Buriram Taboos

[Lourens]

We all know the regular taboos in Thailand like don’t pat someone on the head, don’t point with your foot, and don’t step over someone sitting on the floor and so on. But what about those things that are peculiar to our region? Or maybe not only to Buriram but the rural areas in general.

Like the other day: After a good thunderstorm, there appeared a beautiful rainbow and I pointed this out to my wife. I mean, actually pointed at the rainbow. I was immediately told that this was bad luck and the only way to counter the bad Karma was to stick my finger in my (where the sun don’t shine). 

There are other stories but let me keep them in reserve to get the ball rolling again later.

What did you experience?

[Admin]

Just talked with my wife about this "Taboo" ..we had a real laugh about this legand..
actually she says that the real story is also to sniff the finger.. 

[Thaddeus]

Just talked with my wife about this "Taboo" ..we had a real laugh about this legand..
actually she says that the reall story is also to sniff the finger.. 

Urrggghhh ..... must be something to do with adding the colour brown to the rainbow, and not just at visual sensory levels

When our house was first built, we were given our 'lucky moving in day' by the local monks (or, orange robed leaches, which is a more fitting term) that day was two weeks after the places was habitable...... I declared "I'm a Christian, I don't care, I'm moving in now"...... (three months of living in no more than a wooden shed can do strange things to you.... especially in the really hot part of the year, and you new house has air-con)

Wifey went to seek a second opinion and discovered that we could move in early, as long as Mama came around at 6pm every night, lit six sticks of incense at the front door and chanted some holy saying six times while doing it.


Bottom line is.... most taboos come from the Wat or trying to circumvent the Wat, they just make it up as they go along, and it's all complete and utter bollocks.

Just learn how to say 'yes darling' without breaking stride.

[Lourens]

Saying "Yes dear" became second nature to me too. 

When we had our house built, there had to be someone in the house as soon as the roof went on. This was to prevent any bad spirits invading the house before we could move in. Brother-in-law did the honours and was quite happy to stay in a new house with proper floors despite being eaten to within an inch by mosquitoes every night.

[pbee]

 We decided to take a long term let on a room at the Wanvisa Mansions Buriram while we were looking at other more permanant options.This I would suggest to anybody unfamiliar with Isaan.It is a world apart from home. The room was spacious clean and had a european toilet shower etc off the balcony.Staff were friendly and helpfull,best of all the rent is very reasonable,espiecialy when it is booked by your wife or gf on their own.The only downside is the early morning chorus provided by the cockrels and chickens from nearby properties, however being a country boy it was not that much of a problem. I was woken 2.30am by a dog barking non stop for about an hour or more which kept on starting up the other dogs in the nieghbourhood.On the 2nd night I had enough and launched a full plastic bottle off water from the fridge off of the 3rd floor balcony at it. Just missed it but exploded close enough for it to run off.
    My wife to be was not happy,she said I should ignore it and if the dogs owner had witnessed my assault on the dog they would not be happy.I said if the dog had an owner,the owner shut the dog up.
   Next day in the Bamboo Bar a street trader came in selling amongst other things catapaults.To be on the safe side I bought two. With a handfull of stones from the car park I was ready. Sure enough bark bark bark, I rushed to the balcony,the stones were there ,but no catapaults? The next morning when I had calmed down it was explained to me that the old lady that owned the dog was recently widowed and her late husband was not a nice man. Apparently the dog was protecting her from his spirit that was trying to visit her. I have much to learn???

[HappyinIsaan]

Bottom line is.... most taboos come from the Wat or trying to circumvent the Wat, they just make it up as they go along, and it's all complete and utter bollocks.

Totally agree with you - 1000%

[pbee]

While I was back in the UK, trying to earn a crust to finance my next trip home, I decided to sketch out some ideas for the house I was thinking of having built. As my land is a rice paddy and completly surrounded by the same,with the nearest property 500m away. I wanted to try and make it fit in with its surroundings. I decided on a wide house with a large low pitch roof,in 3 parts a bit like some farm buildings I have seen. A friend of mine drew up some outline drawings for me and I was pleased with the result. When I returned home my wife and me took the drawings to show her uncle who is a house builder. He said the design was good also unique,he said he has built many houses all over Thailand but not the same as this,he seemed to like it. It was a simple build apart from a large roof span over the central courtyard. Then he completly supprised me by saying it would not be good to build this house.I said my friend was a proffesional architect and he could do a more detailed drawing of the big roof span if he wanted.he then informed me that the skyline of the roof looked like a bird and that is considered unlucky.
    I said I dont believe in these superstitions and the skyline of the roof was the main feature of the house and I wouldent change it. My wife bless her then told me that local people would not enter a house that was unlucky.I was stumped then I noticed that his house with the extention he had recently built and the leantoo storage area to the side looked slightly similar to mine.After some concideration and much discution it was concluded my design would be ok after all. I asked him to write up an estimate and if I could afford it I would give the go ahead. Alas It was to expensive with the rising prices of matierials but he had a design he could build me within my budget, so with a few alterations I gave the go ahead and returned to the UK. My wife bless her has made some more additions to the house so of course it has cost me more than I told her I was prepared to pay,however I had allowed for extras as there allways are in any new build project.I have received photo,s and the house is nearly complete and looks brilliant,but I am sure it is just as big as the house I wanted.Is it unusual that Thai wives always get what they want in the end?

