Thailand's Frenzy for Amulets

Post by **Jaime** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 7:43 pm

This interesting article from the BBC web site. Any of you ex-pats aware of this recent explosion in the amulet industry?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-p ... 976705.stm

Post by **DawnHRD** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:02 pm

The Jatukams? Yeah, been going on for quite a while. Most of them are huge & pretty gaudy. I know it's religious & "protection" based - but the amulets also remind me of the bling gangsta rappers wear. They are certainly not hard to miss.

Post by **Big Boy** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 8:04 pm

I've got one, and nobody's shot me yet - it must work!

Post by **PeteC** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:19 pm

It's also fading into the dust of history. The tourism surge, both farang and Thai into the Surathani area over the past 6 months for the Jatukams is down about 50% over the last month.

Critics are now making Jatukam cookies and they are selling well. I believe their thinking is that if you eat it, it's with you forever. If you wear it, you may kill your child when you bend down to pick them up.

It's snake oil sales, pure and simple. The head monk I think just bought a few Mercedes.

Am I criticizing Thai beliefs? You bettcha when a family making 10K baht a month shells out 3K for one of these things.

I used to preach about education. I'm beginning to think it's a poor diet between birth and adolescence. Pete

Post by **lomuamart** » Thu Sep 06, 2007 9:43 pm

I was given a Buddha from my ex's family. It's small and held on by string. But I was told that it had "protected others from bullets ".
The thing is that quite a few Thai people have commented on it and looked where it's from.
The general feeling is that it's from Sungai Kolok - as far south in Thailand as you can get.
That surprises me as my ex was from Buriram province, so a long way away from there. My wife has just looked at the writing and confirms that the pendant is from Sungai Kolok. I've had a number of Thais taking a look before and they all say the same thing.
I havn't been shot yet.

Post by **DawnHRD** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 7:07 am

BTW, I haven't been shot yet, either & I don't wear any religious paraphernalia.

So glad you made the snake oil analogy Pete. That's exactly what I feel (that & it's a fashion craze), but I didn't want to say so for fear of causing offence.

Post by **Big Boy** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 3:50 pm

DawnHHDRC wrote:BTW, I haven't been shot yet, either & I don't wear any religious paraphernalia.

So glad you made the snake oil analogy Pete. That's exactly what I feel (that & it's a fashion craze), but I didn't want to say so for fear of causing offence.

You've obviously just been plain lucky until now

Its never too late.

Post by **DawnHRD** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:09 pm

Hehe! If I'm lucky, BB, I'd hate to see the poor sod that got the label of "unlucky"

Post by **Kraka's Dad** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:43 pm

The person who is now living with my ex wife !!!!

Post by **PeteC** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 8:53 pm

In fairness about all this, and I think Khun Understudy would agree, there are many devout Thai Buddhists who treasure an old amulet and wear it throughout their lifetimes, the same as Christians wear a miraculous or St. Christopher's medal, especially one given to them by their ancestors.

If you look at the Thai Rath newspaper each Sunday, there are 1 or 2 pages devouted to old amulets, their history, value etc. I've been told two purposes are served by these reports, speculative buying and true devotion.

Sure a part of it is commercial, and the Jatukam craze has magnified that to the world in a ridiculous way, as well as photos of men wearing 20 of them at once.

Deep down though I think most Thai's have one or two that have special meaning to them and they wear them for the right reason. Pete

Post by **Big Boy** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:04 pm

You are quite right Pete. My son-in-law is one of those collectors, and seems to be quite well known in the Hua Hin community as such. On several occassions during our recent visit people brought religeous artifacts to him to check their authenticity.

The first thing he would always start with was telling them whether it was real or not - this was always achieved by getting his magnifying glass out and thoroughly examining the item. He would then go in to age etc.

He too has never been shot.

Post by **Vital Spark** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:07 pm

From what I've seen here, the poorer the person, the more superstitious paraphernalia they waste their (limited) resources on. Check out the motorcycle taxi guys.

I'd love to tell them that some piece of expensive dangly thing is not going to save them when they drive around like a maniac. And a phalic symbol tied round their waste isn't going to help them produce a strapping son. But I can't...

Not one of my well-off Thai colleagues wears any of these things - and they seem to be doing just nicely.

It's just a load of hocus-pocus as far as I'm concerned.

Am I being too 'Western-minded'?

VS

Post by **Big Boy** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:48 pm

VS,

As with all religion, you believe what you want to, and you normally want to believe in something that is good.

Whether it makes them safer or not, they have peace within their own minds that they are bullet proof, can't have an accident etc. They go out to work every morning sure that they will return home safely in the evening - most of them will. Those that don't will be dead, and unable to worry about what has happened.

Surely, it's worth 3,000 Baht to feel secure. In their minds, that 3,000 Baht is going to provide security for their families. In the Western world we pay an awful lot more insurance.

I'm sure that Thais laugh just as much at us Farang for wasting excessive money on a variety of things in Thailand. However, we continue to buy them because they make us feel good.

Post by **klikster** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 12:54 pm

prcscct wrote:In fairness about all this, and I think Khun Understudy would agree, there are many devout Thai Buddhists who treasure an old amulet and wear it throughout their lifetimes ..

Several years back, during one of my wanderings, I mistakenly walked into the office of the Buddhist university at a temple compound in Khon Kaen. I was fortunate that since it was "finals", the ajarns were not teaching; and one who was fluent in english greeted me.

We had an extensive conversation that resulted in an invitation to tour the temples of Khon Kaen the following day. Besides meeting every Luang Por and 1 Chao Khun in Khon Kaen I learned quite a lot that next day. The ajarn had been a monk for something like 30 years then decided to leave the Sangha so he could have a family. So he shed some interesting light on several facets of Buddhism.

One of the ajarn's comments stuck with me .. something to the effect 'what is practiced in Thailand as Buddhism is actually a mixture of Buddhism and animism'.

The amulet culture comes from the animism side of that practice.

And yes, the ajarn wore an amulet.

Post by **klikster** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 1:01 pm

Vital Spark wrote:From what I've seen here, the poorer the person, the more superstitious paraphernalia they waste their (limited) resources on. Check out the motorcycle taxi guys.

I'd love to tell them that some piece of expensive dangly thing is not going to save them when they drive around like a maniac. And a phalic symbol tied round their waste isn't going to help them produce a strapping son. But I can't...

Not one of my well-off Thai colleagues wears any of these things - and they seem to be doing just nicely.

It's just a load of hocus-pocus as far as I'm concerned.

Am I being too 'Western-minded'?

VS

Maybe you need to look outward rather than inward.

I have a number of very well-off Thai friends who collect and wear the amulets. The folks who pay Bt millions for a Somdet are not poor.