Returning to Wat Bang Phra many years later, he was made abbot used temple donations to build a bridge over the adjacent river so that farmers could more easily bring their crops to market in Nakhon Chaisi or beyond, and constructed the local public hospital that today bears his name. As his reputation for wisdom and loving kindness grew, thousands of Thais travelled to Wat Bang Phra to receive the blessings of the great monk and to become his lifelong disciples. Many received sak yant from the abbot and the monks he assiduously trained. By the time Luang Phor Pern died in 2002 at the age of 79, he had become one of Thailand’s most well-known and beloved monastics. Because of Luang Phor Pern’s association with the border tiger legend, devotional images of the late monk today often depict him meditating on the back of a tiger.