Loy Kroh

[WinnieTheKhwai]

When doing this post ( http://www.thaivisa....ost__p__5187330 ) I wanted to put in an English meaning of Loy Kroh (as in the name of the temple in Chiang Mai, and the road that goes alongside it), but found it really hard to come up with something in English that's a good road name and explains the concept.

Is there anyone better versed in Buddhism than I who can shed some light on this?

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Starter:

Loy -- Literally: Float. Or on a spiritual level: absolve, liberate, release

Kroh -- Fate, chance, destiny; I wonder if the negative is implied; otherwise why would you want to release it or be liberated from it. Although Buddhism can be so bloody Jedi at times that good and bad become meaningless. As in to move beyond your personal, physical fate, a detachment from good or bad fortune.

[expatmakmak]

Loy = Very

Kroh = Sleazy

(and to put my own spin on it) = Mak mak!

[DowntownAl]

The word liberate does not necessarily mean freed “from” something. As in a step toward liberation as opposed to a step away from oppression (semantics maybe, but philosophies of all sorts play that game). Or: a purposeful positive move ( a liberation) toward one's destiny.

[hellodolly]

The word liberate does not necessarily mean freed “from” something. As in a step toward liberation as opposed to a step away from oppression (semantics maybe, but philosophies of all sorts play that game). Or: a purposeful positive move ( a liberation) toward one's destiny.

In this case a liberation towards ones base desires of sex of all kinds and booze.

[anselpixel]

"Cast your fate to the wind" comes to mind.

[Beetlejuice]

Here are the facts and not a lot of people know this.

Back in the pre-war year 1937 the main city of Chiang Mai was a deprived poverty stricken area. In fact so severe was the poverty and the sufferings of it`s inhabitants that the word soon began spreading around the world.

The Holy Welsh Presbyterian Church in all it`s wisdom decided to send one of it`s breatharian to investigate and find a solution to the plight and sufferings of the city’s poorest residents.

So they sent one of they’re wisest and most admirable men as an ambassador of the civilised world, a Welsh missionary by the name of John Thomas. When he arrived at the scene of what is now known as Loi Kroh but during that time was not worthy of a name, he was appalled and shocked by all the poverty he was witnessing. John Thomas could speak no English, and could only speak in Welsh Gaelic. In his native tongue John Thomas described the locals as Loi, meaning haggard and grey haired and the area as Kroh, meaning filth and neglect, the shortened term being, Grot. The full translation meaning a deprived slum like area inhabited by aging, haggard and wretched individuals.

During the later part of 1938 John Thomas met up with his associates from various charitable organisations and held a meeting with the village elders. All wise and learned men came up with a master plan. They decided to transform the rat infested diseased ridden slums of the area into drinking establishments that would employ the local aging no hoper residents as hostesses and bar staff, mostly to service and to attract the more discerning mature foreign clientele of little wealth.

The scheme was a success and in late 1945 after the Japanese air force failed in it`s attempts to demolish the vicinity with intense bombing, the area fondly became known as Loi Kroh after how it was described by John Thomas when he first arrived there in 1937 and of course the rest is history.

Even today some of the original bar hostesses from 1938 are still employed in the numerous massage parlours that frequent the area.

[TommoPhysicist]

Translation (ลอย เคราะห์ )

Let misfortune float away

[Puwa]

The Holy Welsh Presbyterian Church in all it`s wisdom decided to send one of it`s breatharian to investigate and find a solution to the plight and sufferings of the city’s poorest residents.

The breatharians have a really tough time during the burning season.

[isanbirder]

I didn't realise it was a Welsh missionary gone rampant. But I like the breatharians... sounds like a new heresy!

I thought it meant a hundred something (one guess for what).

[TommoPhysicist]

I didn't realise it was a Welsh missionary gone rampant. But I like the breatharians... sounds like a new heresy!

I thought it meant a hundred something (one guess for what).

I thought he was talking about a Scottish disease, but then noticed .... no L

[uptheos]

Even today some of the original bar hostesses from 1938 are still employed in the numerous massage parlours that frequent the area.

[orang37]

Sawasdusty Lungcake, CM TV friends,

While I think Khun Beetlejuice's elegant exegesis, here, will never equaled, I have heard a variant story: that a wandering Jesuit in the mid-19th. century came here, and, wracked by tropical fevers, succumbed to local temptations of the sexual flavor in a house of lotus-repute on what was then a dirt track leading off from the moat (the future Loy Kroh).

He died here, and in his last words mumbled the words written over the entrance to the descent to the underworld in Dante's "Inferno" that Virgil and Dante saw: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'entrate:" "abandon hope all ye who enter here."

His companion at the time of his death, a former Monk, interpreted these words as being in the old Chiang Mai language, Cam Meung, and referring to a palm-leaf manuscript variant of the Tribhumi of Phra Ruang, known only in Lanna, and referring to the nature of the Thai Phiyakhoot (the Garuda, the celestial beaked bird who is the "vahanam," or "vehicle," of Lord Vishnu), made reference to the terrible power of his beak to rend human flesh while he served as the instrument of Lord Vishnu's "preserving the world").

