Luang Phor Kob

Luang Phor Kob is a guru monk that stayed at Wat Kham Salika and is well-respected by the locals at Lopburi Province which is about 180 km away from Bangkok. Yet there is no  information about where Luang Phor Kob came from and which year he was born as no one knew. However, many of the locals believed that he came from Yunnan which is located in China as he was a hokkien by dialect. 

As such he is filled with mysteries and miracles.It has been passed down that on an occasion, the weather was stormy and there was a heavy downpour that flooded the village. And Wat Kham Salika was an old temple, the villagers were worried whether the temple could withstand such bad weather. However, Luang Phor Kob noticed that his disciples were worried. Hence he told them not to worry as the rain was going to stop and indeed, the rain did stop. Soon after the rain, his disciples became hungry. At that time, they heard frogs croaking outside, which made them hungry. But no one dared to ask permission from Luang Phor Kob to catch the frogs outside. The unexpected thing happened, it was like Luang Phor Kob was able to read their minds and told them to catch the frogs to eat. They were delighted and went to catch the frogs but after an hour they still could not catch any of the frogs. They had no choice but to head back to the temple with disappointment and hunger. Upon seeing that, Luang Phor Kob took a basket and returned fifteen minutes later. This time round, the basket was full of frogs. He instructed them to eat the frogs only within the temple and not to bring any of it back to home. However one of the disciples took a few home secretly. When he reached home, to his surprise, the frogs were no longer there and he then found out that these frogs were actually leaves with magical yants written on them. He immediately went back to find Luang Phor Kob to seek forgiveness. This incident earned Luang Phor Kob the name ” Kob'' which means frog in Thai.

Luang Phor Kob was also a monk who had saved many from drought and epidemic. Thousands of people visited him to pay respect as he is well known for his magical powers. Some who visited him brought gold as gifts but he was never interested. Luang Phor Kob never talked much and when disciples asked him about his origins, he would mention that all these were not important but practicing the Buddha’s teachings is.

Another thing that Luang Phor Kob was famous for is his fire ritual. The fire ritual originated from Luang Phor Kob himself. It is believed that Luang Phor Kob would use a set of 12 different mantras based on Chinese Horoscope and candles wax which he would swallow and blow away the obstacles, bad luck and evil spirits. Later on, Luang Phor Kob passed down this fire ritual to 2 of his disciples. One being Luang Phor Opasi while the other one is Luang Phor Nong.

It was believed that Luang Phor Kob passed away in BE 2490. During that morning that he passed on, it was one of the rare occasions whereby he asked the villagers to donate rice and other food for the temple for a ceremony. As normally when villagers passed him things he would burn them away. This time round, when he received the items, he once again set fire to the items and that was the last and final time the villagers saw Luang Phor Kob. As Luang Phor Kob disappeared with the flame. However, there are some reports that when devotees were in crisis and needed help they would see Luang Phor Kob.