[TBWG]

Is it unusual that Thai wives always get what they want in the end?

Hi pbee

I don't call the misses Boss Lady for nothing. However she is great at driving hard bargains with local builders etc. It's best to use a bit of reverse psychology and get what you want by steering from behind.That way everyone is happy and the boss lady gains major face. 

Regarding taboos we had to have a major redesign of house because the toilet was next to the Bhudda room... major disrespect. The Bhudda room now takes up best part of the house!

TBWG

[Lourens]

This Buddah room - I'm so glad you brought it up because I wanted to raise the subject on many occasions but was never sure how to do it:

We had to sacrifice an entire bedroom of a three bedroom house for all the Buddah Paraphernalia. When friends come to visit, we have to send our boy to live with Grandma to make space. I thought this was a bit over the top and made the suggestion to move or at least limit space for Buddah but this was recieved with utter disdain. It got so bad that my wife wouldn't speak to me for a couple of days (not always a bad thing!). But it was clear to me that it was a tender issue. I had other thoughts in the meantime but never dared speaking them for fear of another scolding. One of my thoughts was to build an extra room to house Buddah in addition to the spirit house outside. The idea would be like a mini temple and then get the local monk to come and bless the place. Is this a good idea? What other suggestions might there be?

I will be very happy to regain that third bedroom.

[nookiebear]

Is it unusual that Thai wives always get what they want in the end?

Onw way shape or form where a farang husband is concerned,the Thai wife ALWAYS ends up getting what they want!!

[smoooth2]

I have several beautiful mature Oleander shrubs along my front fence. Really pretty green leaves and masses of white flowers.

Trouble is ... Hawk Moth caterpillars have found them and chew the shrubs to hell. The caterpillars grow to about the size of your thumb before finally morphing into moth. They are amazing eating machines !!

GF told me it's not good luck to put the caterpillars in the bin, but to release them in the park 100m down the soi, whereby they become someone elses problem.

Fair enough. No problem for me. I'm on the way to Buddha heaven.   

Apparently it's ok though to kill mossies in the bedroom, spiders in the kitchen and centipedes in the garden 

[davureborn]

We all know the regular taboos in Thailand like don’t pat someone on the head, don’t point with your foot, and don’t step over someone sitting on the floor and so on. But what about those things that are peculiar to our region? Or maybe not only to Buriram but the rural areas in general.

Like the other day: After a good thunderstorm, there appeared a beautiful rainbow and I pointed this out to my wife. I mean, actually pointed at the rainbow. I was immediately told that this was bad luck and the only way to counter the bad Karma was to stick my finger in my (where the sun don’t shine). 

There are other stories but let me keep them in reserve to get the ball rolling again later.

What did you experience?

We probably saw the same rainbow, which was a double rainbow by the way, and drove over to where we could better see it, pointed at it and they were happy. 'Good luck'
On the other hand I pointed at a motorist that was driving quite fast in front of a school where there were lots of motorbikes and little kids milling around. He tried to cut us off. He stopped and shouted something containing the words 'f### you' in the sense that that was what I had been telling him, my wife said.
I must say I learn stuff all the time. The main taboo as far as my wife is concerned is my looking at other ladies.

[Freddy]

When I first moved over here we had 4 Papaya trees growing at the front of our house. My wife's sister had planted them for her a few years previously so they were pretty well established and I thought looked good. One day a lady from the village wanders by, announces that it is unlucky to have Papaya at the front of the property so my wife chops them down!!!!!
Both my wife's Sister and the village lady are from here but clearly have no consistent view on what is or is not lucky.

We also had a huge bust- up regarding the Mother in laws bungalow. The site was where in previous years some rice had been stored in a shed. According to Mother in Law, extremely unlucky and will not set foot in new bungalow if built there. This one seemed strange to me. Rice is important in Thai life and I would have thought that it would be considered lucky to live on a site where rice was stored.
I built the bungalow there anyway, head man attended to chant away the bad luck although he seemed to be somewhat confused as to what the issue was. Mother in Law now settled in Bungalow and never been mentioned since.

[mahdam]

I have had none of the afore mentioned problems, as I made it clear at the start I was paying for the house and would have what I wanted. That said the wife and I designed the house ourselves, so we where both agreed on the final design.
When we showed the plans to my brother in law, he said it looked great, but we could not have it facing in the direction I had planned, as it would be unlucky. I reminded him that it was I that would be footing the bill, and I would have it facing where I had planned.
We have all been living in this house now for the best part of 6 years, and I have never heard another thing about the direction it faces.
When the builder had finished digging the holes for the foundations, I was informed that we would have to wait for a Monk to come and tell us witch hole to start work on first. As someone who has spent at lot of time in the building trade, it was patently obvious to me where to start and I did not need the help of some Monk who new less about building than I know about Brain surgery. work on my terms started immediately. As for a Buddha room, it was never mentioned, and we do not have any Buddha related items in the house. That's their decision not mine. As I said we have all been living happily in this house now for nearly 6 years, totally free of all this superstitious nonsense.