This same former Monk, a master Mor Doo, and Mor Phii, and magician, then performed an act of exorcism to free the street from the curse of the farang Phra's death, a rite of appeasement of the ravening Phiyakhoot, and his cosmic incorporeal force, Lord Vishnu.

Hence the name "loy" which, as in the expression, "poot ching ching jung loy," is actually an "intensifier" of a qualitative aspect (the opposite of the use of "mak" as a quantitative intensifier).

And "kroh," in the archaic Cam Meung of those times, meant both the "beak" of a raptor-bird, and "dangerously sharp edge" on a knife.

Hence: "Loy Kroh:" interpreted as: "a very dangerous place for the rendering of flesh."

best, ~o:37;

[KRS1]

Loy = Very

Kroh = Sleazy

(and to put my own spin on it) = Mak mak!

Loy = For

Kroh = Farangs

[Johpa]

I think the last time I met up with the Welshman was about 10 years ago, maybe longer. Not sure if he is still around. Nto even sure others are still around who can remember the Welshman's Pit with the dirt floor, but yes, the Welshman did represent the lowest common denominator in the ex-pat world until ThaiVIsa came into existence and a whole new generation of ex-pats came upon the scene and made the Welshman look halfway decent.

[DowntownAl]

The word liberate does not necessarily mean freed “from” something. As in a step toward liberation as opposed to a step away from oppression (semantics maybe, but philosophies of all sorts play that game). Or: a purposeful positive move ( a liberation) toward one's destiny.

In this case a liberation towards ones base desires of sex of all kinds and booze.

I see your point, good thinking...

[theblether]

I didn't realise it was a Welsh missionary gone rampant. But I like the breatharians... sounds like a new heresy!

I thought it meant a hundred something (one guess for what).

I thought he was talking about a Scottish disease, but then noticed .... no L

Noted.

[naboo]

Lewd

Old

Idiots

Keep

Returning

On

Heat

[strollling]

Lewd

Old

Idiots

Keep

Returning

On

Heat

Ladies

Of

Intimacy

Keep

Ripping

Off

Handsomes.

[bristolgeoff]

loi /floating kroh/ angels

[AndersSN]

Lewd

Old

Idiots

Keep

Returning

On

Heat

Ladies

Of

Intimacy

Keep

Ripping

Off

Handsomes.

Laid

On

Instant

King

Road

Of

Hussies

[lifeincnx]

Loy = Low

Kroh = Life Farangs

[strollling]

Lewd

Old

Idiots

Keep

Returning

On

Heat

Ladies

Of

Intimacy

Keep

Ripping

Off

Handsomes.

Laid

On

Instant

King

Road

Of

Hussies

Lots

Offered

Instantly

Kiss,

Rim,

Or

Hugs.

[nicksal37]

What a sad bunch of people write on this forum.Loy Kroh road offers many things.There are some good restaurants,and I mean good,and some great drinking places to go to.If you don't want to be hassled by females then there are many nice drinking holes to visit.Try the Old Bell.If you do not like to have a drink or eat nice food......simple stay away!

[dave2]

L .. load

O . of

I .. idiots.

no one is safe until ? : (

dave2

[uptheos]

I'm wondering if people who write on here have actually travelled anywhere else in the world. Loi Kroh is just a street and a pretty ordinary one at that. For some it seems to be the centre of the universe and for others merely a street for slagging off. In both cases it is getting some claim to fame, which it certainly doesn't deserve. You want to see streets? (of all kind)....I mean real streets, then go spend some time in Europe and when you come back Loi Kroh will just be an alley.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

L .. load

O . of

I .. idiots.

no one is safe until ? : (

dave2

Awesome!!!!!!!! Was that today?

I might join them for a bit tomorrow. (Though will of course refrain from splashing anyone who isn't clearly participating.)

[muchogra]

It's certainly nice and academic to know what Loh Kroh means. After I have travelled the street up and down a few times, I try hard not to have my wife or my daughter venturing into the area. It's not that I think there's anything wrong, it's just the perception of some people, my wife and daughter included, of course.

[muchogra]

Loh Kroh is certainly not representative of what CM is as far as the so-called entertainment industry is concerned. People working there are hardly from CM. Do you agree or not?

[Beetlejuice]

L .. load

O . of

I .. idiots.

no one is safe until ? : (

dave2

Hey our dave2, you really do take some marvellous photos.

Have you considered publishing them in a Chiang Mai tour guide or on a website?

With your photographic talents, I would seriously think about contacting a tour guidebook publisher or companies such a Tripadvisor or Lonely Planet.

Just out of interest, have you ever worked in journalism or within the commercial photographic industries? If you haven’t, I would certainly look into it as a future project.