Thousands of Thais will take part in a week of formal Buddhist and Chinese rituals beginning today to lay to rest the "wandering spirits" of the tsunami victims.
In a deeply spiritual country, many survivors have become increasingly concerned about the presence of angry spirits. The survivors cite traditional Buddhist teaching, which says that the spirits of those who suffer a sudden, violent death often roam the land until they are calmed and blessed.
Ceremonies will take place in Phuket and Phang Nga and small groups of Buddhist monks are also touring beaches, particularly the razed resorts at Khao Lak, where they turn to the ocean and lay to rest the spirits that are still out at sea. In nearby Krabi City monks have sought to ward off stray spirits by encircling the entire settlement with a holy thread.
By night people sit, reflecting on the disaster that befell them and telling tales of the tsunami and what they have seen since.
Many are straightforward ghost stories, often derived from the Buddhist belief in the wandering spirits.
One night last week a taxi driver in Patong Beach was said to have been hailed by four western tourists, who asked him to take them to the airport. He chatted as he drove, grateful to have a rare tourist fare. When he pulled up and turned round to let them out there was no one in his cab. His story was reported in a local newspaper.
It is no accident that the main morgue at Wat Yanyao is based inside a Buddhist temple. Many Thais are deeply troubled by the presence of so many unidentified bodies.
They believe it is not just survivors and pathologists who want to identify the corpses but that the wandering spirits, too, are seeking their bodies from the 4,000 stacked anonymously in grey refrigerated containers inside the temple grounds.
Jureeporn Khongkhem, 24, said"Two people died from the tsunami in my house. When I sleep now the door opens by itself. I get up and close the door and when I wake it is open again. Some nights it looks like people carry chairs about in my room."
When Khongkhem gets scared she calls her neighbor round.
"My friend had dreams asking her to go to a place to find the bodies because they haven't been collected yet," she said. "That's the spirits speaking."
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was