My Old Blogs at Yahoo!360 / MTP

Entry for November 09, 2006 -- Thai Myths

I was asked what myths and legends we had in Thailand.
In my opinion I think the most talked about should be ghost stories.
I googled the internet and found a few good sites in English:


-->   Thai Ghosts and Spirits.   Copied below:
Spirits and ghosts live almost everywhere in Thailand. Most large trees are said to have a ghost or spirit living inside of it and old trees are held in particular respect. The favourite place for female ghosts to live is in a banana grove. There are many species of banana plants in Thailand, but a ‘tani’ banana grove is the preferred haunting place.

Seen and unseen forces operate in daily Thai life. Flowers, incense, or food is placed in front of shops, on the bows of boats, in front of Buddhist icons and spirit houses. Brightly-coloured ribbon is wrapped around trees or other objects. These are all offerings to the spirits that reside there. A cement pole near my house receives many gifts. There have been too many accidents at this pole and local residents are trying to placate its bad spirit. Keep your eyes open for these offerings when in Thailand and you will be amazed at how many you see.


-->   Do not miss this famous one: Mae Nak Phra Khanong.
Made into movies: Nang Nak (1999), Pee Mak (2013),
and more about these at Wikipedia: Nang Nak, Pee Mak.


-->   I added these two links in Oct 2019:
    • Ghosts in Thai Culture (Wikipedia),
    • Introduction to Ghost in Thai Culture (By "Paranormal Searchers", 2009)


-->   Ramakien is the Thai version of the famous Indian Ramayana epic.
We can see this on the murals in Wat Phra Kaew (the Emerald Temple).
I added a screenshot of the google images of these murals below:



-->   In The Singing Ape of Thailand you will learn a Thai word!
* Unfortunately the above webpage at Geocities (a website) is no longer available.
In Oct 2019, I found the article in another webpage
(but with improper ads, so allow me to copy the words here):
In traditional Thai folklore, gibbons are thought to be the reincarnation of disappointed lovers. The source of their mournful songs is believed to be the spirit of a grieving princess calling out to her lost husband in a hopeless yet never-ending search for him. What originally fueled this famous belief is the fact that lar gibbons (Hylobates lar), inhabitants of the rain forests found throughout Thailand, can often be heard singing, from the treetops, "Pua, pua, pua," or a similar sounding series of whoops and wails. Pua is the Thai word (albeit somewhat vulgar) for husband.

Thai legend has it that this is how the gibbon came to be. Long ago when the stars were young and the gods shared their magic with mortal men, a young prince named Chantakorop was sent to study under a hermit in the jungle. Only hermits knew the magic of the gods. Life would have been tiresome and boring for the prince had it not been for the hermit’s daughter, Mora,¹ who entertained him with her graceful dancing and brought him bananas, phutsa1 (a type of fruit), and slices of durian melon.

When Chantakorop’s studies were complete, he left to return to his palace and claim the throne. Before he set out on his journey, the hermit presented him with a clay urn. "Within this urn is a gift I hope you will treasure forever. It contains your heart’s greatest desire," said the hermit, "However, you may not open the urn until you reach your father’s palace. If you open it before you have reached the safety of your own kingdom, great misfortune will befall upon you." The prince vowed to obey the hermit’s words, and gratefully took the gift and held his high while the hermit bowed (according to Thai tradition, a prince’s head never bends lower than that of a common man). "Sawasdee (goodbye)," said the hermit, "Do not forget what I have told you; you have been forewarned."

Chantakorop bid his instructor farewell, and embarked on his voyage through the jungle. With each passing day the urn inexplicably grew heavier, and with each step the prince’s curiosity grew as well. Finally, he could wait no longer. He impatiently removed the lid from the urn, and, much to his surprise, Mora, the hermit’s lovely daughter, magically appeared before him.

Chantakorop and Mora were hastily married in the nearest village. Eager to present his bride to his father, the prince anxiously continued his journey toward the royal palace with his new wife. When they were near the outskirts of the kingdom, Chantakorop suddenly remembered the warning the hermit had given him when they had parted, and he realized he had broken his promise to the man. At that moment, a bandit appeared from the shadows and challenged the prince to a fight. Whoever emerged victorious would have Mora as his prize. They fought valiantly, but the prince soon grew weary. The bandit then immediately swung a powerful blow that sent the prince staggering to the ground. Chantakorop’s sword fell beyond his reach. "Mora!" he called, "Quickly, if you cherish my life, bring me my sword!"

Mora reached for the sword, but was momentarily distracted by the sight of the bold bandit and left the sword where it lay. The bandit then seized the weapon for himself and killed the prince in an instant. Shocked by the result of her inaction, Mora bent over the body of her beloved prince and cried, "Pua, pua, pua (husband, husband, husband)."

