Phuket: How much would you pay for a plastic amulet?

[webfact]

How much would you pay for a plastic amulet?

The tourists are offered amulets for sale, priced between 6,800 and 50,000 baht.

By Tanutam Thawan

 

  

The shenanigans at the Kathu Temple, where Chinese tour buses are arriving daily in their droves to purchase ‘lucky’ and ‘magic’ amulets, continues. This time two Dutch tourists, interested to visit a temple and check out the alleged lucky amulets, were horrified by what they discovered.

 

The two, who have asked us not to publish their names, visited the temple yesterday (February 26) as independent travellers although most of the visitors are Chinese tour groups – sometimes up to 15 buses at a time – who are taken to the holy place.

 

Our Dutch tourists observed the telling of stories, in Chinese by Chinese tour guides, explaining the ‘history’ of the amulets and their ‘origin’. They were then guided to a large building in the temple which is basically a huge showroom of amulets and displays.

 

Full story: https://www.phuketgazette.net/news/much-pay-plastic-amulet

 

-- © Copyright Phuket Gazette 2018-02-28

[Samui Bodoh]

5 minutes ago, webfact said:

How much would you pay for a plastic amulet?

 

Nothing.

 

Because I am capable of reason and thought.

 

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

[George Bowman]

...a Tourist Police representative politely explained to them that it was best not to take the matter any further because it could be seen as offensive towards Thai religious practices...

 

And probably said with a straight face.

Edited February 28, 2018 by missoura

[canuckamuck]

Consider it a tax on stupid.

[darksidedog]

These amulets are obviously very lucky. Well, at least for the person selling a piece of plastic trash for hundreds of times its real value. Very lucky for him to have so many idiots passing through the shop too.

[worgeordie]

The reason they are so expensive ,is they are made with

the special very lucky plastic,and blessed on mass by

the temples top abbot.it seems all religions have their

money makers,as thats what its all about,power and money.

regards worgeordie

[Hayduke]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

How much would you pay for a plastic amulet?

 

I never pay less than 100,000. Everyone knows the cheap ones have far fewer magical powers than the expensive ones.

 

Edited February 28, 2018 by Hayduke

[mercman24]

i was told by a girl to go to the temple for *good luck* i said there is no such a thing, you make your own luck in life,as a person who has had nothing ,lived in a car and then had my own company, 2 house and a roller, i think i can speak with some authority. thai kids are brainwashed at an early age, seen it with my own eyes.

[smedly]

what is funny here is the fact that Chinese think they are ripping off the Thais by making these for next to nothing and selling them to Thais for huge profits lol 

 

The Chinese buy them back for a massive profit plus a blessing then get run over by a speedboat  

Edited February 28, 2018 by smedly

[Emster23]

Everyone knows that plastic ones aren't have as powerful as the bone ones. Lots of research done on this. You could look it up.

[Gumballl]

The amulet in the pic looks nice. What is is worth? Up to you.

[RichardColeman]

Bet the local 7/11 is busy with all the monks buying up the free amulet magazines.

[Kasset Tak]

I admit that I have a few amulets but I mostly buy them to help temples and other places to raise money. For example: I have a Buddha statue sold by the Veterinarian faculty at Chang Mai University to raise money to modernize one of their laboratories and I have one amulet that I bought just yesterday that was sold to help Sarabury Technical College to raise money to renovate some buildings. And I have some other amulets from monks/temples, for example: the abbot in one temple hand carved 69 closed eyes amulets using old wood from the Ubosot and then they were sold to help raise money to build a new roof on the Ubosot (I have 3 have them, 1 to keep and 2 as investment...).

 

I also have some amulets that I actually bought because I like them. One example of those amulets is the one in the picture, it was a whooping 2,000Baht in the temple (+500 for a silver case), but then it's made from silver and the monk only made 8 of them (8 made of silver but he also made 1 in gold and 990 in brass)... it's from the first batch of amulets ever made by the monk that hand carved those 69 amulets and today it's valued to 10-15,000Baht by the local Thai collectors!

 

There you see the difference between mass produced shit and quality amulets...

[trainman34014]

Religion is a curse; remember that and your life will be a lot luckier !

[klauskunkel]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

How much would you pay for a plastic amulet?

Well, it's holy plastic...

[sungod]

Great thread, just given Dan/Inspire another idea for one of his Vlogs!

[LivinginKata]

35 minutes ago, klauskunkel said:

Well, it's holy plastic...

 

It's a holy scam ...

[Ralf61]

The smart ones make a living from the stupid ones, and the stupid ones make a living from work!

 

(as my missus is used to say, with a somewhat strange grin in her face)