The 346household "forgotten" village of Nong Pla Siew Moo 6 in Kanchanaburi's Sai Yok district is still waiting for electricity after nearly four decades, even though all surrounding communities have been wired up.
"Many residents vow that if our village gets electricity, they will commit to a votive monk ordination," village headman Phaitoon Thanjaichon, 28, said yesterday.
Most of the 1,076 residents depend on candles and pressure lanterns for light while a few rich families buy generators or solar panels.
The villagers have submitted requests for electrification to agencies for years.
Out of the eight villages in Tambon Sri Mongkol, all have power except this village, despite its location in the middle of the area.
The Army, on whose land the village is located, has not approved the power distribution layout, despite the reported appropriation of a Bt11 million government budget for the project.
The residents are puzzled and feel bad about the rejection, because villages that do have electricity were also situated on Army land.
Grandma Wa Sriboonpeng, 78, said she moved from Suphan Buri to this village in 1970 and had never had an electric supply. She hoped her community would have power before she died.
The village has one satellite school with 200 students, ranging from kindergarten to the third grade. The school runs on solar energy, sufficient for general purposes, but not enough to operate computers.