The bandit took the heartbroken woman away. Mora went willingly, but all she could do the entire time was sadly call out, "Pua, pua, pua." As sunset approached, the gods looked down from the heavens, and the hermit suddenly appeared before his daughter and the bandit. Ashamed at her betrayal, he turned her into a gibbon. From that day on, she has roamed the forest in search of her fallen husband, and the melancholy sound of the gibbon crying, "Pua, pua, pua" is her eternal song of remorse.

In reality, the song of the gibbon is described by scientific rather than colorful cultural explanations. A gibbon’s voice can be heard from up to a mile away, even against the panorama of background noises of the rainforest. According to Jeremy and Patricia Raemakers, the gibbons’ songs are "similar in character and purpose to those of birds."² Many birds share the same monogamous social system, which consists of a "male-female pair and their dependent young." Songbirds sing to attract a mate, to reinforce the pair-bond if already mated, and to warn of other birds of the same sex. Gibbon songs seem to fit a similar pattern.
References:
1. Toth, Marian. Tales from Thailand: Folklore, Culture, and History. 1971.
    Charles E. Tuttle Co. Tokyo, Japan. pp. 97-105
2. Raemakers, Jeremy and Patricia.
    The Singing Ape: A Journey Into the Jungles of Thailand. 1990.
    The Anarm Printing Group Co. Bkk, Thailand. p. xiii - xviii
3. Richard, Alison. Primates in Nature. 1985.
    W.H. Freeman and Company. New York. P. 332-333, 354.
4. Carpenter, C. Ray.
    A Field Study in Siam of the Behavior and Social Relations of the Gibbon. 1941.
    The John Hopkins Press. Baltimore, Maryland. p. 55
5. Hasadsri, Anthropology 1 Extra Credit Assignment


-->   Jarunee the Singing Ape (1977) is a sad story of a gibbon's struggle to survive in the jungles of Thailand. Below is the screenshot of the review I retook in October, 2019:


You can hear gibbons' cry. Do they sound like "pua, pua, pua"?



-->   A Siamese Fairy Tale was written by, to your surprise, that very famous Somerset Maugham. Below is the book review:


There are more but I think these should be enough for the beginners.

Enjoy!!

Entry for November 13, 2006 --Ghosts and Infrasound

This country in which I currently live is so full of ghosts and spirits. When I was little I heard a lot of these scary stories from all the people around me though not from my parents since they were not from Thailand. The spooky images seemed to be everywhere but no one in my family ever saw them. Nevertheless I was scared partly because the house that we lived was large and old and full of "legends". I was relieved when I had a chance to go away from Thailand and lived in a surrounding that emphasized science and scoffed at "superstitions". Never mind how the world viewed Taiwan but schools in Taiwan did tell us not to believe in anything non-scientific. After decades of schooldays in Taiwan I gradually forgot those creepy Thai ghosts that could pop up anytime at night.

When I came back to settle down permanently in Thailand, I was too old to be scared of those childhood ghosts anymore. But my boys were born here and I did not want them to grow up with terrifying ghosts lurking their mind. I always told them ghosts were the creation of our own imagination. But I was surprised when the kids on the block told us various ghosts they actually saw: one saw a woman with long hair dressed in traditional Thai clothing that appeared in a closet at home (so stereotyped!), the other witnessed some shadowy figure that floated through the air while all the dogs suddenly howled. More, though, but I'd rather not mention here. Anyway, these kids all went to private schools, understood English, and had good computer skills. They were so average, just like my boys. They were not on any drugs: they were just elementary school kids. I was worried... How could I help my boys? I didn't want them to be unnecessarily scared.

One day while searching for some physics terms on the internet I came across an article: "Infrasound".   It said a scientist encountered a ghost in his lab! I could not stop reading towards the end. That was a good and persuasive article! I did more search afterwards. I was so glad: I found a way to tell the boys not to fear for ghosts!

Read this:

The article below is a copy-paste from this site:
http://ghosts.monstrous.com/infrasound.htm
(The site is long gone)

Computer specialist Vick Tandy (see pic above) from Coventry University always considered all legends about ghosts a nonsense and never took them seriously. Once he traditionally spent his evening working in a laboratory when he suddenly broke into a cold sweat. Vick felt somebody was watching him with sinister eyes. Then the sinister something assumed a gray material form, crossed the room and approached the scientist. In the vague outline Vick could discern legs, arms and fog where the figure must have a head; there was a dark spot in the center of the fog which might be a mouth. In an instance, the vision disappeared in the air without leaving a trace.

