A group of young football players rescued from a cave in northern Thailand have came out of monkhood after spending nine days as Buddhist novices to express gratitude for their rescue.
Dressed in orange robes with their heads still shaved, the eleven boys aged 11 to 16 bid farewell to the monks taking care of them before returning home.
The boys and their coach also held a Buddhist prayer in front of the cave for the last time before returning to normal life.
Members of Wild Boars football team during a prayer ceremony. Source: AAP
Special tutoring sessions will be given to the boys, who have missed their classes since they were trapped in the cave, their teachers said.
In Thailand, where the majority of the population are Buddhists, ordination serves as an act of gratitude. Any adult male can enter a brief monkhood, while boys can serve briefly as novices.
Adul Sam-on, 14, was the only one in the group of 13 trapped in the cave who did not enter monkhood because he is a Christian.
The coach, 25-year-old Ekapol Chantawong, is expected to remain a monk for three more months.
The group visited Tham Luang-Khun Nam Nang Non Cave, 1,000 kilometres north of Bangkok, on June 23.
They were trapped inside for more than two weeks after a flash flood blocked their only exit, leading to Thailand's biggest ever rescue operation and involving thousands of people from many countries.
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