Ant infestation tests Buddhist monks

Buddhist monks in Malaysia, are enduring the sting of red ants because they can’t kill these ants due to their belief in non-violence. Buddhist monks they are not allowed to kill any living thing. The ants have stung the monks and devotees but the monks cannot lift a finger. They can only hope that the ants go away. 
Stinging fire ants have infested the Hong Hock See Temple for a year now. One devotee was bitten so badly that he had to receive hospital treatment.

Boon Keng, the temple’s hed monk, was quoted by The Star newspaper as saying that the monks had to “respect other living things” in the temple. “When an ant drops on you, you must not flick it away or blow on it,” he told the newspaper. “If you do, it will bite to hold on. You just have to shake it off.”

He said last year, a disciple used a vacuum cleaner to suck up thousands of the ants and released them into the forest. He said that they were able to remove the queen ant but the infestation still persists.

The newspaper published a photograph of Boon Keng standing beside a sign at the temple that read: “Beware poisonous ants. Do not sit under the tree.”

News bit and photo courtesy of The Star Online