The Body Snatchers

Brent Lewin June 3, 2009 Meet the Buddhist emergency workers who outrace ambulances and police in hyper-crowded Bangkok.

TGIF, thinks Dai. After a full day working for an international bank, the petite and soft-spoken thirty-two-year-old races to the Lumpini Park gates where friends whisk her away for a night on the town. She will limp home at 5:00 AM, having seen four gruesome car wrecks and one suicide.

Dai is a volunteer for the Por Tek Tung Foundation, Thailand’s largest provider of emergency medical services (EMS). Created by Chinese immigrants in the capital of Bangkok more than one hundred years ago, Por Tek Tung began by offering free funeral services for the city’s poor, and …

  • You must be a subscriber to view the rest of this content.
  • You can purchase a subscription here.
  • If you have a subscription, please log in.
Summer

ISSUE 36 Summer 2010

online content:

also in this issue: