Posted on 03/20/2006 8:28:15 PM PST by killjoy
A man described to be mentally-deranged hammered the much-revered statue of Pra Prom or Brahma creator god at the Hyatt Erawan Hotel and reduced it into pieces before he was lynched to death.
A garland vendor said she saw the man standing up on the base of the statue and hammered away the statue into pieces.
Only the part of lap and base of the statue were left intact. Its head was broken and fell off to the ground. Officials put up white cloth to hide the statue.
The man, who was later identified as Thanakorn Pakdeepol, 27, was assaulted by people near the scene and died about 50 metres away from the Pra Prom shrine.
The garland vendor, Wandee Wichai, 42, said she saw the man hammering the statue at 1 am and she shouted for help.
"I've been selling garlands here for 30 years but I've never seen this man. He appeared like a mad man while hammering Pra Prom," Wandee said.
The man fled but was later caught up by some taxi drivers and people started to beat him up.
Pol Maj Gen Krissasda Phankhongchuen, deputy metropolitan police commissioner, said the man, who suffered severe injuries on his head, was barely alive when police arrived at the scene, which was on the opposite side of road from the Police Hospital.
He said police later arrested two garbage collectors and found an iron bar which one of them used to beat the man.
His father, Sayan Pakdeepol, told police at the Lumpini Police station that his son had been suffering from depression since he was conscripted into military service when he was 21 years old.
Sayan said he talked to his son at about 8 pm and he left home, which was in the same neighbourhood with the shrine, at midnight. The father said he had not heard from his son after learning that he was killed.
"My son arrived home at 8 pm and went to bed. I went upstairs to his room to give him cold drug but he appeared angry and threatened to harm people in the house," Sayan said.
"He left the house ad midnight and I don't know where he was so I called 191 police to inform them for fear that he would assault other people."
Although Brahama statue belongs to a Hindi god it is much revered by Thai Buddhists and Buddhists from other Asian countries who flocked to the statue to pay respect and ask for blessing.
Foreign tourists also like to visit the shrine to see traditional dancers, who were hired by those had seen their wishes come true, perform.
Thanks for the ping. Man, that is terrible. I got a feeling the guys that ended this miserable creature's life will get off easy, though. Rebuilding it is not the same as having the original - this will be taken as a bad omen by the Thais (and me too!).
Tragic situation all around.
The BBC said that the perp is a Muslim. Is that correct? I don't trust the Communist media of the world to report a straight story. Esp, in light of their Janus deception, pretending to care about Muslims and Religion of Peasce, etc yet never talking about Republican Muslims, the democratic movement in Iran, support in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those that condemn terrorists, etc.
The same people who want Americans to believe that Billy XXX is the best President ever is telling us that we must understand and appease the oily dark skinned A-RABS and that every single Muslime is evil and hates America and pro-Bin Laden.
Color me skeptical. Unfortunately, many here who would not trust these b@stards to report the rising of the sun or the correct time fell hook, line, and sinker for the hate-mogngering of the racist Demons, Communists, and their fellow travelers.
And last time I check, "nuking 'em all" is still genocide.
Apologies for the rant.
Probably. But if it really happened, I'd venture to guess that it escalated to that. You know, someone didn't take to those smiling, slight, soft featured, poorly dressed little guys complaining and told them to piss off or something. It happens all the time here to foreigners that can't or won't read the different body language, get in over their heads and pay a severe price for it.
Your rant just made everyone stupider that read it.
This map will show you where to go. I always stay at the Suk 11 hostel (king sized bed, private room only about $15).
I'd rather be a "stupid bleeding heart FRino" than a bloody mass murderer.
The difference between what too many here propose and the proposal that came out of the Wannsee Conference is instead of killing Jews we are killing their alleged "haters".
The similarity is that both are evil.
Thank God Pres. Bush does not share the delusions of the "Nuke 'em all" crowd. Otherwise America would have committed the greatest evil ever seen in the history of man.
Sooner or later we'll find out if Adbul will pray to a smoking crater.. Sorry you don't like it, but the cult can NOT anger the world for much longer and not get a major, major retaliation.
Killing terrorists does not equal to thermonuclear genocide. How can any American ever claim the US to be a beacon of justice, liberty, and a God blessed nation if we chose to annihilate millions of innocent people without just cause and with a clear viable alternative?
What we are doing is working despite the treason being committed by the DEMons and the DeathScreamMedia. Yahoos yelling about "them terrorist Muslime A-Rabs" don't help the war effort. The way to win the War on Terror is not by proving every statement Bin Rotten ever uttered to be true with stupid, bigotted actions and statements.
Hell, if you ever want to get rid of the liberal scum infesting the country, getting 70-90% Islamic/Arabic support is a sure fire way to do that. Republicans and Christians have more in common with Muslims than Americans have with liberals.
I'd rather side with a Muslim than a Communist any time of day. And no. I said Muslim, not terrorist. A terrorist, I'd put in the same grave as a traitor.
Had the Soviet military decided to just nuke maybe 5 US cities, would you have sat back and said 'well, we can't do anything cause innocents might die'.
Your attitude would have lost us every war we ever fought, and all future ones too.
Oh, don't bother to write back either if you're going to play the race card and say it's possible to get 70-90% islamic support.
I'm not going to waste my time with anyone so hopeless.
Nice shrine.
Ditto.
Putting on my Thai superstition hat, this is a very bad omen.
Arabic tatoos were found on the attackers body.
Do you have a source for this?
Garland must be pretty big in Thailand to need a garland vendor. I think I'll give that a try at Christmas time.
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