Most members of the Thai youth football team rescued from a flooded cave will have their heads shaved and don robes to be ordained as novices in a Buddhist ceremony on Tuesday.
Their coach will also receive monk’s orders.
One of the boys will not join the ceremony as he is a Christian.
The group will spend nine days living in a monastery, a tradition for males in Thailand who experience adversity.
They were trapped for more than two weeks before a dramatic rescue.
Thai cave boys were all released from hospital last week and are said to be in good health after their ordeal in the snaking caverns of the Tham Luang caves of northern Thailand.
This step is intended to be a “spiritual cleansing” for the group.
“They should spend time in a monastery. It’s for their protection,” Seewad Sompiangjai, grandfather of Night, one of the rescued boys told the BBC earlier. “It’s like they died but now have been reborn.”
Thai officials said the boys will start the process by having their heads shaved, before attending a robe ceremony on Wednesday.
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They will stay in different monasteries until 4 August meditating, praying and cleaning their temple and the length of time they will spend doing this – nine days – is a nod to a Thai lucky number.
One of the Thai cave boys, Adul Sam-on, will not be joining the rest of the “Wild Boars” football team as he is a Christian.
Their coach Ekkapol “Ake” Chantawong, 25, will join them for the same period of time but as a fully fledged monk rather than a novice.
The coach had spent time in a monastery as a novice before this.
Although he has attracted some criticism for taking the boys into the cave, he is also credited with helping them through the ordeal by reportedly teaching them meditation techniques to help them stay calm and use as little air as possible.
The 12 boys and their football coach had spent nine days in the cave with little food or light when British divers first reached them on July 2.
