Anthropologist Charles Keyes has published a paper on “The Destruction of a Shrine to Brahma in Bangkok and the Fall of Thaksin Shinawatra: The Occult and the Thai Coup in Thailand of September 2006.” The paper can be downloaded from the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. Here is the abstract:
On the night of March 21st, 2006, a 27 year-old man, Thanakorn Pakdeepol, took a hammer and smashed the image of the Hindu deity Brahma – whom the Thai call Thao Maha Phrom – near the Erawan hotel in Bangkok. The destruction took place just before the political crisis centering on Thaksin Shinawatra, the prime minister, reached a climax with the subsequently-discredited election of 2 April 2006. Because the shrine had long been the most significant non-Buddhist shrine in Bangkok, its destruction immediately led both anti- and pro-Thaksin supporters to interpret the act as an omen. In this paper I use the story of the destruction of the Erawan shrine, which I believe can be seen as a watershed event in the crisis surrounding Thaksin. It is also part of the story of the role of the occult in Thaksin’s loss of power in the coup of 19 September 2006.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Srithanonchai // Jan 3, 2007 at 11:55 pm
For some more information on the Erawan Shrine see Trilok Chandra Majupuria. 1993 (new edition). Erawan Shrine and Brahma Worship in Thailand. Bangkok: Tecpress Service, L.P. 148 pp.
2 patiwat // Jan 4, 2007 at 7:16 am
A recent case of occultism in Thailand: Occultist sentenced to 100 yrs
3 Jon Fernquest // Jan 4, 2007 at 5:21 pm
Fascinating read. It takes someone with decades of experience in Thailand and local knowledge like Keyes to comprehend what is going on beneath the surface. This is certainly an antidote to all those short pat explanations in the western media of what is going on in what, after all, is a very complicated and ancient culture.
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