wicha School, Ajahn Chum wasn’t well known in Bangkok and North Thailand, except the temples and Monks who knew Ajahn Chum and worked with him to blessed amulets.
Until the Jatukam fever when people started to notice photo of Khun Pan sitting behind Ajahn Chum in 2497 grand ceremony.
People then started to gather information on Ajahn Chum and begin to feature his life and amulets on media.
History Of Wat Khao Or
Wat Kao Or is situated in the province of Phatthalung, formerly known as Mardelong in Malay, especially during the time when the region came under Malay-Muslim influence.
The province is on the Malay Peninsula. To the east it borders the large shallow Songkhla lake, Lake Tale Noi, while the west is covered by mountains of the Nakhon Si Thammarat chain. Khao Pu–Khao Ya National Park is at the border to Trang.
Pattalung is a place well known for black and white magician practitioners. Both Malay and Thai magicians.
Hence you would be warned against pointing and commenting on flying colored lights or meteorites flying passed by as these are often magicians practicing their skills.
During the reign of King Ramathibodi I of the Ayutthaya kingdom in the 14th century, Patthalung became one of twelve royal cities.
At the end of the 18th century King Rama I submitted the city to the Ministry of Defense, which was responsible for all the southern provinces.
During the administrative reform by King Chulalongkorn, Patthalung became part of the Monthon Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Probably one of the most famous temples in Thailand is Wat Khao Or, a monastic and magical sciences institution.
Wat Kao Or is actually a cave temple (Chattun Cave) and its compound is not big compared to many of the nearby temples.
Kao Or cave used to be the resting place for thousands of bats in the past, nowadays several entrances on the top of the mountains have been sealed with metal grills to prevent bat from coming in and avoid bat droppings on the cave floors.
Wat Khao Or has been home to some of the most sacred monks and white robbed Ajahns, such as Ajahn Tong Tao, Ajahn Pan, Ajahn Nam, etc. It was also home to some of the great amulets of our generation.
As early as around BE 1,300 years ago many sacred Brahmin Reusiis stayed together in the Chattun Cave (located within the grounds of Wat Kao Or) around the time of Sri Vijaya period where Hinduism was flourishing in Indonesia. Many sacred sciences were developed at around this time.
After several centuries later, a Reusii named “Borom Kru Lugi” forecasted that in the future, Buddhism would become far more prosperous than Hinduism (in the Kingdom of Siam.)
Therefore, he invited a Buddhist monk named “Pra Acharya Tong Huyan” to the cave and taught all his knowledge to the monk because he knew that Buddhist monks would be the ones who would continue to preserve this magic for generations to come.
Pra Acharya Tong Huyan was highly respected as the supreme teacher of the sacred sciences. From generation to generation, the magic sciences were passed down till to-date.
The scared science of Wat Or in view of its magic, training method and usage have developed into its own unique way as compared to other parts of Siam and Cambodia.
The magical science largely influenced the magic of South Thailand and North Malaysia.
Wat Kao Or started to develop into a Buddhist temple in around 600 to 700 years ago.
Wat Kao Or was well known as the Shao Lin Temple of Pattalung and the related Temples are Wat Don Sala, Wat Pu Kao Tong, Wat Ban Suan and Wat Don Yai Hom.
Wat Kao Or had contributed much to the defence of Siam during the war with Burma in the Ayuthaya period.
The soldiers would dipped their body in a pool of chanted water soaked with herbs and then marched into the battle field.
This is to protect them from weapons in battle and this art is passed down for centuries.
Phraya Thukkharat (Chuai) Monument
In Patthalung, there is a famous Phraya Thukkharat (Chuai) Monument.
Around 250 years ago, Phraya Thukkharat was a former monk named Pra Maha Chuai.
During the Nine Armies War in the reign of King Rama I, Phra Maha Chuai assisted Phraya Patthalung who headed a fighting force of 20 villagers to fight against the Burmese army and defeat them.
Later, he was requested to leave the monkhood and was royally appointed as Phraya Thukkharat in charge of official duties as an assistant to the city ruler.
However legend records show that Phraya Thukkharat was once a monk named Pra Maha Chuai who resided at Wat Pa Lelai during the reign of King Rama I.
He was a disciple of Wat Kao Or. During the Siam battle war in AD 1785, Pra Maha Chuai was informed of a entire Burmese army invading from the opposite river bank.
In the meantime the Siamese Army was marching down from Ayuthaya to engage the Burmese army.
