OceanicThai

Sarat Tani 011 Originally uploaded by oceanicthai This is the city pillar for Surat Thani, the next province over from us here in Phang Nga. The foundational sacrifice when establishing a city. It was general practice that human sacrifices were made when establishing the walls and gates of a city. The belief common at that time was that the ghost of the person who died violently would protect the city site. Tradition says that a pregnant woman would be regaled for several preparatory days, and then ceremoniously thrown into the foundational hole, face up. The pole of planting was driven through the pregnant woman’s baby-in-the-womb, through her own body, and into the ground, by public authorities. Thus, violent death, the blood of the baby, and the pregnant woman, forms the foundation of the City’s safety and prosperity. The city pillar is the home of the guardian spirits, the defending demons. Those spirits must be venerated each year to avert their wrath. Every major city of Thai...

Last week dozens of school children became possessed in the same way as the adults do at the annual Vegetarian Festival here in Southern Thailand. Teachers called in ambulances. This has happened before in Southern Thailand, there is good documentation on one website that I found, and their interpretation of what was happening. I put a link to it to the title above. It was on Thai t.v. news, but I couldn't find it on the English internet Thai news sites. I will keep looking in the next few days for something about it on the internet, but it will probably be a private resource because this is probably going to be viewed as something a little embarassing to the country. It was not a welcome event, in any case, at a school. At the Vegetarian Festival, however, thousands of adults, both men and women, believe they are chosen by the spirits to be possessed. They are then skewered with metal rods, usually in their mouths, and parade in groups going to houses and businesses to bless the o...