Odd Or Obscure Thai Traditions

[abhaya]

Have just finished reading The Spirit & Voodoo world of Thailand- Ricardo Choo, check it out if your are interested in this side of Thailand.

[khaowong1]

"Does anyone know the background or any more information on this tradition?"

Yes - ignorance, poor education, and a culture that allows a small group of people to be believed no matter what dribble they say. I wonder how much dosh the parents also had / have to pay for the monks to cleanse the bad spirits?

Well at least she is not going to burn for all eternity for the lack of a good head wetting.

Maybe she will though. What if she has backed the wrong religion; the wrong god, and all these parent induced antics are not placating some god or spirits but instead winding it up. Maybe the real god is indeed a vengeful smoting god. Dangerous territory.

So what's the solution? Sit back and do nothing? Stick your head in the sand? Do you believe that YOUR GOD is the only God and everybody else is wrong? What makes you think that your religion or any other religion is the correct one? Are you telling us that you personally talk to God and he has given you the correct answer? And it seems like you have a some animosity toward Budddhism and/or Buddhist monks.

[khaowong1]

Here's a short article I found on those Top-Knots. Although I have only seen young boys wearing them, sometimes young girls do also.

The most important reason kids wore topknots is spiritual. Thai people believe there's a spirit in their heads. The spirit is called kwan. People say the spirit can be seen in the pulse beat of a child's head where their skull bones don't completely join. Kwan protects people from harm and illness. Kwan is delicate. It needs to be protected by hair. So when children got their first haircut, the hair which covered kwan is left. This lock of hair is called a topknot.

These used to be popular because they were a symbol of childhood. People respected this tradition, and were kind to children who wore them.

Kids cut off their topknots when they grow up. Boys cut it off at about 13 and girls at about 11. Girls cut their top knots off earlier than boys because they grow up faster than boys.

The special topknot cutting ceremony is called: Gon Juk in Thai. Although this is largely a Brahman ceremony, Buddhist monks are also sometimes invited to bless everyone present

[belg]

religion = poison

[simple1]

My wife's female Thai Muslim friend is getting married to a Buddhist. They came to our house last night and the Buddhist guy said he was under a black magic spell. So we asked why he thought that and he said he cannot get a previous GF out of his thoughts! So my wife (Thai Muslim) said I'll make a drink for you to cast out the spell. It was only warm water, the guy drank it and immediately vomited, said with a big smile Muslim magic is very strong!

Edited September 3, 2012 by simple1

[maxme]

religion = poison

May be but look what it did to the western countries, sorry but if it weren't for Christendom we wouldn't even have this kind of luxury we have today. And before you begin snapping, we do enjoy privileges others dream of.

Unfortunately there are some if not many who cannot understand what it was intended for and use religion for their own purposes.

There is a difference between an open-minded atheist and a non tolerant atheist. I find the latter one bases his/her opinion on heresay rather than facts.

Fact is we would do much better if we were open-minded and respected every religion for their beliefs as we do with the UFO fanatics because democracy is about believing what you want and being able to voice an opinion... is it not?

[MrFrank]

When it comes to superstitions and weird beliefs, the Chinese leave the rest of us for dead. The Devpt Bank of Singapore management (all western PhDs and MBAs) rearranged its furniture and swapped the staff and customer entrances on the advice of a feng shui master to increase profits. Unfortunately, it worked.

In addition, there are the caveats about sharp instruments as gifts, white wrapping paper, walking in straight lines and on and on. A Chinese friend of mine says it drives her crazy, but, especially if older people are around, they must do all this stuff.

I bought a really big book on Feng Shui, but I couldn't decide the best place to put it in my apartment.

[MrFrank]

Two interesting examples that I have personally encountered.

1. A previous Thai girlfriend had no nickname. She said that when she was a baby she became very sick, but he nearest doctor was 30km away and travel was difficult, since they lived in rural Sisaket near the Cambodian border. They set off on a cart attached to a buffalo but she allegedly "died" on the way, so they diverted to the local temple. Her "death" was believed to be caused by evil spirits eating her soul. As most on this forum probably already know, nicknames are mostly chosen to make a baby seem unappealing to evil spirits, so it was assumed that this was part of the problem. The solution was for the monk to "buy" her from her parents for 1 Baht, thus making her his spiritual property and requiring him to rename her. As a result, she would appear to be a different person to the evil spirits. Apparently when you are named in this way you just get the one name, and no nickname.