The situation was desperate and critical.
The Burmese army must be hold back until the Siamese Army arrive. After Pra Maha Chuai observed the Burmese in the opposite bank, he noticed the Burmese army was camping there for the night.
Pra Maha Chuai rushed to his temple to perform a ritual. He tore his monk robes and made talisman to tie on the forehead protect the villagers.
But he had only twenty odd male villagers whom he managed to gathered to stand against the ten of thousand Burmese army.
The Villagers hide themselves on the river bank. Sensing that the villagers would not hold the Burmese long enough before the Siamese army arrive.
Pra Maha Chuai rushed back to the temple to perform another ritual.
After the ritual, when dawn came, the sky suddenly became very cloudy and looks like a thunder storm was approaching, heavy fog floated on the river water making visibility very poor.
To make matter worse the Burmese saw thousand of shadows moving on the opposite bank, fearing it was the Siamese army, the Burmese hold their stand, hoping for the fog to clear.
Pra Maha Chuai was able to hold the Burmese until the Royal Siamese army arrived and together they defeated and drove the Burmese back.
Admiring Pra Maha Chuai skills, King Rama I repeatedly requested Pra Maha Chuai to de-robe and serve the Siamese army, Pra Maha Chuai relented, and he was appointed by the king to be Phraya Thukkharat to help the city lord. His title of Phraya is of equal rank to the city lord.
This monument is located at Tha Miram intersection in Patthalung municipality.
Wat Kao Or Legend
From the beginning, 9 of Wat Kao Or Chief monks, have a “Tong” in their name.
There is a rumour saying Ajahn Tong Tao was the founder of Wat Kao Or, which is not the case. Ajahn Tong Tao was the last of the 9 chief monks with a “Tong” in his name.
1. Pra Ajahn Tong Huyan (he learnt all the magical sciences from the Reusii)
2. Pra Ajahn Somdej Chao Chon Tong
Somdej Chao Chon Tong was from the same period with Luang Pu Tuat, Wat Chiang Hai.
When Luang Pu Tuat retired to Pattani with the King blessings and donated a mountain to Luang Pu Tuat where all habitants do not have to pay rent. This is in Wat Pakoh.
Somdej Tong was invited to attend the title award of Luang Pu Tuat and his team travelled by boat to attend the ceremony.
At that time, Somdej Tong was sick and he wanted to reach shore fast, so he used his magic to move the boat up to the mountain.
Everyone who saw the miracle kneeled down to pay respect and the site where the boat anchored is still visible.
After the ceremony and on the way back, Luang Pu Tuat gave a bar of Black Glutunous rice cake to them for the monk lunch. At lunch time, no one could cut the rice cake.
Somdej Tong was informed of this, he smiled and blowed a katha on the rice cake. The rice cake can then be cut and shared for all.
This legend became the beginning of Black Glutinuous Rice cake tradition in Kao Or Lineage for Maha Ut and Kongkapan.
3. Pra Ajahn Krueng Tong
4. Pra Ajahn Chai Tong
5. Pra Ajahn Tong Chan
6. Pra Ajahn Tong Nai Tam
7. Pra Ajahn Tong Na Tam
8. Pra Ajahn Tong
9. Pra Ajahn Tong Tao
In recent times, Ajahn Tong Tao was famous for his mind reading. A young Malaysian man went to Kao Or and was told of his magic.
Doubting that an old weak monk have power to do so. From a distance Ajahn Tong Tao told a local Thai to speak to that man if he wanted to test his power. That man freaked out.
On an occasion there was a ceremony and the rain started to fall, Ajahn Tong Tao threw his rosary into the sky.
The rosary disappeared and the rain stopped. After the blessing ceremony, Ajahn Tong Tao raised his hands and the rosary fell into his arm.
Ajahn Tong Tao had a strain of hair on his crown and cannot be cut by barber no matter what.
One day a devotee pleaded for this hair and Ajahn Tong Tao recited a katha and cut the hair for the devotee.
Ajahn Tong Tao disciple, Ajahn Yied was the master of Ajahn Chum and Ajahn Kong (Wat Ban Suan). After Ajahn Tong Tao passed on, Ajahn Pan became abbot of Wat Kao Or.
Ajahn Pan loved liquor, when police came to arrest Ajahn Pan for breaking the precepts, the liquor turned into tea and stunned the police.
Ajahn Pan first disciple is Ajahn Plien who is still living (2015). He is the main Kalawat for Wat Don Sala, Wat Pukaotong and Wat Kao Or ceremony.
His house has a very powerful shield pressure when you approach. When Ajahn Pan spirit entered his body to bless devotees, Ajahn Plien would smelled full of liquor even he didn’t drink acohol.
Ajahn Nam was direct disciple of Ajahn Tong Tao, he was a Kalawat until his wife passed and he got a certain sickness and was advised to become a monk.
King Rama 9 personally pay respect to Ajahn Nam. When Ajahn Nam submerged himself in the river to draw yant on metal plate, his robes will never get wet.
In the early days, Ajahn Nam observed his monk precepts so strict that all of his amulets after blessings will break into half if touched by ladies.
He was informed of it and devotees demonstrated this to him. From then on, all of his amulets must be blessed by nuns before he start his blessings.
Ajahn Chum Amazing Feats to pen down before it’s lost in memories :
Some of the actual miracle events were seen and witnessed by those of the inner circle of Ajahn Chum family and those of Ajahn Chum disciples.
1. During Vesakha Day, many devotees gathered to receive blessings from Ajahn Chum.
The crowd was overwhelming. Ajahn Chum would blessed the gold folds and ask 20 to 30 devotees to stick the gold on their forehead themselves.
They will hold the saisin among themselves where Ajahn Chum would hold the other end.
He would then recite katha and blow into the saisin. All the gold folds would simply disappeared into the devotees forehead.
2. Once there was a self proclaimed Ajahn of 18 years
from Southeast Asia country requested Ajahn Chum disciple to introduce him to Ajahn Chum as he wanted to learn from Ajahn Chum.
Ajahn Chum then asked him to recite kathas and there he goes “Namo Tassa …….”
After that Ajahn Chum then said he would use his wicha to tie the “Ajahn” and he is free to use any spell to untie himself.
When Ajahn Chum recited his katha, the “Ajahn” couldn’t even open his mouth for few minutes.
Ajahn Chum then recited another katha to release him. Once untied, Ajahn Chum scolded him that he can't even chant properly and told him to leave and don’t wish to see him anymore.
3. Once a group of Singaporean disciples invited Ajahn Chum to Singapore.
Ajahn Chum took out a handful of black wood Thep Kumantong and placed on the table.
He then said if you want these Thep Kuman you must catch them.
He then recited katha and the kumantong move by itself on the tables, the disciples tried to catch them and they would wriggled around. If you don’t have the fate, you can't catch them.
4. There was a married disciple with kids. Husband was Ajahn Chum disciple and tried Ajahn Chum Cat Mouse Oil on a 17 years old student girl.
The girl missed him so much that she would come to his house everyday just to see him. This upset his wife and kids and threatened to divorced him.
That disciple then flew to meet Ajahn Chum to untie the spell. Ajahn Chum used his mit mor and placed on a bowl of water.
Made the disciple vowed in front of the Buddha that he had not abused her and then tried to get rid of her.
The disciple did that vow.
If he had lied the mit mor would fly and pierce his stomach. After breaking that spell, the girl can’t even be bothered to see him.
5. Back in the eighties, there was a group of bikers travelling from Singapore passing Malaysia Peninsula to Songkla.
In Songkla, they stopped for a bite and parked their bikes at a stall along roadside.
There came a group of bandits who sat opposite them and said “Hey Brother your bikes are nice and we like it” and at the meantime, the leader took out a hand gun and place on the table.
One of the bikers took out a Ajahn Chum Mai Kru from his pocket and place on the table point at the bandits and replied “thank you for your compliment”.
Upon seeing the Mai Kru, the group of bandits took off immediately without a word.
6. One disciple was summoned by a traffic police. With anger in his heart, he went home and cursed the Traffic Police with his Mai Kru.
The police met a serious accident and was hospitalised. Doctor estimated that he would need three months to recover from the injury.
The senior disciple then reprimanded the junior disciple and told him to help the police recover.
Knowing his mistakes, the junior disciple reverse the curse and police left the hospital within a month.
7. There was a gang fight involving almost 30 to 40 people.
The gangster leader was screaming and threatening a boy, a disciple of Ajahn Chum walked right into the conversation and asked few questions and within 5 minutes, the leader was stunned and confused, he then scolded his gang member for creating this mess and ordered him to apologize, the other fellow wasn’t happy and the leader slapped him.
