Thailand. Buddha and Monk Images for Protection.

This blog has come about because of something funny that happened at school today. I talked about 8 students from year 7 who have been real pains lately in the classroom and have been making teaching not a lot of fun. No matter how or what I have done to try and make these few kids come around and play ball, it just hadn’t worked.

So I finally had had enough and have got all the phone numbers for their parents and will now have the Thai teachers contact them so they can come and talk to me.

Now somehow I have been blessed by a god or being from somewhere as I found out that next week on the 24th – 26th the school is sending all the bad, lazy, rude and so forth students to special classes on manners and behaviour. So these horrible little brats are going on boot camp for 2 nights and 3 days.

Now this is what made me very happy as this takes place at a “temple” and this means listening to monks talk to you about being good and also a lot of praying/chanting as well will happen. I was the happiest person at school when I found this out and just couldn’t wait to tell the students who I had chosen.

So this afternoon when the year 7 class had lined up for assembly and were ready to go home, I dropped the bomb and wasn’t there some mouths open. Two of the girls just said flat out “No” that they were not going and were very angry. I told them they have no choice and they had to attend. They pleaded with the Head of EBP and tried to say that they were really angles and I and another teacher just laughed as we know how they really are.

You see being around temples means only one thing and that is “GHOSTS”. Yes, ghosts. Thai people are absolutely petrified about ghosts. The Thai people are so superstitious about spirits, when a person dies they build small spirit houses and do all other sorts of ceremonies and other things to appease them.

I am not a spiritual man sorry to say. I don’t believe that there are spirits or ghosts walking amongst us but Thai people are dead set sure there are.

My girlfriend at times has virtually slept on top of me at times when she hears a noise outside in the night. I remember one night we were watching TV in the bedroom and she jumped and huddled up against me as she swore she seen someone’s silhouette pass by the window. I laughed it off but she was serious and I joked about it being a ghosts and she didn’t enjoy this and told me to stop saying that.

When Noot’s father passed away he was 800 metres away from our house and Noot was really uneasy about staying at the house as her dad was looking for our house when he got lost and laid down and passed away Noot's dads Death . So I think Noot thought that her dad’s spirit was still looking around for our house as after a week and the cremation had taken place we had some monks come to our house to conduct a ceremony and then Noot bought some ornaments that bring good luck and also keep spirits away or happy.

At the top of our front sliding doors as you are going to walk into the house we have a piece of polished timber with different pictures on it.From what Noot told me the “turtle” means old age, the “money bag” on the left is just that, money. The “money bag” on the right is “gold” so I like this one a lot. The fish are for, sorry to say, I have no idea and the image of the person at the top right hand corner is an angel or something like that.

On the other side when you are walking out of the house there is a picture of a very popular monk called “"Luang Phor Khun" the ninth monk down the page (LP Koon) and is from a city called Korat.
If you click on the link you can read a little about this very revered monk and many others as well.

In the background you can see the Big C Shopping Centre sign a stone throw away from home.

This is the same image I have on the Buddha amulet I wear everyday. A friend gave me it as a present for good luck and protection and I think this is what the image is meant to be for when you leave the house.



In our lounge room we have 3 Buddha images, one on each surround sound speaker and also one above the TV on the centre speaker. These are again for good luck and protection for what I can understand. Every 3 or 4 days I buy flower garlands to put on the images and Noot does this by doing a “wai” and saying a prayer to the figure.Thai school students doing "wai"

The first Buddha image is of a mythical figure and I will try and get the English around the mark, it’s something like this “Pha Phut Tat Chin Na Rat” but if someone can be more precise for me as I did look on many websites to find the correct spelling but with no luck.



The second image is of another very famous or renowned monk called Luang Pu Tuat (Phra Ko) and if you click on the link you can see a story on the revered monk. He is the 13th monk down the page.

So these are the few figures in the lounge room that are offering good luck and protection but then in the main bedroom we have about 8 Buddha images. There are 2 of Luang Phor Khun and then mixtures of others that I haven’t researched.

Even though I am not a Buddhist when I go to the markets I enjoy looking around at the images of monks and if there is something I like and it’s not expensive, I will buy it and find somewhere for it to sit in the house.

Well, as you can see my house is well protected, I have plenty good luck going around so I can sleep well at night and all the other stuff. Do I believe that these images really bring good luck and protection? Well, no. But again the funny thing is I have never had anything bad go wrong when I have been wearing the amulet but is this just coincidence or is it the amulet working.

So next week when my naughty students are going off to the temples to receive some good advice from some monks I will be a happy little camper as they say because my classes for 2 days will be so much more peaceful without them there to cause interruptions and general pains in the ass.

Brunty
View all pictures in five sizes here.