Erawan Shrine
Encyclopedia
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
in Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
that houses a statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of the Hindu creation god Brahma
Brahma
Brahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. According to the Brahma Purana, he is the father of Mānu, and from Mānu all human beings are descended. In the Ramayana and the...
. A popular tourist attraction, it often features performances by resident Thai dance troupes, who are hired by worshippers in return for seeing their prayers at the shrine answered. On 21 March 2006, a man vandalised the shrine and was subsequently killed by bystanders.
Location
The shrine is located by the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel,at the Ratchaprasong
Ratchaprasong
Ratchaprasong is the name of an intersection, and a shopping district named after it in Pathum Wan District, Bangkok, adjacent to Siam District. Located at the BTS Skytrain's Chit Lom Station and the intersection of Phloenchit, Rama I and Ratchadamri Roads...
intersection of Ratchadamri Road in Pathum Wan
Pathum Wan
Pathum Wan or Pathumwan is one of the 50 districts of Bangkok, Thailand. The district is bounded by six other districts : Ratchathewi , Watthana, Khlong Toei, Sathon, Bang Rak, Pom Prap Sattru Phai , and Dusit.-History:The district was established in 1914...
district, Bangkok
Bangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
. It is near the Bangkok Skytrain
Bangkok Skytrain
The Bangkok Mass Transit System, commonly known as the BTS Skytrain , is an elevated rapid transit system in Bangkok, Thailand. It is operated by Bangkok Mass Transit System Public Company Limited under a concession granted by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration...
's Chitlom Station, which has an elevated walkway overlooking the shrine. The area has many shopping malls nearby, including Gaysorn, CentralWorld
CentralWorld
CentralWorld is a shopping plaza and complex in Bangkok, Thailand. It is the third largest shopping complex in the world. The complex, which includes a hotel and office tower, is owned by Central Pattana...
and Amarin Plaza.
History
The Erawan Shrine was built in 1956 as part of the government-owned Erawan Hotel to eliminate the bad karma believed caused by laying the foundations on the wrong date.The hotel's construction was delayed by a series of mishaps, including cost overruns, injuries to laborers, and the loss of a shipload of Italian marble intended for the building. Furthermore, the Ratchaprasong Intersection had once been used to put criminals on public display.
An astrologer
Astrologer
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an...
advised building the shrine to counter the negative influences. The Brahma statue was designed and built by the Department of Fine Arts and enshrined on 9 November 1956. The hotel's construction thereafter proceeded without further incident. In 1987, the hotel was demolished and the site used for the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.
Shrine vandalised
In the early hours of 21 March 2006, the shrine was vandalised by a ThaiThai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
man believed to be mentally ill. After smashing the statue with a hammer, 27-year-old Thanakorn Pakdeepol was himself beaten to death by angry bystanders. Two street sweepers who worked for the Pathum Wan
Pathum Wan
Pathum Wan or Pathumwan is one of the 50 districts of Bangkok, Thailand. The district is bounded by six other districts : Ratchathewi , Watthana, Khlong Toei, Sathon, Bang Rak, Pom Prap Sattru Phai , and Dusit.-History:The district was established in 1914...
district office were arrested and charged with the fatal beating.
Witnesses said Thanakorn stood on the base of the statue with a large hammer in his hands, and smashed the hollow statue to pieces. The deity's four-faced head, torso, six arms and weapons were fragmented. Only part of the lap and base of the statue were left intact. The incident occurred at about 1:00 a.m.
A white cloth was put up to conceal the absence of the statue. The shrine was closed to the public for some time, but officials later reopened the site, displaying photographs of the statue so that worshippers could continue to pay their respects.
The new Brahma statue was completed and placed in the shrine on 21 May 2006 at 11:39 a.m., the time the sun was shining directly above the shrine. According to officials with the Religious Affairs Department and the Maha Brahma Foundation, it was made of plaster, mixed with a mixture of gold, bronze and other precious metals, along with pieces of the old statue. Another statue, made wholly of metal, was cast from the same mold, and will be kept in the National Museum.
Motives examined
During an autopsy of Thanakorn Pakdeepol, the vandal who destroyed the revered statue, doctors found Arabic characters tattooed on his back and arms, prompting police to investigate whether the attack had a religious motive and if Thanakorn or his family had any ties to Muslim extremists.However, the slain man's father, Sayant Pakdeepol, said his son had received treatment for psychiatric problems in recent years and that the mental illness was the cause for the attack.
Sayant called the beating to death of his son an "overreaction".
"Doing something like this is not the act of people with good beliefs, of those with real faith in Brahma," Sayant was quoted as saying by The Nation
The Nation (Thailand)
The Nation is a broadsheet, English-language daily newspaper founded in 1971 and published in Bangkok, Thailand, and is owned by the Nation Multimedia Group.The Nation is a member of the Asia News Network...
. "Murder is an immoral act and people with morality would not have done what they did."
Political controversy
In the days following the incident at Erawan Shrine, embattled Thai Prime Minister Thaksin ShinawatraThaksin Shinawatra
Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician, who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was overthrown in a military coup....
visited and paid his respects to the broken statue of the deity.
At an anti-Thaksin rally on 22 March, government critic Sondhi Limthongkul
Sondhi Limthongkul
Sondhi Limthongkul is a Thai media mogul and leader of the right-wing People's Alliance for Democracy . He was elected for leader of the New Politics Party ....
charged that the destruction of the statue was a plot by a superstitious Thaksin who was seeking to maintain power through black magic
Black magic
Black magic is the type of magic that draws on assumed malevolent powers or is used with the intention to kill, steal, injure, cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences. As a term, "black magic" is normally used by those that do not approve of its...
.
The vandal's father dismissed that notion, and was quoted by The Nation as saying that Sondhi is "the biggest liar I have ever seen."
Thaksin, when asked to comment on Sondhi's accusations, simply replied: "That's insane."
Replica at Las Vegas
A replica of the Phra Phrom shrine is found at Caesars PalaceCaesars Palace
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp....
, a hotel and casino in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
, Nevada, USA.