Geek in Thailand. Jody Houton
disgraced, disrobed Luang Pu Nen Kham.
Phra Chamroon Panchan died in 1999, aged 73, but the temple still offers help to Thai and foreign addicts who wish to experience a Buddhist approach to drug rehabilitation. There have been a number of famous Westerners who have completed treatment at Wat Thamkrabok.
ISLAM IN THAILAND
Islam is Thailand’s largest minority religion and is practiced by around 7.5 million people, or about 12 percent of the population. The majority of Thai Muslims are ethnically Malay, and speak Malay as well as Thai, but there are also many of Middle Eastern, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Cambodian origin.
Although Thai Muslims and mosques are scattered throughout the kingdom, the highest concentration of Thai Muslims is in Bangkok while 18 percent live in the southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, Yala, and Satun bordering Malaysia. The former Islamic sultanates of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat were handed to Thailand by British Malaya as part of the Anglo-Siamese Treaty of 1909 that defined the modern border between the two nations.
In many areas of Thailand, Muslim communities live peacefully side by side with Buddhist communities. However, there is serious and very real unrest in southern Thailand, with an increasing level of fighting between Muslim military insurgents and the Thai army in the three main Muslim provinces. The conflict has seen almost 6,000 people—Muslims and soldiers—killed since 2004. A large percentage of residents in the majority Muslim areas in the south feel they are under-represented at a political level and would like to have independence from Thailand, and insurgents are therefore fighting for autonomy.
Thai Muslim girls enjoy a cold drink.
Bang Tao Mosque.
OTHER RELIGIONS IN THAILAND
Despite a relatively small number of followers, Hinduism has had a huge impact on Thailand’s culture and its interpretation of Buddhism. The clearest example of the religion’s influence is the adoption and adaptation of the Hindu epic Ramayana into the Thai version, the Ramakien, which came to be used as inspiration for Thai theater productions, dances, songs, art, and even modern-day Thai soap opera plots.
There is also a small community of Sikhs, mostly engaged in the business sector in Thailand, with high numbers in the larger cities of Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket.
Christianity was introduced to Thailand by European missionaries as early as the 1550s and the missions played an important role as agents for the transmission of Western ideas, such as medicine and education. Soon after, King Narai ordered the building of St Joseph’s Church in Ayutthaya for the use of missionaries and foreign religious workers and local converts, mostly Chinese. There are currently around 500,000 Christians in Thailand.
Attendees dress up to celebrate a Hindu festival in Phuket.
The White Church in Samut Songkhram.
GHOSTS IN THE VILLAGE
Tales of ghosts, spirits and un-earthly beings are not just reserved for Halloween in Thailand. It is quite common to see shrines, better known as spirit houses, erected in a prominent spot outside homes, offices, hotels and other buildings in order to provide an appealing shelter to wandering spirits. Offerings must be presented regularly at these spirit houses.
Many ghost stories have their origin in traditional Thai folklore and animism but have also become intertwined and adapted by traditional Buddhist mythology. The omnipresence and continued popularity of the Thai spirit world can also be seen in the recurring theme of both good and evil ghosts in Thai movies and Thai soap operas. In 2013, Thai ghost movie Pee Mak became the highest selling Thai movie of all time.
Villagers in the northeast and rural communities of Thailand still believe in black magic and ghosts. They will sometimes wear bracelets made by monks to protect themselves from harmful ghosts. One of the most common ghosts terrorizing rural communities is Pee Mae Mai, a lonely widow, who is believed to prey on the men of a village. If a large number of men die or disappear from a particular community, Pee Mae Mai is believed to be responsible and is thought to be lurking about. Villagers will rush to make basic puppets of men, often fashioned from sticks with coconuts on top, to hang outside, along with a sign that reads ‘No men inside’ in a bid to throw Pee Mae Mai off the scent.
Another feared ghost is a female witch called Pop, who uses black magic to destroy or haunt people, make them fall in love or get sick. By day she could be the rice seller at a popular restaurant, but at night she becomes a ghost and exists to haunt villagers. It is believed that a tell-tale sign of a Pop is somebody who eats raw, live meat or perhaps a whole chicken. Even today, it is quite popular for villagers to organize witch-hunts to seek out and kill a village Pop.
Spirit houses are highly visible outside public buildings and private residences.
A teenager reads a Thai ghost comic.
THAI FOLKLORE
The importance of myths and folklore and how they interweave and are relevant to Thai cultural thinking is not to be taken lightly. Stories of spirits and of mythical creatures are to Thailand what fairy tales and superheroes are to the West, and are similarly used as cautionary tales and to entertain successive generations.
The fact that so many Thais still carry charms, wear amulets, make merit and choose particular phone numbers is a clear indication that myths and folklore are still an influential part of everyday Thai life, if not perhaps as widespread and staunchly believed today.
Some Thais choose auspicious dates to buy cars to avoid accidents. Some don’t point at rainbows to avoid losing their finger and many don’t have their hair cut on a Wednesday to steer clear of bad luck. All have their origins in Thai mythology and folklore.
Even today, Thai TV shows featuring fortune-tellers and clairvoyants or people recounting their experiences with ghosts and spirits is a common staple. Each year there are tales of hauntings, possessions and things that go bump in the night, which are, in a cyclical manner, given credence and reaffirmation with the regular coverage. As Thai belief decrees that a premature death often results in ghosts haunting the area in which someone died until they are given an official and religious send-off, news of ghostly sightings following the 2004 Thai tsunami became commonplace in newspapers and on TV shows, with one story in particular quickly cementing its placement as a modern Thai myth.
A ‘lucky’ 20 baht fish.
STORIES BECOME MYTHS
Apparently, a few weeks after the tsunami, a Phuket taxi driver was flagged down by four tourists who asked to be taken to the airport.
On the journey there, they all chatted freely until they arrived at their destination. Upon turning around to inform his passengers that they had arrived, the driver found that his cab was empty. As a result of such tales, and in order to encourage ghost-fearing visitors back to the island post-tsunami, hundreds of monks took to the beaches to perform cleansing ceremonies and allow the restless spirits to be able to depart this world.
In 2013, upon apparently seeing the ghost of an old lady in the sleepy beach-side town of Khao Lak, near Phuket, 21 schoolgirls and one schoolboy were taken to hospital, checked and treated for fear of mass possession.