The dark side of the "land of smiles." Modernity and tradition in Thailand and 'entry in the future, taking with him millennial beliefs
Alessio Di Fratticciola (written for The International Micropolis , 13/01/2011)
Bangkok - In late November, the "Land of Smiles" was shocked by a ' horrific discovery: some two thousand human fetuses of different weights and sizes hidden in a morgue in the heart of Bangkok. A strong smell had attracted the police to Wat Phai Ngern - or "Temple of the Bamboo Silver " - scene of the accident was found. The fetuses, locked in identical white plastic bags were hidden in a morgue where the bodies are usually kept waiting for cremation. A warm, Lieutenant Colonel Kanathud Musiganont police said that some fetuses had remained hidden in the house for even a year. Two months after the scandal, three people have been arrested, two undertakers, guilty of hiding the bodies, and an employee of a clinic for abortions, on charges of running a medical clinic without a license and to perform abortions, prohibited by law. The undertakers could be sentenced to a maximum of one year in prison, while an employee of the clinic could face up to five years.
NOT KILL - The case in Thailand was seen as a national disgrace, a public opinion that has defined "Medieval" law banning abortion procedure, forcing every year hundreds of thousands of women and girls to turn to expensive private clinics and not always professional. The Thai government, for its part, responded to the criticisms by promising to improve sex education among young people, but has continued to difendendere anti-abortion legislation. The reasons are understandable government in a kingdom where traditions are jealously guarded by a semi-divine monarch (Rajada) and obediently complied with by the masses, at least formally. In addition, the vast majority of the population follows the Theravada Buddhism - Or "way of the elders" - a current orthodoxy that is characterized by hard-line conservative for Sangha - the community of monks - whose primary focus is the study of sacred texts mnemonic and the passage of this tradition to posterity. The Sangha, which has a tremendous power of moral leadership on this nation of Southeast Asia, is dogmatically opposed to the liberalization of abortion, because the type of Buddhism prohibits killing. But while in the Thai company develops an abortion debate that does not differ too much from that found in many other countries in this story there is still a big question: why fetuses were hidden in the house for months and months without being buried or cremated?
MODERNITY 'AND TRADITION - To approach an explanation must overcome the image that emerges from Thailand glossy tourist guides or by an overnight fast at the most popular holiday destination and enter the heart of this company. Mai in Thailand as the theories of the Enlightenment prove incorrect. About how they had predicted that science and technology would have wiped out the beliefs and religions should try to get around the streets of Bangkok for . Children with laptop in hand will stop at stalls selling amulets, large displacement cars approach the sidewalk to buy handfuls of fried insects, distinguished gentlemen come in horoscope texts where libraries are on the same shelf of Bibles, Korans and manual business management. For years this nation has embraced modernity - nationalism, finance, skyscrapers, skytrain, fashion and mobile phones. But past the appearances and the most banal stereotypes, one realizes that the land of smile is also a land of ghosts and spirits , an enchanted place where paranormal and ancient beliefs are actually obvious and natural. This strong belief in the existence of spirits and cosmic energies influence every aspect of life of this people, from religious architecture, from politics to television, from advertising to the businesses. Nothing strange, then, that in deciding where and how to build a new building, an engineer is "assisted" by an expert of Chinese geomancy . Also natural that the inauguration of the building is accompanied by a religious ceremony and prayers of Monaco officiating. Discount practices in a country where every house or business is an altar for the spirits that provide daily food and gifts to attract good luck and appease the tormented souls who may wander in there. In Thailand even more important family decisions, or business, require access to a guess it is hard for a couple convolerà to the wedding if the stars will not be favorable.
