“I’ve grilled 1,000 stillborn babies,” proclaimed Nain Ae

"...A mummified baby in the corner – that looks like a cross between a fruit bat and a vampire – is decorated with prayer beads. It’s psyching me out. “That’s my show piece for clients who want to buy a kumon tong- golden baby,” beams Nain Ae.

On the way to the toilet for an atmosphere break, this guy is intense, I espy a few large rice wine glasses in which appears primordial slim. “That’s the glass I picked fetuses in,” says the black magician who is shadowing my every move. I continue to scrutinize blood stained butcher knifes. “Never know when they come in handy,” he remarks. This guy is truly beyond the pale. But I don’t dare tell him that.

As a monk, Nain Ae was clandestinely supplied stillborn babies from hospitals and abortion clinics. The choicest came from the womb on Sunday, and the best day to grill them was a Tuesday, according to him. Who am I to argue? To conjure up the ‘baby spirit,’ it has to be grilled in the ordination hall. This explains why Nain Ae’s ranch is strategically placed next door to a temple.

Before grilling began, Nain Ae would bend the fetus into position and hold it with chicken wire. “The most requested position is vertical,” he explains, sparing me no detail as he points to his beaded showpiece,” so the Golden Baby can be carried around for good luck in either a handbag or trouser pocket.”

He’d then wrap the stillborn in sacred cloth with Buddhist designs, and roast the stillborn over hot coals for four hours until mummified, “With only the skin stretched over the skeleton, he elaborates. “It’s important to pray into the fetus the whole time, telling it to be a good spirit for it’s master, and to bring him prosperity.”

“I tell my customers they must give offerings of Coke and sweets to the spirit baby. If they don’t, I warn them, the spirit of kumon tong will dance on the end of their beds in the twilight hours, terrorizing their owners out of their own homes.” As a follow up service, Nain Ae performs exorcisms. “But they don’t come cheaply.”...

[link to tripatlas.com]