Summary
» Country? Thailand.
» In a few words, what is the idea? You will see them in the Grand Palace and other sacred places. Here, we explain their origin and meaning, to make your visit more interesting and perhaps warn you about them.
» Duration?
» For whom? Travellers who usually wonder about what they see and don’t understand and travellers who attract these strange beings.
» Where? In many sacred places and monuments.
» When? Anytime.
Description
Who are these mythical creatures represented in places as sacred as the Grand Palace? Is it just a game for children or for decorative purposes? Obviously not.
You will notice them in all prominent historical and religious places. Their value is symbolic and often have a fierce, sometimes terrifying, appearance, which is related to the sacred history of the Thai people.
The short answer is that they come from the Himaphan forest, somewhere in the Himalayas, and now they are here to protect us. But why?
Since the dawn of time, human beings know that the game of life is played on two different boards, the physical and spiritual worlds, like two simultaneous chess matches.
We need allies and guardians on both sides because they are linked, what happens on one side affects the other and enemies always lurk there and here, even in the most sacred places, like the Grand Palace.
They all belong to an earlier period that has long gone but which forged what the world and humankind are now, as well as the order of nature that affects both.
Those primordial times were not governed by the rules applicable on Earth today, and anything was possible, like living creatures, half-woman and half-bird, or beings that changed from humans to animals whenever they wanted.
In those times of fantasy, there were few restrictions and plenty of everything.
Mythical heroes also appeared frequently and the Gods were especially active. Even today, we still suffer the consequences of dramas that occurred in those times and of the way they were resolved.
A critical period to which the myths of innumerable primitive peoples refer.
To understand why such mythological beings from primordial times crop up now, it is useful if we look back and recall that the first humans from the lineage we all belong to came from Africa and reached India 50,000 years ago. Ancestors who even then possessed magical and religious convictions.
From then on, the people of India gradually evolved in their beliefs, with their gods, heroes and mythological creatures.
The result, after hundreds of generations, is the Hindu cultural universe that now stretches across the Indian subcontinent and in which the flame that still feeds Buddhism throughout Southeast Asia was first lit.
Ways of conceiving the world and our existence in which neither spirits nor mythological beings ever became extinct. That is why even today you can come across their descendants, Kinnara and the Yaksha giants.
These guardians of fearsome appearance currently have the task of guarding the sacred precincts of the Grand Palace, in order to prevent evil spirits or potentially evil beings from entering.
We share a single origin with them and our worlds are linked forever, so … it’s better to get along, right?