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suchasensualdestroyer: Photo of Phra Ngan Ar Jahn Xiang (Thai), c. 2011. This guy’s what we in the US might call a “shaman,” though I recognize the limitations and cultural relevance of that term specific to Siberia. He’s probably been a monk in the past (most Thai men have - it’s part of Buddhist culture to get dedicated as a novice at a wat at some point in your childhood if you’re a boy), but he’s not in robes now. So my guess is this guy occupies what anthropologists call a ritual specialist role in Thai culture - that he’s been recognized by his community as having a kind of special hook-up with the supernatural. Looks like he’s sitting on a tiger skin, too - which is a tradish way in southeast Asia of saying your a kind of wild mountain hermit. As such, he produces protective yantras (yant in Thai; yoan in Khmer) like you see behind him, for people who come to him. You see these amulets everywhere in Thailand, Cambodia + Laos. Cab drivers will have them painted on the ceilings of their cabs right over their heads for protection on the road.

suchasensualdestroyer:

Photo of Phra Ngan Ar Jahn Xiang (Thai), c. 2011.

This guy’s what we in the US might call a “shaman,” though I recognize the limitations and cultural relevance of that term specific to Siberia. He’s probably been a monk in the past (most Thai men have - it’s part of Buddhist culture to get dedicated as a novice at a wat at some point in your childhood if you’re a boy), but he’s not in robes now. So my guess is this guy occupies what anthropologists call a ritual specialist role in Thai culture - that he’s been recognized by his community as having a kind of special hook-up with the supernatural. Looks like he’s sitting on a tiger skin, too - which is a tradish way in southeast Asia of saying your a kind of wild mountain hermit.

As such, he produces protective yantras (yant in Thai; yoan in Khmer) like you see behind him, for people who come to him. You see these amulets everywhere in Thailand, Cambodia + Laos. Cab drivers will have them painted on the ceilings of their cabs right over their heads for protection on the road.

(via suchasensualdestroyer-deactivat)

4 months ago January 10, 2012 32 notes #photo #gods
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