20101029

100907 - Thaikarl - USA - The snake is a ghost (?)

the snake is a ghost (?)

my wife told me a story the other day when i called her.  my 77 ish old mother-in-law woke up in the middle of the night and discovered a snake in her bed. she slowly and carefully got out of bed and went downstairs. she got a flashlight and went back upstairs to look for the snake, but couldn't find it. odd that a snake would go all the way up to the her second floor room.

the next day they went to the Long Som (spirit medium - i still can't say it right, and am probably spelling it wrong) to see what this was about. the Long Som said that it was the ghost of our land. He wants a place to live. So we have to get a spirit house. My wife told me that we actually have to buy two houses - a larger one for the "Angel" and a smaller one for the Ghost. her dictionary translated all the thai words for what she was trying to say as "Angel" but i don't think it's and angel as we think of them in the west exactly.

we also have to have some of the old people from the village come to look around and decide where is the best place to put the spirit houses. i said we'd better go with the program and i'll send her a little extra money (3900 baht) to buy the houses, pedestals and concrete.

i'm never quite sure what is going on with such things. I don't "believe", but i don't dis-believe either. it's important to my family there, so i follow the customs- even if i don't fully understand them. my basic interest is that they don't just kill the snake. if they think that the snake is a familiar for a ghost and thus won't kill it, that's good by me. don't know what kind of snake it was - i'm going to show her pictures of thai snakes next time we skype and see if mama can pick it out. venomous snakes that could be dangerous need to be invited to live elsewhere. maybe the ghost won't need the snake after we get the spirit house installed. i'll post pictures when we have them.

amazing thailand.

4 comments:

  1. A snake in the bed, that's scary big time. I think I'd be heading for the city and a room high up in some hotel.

    Out of interest, does your mother in law sleep on a mattress on the floor. I can't imagine a snake getting up into a normal bed unless there's an open window and a tree nearby.

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  2. Mama sleeps on a mattress up on a bedstead. off the floor. and her room is up on the second floor of the house, so critters have to climb the walls to get up there. no trees near. indeed it is strange! she definitly saw it, and she slowly crawled away from the snake and went downstairs. it was gone when she went back up later.

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  3. Do not kill the snake, leave it alone,then you be save.I had encoutered snakes many times at my house in Lamphun.

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  4. this snake got away. i won't kill them. like many people, the local Thai's immediately want to kill any snake they see. I'm always trying to dissuade them from that. i would only kill one if it was definitely a dangerous venomous snake who won't be persuaded to live elsewhere. but haven't had to do that yet. i always try to convince them that the snakes are good for the area, they will take out the mice and rats. but i don't think my wife always translates that for me. if i can suggest that a snake might be a wandering ghost that angle might have more weight. i'll try that next time. especially since this particular snake is thought to be a messenger from the ghosts.

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