Ken Dobson's Queer Ruminations from Thailand
Search this site
  • Life in Thailand
  • Queer Issues in Thailand
  • Queer Christian Issues
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Stories

Ghosts

10/25/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Ghosts in Thailand, it’s complicated.

To sort it out let’s first note that talk of ghosts belongs to two realms of discourse.  One is  supernatural and the other is literary.  That is true in many cultures. 

Ghosts in literature are largely in the category of fantasy.  Here in Thailand ghost stories are ubiquitous.  They are equivalent to vampires in movies and popular culture in America these days, except that Thai ghosts predate Edgar Allen Poe or even the classic American Halloween story “The Headless Horseman” by Washington Irving, with plot borrowed from Medieval tales.  Thai cartoons either exploit ambivalence about ghosts or veer toward outright ridicule.  The noticeable thing, however, is how widespread they are.  They are everywhere, in comic books, Saturday morning TV, soap operas, and theme parks.  [The picture accompanying this essay is from a park in Pattaya, based on the famous “Tiger Balm Gardens” park in Singapore, now in sad decline.]

As an aspect of the supernatural, pii are of two types.  One is a restless, wandering spirit, and the other is thought of as the spirit of a place.  Popular attitudes toward the two are very different.

In Thai language the “jao thii” or lords of the land are the manifest proprietors of the world of nature.  They are many and they are one.  They were here from the beginning and will be here long after human beings relinquish their right to inhabit a place.  They are given honor by being venerated in shrines for which Thailand is famous, the iconic “spirit houses” (a misnomer).

Wandering spirits are apt to be more troublesome.  One reason they are wandering is because they have been prevented from their rightful destinations.  Their stories are grist for legend-spinners: tales of vengeful lovers, the unburied and un-cremated dead, ghosts of those spitefully abused, and many others who ought to be reincarnated to work out their karma but cannot be until some condition is met.  Meanwhile, they find no rest from their pitiful plight.  They wreak havoc in their wrath, or plague us with their mournful outbursts, or interfere with people’s health in order to wrangle a second chance to die.

How seriously are these ghosts taken?  Seriously enough to spawn an industry worth millions of baht that needs to use no advertising or promotion to sell their spirit houses, statuary, and paraphernalia.  Seriously enough to inspire entire communities to concerted action whenever there is a death.  Action can be as limited as an individual lighting an incense stick or as vast as a royal funeral.  It has been a long time since the last nation-wide effort to appease virulent spirits, but even in these modern times such a thing is possible.

The related question is how literally these ghosts are taken.  That there are pii few Thai people would disagree.  What they require is less certain.  What is universal is the sense that if anything is to be done, it is done “just in case”, to cover the options, to fulfill long-held tradition, and to clarify our standing in the world of nature and unseen forces.  Ambivalence is the feature of supernatural belief that separates it from religion.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson posts his weekly reflections on this blog. 

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright © 2023 Rev. Dr. Kenneth Dobson