To say that Thai people are superstitious is an understatement. Couple this with a desire to win the national lottery then you will get some very odd behaviour. People will do anything to find the latest lottery number. They will even rub the bark of a lucky tree to see if they can work out any numbers. At our local Erawan Museum, someone apparently won a million baht after wishing for good luck. Since the news broke thousands of people go there to pray now.

People also look for anything auspicious or unusual. Over at our sister blog, ThaiPhotoBlogs.com, we have reported a couple of times about these unusual ways of looking for lottery numbers. One was the footprints of a Naga snake on top of a car. People were looking for numbers in the patterns. Another was a pig which had two faces. Today comes another story from the Thai Rath newspaper. A man from Udornthanee bought a betel nut palm to decorate his restaurant. After a short while, he noticed that the leaves of the plant were growing into the shape of the King of the Nagas, a highly respected serpent snake. As soon as the locals heard about this they came flocking to his restaurant to pay respect and also to beg for the winning lottery numbers!

Related Links: ThaiLotteryResults.com - the latest winning numbers
Related Links: WinThaiLottery.com - how to find your lucky number

Throw a hole into the hole for good luck!

(1) Don’t whistle at night because you will invite ghosts into your house.
(2) Don’t let women eat chicken feet because they will have an affair
(3) Do not let pregnant women whistle because her baby will have a crooked mouth
(4) Do not allow an adult pay respect to a child (wai) because that child will have a shortened life
(5) Do not joke while you are eating because the ghost will steal your rice
(6) Do not cover your head when you go to a temple because this will make you bald
(7) Do not sharpen a knife at night time because you will offend the angels
(8) Do not look at naked people because your eyes will become swollen
(9) Do not have sexual intercours on holy days (wan phra) because bad things will happen.
(10) Do not let the bride and the groom meet three days before the wedding because their marriage will not last
(11) Do not smile while sowing corn because it won’t grow
(12) Do not stand in a doorway because a ghost will enter the house
(13) Do not sew at night because the ghost will haunt you
(14) Do not throw money away because you will lose your finger
(15) Do not sing while you are eating because the ghost will curse you.

You can find other Thai superstitions by clicking here.

(1) Do not take off a ring from someone else's finger because you will be taking away the people they love.
(2) Do not spit in the toilet because you will have a mole on your lips.
(3) Do not spit towards the sky because it is a sin.
(4) Do not pluck your eyebrows during the evening because bad things will happen to you.
(5) Do not plough on holy days because the rice won't grow.
(6) Do not say to a baby that they are cute because the ghost will come and take the baby away.
(7) Do not break anything on your wedding day because it is a sign that your marriage won't last.
(8) Do not drop chopsticks during the Chinese New Year because you won't make a good living.
(9) Do not let a woman sit on a staricase for a long time because she will have a difficult labour.
(10) Do not sit higher than a monk because it is a sin.
(11) Do not sit on the big water jars because it is a sin.
(12) Do not sit on pillows meant for your head because you will get a painful rash on your behind.
(13) Do not count off the names of people that have died because you will be next.
(14) Do not keep anything belonging to the temple inside your house because a disaster will happen to you.
(15) Do not offer the same food to your dead ancestors and to the monks because you will then rot in hell.

Tourists dressing up in hilltribe costumes to have their picture taken.

Here are some more Thai superstitions:

(1) Do not let your children play with shadows during the evening. The shadow guy will come and take them away.
(2) Do not pick flowers in the temple grounds. You will go to hell when you die.
(3) Do not walk with your face down. It will make your life shorter.
(4) Do not stomp as you walk around the house. You will scare the guardian spirits of the house.
(5) Do not walk heavily. You won't be able to save any money.
(6) Do not walk across any sharp objects. It will make them unsharp.
(7) Do not hit your parents. You will become a very bad ghost.
(8) Do not boil an egg in a rice cooker. It will make your life worse.
(9) Do not set up a spirit house in the shadow of a house. The owner of the house won't be successful.
(10) Do not cut your hair on Wednesday. It is bad luck for you.
(11) Do not cut your nails during the night-time. It will be like breaking the bones of your ancestors.
(12) Do not insult a Buddha image. You will go to hell.
(13) Do not get married on odd numbered months. It is a bad omen for your marriage.
(14) Do not spit or complain about the smell at a funeral. Bad things will happen to you.
(15) Do not take off your clothes or sleep next to the closet. A ghost will come to haunt you.

More Thai Superstitions: http://www.thai-blogs.com/index.php?blog=5&cat=85

Here are some more Thai superstitions and old wives tales which have shaped Thai people today.

(1) Do not wear your amulet when you go to the toilet. If you do so it will no longer be sacred.
(2) Do not tap repeatedly with a spoon or chopsticks on a bowl of rice. Because you are inviting a ghost to come and eat with you.
(3) The same goes for the top of the rice cooker. You will upset the rice goddess.
(4) Do not kill yourself. It is a very bad sin.
(5) Do not taste food with a large serving spoon. It will make your child look ugly.
(6) Do not point your finger at a monk. You will lose your finger.
(7) Do not point your finger at a rainbow. It will make your finger fall off.
(8) Do not cut the wood for the stairs with a knife. Because the ghost will make you fall down the stairs.
(9) Do not place a plate on top of another while you are eating. It will make you unable to pay off your debts.
(10) Do not sell a needle in the middle of the night. Your shop will not be profitable.
(11) Do not smell the flowers that you are going to offer to the monk. Something bad will happen to your nose.
(12) Do not say bad things to your parents. It is a really bad sin.
(13) Do not insult or say bad things to a monk. In the next life you will be deaf and dumb.
(14) Do not insult sunshine, wind or rain because mother nature will make something bad happen to you.
(15) Do not let toddlers who cannot talk yet eat fish. It will make their gums bleed.

