INCENSE, ANIMISM, AND POLLUTION

I traveled to Thailand in January of 2002 on Thai airlines. Just before landing, they began a slide presentation on sites and sounds of Thailand. Repeated images of temples in the mist crossed the screen along with images of beautiful Thai women in traditional costume. Once we landed in Bangkok, we were greeted by a mass of people who quickly approached us, asking if we wanted to contract with them for tours of the city. While trying to be gracious, we (my husband and daughter were with me on the first excursion) hurried past them and to our hotel, the Ebina House, just a few miles from the airport. We needed a good night's sleep before we flew up to Chiangmai the next day.

On the first morning in Bangkok, I threw upon the curtains in the hotel room, ready to greet the sun, only to find that much of my search for the sun in Thailand, particularly in Bangkok, would be conducted through clouds and a thick veil of pollution. Thailand has undergone rapid growth as it has entered the industrialized world within the last century. Cars, a rarity not that long ago, have quickly became the norm on city streets, along with 1000's of motor scooters, tuk tuks, and buses. Efforts are being made at present to clean up the rivers and skies of Bangkok, but many of the measures only push the problems further beyond the city limits to the rural areas, where new factories are being built. It became clear to me that many of the "mystical" images of Thailand's temples peering through the "mist" were more indicative of the way the land and people are suffocating within the pollution of a rising industrialized nation.

My first image of Thailand that morning was of the sun straining to peak through the haze and of a young woman on the rooftop of a building next to the hotel. Early in the morning, she came alone to a shrine on top of a roof and made offerings. This glimpse into her private world was one of the most honest portrayals of Thai life I experienced, as I watched her perform her acts of intercession on behalf of her ancestors. She lit her candles, dropped to her knees with burning incense in the palms of her hands, then slowly bowed to the candles and flowers that were offered on the altar of the shrine. The incense smoke and its aroma joined with the pollution and the smells of exhaust as this young woman performed acts of devotion for her family. Here was my first introduction to what might appear as a contradiction: the way Buddhist practice blends with shamanistic or animistic practice in Thailand. Every home, every gas station even, has placed on the boundary of its northeast corner, a spirit shrine to protect the home for the evil. Villages have guardian deities that guard the main plazas in front of the temples. Shamans and monks work together to offer rituals to extend one's longevity, to reverse a fortune, to bond one's soul to the body so it can't fly off and get lost or in trouble. How these practices cohere with the Buddhist belief in no-soul, for instance, may appear to be a contradiction. But for the people themselves, this is no contradiction. It is just another way of ensuring that your life and that of your beloved will be enriched. The practices are complementary.