Since decades Wat Prabat Nampu, a remote Buddhist temple in Thailand's Lopburi province, has offered refuge to men, women and children affected by HIV. Most of the 300 patients came to the temple after their families ashamed to be associated with the disease rejected them.

And so Monk Phra Alongskot Tikkapannyo created this place where people could receive compassionate care and die peacefully with dignity.

To overturn the idea of the society who rejects the disease as well as the reminders of the deceased sufferers traditionally cremated, the temple decided to evidently expose their ashes in bags placed around a Buddha statue and display mummies corpses in a hall to be contemplated by visitors and guided tours.

Today antiretroviral drugs have brought new hopes and challenges. People used to come to the temple, die quickly and be cremated.

Now patients get better, survive, live longer and wish to stay forever to benefit the compassionate care and healing atmosphere that pervades the abbot.