offered him honeycomb – may have their modern-day parallels
in some of this acariya’s experiences. To demonstrate the authen-
ticity of the episodes I’m about to relate, I shall identify him by
name. He is Ãcariya Chob^4 who, having been ordained as a monk
for many years, is now about 70 years old. He has always preferred
living in remote forest and mountain areas and still does so to this
day. Since he likes to trek through such wilderness areas at night,
he’s constantly encountering nocturnal creatures like wild tigers.
Leaving Lomsak in Phetchabun province one afternoon, he
started trekking north toward Lampang in the province of Chiang
Mai. As he was about to enter a large tract of forest, he met with
some local villagers who advised him, with obvious concern, to
spend the night near their village and then continue on the next
morning. They warned him that the forest he was about to enter
was vast, so there was no way someone entering it in the after-
noon could get through to the other side before dark. Those who
ended up stranded in this forest after dark invariably became food
for the huge tigers that roamed there at night. Since it was already
afternoon, he had no chance to hike through it in time. Once
darkness fell, the tigers began roaming around looking for some-
thing to eat, and they considered any person that they happened
on as just another source of food. Since no one ever escaped from
them alive, the villagers were fearful that Ãcariya Chob would
meet the same fate. It was already well after noon, so they did
not want him to enter the forest. They told him that a notice
had been posted, warning travelers about this ‘forest of yakkhas’
to keep them from being eaten by those monsters. Being curious,
Ãcariya Chob asked what yakkhas they were talking about. He
had read old accounts about such creatures but had never actu-
jacob rumans
(Jacob Rumans)
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