Kuman Thong – The legend of Khun Chang Khun Phaen
It is clear that superstition plays an important role in Thai culture. Just look at the many ghost houses. Animism, the belief in ghosts, goes quite far. Thai believe in good spirits that protect you and can bring you good luck, but the fear of evil spirits is much greater. A good spirit is the spirit of an unborn child: Kuman Tong.
Kuman means 'Blessed young boy' and Thong means 'Golden'. The Kuman Tong originated at the end of 1500 during the Ayutthaya period from a myth: the story of Khun Chang and Khun Phaen. The soldier Khun Phaen once made an amulet containing the fetus of his child. He performed black magic rituals. The unborn child became the child spirit 'Kuman Thong' which the soldier used for protection on the battlefield.
The story has such an impact on the superstitious Thai that there is still a demand for stillborn fetuses to be used in amulets. This is strictly prohibited by Thai law. Despite this, belief in Kuman Thong has not diminished. It is a widespread belief in Thailand that the child spirits protect people and can bring short-term happiness and prosperity. If you satisfy the ghost and take good care of it by giving it food and drink, you will win the lottery, get a nice car and a good wife.
If you forget or neglect the ghost, the ghost becomes vengeful. Many Thai are very afraid of it, there are even a lot of horror films made about it.
The well-known celebs in Thailand, Jakkaphan Kansompot and Jakkapong Kansompot, even have a huge collection of baby amulets and other Kuman Thong and are very proud of it.
Source: Wikipedia and Bangkok Post, among others
A correct story.
The word 'kuman' (Thai script กุมาร pronunciation kòemaan) applies especially to kings and other nobles, and indeed means 'child, son, young boy and prince'.
The story Khun Chang Khun Phaen is famous in Thailand, almost everyone knows it. Here's a little story about that legend (which, by the way, contains many true facts):
https://www.thailandblog.nl/cultuur/khun-chang-khun-phaen-het-meest-beroemde-epos-thaise-literatuur/
This is what the book Khun Chang Khun Phaen says about it:
'Phet-khong (a female ghost) was so confused and frightened that the body shook and she feel down flat. Pulling her body open, she took out the child and offered it: 'Here' .
The child came out of her belly wailing. Khun Phaen plucked the mother's hair by mantra, cut the tongue, and took the infant as his Goldchild.'
And after that Khun Phaen goes to a graveyard and with the help of Goldchild conquers more ghosts which makes him invincible in every battle.
Addendum: As for Khun Phaen, his Goldchild, his Golden Child, was not the fetus of his child, but the fully grown baby of a female spirit. They were cruel times.
There are multiple versions of the legend. In the oldest written version, Goldchild was indeed carved from the abdomen of a dead pregnant woman. He roasts it over a fire and with the help of magical powers it becomes a spirit child who protects Khun Phaen.
In another version of the story, Khun Phaen during his wanderings ends up with a notorious gang of robbers and there Phaen makes the daughter of the gang leader his wife. However, that daughter is also loyal to her father and eventually chooses to poison Khun Phaen. Failing that, Phaen kills his wife and then takes a knife to cut the child from his wife's womb, making his unborn child his personal and loyal ghost.
The first version is in the standard translation of Khun Chang Khun Phaen, the other version in the second, supplementary, book with alternative versions of several chapters. See also my summary translation:
https://www.thailandblog.nl/cultuur/khun-chang-khun-phaen-thailands-meest-bekende-legende-deel-3/
One could compare this with belief in gnomes, trolls or whatever else in our region. Here long overdue, it is already starting to stink, but elsewhere (Thailand for example) apparently still very much alive! Just blurs reality. Nice as folklore, but if people still believe in it in 2018, it's just retardation.
You are right, butcher shop vankampen, the Netherlands is still quite a backward country. There, 50% still believe in a God or other Higher Power, in Hell and Heaven, in Devils, Angels and Saints, in Prayers and Sacrifices and Eternal Life! Others believe in Vibrations, Horoscopes, Radiations and Alien influence.
Tino,
The 50% numbers can be misleading.
Try deregistering as a Catholic, for example.
Fewer and fewer Catholics participate in faith and church. Only 13 percent still believe in the existence of a heaven and less than half believe that Jesus is the Son of God.
Yet the Catholics are a so-called large group.
People with some knowledge of the universe will recognize that the earth is but a small insignificant grain of sand, in the whole, where favorable conditions have allowed life to arise.
But indeed, stories about life after death, angels, UFOs do well in times of uncertainty and give variety to a boring existence.
folklores indeed, and folklores which are also needed by some.
The more misery in this life, the more need for a pleasant prospect after this life.
The idea that there is life after death, or that life really begins then, is simply more attractive than stating that life is finite and that we have the same fate as all animals.
Why wouldn't the idea of ghosts and life after death be wrong, when nothing else was imprinted on you from birth and it's quite a nice idea.
I am still waiting to receive a sign from my grandfather who passed away in 1960, where he hid his money.
He has given up the ghost, but unfortunately not his money.