Thailand and ghosts

Even a bad foreign film can sometimes be an interesting experience due to what you learn about that country's culture.   That's pretty much how I felt about Pee Mak, a Thai film on Netflix that was apparently a big hit in its native country and has some respectable reviews.

It's actually not very good - a comedy version of an old and very well known Thai ghost story.    In the first ten minutes or so, I thought the comedy might work, but it gets progressively worse:  it soon devolves into pretty low grade slapstick stuff.  There are occasional laughs still, but I think for Westerners, it's pretty strained.   

But nonetheless, while looking at Thai movies as a category on Netflix, I realised that the country must really into ghost stories in a big way.   It seems like most selections have a supernatural theme.

And yeah, there is a Wikipedia page devoted to Ghost in Thai culture, as well as an article at Vice about ghosts and superstitions around Chiang Mai, which begins:

Belief in ghosts, spirits, and superstitions are rife in Thailand. Concern for keeping supernatural beings happy affects everything from personal practices to politics to the real estate market. Even the country's current leader, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, boasts about his collection of magical amulets, whose power he purportedly relies on for his success.

Most Thais will freely admit that they believe in phi (the Thai word for ghost), and many citizens identify as animist, a belief system that says everything has a spirit—from a rock to a house to a dead person—and that these spirits must be placated, or there will be consequences. 

According to the author interviewed by Vice, it affects Chiang Mai on a large scale:

There are also malicious ghosts, known as ithaygo, the ghosts of bad death. These ghosts are what I wrote my book about and why an entire section of buildings in Chiang Mai are abandoned.

It all started during the 1997 economic crisis. There wasn't enough money to finish buildings being built at the outer edges of the city or to pay the workers, who were mostly Burmese migrants. These projects were abandoned. No one ever officially lived in those buildings—yet they had ithaygo. People saw shadowy figures inside and some got sick just walking past them.

There was talk that the Burmese migrant workers had squatted inside and died. That was where the bad energy came from. Thais still won't live in that part of the city.

So, ghosts affect the real estate market?
Yes, in Chiang Mai this belief formed an empty donut around the city. You have the city itself and the first ring of housing developments that were being built during the '97 crisis. Many of them have never been officially finished or occupied.

The post-recovery ring of developments is outside of that and Thais bought apartments there. Thai people believe they will be unlucky if they live in a place of misfortune. It doesn't even have to be actual misfortune, it can be potential misfortune. To put it in Thai terms, a lack of progress—a project that stalled part way through—will continue to block current progress.

I have been to Bangkok once, just on 2 or 3 days stopover in my 20's.   Maybe I was jetlagged, but there is not much about the visit that I recall now.   Certainly, no sordid action for which the city was famous was sought, or offered, but I do recall it was a pretty nice hotel I stayed in and some of the food was very spicy.    I haven't seen photos I must have taken there for a long, long time.   But, now that I think of it, a framed silk embroided bird which I gave my Mum, but is now back in my house, must have come from that visit.   I was looking at it the other day and thinking it hasn't faded and still looks quite nice.