As soon as Vick Tandy recovered after the first fear and shock he started doing as a scientist: he started looking for the cause of the unusual phenomenon. Hallucinations might have been the easiest way to explain the phenomenon. On the other hand, Vick didn't use drugs, was moderate in drinking alcohol and coffee. As for weird forces, the scientist strongly disregarded them. So, Vick Tandy decided to look for ordinary physical factors that might explain the phenomenon.

Soon Vick Tandy managed to discover the factors quite accidentally. Vick's hobby, fencing helped him with it. Some time after the scientist saw the "ghost" he brought his rapier to the laboratory to set it right before a forthcoming fencing tournament. Suddenly Vick felt the blade gripped in a vice started vibrating more and more as if some invisible hand touched it.

"Some invisible hand" might have been suggested as a probable explanation of the phenomenon by ordinary people but not by a scientist. That is why Vick Tandy suddenly arrived at a conclusion that the moving of the blade was resonance oscillations caused with sound waves. This is just exactly the same when we hear tea services clink in a buffet when music is thundering in the room. But in fact, it was actually very quiet in the laboratory. To be sure, Vick Tandy measured the sound in the laboratory with special apparatuses. He was surprised to see that the sound in the room was unimaginable; the sound waves were very low, although the scientist couldn't hear them. That was infrasound. It took the scientist a lot of time to find out the source of the infrasound; it was emitted by a recently set ventilator in the air conditioner. As soon as the air conditioner was switched off, the blade stopped vibrating.

Infrasound is very surprising by itself. For many years seamen were pondering over the mystery of "flying Dutchmen", ships that wandered around the seas without crews on board. The ships were in good repair, but there were no people on board at all. Where have they gone? Well-known vessel Maria Celesta was the last of such ships; that was a wonderful schooner noticed by some other vessel in the ocean. When the vessel approached Maria Celesta and its seamen entered the schooner, they were astonished to find hot dinner and entries recently made by the captain in the ship journal. There were absolutely no people on board of Maria Celesta. They disappeared but no traces could be found.

The mystery was unsolved for decades, until it became clear that infrasound was the explanation of the phenomenon. As it turned out, infrasound of seven hertz emitted by ocean waves under some definite conditions was the reason of it. But infrasound of seven hertz is terrible for people:   they may go mad and throw themselves overboard to save their lives.

Vick Tandy supposed that his night vision might be connected with infrasound as well. When he measured the infrasound in the laboratory, the showing was 18.98 hertz, just exactly the frequency under which a human eyeball starts resonating. So, to all appearances sound waves made Vick Tandy's eyeballs resonate and produced an optical illusion:   he saw a figure that didn't exist in fact.

Further investigation of the phenomenon revealed that sound waves of this low frequency may appear rather frequently under natural conditions. Infrasound arises when strong gusts of wind clash with chimneys or towers. These heavy basses penetrate even through very thick walls. Such sound waves start rumbling in tunnel-shaped corridors. This is the reason why people often come across ghosts in long serpentine corridors of ancient castles looking like tunnels. Strong winds are quite typical of Great Britain.

Vick Tandy published the results of his research in the magazine of the Society of Physical Researches. The Society was formed in 1822 to unite British parapsychologists and naturalists; the Society is working to find reasonable explanations to paranormal phenomena. This is quite understandable that professional "ghost busters" got enthusiastic with Tandy's idea.   Leading parapsychologists of Great Britain think this idea will help give explanations to many of mysterious phenomena.

However, other scientists call the idea into question.   Physicists studying effect of infrasound upon the human body say that volunteers participating in their experiments complain of weariness, high pressure in the eyes and in the ears, but never mention hallucinations or ghosts.   At that, physicists say that drivers also have no optical illusions when cars overcome the air drag at a really high speed and the level of infrasound waves is very high.

Further readings about ghost experiments:
(I doubt how many of you would actually go through these pages. )

http://www.ghostexperiment.co.uk/theories-infra.html
http://www.ghostexperiment.co.uk/Something-in-the-Cellar.pdf
http://www.ghostexperiment.co.uk/ghost-in-machine.pdf

More about infrasound:

It exists in nature, and it can be used as weapons.
This one is worth reading:
http://www.lowertheboom.org/trice/infrasound.htm

The electromagnetic and sound specta --A colorful chart!
http://www.usbyte.com/
common/approximate_wavelength.htm

After I told my boys all the infrasound thing, I added, if they ever saw "P " (ghost in Thai), just tell it to put on the clothes ("suah") and it will become a butterfly ("P-suah ") and fly away.   My boys loved this!

Source:   http://www.sengpielaudio.com/WavelengthFrequencyMedium