Ashes of Wild Boar ‘Dom’ scattered in Mekong as family, team say final farewell
The ashes of Wild Boars football team captain Duangpetch “Dom” Promthep were scattered on the Mekong River in Chiang Rai by his family on Monday.
Members and followers of the team joined the ceremony to bid a final farewell to Duangpetch.
The ashes of the 18-year-old – one of 12 young members of the Wild Boars football team rescued from a flooded cave in Chiang Rai in 2018 – had been handed over to his grieving family at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok on Saturday on their return from England.
Duangpetch won a scholarship to study at Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire in August last year.
He was found unconscious in his academy dorm room on February 12 by a teacher and was taken to hospital. He was placed on a ventilator but died two days later at Kettering General Hospital.
The cause of the teenager’s death is still being investigated.
On Monday, the grieving family and friends were accompanied by around 100 fan-club followers and press as they carried Duangpetch’s ashes from Phra That Doi Wao Temple in Mae Sai district to a pier in Chiang Saen district.
They then boarded a boat and headed out onto the Mekong, where Duangpetch’s family sprinkled his ashes in the water in a ceremony led by the temple’s abbot, Phra Kru Prayut Chetiyanukarn.
Following them was another boat carrying Wild Boar team members and coaches, who floated a miniature boat carrying Duangpetch’s belongings and footballs they had signed.
