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TONY T's 4th THAILAND TRAVELS
PHANOM DONG RAK: SURIN PROVINCE (cont'd)
Page 4
It is at this stage I have to express my amazement at the centuries-old traditions, beliefs and superstitions of rural Thais. I have been a very regular visitor and resident in Thailand since 2011 and being married into a Thai farming family I thought I knew or had experienced pretty much all of the traditions, especially after experiencing first hand the blessing ceremony of the new house as well as the ceremonies when my wife and I got engaged and then married.
But the experience when this new car was bought was, quite simply, an utter amazement to me. What a rigmarole over what is to me as a non-Buddhist a metal box on wheels; allow me to explain:-
When we went to collect the car from the dealership, before I was allowed to to even sit in the driver's seat, Mee had to perform a blessing to the car and adorn the rear-view mirror with a bunch of jasmine flowers garland he had bought en route to the dealership.
Going on any journey in Thailand can be an eye-opening experience and not just because of the more ‘relaxed’ attitude to safety compared to the West. Getting in a vehicle in Thailand also provides an intriguing insight into Thai superstitions with its mix of Buddhist, Brahmin and animist beliefs that help to define everyday life in Thailand.
Many farang visitors think of these superstitions and beliefs down to mumbo-jumbo, but it is a severe insult to Thai people to ridicule their religion in any way.
TOP: The initial "new" car blessing ceremony overseen by one of Aom's uncles.
BOTTOM: The full family turnout party after the ceremony.
TOP LEFT: One of the Temple prayer rooms at Wat Khow Laem.
TOP RIGHT: The intended victim of the blessing.
SECOND LEFT: Prior to the ceremony. The senior Monk can be seen on the far left.
SECOND RIGHT: Aom at prayer.
THIRD LEFT: The Monk.
THIRD RIGHT: The Monk inscribing a blessing on the vehicle using blessed water.
FOURTH LEFT: Blessed water is showered onto the vehicle.
FOURTH RIGHT: The Monk writing/inscribing the blessing to the inner roof in felt tip.
BOTTOM: Finally, after a final blessing, string lengths are tied around the wrists of all family members, including little Jack and yours truly.
Most visitors to Thailand will at some stage get into a taxi, tuk-tuk or bus and the fronts of these vehicles are often adorned with all manner of good luck charms and blessings. Garlands hang from the rear-view mirror just as garlands hang from the bow of a longtail boat. These flowers are offerings to Mae Yanang the goddess of journeys and are a sort of Thai equivalent of carrying a St Christopher medallion. During rush-hour traffic, when vehicles are waiting at traffic lights or intersections, sellers walk in between the cars and buses to sell these garlands to drivers for around 20 Baht a time.
If you look at the front ceiling of the vehicle you may notice a pattern in gold leaf and paste. This is a sacred blessing hand-daubed by a monk at a special ceremony held when a new vehicle is purchased. The protective Yant blessing on the ceiling of a car in Thailand with the date and time of that ceremony is also carefully chosen to ensure that maximum protection is bestowed on the vehicle and its occupants. These protective blessings, or Yants, are also sometimes used in Thai tattoos. Despite the protective power of the Yant, accidents can still happen. As any Thai Buddhist will tell you, no matter what protection the owner may have bestowed on his vehicle, he isn’t just dealing with his own karma, but also the karma of all the passengers travelling in the vehicle.
Anyway, to continue. The car, now suitably given its initial blessing by Mee and with its new garland of jasmine was allowed to be driven. I drove and followed Mee's car out of Surin city and back to PhanomDong Rak.
Tuesday 14th:
The rest of Wednesday was spent with my wife and I driving to Pratas to buy some odds and sods and then on to the outskirts of Surin city to an enormous DIY (B&Q type but bigger). Here, we had a mooch about and I bought 4 decent plastic chairs to replace some of the tatty ones about the house.
Wednesday 15Tth:
It was what ensued that both amazed and stunned me. The car had to be seen and blessed by the whole family. By 6pm the entire family clan, all 27 of them descended on the house and joined in a long ritual welcoming the car and blessing it and the owners; walking around it three times chanting prayers, then getting the owner family to sit in it and do a similar blessing.
This long ceremony for what is to me 'just a car' was followed by a mini party with drinks and food for the entire family; children included... simply amazing!
That's that I reckoned; all done and the car's released..... but there's more to come tomorrow .....
For this vehicle to be deemed safe on the road it now has to be blessed properly by a monk.
So, first thing in the day after breakfast it was a 40 minute drive into the hills to a temple called Wat Khow Laem on the border with Cambodia. I've visited this temple before in 2015 (see: http://www.tonytollitt.com/Thailand-2015/indexE.html).
We had to wait 20 minutes or so to await an audience with the chief monk.
The blessings were first endowed to the family members and then the monk came to the car and did his splashing the blessed water onto the car and then inscribing prayers on the inside roof and the bonnet of the vehicle. After final dose of being sprayed ourselves by the monk it was deemed to be officially a 'protected-by-Buddha' vehicle.
A final stop at Pratas again to buy some bungee straps (10Baht) followed by a couple of coffees at an Amazon Coffee room (excellent coffee at these Amazon caffs; a million miles better than the dishwater crap served at Starbucks).
Slow start. Gave young Joe (Aom's younger brother) a lift to school followed by madam taking in a visit to a village hair salon.
Intention today was to start arrangement for a holiday to Ko Tao (tropical coral island in the south Gulf of Thailand). A lot to organise: bus to Bangkok, overnight accommodation in Bangkok, Air Asia/Bangkok Air flight to Koh Samui, ferry to Koh Tao and finally accommodation on the island.
Took a trip out to the neighbouring province of Buriram and to Prasat Hin Phanom Rung (its full name).
This site is a Khmer temple complex set on the rim of an extinct volcano at 402 metres (1,319 ft) elevation, in Buriram Province in the Isan region of Thailand. It was built of sandstone and laterite in the 10th to 13th centuries and was a Hindu shrine dedicated to Shiva, symbolising Mount Kailash, his heavenly dwelling.
More details and info on this Wikipedia page
Took just over an hour to get there and as soon as we arrived I thought it looked familiar. I visited the site back in 2011 with a former Thai girlfriend who's family farmed in a village not too far away in Buriram, near Lahansai.
Very hot here and I was well sweaty by the time we got to the top of the complex.
Wandered about for about an hour then headed back for some water and back home.
