Jump to content

Flood As Mae Thorani's Revenge Against Redshirts?


StoneSoup

Recommended Posts

Composer and conductor S.P. Somtow produces a blog at his own website: http://www.somtow.org/

 

Presently, the lead entry outlines his take on a perception that he suggests is growing among the Thais:

 

"Here is the conventional wisdom amongst a growing segment of Bangkok's population. The emblem of the democratic party, which is, despite defections by radicals, the main bastion of those with yellow-shirted leanings in this country, is the earth goddess Mae Thorani (Sanskrit Dharani, cognate with the Latin word terra.) In Buddhist mythology, it is believed that when Prince Siddhartha sat beneath the bodhi tree to seek enlightenment, the evil god Mara appeared to tempt him. But the earth goddess appeared and, squeezing a fountain of purifying water from her hair, drove away the forces of darkness.

 

Now, it just so happens that, during the troubles last year, there was a nasty incident in which blood was spattered by red shirts at the democrat party's headquarters, in effect, polluting the sacred icon. There were a number of things about the incident that could be considered sacrilegious when viewed by those who want to see sacrilege. From that moment on, there were those who whispered that the goddess would exact some kind of vengeance.

 

Well, the red shirts are now running the country, and guess what? Here's the patron goddess of the democrat party, squeezing the cosmic waters to purify the country and dispel Mara's temptations and put Thailand back on the path of righteousness.

 

What seems to be as "fringe" as Sarah Palin exorcizing democrats in church becomes almost logical after you hear one of the true believers enumerate the evidence. The flooding, they will tell you, has hit red shirt-leaning parts of the country more than the almost completely democrat leaning south of Thailand — which isn't usually spared the annual inundation. They'll cite all sorts of facts to prove this hypothesis, facts one cannot argue with because one has never thought it might be necessary to disprove such a notion.

 

Okay, my friends in the west may laugh. But guys, check out that beam in your own eye ... think of the local governments in the U.S. seriously trying to legislate the teaching of mythology in science class ... I refer of course to "scientific creationism" ... a horse of the precisely the same color. Credulity knows no boundaries of race, gender, age, or technological advancement.

 

Here in Thailand we live in a society where the supernatural does not lurk in the shadows. It is mainstream. The theory I have just expounded above is unlikely to be true. But that it will seriously be believed, and acted on, is fact. And mythology has a way of becoming truth when enough people reiterate it. That is how religions happen, after all. And in Buddhism (which, strictly speaking, isn't a religion) we believe that reality and truth do not necessarily coincide. Buddha's philosophy teaches us that reality is in fact illusion ... that reality and truth are indeed in some sense opposites. And if reality is illusion, it follows that the better illusionist wins."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...