2. A few years ago, while in Bangkok, I contracted a form of conjunctivities that made my eyes very red, sore and sensitive to light. Everyone I knew was sympathetic and also very curious to have a closer look, which involved taking off my sunglasses. As i did so, absolutely everyone without exception would stick out their tongue repeatedly, while remaining otherwise sympathetic and talking normally (as far as anyone can while sticking their tongue in and out). Apparently they all believed that this would prevent them from catching whatever I had.

[maxme]

Two interesting examples that I have personally encountered.

1. A previous Thai girlfriend had no nickname. She said that when she was a baby she became very sick, but he nearest doctor was 30km away and travel was difficult, since they lived in rural Sisaket near the Cambodian border. They set off on a cart attached to a buffalo but she allegedly "died" on the way, so they diverted to the local temple. Her "death" was believed to be caused by evil spirits eating her soul. As most on this forum probably already know, nicknames are mostly chosen to make a baby seem unappealing to evil spirits, so it was assumed that this was part of the problem. The solution was for the monk to "buy" her from her parents for 1 Baht, thus making her his spiritual property and requiring him to rename her. As a result, she would appear to be a different person to the evil spirits. Apparently when you are named in this way you just get the one name, and no nickname.

2. A few years ago, while in Bangkok, I contracted a form of conjunctivities that made my eyes very red, sore and sensitive to light. Everyone I knew was sympathetic and also very curious to have a closer look, which involved taking off my sunglasses. As i did so, absolutely everyone without exception would stick out their tongue repeatedly, while remaining otherwise sympathetic and talking normally (as far as anyone can while sticking their tongue in and out). Apparently they all believed that this would prevent them from catching whatever I had.

The worker class is glued to the TVs, watching ghost programs and when you try so hard to bang into their heads that these horrible creatures DO exist, well eventually people start to believe them. The monks made nice deals out of this though...

Edited September 4, 2012 by maxme

[Pseudolus]

The worker class is glued to the TVs, watching ghost programs and when you try so hard to bang into their heads that these horrible creatures DO exist, well eventually people start to believe them. The monks made nice deals out of this though...

So I had this conversation with the other half a few months ago. I asked her when she died, what would she be more likely to do as a ghost. Go to a strangers house and go "Boo" at them for eternity, or to head to your family and see if they are ok, how they are doing, and seeing if you can help. She said the latter. So then I said "well, on that basis, if you do have ghosts around you, its more likely to be one of your dead relatives, like your grannie for example. Do you think she would want to hurt and harm you?" answer, no, of course. "So why are you scared to ghosts then? If there are any they are your family who love you and want to say hi. When you think there is a ghost, just say Hi, and tell them how you are and all will be fine".

And then, to prove the point, we watched amityville horror.

[maxme]

The worker class is glued to the TVs, watching ghost programs and when you try so hard to bang into their heads that these horrible creatures DO exist, well eventually people start to believe them. The monks made nice deals out of this though...

So I had this conversation with the other half a few months ago. I asked her when she died, what would she be more likely to do as a ghost. Go to a strangers house and go "Boo" at them for eternity, or to head to your family and see if they are ok, how they are doing, and seeing if you can help. She said the latter. So then I said "well, on that basis, if you do have ghosts around you, its more likely to be one of your dead relatives, like your grannie for example. Do you think she would want to hurt and harm you?" answer, no, of course. "So why are you scared to ghosts then? If there are any they are your family who love you and want to say hi. When you think there is a ghost, just say Hi, and tell them how you are and all will be fine".

And then, to prove the point, we watched amityville horror.

So in other words you changed her attitude towards how to be a ghost but still confirmed that there is the probability that she will be one. How odd...

[quandow]

I've never understood how they will come up to a cat or dog and smack them in the head. Not hard, obviously not wishing to inflict great pain, but NOT a "friendly pat."

[jak2002003]

In my village just outside Chiang Mai I found out its bad luck for someone to take duck eggs for free.

I kept trying to give away my duck eggs (they lay too many for me to eat) to neighbours and friends and they kept refusing. I asked a good Thai friend and she told me that if they accept the free duck eggs it means they will have some big argument or problem between us in the future.

I asked if they paid for them was it OK. Yes is was! So now I ask for 5 baht and they can have a huge bag full of eggs.... as many as they want. Apparently this custom is only found around my area here in the North.