Chanchai’s was responding after the late monk’s younger sister Khamman Wongkanchanarat, 91, and relatives filed a request to the Khon Kaen University rector on Tuesday asking to reclaim the monk’s remains on the grounds that the university had breached conditions in the late monk’s will.

Chanchai said the faculty spent a year preserving the body before using it as “Kru Yai” teaching material for medical students for two years. Then the monk’s body is scheduled to undergo religious rites and a royally-sponsored cremation ceremony along with 500 other “Kru Yai” bodies in 2018.

“We initially tried to do as the will said. The ceremony would be held either at Wat Nong Waeng or Wat That Muang Khao … while the cremation might be at a temple, which would be required to build a remembrance pagoda at the site. This is due to a belief that a place to cremate a revered monk must not be stepped upon afterwards. This matter would be first discussed with the will managers and related parties,” he said. The monk’s ashes and bones would also be put in the Mekong River in Nong Khai in line with the will, he said.

A source said the cremation site was still being discussed, although a possible choice was the E-san Buddhamonthon Park in Muang Khon Kaen.

Luang Phor Koon, one of the country’s most revered monks, passed away on May 16, 2015, at the age of 91 after a long history of illness.

Thawatchai Saenprasit, kamnan of Tambon Kud Piman in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Dan Khun Thot district, said it was common for relatives to bring people’s bodies to their hometowns for religious rites.

Since the monk was born in Kud Piman and had strong bonds with the district and the province, relatives and disciples have expressed a wish to bring him for a grand religious rite to honour what had been done for the area. He said a discussion with Wat Ban Rai committee members, relatives and villagers concluded that they all wanted to bring his body back for rites at the temple.

He said no one had an intention to seek benefit from the rites and were willing to have a panel comprising of Khon Kaen University staff, state officials, police, the Army and related agencies oversee the matter.

The late monk donated his body to Khon Kaen University for educational purposes and asked to be cremated to avoid “troubling others”, to prevent people from taking advantage of his body and to prevent conflicts among disciples.

The will from June 25, 2000, stated that there would be a simple funeral and cremation at a Khon Kaen temple after the university had used the body for educational purposes.