After slapping, the commotion was diffused. What the the disciple did was reciting katha on the Mai Kru of Ajahn Chum to exert authority, commanding influence and confused the leader.
Ajahn Khun Pan did a similar feat while he was in the police force.
There was a gang fight outside his station. Ajahn Kun Pan recited a katha and hit his Mai Kru on the floor three times, then he continued sipping his coffee. The fight dispersed after 10 minutes.
Incident of Ajahn Chum Disciples
One of disciple was Ajahn Samnak Prom Than Tid Tham. He was disciple of Ajahn Chum, direct lineage of Luang Pu Hong Wat Ananda Metyarama, Chow Khun Kron (Tok Raja, Kelantan Malaysia), Chow Khun Lingdam (Kedah Malaysia), and Luang Por Sala, master of Luang Por Ler Wat Kron Chang Ngok.
1. In the 1970s, When Ajahn Than was around twenty odd years old, he used to hanged around in Malaysian coffeshops, once an old lady came pleading Ajahn to help her husband who was in coma and dying.
This old man family were victim of black magic. His son died a year ago.
The deities that they visited couldn’t save him. The dead son spirit entered the body of his family member and told the mum that the saver is in the coffeeshop and so she came looking for him.
Ajahn said he wasn’t prepared but did a ritual to bless a big bowl of water.
He placed his amulets in the bowl and started chanting. After that chanting, he gave the bowl to the lady to feed the husband saying if he can make it that night he will be OK.
The next day the old man came with a hamper and thanked Ajahn Than for saving his life.
2. A Malaysian tycoon owned several horses and asked Ajahn to bless his horse for a specific race.
Ajahn Than blessed a pack of milk to feed the horse. The horse came in first from an outsider position and the tycoon won lots of money.
After that he rented a private property in Malaysia and offered as a Samnak temple.
3. A reknown Chow Khun in South Thailand (currently 2558 still living) in the 1970+ requested Ajahn Than to introduce him to Ajahn Chum to learn from Ajahn Chum.
One day in his thirties, the monk was travelling in a Coach from South Thailand to Bangkok.
The Coach met a group of highway robbers armed with M16.
The bandits stopped the coach. The driver and passengers feared for their lives.
Knowing the men would be robbed and killed, the women would be raped. So the monk then told everyone to lay on the floor and he covered his monk robe over the driver head and body. He then told the driver to step on the gas.
The bandits saw the coach charging at them, stepped aside and saw the monk head.
So they sprayed and emptied the bullets at his head. When the coach managed to break away and reached a safety distance, the passengers saw the monk was bleeding on his head, bullets were stuck on the flesh but didn’t penetrate.
They rushed him to the nearest hospital and the story was feature on the front page of Thai Newspaper.
4. There was a a Malaysian lady cursed by black magic and a powerful spirit resided in her body.
The family brought her to consult many Bomoh and Thai Magicians, but none could get rid of this spirit. Even the Chinese Mediums with the deities were chased away by her spirit.
The family brought her to Ajahn Than. Ajahn Than went into his room to make holy water and started chanting away, she was waiting in the hall and started screaming and struggling when the chanting started. 8 men had to pin her down.
After the chanting they brought her on to the open grass patch.
She was still screaming and Ajahn told her “you want to leave now or you want to me to pour the water”, after saying she fainted.
When they brought her back to consciousness, she was complaining about hunger and thirst. And so the case was closed.
5. Ajahn Than made three batches of takud for Kronkapan, each batch of 99 pieces.
He would blessed for 3 months and subsequently blessed for another year.
Even monk tried to steal his takud. There was a disciple wore a Tiger tooth and takud met a serious accident in Malaysian highway.
He was crushed and ran over by a container trucker, his motorcycle was in pieces but he was unharmed.
6. A lady had a bad quarrel with her husband and decided to take her life by jumping off from a fourth storey apartment.
She was unharmed and lived to tell the story that something was holding her all the way to the ground.
7. A construction worker used to wear a chain with the takud and would always throw the chain onto the nail that sticked out from the wall at the end of the day work.
All the while it was fine until one day he missed and the chain fell to the ground. The next morning he couldn’t wake up as he had a terrible chest pain with a 4 cm dark patched on his chest.
He went to see doctors but to no avail and his mum brought him to see a spiritual medium.
The medium said he had offended his god and told him to light three joss stick and apologize to the heaven. After that the pain and patch disappeared.