A 68 year-old monk Thammakorn Wangpreech in Thailand has chopped off his own head using a guillotine.
He regarded his suicide as an offering to Buddha, hoping he would be reincarnated as a ‘higher spiritual being’.
Thammakorn had reportedly been planning the bizarre ritual sacrifice for more than five years.
The monk believed that making the offering to the deity would bring him good luck in the afterlife – a belief known in Buddhism as ‘making merit’.
The monk was found dead on April 15 by his brother at the Wat Phu Hin temple in Nong Bua Lamphu province, in north-eastern Thailand.
Daily Mail