Posted on 03/21/2006 6:03:14 PM PST by xzins
March 21, 2006 16:55 PM
Bangkok's Primary Hindu Deity Destroyed By Mentally-ill Man
BANGKOK, March 21 (Bernama) -- Bangkok's most popular religious site--the shrine to the four-headed Hindu God Brahma at the Erawan corner--was destroyed early Tuesday by a mentally-ill street person who was later beaten to death by as yet-unidentified persons, Thailand News Agency (TNA) reported.
The body of the unidentified man believed to be the desecrator was found about 100 metres away.
Thousands of Bangkokians--from vendors, bus and taxi drivers to bankers, businessmen and politicians--look to the Erawan Shrine for personal solace and answers to their prayers.
Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he was "appalled" by the incident and said he would instruct the Ministry of Culture to quickly restore the statue, beloved by millions of the Bangkok public for 50 years.
The mentally-ill man used a hammer to shatter the Bangkok's most revered `popular religion' image, a shrine which traditionally helped barren women have children, the unemployed find job, lovers to resolve their quandaries and those confronted by impossible burdens to find relief.
The traditions, the `home' of a Hindu deity whom hundreds of thousands of Bangkok residents in the past half-century believed to have answered their prayers -- the four-headed statue of the Hindu god Brahma was Bangkok's most accessible and successful local shrine.
According to a witness who is a flower seller, the man broke into the shrine when it was closed early Tuesday morning and destroyed the statue of the God with hammer before running away.
People who saw the incident followed him and attacked him. The man died on the spot.
Police said they were tracking persons suspected to be involved in the killing to bring them to trial.
The Brahma statue, located next to the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel in the shopping area downtown, was built in 1956.
Both locals and foreign tourists, particularly visitors from Asia, flocked to visit the shrine to worship the God every day and to make offerings when their wishes were granted.
-- BERNAMA
A few observations:
1. gods can be slain by the mentally ill
2. with hammers
3. I expected god to be a little older (1956)
4. followers have hammers, too. (If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the mornin'.....)
(Rev, you owe me the standard sermon illustration fee for this one. :>)
does it mention the religion of this 'mentally ill' person?
Quite a lovely god who sits outside the Hyatt.
I'll bet you think his treatment of god suggests he might not have been among the faithful....
"Bangkok's most revered `popular religion' image, a shrine which traditionally helped barren women have children, the unemployed find job, lovers to resolve their quandaries and those confronted by impossible burdens to find relief"
Darn, and it was just going to give me the next Powerball numbers.
Send that dude to the Ford plants in Ohio.
I don't understand your hilarity. Is vandalism funny?
The powerball numbers are hidden in secret code somewhere on this page.
"Is vandalism funny?"
No. Idolatry is.
"And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, "Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened."
1 Kings 18
I think the Vandals were into iconoclasm, too.
I think that statue seems to have some demonic powers associated. Notice that some who worship that idols have their wishes fulfilled, and the person who destroyed it ended up dead. Of course the power is not from God but from the prince of this world.
I don't beleive in idols; but I don't beleive in vandalism either. Still, a god that lets itself//himself?/themselves? get smashed impresses me little. Will the shrine be replaced? Sad about the guy who did this. If he'd burned down a Christian church would he be a hero?
If he'd burned down a Christian church would the congregation have beat him to death?
(No...they wouldn't have.)
I would have bet Islamic. Are you sure?
Yes. It was in the early reports from both the Nation and Bangkok Post (in their breaking new section on their web sights).
I am very sceptical of the few reports that said he was Muslim. His name is not obviously Muslim. Same goes for his dad. There is also nothing I have seen in the Thai press that refers to his religion. Thailand is not a country that would cover up something like this.
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