The World of Thai Amulets

Broadly speaking, they are meant to protect you – guard you from harm, bad business, accidents, danger, bad people, misfortune (the belief of luck plays a critical role in daily Thai life, nevertheless that's for a different post). Some are thought to have greater protection for certain things or provide best of luck in certain aspects of your life.

Why are amulets so used? They're created by monks, often who are well-known for their own magical or meditative powers, who put specific symbols and blessings in the amulet. Amulets that have ‘proven themselves' by defending the wearer as well as got people to become popular and sought immediately after. There are many stories of guns not being able to work around specific amulets or people wearing a specific amulet and from an incident unscathed.

Oftentimes, amulets also feature a small cloth published with symbols as well as script. This is called a bayan or even an incantation fabric. In the guts is a garuda, a mythical bird that is the national token of Thailand. The Thai garuda is called paya krut and having his protection will not only bring anyone material wealth, attractiveness and influence but he is also recognized to negate evil, dark-colored magic forces. When riding in taxis throughout Thailand, you'll notice images such as this Bayan drawn on the screen or nearby the driver. Many people have this on cars to prevent accidents. Also the Bayan were the precursor to Thai body art. The original tattoos were allowed blessing markings. Almost as frequently as you come across men wearing amulets, you may also see them with variations of those tattoos.

In the event that you are going to buy a Thai Buddha amulet - what should you know?

You have to know that there are real amulets as well as fake amulets. You have to know that monks tend not to sell amulets to foreigners, when you see one like this - he is likely not a monk, or even, is a bad monk.

You have to know that the place where the amulet you're buying came from has been blessed - reaches a Buddhist temple. Most amulets acquired in Thailand are not blessed, and therefore are worthless to Thais and Buddhists due to just this.

You have to know that there are as many fake amulets sold as you will find real ones. This is a guess, naturally, but amulet making and faking is a big enterprise and millions of Thai baht may be produced from making and selling amulets that are not genuine - and produced from cheap materials.