Buddhist temple vacant after monks fail drug tests, sent to rehabilitation

More monks will be sent to the temple to allow villagers to practise their religious obligations, a local official said.

A Buddhist monk during a ceremony at a temple in Thailand. Another temple in the country has been left without holy men after they failed drug tests. Source: AAP, EPA / Narong Sangnak

A Buddhist temple in central Thailand has been left without monks after all its holy men failed drug tests and were defrocked, a local official says.

Four monks including an abbot at a temple in Phetchabun province's Bung Sam Phan district tested positive for methamphetamine on Monday, district official Boonlert Thintapthai said on Tuesday.

The monks have been sent to a health clinic to undergo drug rehabilitation, the official said.

"The temple is now empty of monks and nearby villagers are concerned they cannot do any merit-making," he said.

Merit-making involves worshippers donating food to monks as a good deed.

Mr Boonlert said more monks will be sent to the temple to allow villagers to practise their religious obligations.

Thailand is a major transit country for methamphetamine flooding in from Myanmar's troubled Shan state via Laos, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

On the street, pills sell for less than 20 baht (around $0.85).

Authorities across southeast Asia have made record meth seizures in recent years.