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Holy statue at Erawan Shrine

Though not a Wat, the shrine is an important Thai religious edifice. As mentioned in chapter Religion in the first part of this book, Buddhism is a religion not concerned with the existence or non-existence of God, or gods, or spirits. The believe in supernatural elements, however, is part of the common religious life of the Thai people. They worship heavenly beings in various forms, and for fairly earthly wishes, such as money or fertility.

In Bangkok, the preferred site to do so is Erawan Shrine, located at the intersection of Rama I Road and Rajadamri Road, next to the new Hyatt Hotel. It's a place tourists staying in the Sukhumvit Road area will pass by automatically when going either to the Silom Road area or the old city center.

Even though the site of the Erawan Shrine is a corner heavily polluted by Bangkok road traffic, it's still the smell of incense sticks that predominates the air; indeed they are burned by the hundreds.

While many worshipping Thai just knee down and pray, some also hire the musicians and dancers available on site - in order to give their requests more weight. For a tourist, this offers the opportunity to see authentic traditional Thai dance and hear authentic traditional Thai music played on traditional instruments - not tainted by what tourism managers believe as being appealing to foreign visitors, and free of charge above that.

Another common practice seen at the Erawan Shrine is the offering of flower garlands and small wooden elephants (symbols of luck) both of which are sold by street vendors outside the shrine. The traveller will notice that he passes by the shrine when most Thai riding in the same bus will perform a Wai towards the location of the shrine.

It's amazing how undisturbed the traditional activities go on in spite of the proximity to modern day city life.

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http://www.asiatour.com/thailand/e-03bang/et-ban80.htm
Jan Garanoz
869/116 Thanon Pemavipat,
Chiang Rai, 57000 Thailand
Created: September 1, 1995
Last updated: January 26, 2010