e Voodoo – Tattoos, Voodoo, Black Magic, ไสยศาสตร์, ของขึ้น, สัก

Lucee the Hermit Monk ฤาษี

Read the rest of this entry »

Starting in very early times, Thai people have assigned traditional styles and attitudes of Buddha images to specific days of the week. A devotee might keep in their house or work place the image assigned to his/her birth day of the week. This is purely folk belief. The image’s attitude or posture portrays different events in the Buddha’s life, according to parables that were written well after he entered parinibbana around 543 BC. During his lifetime Buddha did not encourage believers to create statues in his image. He did allow the wheel of Dhamma law to be created to remind his followers of spreading the virtues of Dhamma. Buddha images assigned to represent the Days of the Week were derived much later. At a temple these images are arranged on a long counter at which believers pay respect by dropping coins in collection dishes. The sight of a Buddha image brings a sense of peace; It gives the hope that one may attain the same pure joy that emanates from the figures.

Read the rest of this entry »

An Australia man has contracted HIV after getting a tattoo while on vacation in Bali.

Australian health authorities are urging Australians who have gotten tattoos or body piercings on the Indonesian resort island to seek medical advice and consider getting a HIV test, according to news reports.

They also reportedly notified the Indonesian health authorities.

Read More…

We today look at a great article about Thai beliefs and superstitions – Auspicious/Inauspicious trees and plants, our friend and local expert on the subject has written a comprehensive article on it.

Bothi Tree (ต้นโพธิ์)

This kind of tree is not supposed to be grown in the house, because it is believed the angels stay in this tree, and they are supposed to be in a temple instead. Plus, the roots are dangerous as they spread quite far and quickly and can get underneath your house and damage it. I have one in my garden right now, and it is around ten metres high, so I need to get rid of it as soon as possible really.

Read more

According to an earlier International media report, the Culture Minister Nipit Intarasombat told the media that Thailand has ordered a crackdown on tourists with religious images tattooed on their bodies while visiting Thailand.

However, at an interview with Pattaya Daily News reporter, Minister Nipit denied making any statements against tourists with religious tattoos.

Minister Nipit clarified that tourists with religious tattoos will not be prohibited from entering Thailand.

Pattaya Daily News

OH MY BUDDHA! Religious tattoos have a long tradition in Thailand, but Phuket authorities fear their growing popularity among foreign tourists is little more than a fashion trend.

An image of the Hindu deity Ganesh, as displayed by one satisfied foreign customer at a Phuket tattoo shop.

PHUKET: The Culture Ministry has attacked the growing trend for tourists in Phuket and other parts of Thailand to have religious images tattooed on their bodies.

It has ordered provincial governors across the country, including Phuket, to crack down on such tattoos, igniting a debate on the human rights implications of forbidding the practice.

Culture Minister Niphit Intharasombat told told reporters Monday that Phuket’s Culture Office had uncovered an “alarming trend”: tourists have images such as those of the Buddha, Ganesh and Jesus Christ tattooed on their arms, legs and ankles.

It is culturally inappropriate and erodes respect for religion, Mr Niphit said.

But the ministry is likely to face an uphill battle to end the practice. The service is highly popular and tattooists can charge extra for such work, with some jobs costing upwards of 20,000 baht.

Mr Niphit downplayed the likelihood that the tattoos could be a genuine expression of spiritual belief.

The tattoos were just part of a fashion trend among tourists, who most likely did not believe in the religion and were ignorant of the true significance of the image.

As a result, Mr Niphit said the ministry’s Subcommittee on Safe and Creative Media had decided to order the governors of all Thai provinces to ban foreigners from getting tattoos of religious images of any faith.

Governors would be asked to convene meetings of those involved in the industry to ask for their cooperation, he said.

“At the meeting, we noted that these tattoos were all over the country, in particular in tourist destinations such as Khao San Road, Tawanna and Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket,” he said.

“We have to help prevent images that are respected in various religions from being tattooed onto the body.”

People with visible religious tattoos who engaged in “bad behavior” such as “sitting drinking alcohol and arguing” would damage the faiths through association, Mr Niphit said.

Acknowledging that Thai law did not prevent people from getting such tattoos, he said the ministry needed to coordinate with relevant agencies to draft measures to prevent the practice.

He would also propose to the National Culture Committee that a law be drafted that forbade the use of religious symbols for commercial purposes. The law, if passed, would affect both those who offered and used such services.

Ladda Tangsupachai, director of the ministry’s Cultural Surveillance Center, warned that if “people who showed their bodies for a living” such as “prostitutes” and “go-go dancers” had such tattoos, it would erode respect for religion.

But Human Rights Commissioner Wasan Panich pointed out that while Thai law prevented people from violating the Thai flag and other national icons, there were no such laws concerning religious symbols.

Any law banning the use of such images for commercial purposes must not violate people’s rights, because the term “commercial” had a broad meaning, he said.

“If people have Buddha images tattooed on their body, on their arms or chest for example, you can’t forbid that because it’s not insulting,” he said.

“Anyone can get these tattoos because it’s their right to do that to their own body.”

But, he added, if people had such images tattooed to their ankles or “inappropriate organs”, it could be seen as insulting to religion.

“For example, if a foreigner got a tattoo of the Buddha on their ankle, Buddhists would see that as insulting to their religion,” he said.

“But if a foreigner gets a cross on their ankle, Buddhists probably wouldn’t think anything of it, but other foreigners might not be satisfied.”

“Because of that, the basic principle is that you must respect the rights of the individual, but you must not violate the rights or beliefs of others,” he added.

– Kom Chad Luek
Phuket,Thailand
16:58 local time (GMT +7)

http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/detail.asp?id=10415

A Video of Aek doing a Bamboo Tattoo, Sak Yant Tattoos are traditional etchings made from black ink and when it is under the skin it turns blue, this tattoo is applied through a needle attached to a bamboo rod and as you can see pain accompanies the application using this type of method.

This Tattoos intricate detail would take hours to complete

In the year of 2530 a film crew went to Cumchanod to show a movie, when they turned up to setup the screen, the villagers were sitting waiting in the field to see the film, this was around 4pm in the afternoon, when the film crew had setup the screen and turned to the villagers, they were gone.
The film was show and ran into the morning, when the film crew packed up to leave, there was no road out from the forest, no one knew how they had got there.

The Naga fireballs (Thai: บั้งไฟพญานาค, bangfai payanak) are an interesting phenomenon that can be seen in the Mekong river in the Isaan privince of Nong Khaim Thailand, also in the Vientiane Province in Laos.
This mystical phenomenon where glowing balls like fire rise from the water of the Meekhong river high up into the air.
The fire balls rise up into the air quickly to nearly 200 meters before disappearing. The fireballs are varied in number, the amount can vary between ten to over a thousand per night

The appearance of the fireballs occurs in October during the festival Wan Awk Pansa.