Source: Translated from "Boran Oo-bai" by Sanom Krutmeuang

Bang Sai Arts and Craft Center

Here are some more Thai superstitions from the past which directly affect Thai life and culture today.

(1) Do not bend down and look between your legs. You will see a ghost.
(2) Do not sweep dirt out of the front entrance. It will make all your money go away.
(3) Do not sweep at night. It is bad luck.
(4) Do not clean the spider web at night. You will lose all your money.
(5) Do not open an umbrella in the house. It will make you bald.
(6) Do not eat candy that has dropped on the floor. It now belongs to the ghost.
(7) Do not put valuable things away at night. The ghost will see and steal it.
(8) Do not keep broken Buddha images in the house. It will cause your family to be separated.
(9) Do not tell other people about your bad dream when you are eating. If you do it will come true.
(10) Do not rock an empty cradle. Your child will become sick.
(11) Do not throw anything onto the roof of the house. It is bad luck.
(12) Do not tap a kid on his head. It will make him a bed wetter.
(13) Do not enter a house through the window. Bad luck will come to that house.
(14) Do not allow wedding guests break any plates or glasses. It will cause the couple to become separated.
(15) If you have a scratch, do not attend a cremation. It will make your scratch infected.

Source: Translated from "Boran Oo-bai" by Sanom Krutmeuang

Waiting Room for the King at Hua Hin Train Station

I have for you some more notes I wrote down from the fascinating book called "A Journey in Siam" written by Adolf Bastian. As I mentioned before, the author wrote about life in Siam 150 years ago.

* The Siamese not only avoid stepping over people, but also over books

* The length of time expressed by sak kru (usually translated as immediately), means in fact, as long as it takes to boil a pot of rice

* The Siamese sew seven buttons on their jackets and five on a shorter one. For children three is the norm.

* A staircase must not have four steps, but two, three and six are allowed

* In divorce the children born with odd numbers go to the mother, the even numbered ones to the father

* During a marriage ceremony the thumbs of the newlywed are tied together with the bonds of love

* Most siamese flowers are only fragrant in the morning, when they are open, or in the evening, but not in the middle of the day.

* The Siamese eat the lamphong fruit to get up Dutch courage, in the process becoming slightly mad in the head and very excitable, babbling confused sentences for the slightest reason

* The Siamese like to give their children hideous names to make them unattractive to the demons, thus protecting them

* Admiring a cute little child would make it ill, and so its parents hang a dog's or pig's tooth around its neck to blemish the child's pretty appearance

* A Siamese shakes his head to deny something. He waves with his hand bent downwards.

* If one asks him whether he does not deny something, he nods approvingly that he does not do so

* Instead of kissing, the Siamese press their faces together and breath in

* During an eclipse of the moon, the Siamese make a great din to prevent it from being eaten up

* The Siamese call the rainbow "luster that eats water" and meteors "demons throwing torches"

A typical crematorium in a Thai temple

I have been reading a book recently called "A Journey in Siam" which took place in 1863. It is written by Adolf Bastian and published by White Lotus. It is worth looking out for these white covered books as they are interesting contemporary accounts of life in Thailand over one hundred years ago. I find it fascinating how the experience of these early backpackers mirrors our own journeys today. However, these days we are more likely to travel by car rather than by boat or elephant.

Today I want to give you some extracts which deal with local customs and superstitions.

* The Siamese sleep with their head facing north and their feet pointing south, or with the head towards the east and their feet towards the west, because they believe if you sleep with your head towards the west, it may be ripped off by the wind and lost, when it must be replaced by an elephant's head. According to the old ways of speaking, the north is hua non (pillow for the head) and the south pai tin (side of the feet). Because corpses are cremated with their heads facing west, living people must lay down their heads pointing east.

* The Siamese ward off accidents with offerings of rice, bananas and other food, to which have been added six saleung in coins. If people are frightened about bad omens resulting from an evil constellation of the moon, they give a basket made from banana leaves and filled with flowers and cakes and sprinkled with consecrated water, to the local magician, to have it placed on the surface of some water. When gamblers are out of luck, they say sia kroh (may bad luck go away). To ward of evil (kroh), a clicking noise is made by pressing one's tongue against one's palate.

* A person who causes damage is a khon abpri. It is abpri if the roof of a house near a monastery is pierced by a tree growing through it. Sadiet changrai are inauspicious things, for example, if somebody plants a bamboo upside down. The evil consequences of abpri changrai are counteracted by the siah kroh ceremony. If someone walks under a line, hung with items of women's clothing, if they read the holy writings of Buddha on the lowest floor of a multi-story house, or in any other way violate the customs, they have not committed a sin, but a chang rai and they must ward off the threatening consequence by building a shrine for Phra Thorani, the guardian spirit of the earth.

* If somebody touches another person's head with their feet, changrai will befall both of them unless they both build shrines to rebuild their integrity. The same happens if somebody walks over the body of someone higher in rank or if a woman places her hands on someone else's head. But such trivial cases can be made good by sprinkling consecrated water (nam mon) on the head. If one touches the head of another person with a hoe, this is changrai. But if injury results, it is an instance of ubat, and that perpetrator must be give satisfaction by tham khuan. If a slave is insulted in this way by his master, he can claim his freedom.

Word List

hua non - หัวนอน
pai tin - ปลายตีน (blai dteen)
khon abpri - คนอับปรีย์ (khon up-bree)
Sadiet changrai - เสนียด จังไร (sa-niat jung-rai)
abpri changrai - อับปรีย์ จังไร (up bree jung-rai)
changrai - จังไร (jung-rai)
sia kroh - เสียเคราะห์ (sia kroh)
kroh เคราะห์
nam mon - น้ำมนต์
ubat - อุบัติ