ghosts, spirits, exorcists - Ghosts and spirits, in short, are alive and well in the daily life of Thais. Tales of tormented souls and ghosts are so popular that the cinema of horror films that cast does not seem to understand the crisis. Even in comic books for children ghosts are one of the most common themes. But in this country's spirits are not just stuff to laugh or innocent pastime. The vast majority of Thais believe in the existence of spirits and a good portion of them believed to have seen a few. The phenomenon is not restricted to farmers in rural areas, by contrast, even most of the capital's university students admit to fear the spirits, and almost all the people with whom I have broached the subject had a history experienced in the first person to tell . In the Thai cosmology there are a myriad of spirits, each with its own characteristic. Among the most famous: the Phi Am , spirits who sit on the liver of humans, during sleep, causing aches and pains, the Phi Braed , ghosts, giants, long dreaded because they are capable of killing the parents, the Phi Chamob , that infest the place of the jungle where a woman died, the Duat Leut Phi, like vampires who suck the blood of their victims, the Phi He , the spirits of women dying in childbirth, are regarded as particularly dangerous the You Phi, which infest the places where someone 'who died a violent or unnatural (often enter the body of the living and are driven with whips or exorcism), the Phi Hang Kra, a nocturnal spirit resembling a winged man, and without going too far, the Krasu Phi, one of the most popular and feared ghosts, always hungry human flesh and blood-thirsty, take the form of beautiful women and glides on its victims with its long dress that hides the lower part of the body, without legs dangling, and from which the intestine. To fight this endless array of creatures, there is a sort of Ghost Buster: The Mho Phi. These 'doctors of the spirits' employing techniques and practices differ depending on the spectrum that they face, some of them have become real celebrities and glorifying revered across the nation.
RITUAL PURIFICATION AND LOTTERY TICKETS - It is for these reasons that in Bangkok's Temple of Doom , dove il 16 novembre scorso i feti sono stati ritrovati, decine e decine di persone si sono riunite più volte per pregare per le oltre 2.000 anime dei bambini mai nati e per offrire loro latte e banane, vestitini e giocattoli. Dopo qualche settimana ed un rituale di purificazione, l’obitorio presso l’ormai celebre Wat Phai Ngern è stato demolito, ma il tempio del Bambù d’Argento continua ad attirare visitatori e intorno a questo luogo si è sviluppata un’atmosfera del tutto particolare. Nel giorno della nostra visita, una decina di venditori di biglietti della lotteria aspettavano i clienti proprio all’ingresso del tempio. Uno di loro mi ha spiegato che i numeri 2 – 7 – 27 sono i più richiesti. The second is for the 2002 fetuses, 7 is the number of the morgue where they were found and 27 was the first day of the ceremony in memory of the souls of aborted babies. They say invisible spiritual energy that emanates from the mortuary temple and makes those numbers particularly lucky.
BLACK MAGIC, SEX AND POWER - The answer to our question, however, has little to do with the transformation of the "temple of shame" to "market luck": the reason for which the fetuses were hidden in temple for months without being buried, could simply be hung on the necks of the faithful who attend the tempio. I thailandesi amano agghindarsi con amuleti di ogni tipo, garantiscono una protezione contro gli spiriti maligni e contro la sfortuna in generale. Il loro commercio pertanto è diffusissimo. Grandi generalmente dai due ai dieci centimetri, possono raffigurare il Budda, “santi” buddisti ( Bodhisattva ), monaci famosi, animali o simboli vari. Alcuni amuleti – quelli ritenuti più potenti – possono valere milioni di baht, centinaia di migliaia di euro. Ma esiste anche un lato oscuro di questa credenza, paragonabile alla magia nera occidentale. Uno degli amuleti più potenti è il Look Krog , che rappresenta un bambino non voluto o un feto abortito. Secondo la credenza popolare, questo oggetto avrebbe un fortissimo potere sessuale , essendo capace di attrarre esattamente la donna desiderata. A Bangkok, un simile gingillo, ricavato da un feto umano, viene venduto a prezzi esorbitanti, pari ad anni dello stipendio di un umile lavoratore. Ecco perché – secondo alcuni – i due becchini incaricati di sbarazzarsi dei feti abortiti clandestinamente avrebbero deciso di avviare un redditizio traffico di amuleti, magari con la complicità di qualche monaco.
BAMBINI MORTI CHE URLANO - In una delle cerimonie svoltesi nel Wat Phai Ngern per le anime dei bambini mai nati, una donna di mezza età con in braccio suo figlio mi ha spiegato che questi these offerings and rituals - repeated after 3, 7, 50 and 100 days after discovery of fetuses - are used to thank the thousands of spirits that still roam this place. "I dead children screaming at night, I heard them - I said shaking her baby to his chest, visibly worried - be appeased, can be dangerous."
0 comments:
Post a Comment