How Thai monks use sacred saffron rituals to save trees

On the morning of July 11, three saffron-robed monks and a dozen devotees gathered in a dense forest of Thailand’s Chaiyaphum province. After chanting prayers, they encircled a towering tree, draping it in a vivid orange cloth – the same used to robe ordained monks.
This was no ordinary Buddhist ritual, but part of a growing practice called tree ordination – a symbolic act that “ordains” endangered trees as monks to protect them from logging and development.
Part spiritual blessing and part…