The
Erawan Shrine is a
HinduHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
shrineA shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint 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
BangkokBangkok is the capital, largest urban area and primary city of Thailand. Known in Thai as Krung Thep Mahanakhon , or กรุงเทพฯ Krung Thep for short, it was a small trading post at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River during the Ayutthaya Kingdom. It came to the forefront of Siam when it was given the...
,
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
that houses a statue of Phra Phrom, the Thai representation of the Hindu creation god
BrahmaBrahma is the Hindu god of creation and one of the Trimurti, the others being Vishnu and Shiva. He is not to be confused with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit in Hindu Vedanta philosophy known as Brahman. Brahmā's consort is Saraswati, the goddess of learning...
. 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 March 21, 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
RatchaprasongRatchaprasong 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 Ratchadrami Roads...
intersection of Ratchadamri Road in
Pathum WanPathum 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,
BangkokBangkok is the capital, largest urban area and primary city of Thailand. Known in Thai as Krung Thep Mahanakhon , or กรุงเทพฯ Krung Thep for short, it was a small trading post at the mouth of the Chao Phraya River during the Ayutthaya Kingdom. It came to the forefront of Siam when it was given the...
,
ThailandThe Kingdom of Thailand is an independent country that lies in the heart of Southeast Asia.It is bordered to the north by Laos and Burma, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and Burma...
. It is near the
Bangkok SkytrainThe 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,
CentralWorldCentralWorld is the 2nd largest shopping mall complex in Southeast Asia after SM City North EDSA of the Philippines. The complex, which includes a hotel and office tower, is owned by the 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 to put criminals on public display.
An
astrologerAn 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
ThaiThe Thai 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 languages, and the...
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 WanPathum 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 the part of lap and base of the statue were left intact. The incident occurred at about 1 am.
A white cloth was put up to conceal the absence of a statue. The shrine was closed to the public for 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 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 NationThe Nation is a broadsheet, English-language daily newspaper founded in 1971 and published in Bangkok, Thailand, and is owned by the Nation Multimedia Group...
. "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 is a Thai businessman who was Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006, when he was deposed in a military coup and convicted in absentia for a conflict of interest. He was born in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand and started his career in the police...
visited and paid his respects to the broken statue of the deity.
At an anti-Thaksin rally on 22 March, government critic
Sondhi LimthongkulSondhi Limthongkul is Thai media mogul and leader of the right-wing People's Alliance for Democracy and later was elected for leader of the New Politics Party . Starting his career as a journalist, he later founded Manager Daily newspaper as well as satellite broadcaster ASTV...
charged that the destruction of the statue was a plot by a superstitious Thaksin who was seeking to maintain power through
black magicBlack magic or dark magic is a form of sorcery that draws on assumed malevolent powers. This type of magic would be invoked to kill, to steal, to injure, to cause misfortune or destruction, or for personal gain without regard to harmful consequences to others. As a term, "black magic" is normally...
.
The vandal's father dismissed that notion, and was quoted by
The Nation as 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, is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, an unincorporated township in Clark County, Nevada, United States in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Harrah's Entertainment...
, a hotel and casino in
Las VegasLas Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada, the seat of Clark County, and an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, fine dining, and entertainment. Las Vegas, which bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, is famous for the number of...
.
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