Thursday 17 November 2016

Amulet Alley



Amulet Ally is a place that you must visit when you are in Phuket but always visited with respect.


"Amulets are made using the Buddha image, image of famous monk, or even image of the monks who made the amulets themselves and let believers wear on for security and peace. Amulets have different kind of sizes, different shapes and different materials such as plaster, bone, wood, metal. It may include ash from incenses or old temple structure, hair from famous monk, to add protection power to the amulets.  After the amulets were made, the maker will then ask the monks who live in temples or monks from other temples join together and practice will, chant, pray and bless the amulets, this process may need at least one week more than three years." - text from Wikipedia 


Amulet trading in Thailand is an enormous industry - but I am not sure that I should refer to it as an industry. I have a number of amulets which are in our home but traditionally they are won around the owner's neck. I then found a Facebook, Google and even found a forum for trading!


I am not sure what all these amulets are for or who they are supposed to represent - a fascinating collection. Here is a link to the most famous Amulets. Not that I think any of them were down this alley...

Here is a listing and images or a number of Thai Amulets which are available. I would imagine that I could scroll through this site and identify what I have seen at the site and Amulet Alley in Phuket Town.


This is a salesman which I see almost every time that I visit.

The central figure is a giant demon - a Yaksha or Yuk.

This looks like a monk figurine - Phra Sivali. 


This reminds me of an Indian deity - there are a number of elements which are popular - the biggest being Ganesha at the time I write this - there is a dedicated shop in Phuket Town for Ganesha.


There are some strange things which I have found when researching - the most common would be the phallic objects but the ones that I have not found are the coffin nails - they have a specific quality...

Next time I will look for those. Thank you to the people who sell the amulets here everyday.


Previous Visits
 1) April 2016
 2) March 2013 
 3) August 2012  
 4) October 2010 


 

 


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