A place of worship for/with rabbits
Even after 15 years, Thailand sometimes surprises me. Like recently when visiting a place of worship, not a temple. Extensively furnished with many hundreds of rabbits, but made of stone.
One morning I had to go get rabbits with my partner. I didn't understand the explanation, because why did we have to go get rabbits to pray now? I was familiar with chickens and pig heads, but rabbits?
On the road from Hua Hin to Cha am there is a large Sinkel store, Thaiwatsadu, on the left. There, no fewer than 99 stone rabbits were loaded into my car. The next morning we drove south out of Hua Hin. Turn left into a street (soi 80) and then right again into an alley. Life-sized hearts hang there, with, as it turned out later, the names of the donors who made the place of prayer possible.
Carrying 99 stone rabbits up the stairs to the place of worship is not easy. Especially since ministers have to leave all their footwear downstairs. Above a large plateau, with a view of the sea on one side and a four-faced Buddha on the other. According to my partner the same as at the Erawan Shrine in Bangkok and therefore sacred.
Breathing again, I looked around. Rabbits everywhere, from tiny to the size of the Flemish giants that end up on the table at Christmas. But also some elephants and zebras here and there. However, they were far outnumbered by the rabbits, all white with pink ears.
I was not allowed to ask questions until later, while partner unpacked and arranged the 99 beautiful figurines. Lying ears with lying ears and standing with standing (hares?). It was a job that took a long time, but luckily one of the older ladies who sweep the floor to earn a plenary indulgence offered me the only seat.
I later understood that this is not a temple, but a place of worship. And one to thank the Buddha. Years ago, my partner had major problems with a piece of land that she thought she had inherited from her grandparents. Without a will, the land had passed to her parents, but her father had also died in the meantime. To speed things up, my partner went to the rabbit prayer place and promised to bring 99 rabbits as penance. Subsequently, the transfer of the land was arranged in a curse and a sigh.
So now it was time to fulfill that promise. It would bring her luck and my shoulders aching from lugging. But why rabbits? No idea.
I'm going to look further into what those rabbits mean, Hans, because I can't pass up something like that. I'm looking for Thai sources.
But that Erawan Shrine in Bangkok is not a Buddha but a Hindu Deity: Brahma, the God of Creation, of love, empathy and forgiveness.
Myths about rabbits and hares
In Thai, กระต่าย krataai (two low notes) means both rabbit and hare, although hare is sometimes described as 'forest rabbit'. Taai is also a very common girl name, but with a low tone because with a middle tone it means 'death'!
If you look at a full moon you see a hare. Take a good look! There are therefore myths about hares and rabbits all over the world. The following story is about the Buddha.
The Buddha wanted to see if the three friends, a monkey, a fox and a hare, kept their promise not to kill living beings. He stumbled into the woods dressed as an old man. The monkey greeted him and asked, "Can I help you?" "Yes," said the Buddha, "I am terribly hungry." "No problem," said the monkey, "I'll find some mangoes." The fox promised to get some fish but the hare ate only grass and the Buddha did not want that. When the monkey and the fox came back, the hare asked them to get some wood and light a fire that he wanted to jump into and give the Buddha something to eat. When the fire flared up and he wanted to jump into it, the Buddha revealed his true nature and stopped him. The Buddha praised his compassion, mercy and generosity but also told him to learn not to harm himself.
The Buddha took the hare in his arms and placed it on the moon as an example of sacrifice and generosity.
Behind every story in a religion there is a message.
https://debeysklenar.wordpress.com/2018/09/09/moon-rabbit-myths-from-around-the-world/
My wife likes to watch tennis matches on TV. There is a Dutch player called Haase. My wife doesn't call him Kratai but Kraaai Dad.
Good, Chris! Yes, a hare is krataai pa, so a forest rabbit.
Rabbits must have something to do with fertility.
Presumably, Hans hopes to get his wife pregnant soon….
Maybe this has something to do with it?:
https://www.beleven.org/verhaal/het_haasje_in_de_maan
Funny, Jaap, that your story in the link is almost the same as what I wrote above, in your story it is the god Indra and in my story the Buddha. And indeed, in many past lives, the Buddha was once a hare (and a woman, a criminal in hell, a god in heaven, etc.). Samsara, the cycle of rebirths from which the Buddha escaped.
Well, I think those differences are of all times. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are also all slightly different.
It seems that because rabbits arrived in China later, it was therefore originally a hare.
In terms of an incarnation, that may not matter, we will both live through them at some point.
Excuse me Tino, that's what happens when you can't read the inscriptions. You are undoubtedly right. Hence, of course, those four faces. Remarkable that my partner is cheating, religiously.
Ah, Hans, I just enjoy that kind of cheating. (No, I will not comment on that….). I am not (anymore) religious, but I like these kinds of stories because they say something about how we as people should treat each other.
The fable of the lion and the mouse. Those who do good meet good. What does it matter if that lion and that mouse can talk? ทำดีได้ดี 'tham die dai die' is the Thai proverb. I read this fable to my son and I asked if it could be true because animals can't talk, can they? "Doesn't matter," he said.
https://www.beleven.org/verhaal/de_leeuw_en_de_muis
And this is what Gringo once wrote:
Eating rabbit meat in Thailand
My wife did not accept that rabbits are eaten in our country: "You don't eat such sweet animals." Strange statement for an Isaan lady, snakes, rats, squirrels, birds, insects can be eaten well, but you don't touch rabbits. I went looking on the Internet to see if that was really the case and I must admit that there is little or nothing about rabbit meat in Thailand and I have never seen rabbit meat offered in the supermarkets.
The rabbit as a symbol of love.
My Thai wife does not eat a rabbit because the naked carcass of a slaughtered rabbit resembles the stretched body of another beloved animal: the cat. I am from the 50s living in the Gelderse Achterhoek and we kept rabbits for slaughter. Incomprehensible, she thinks.
In the early 90s I ate a cat in Cuba, killed it by beating it against a wall in a burlap sack. If you're really hungry, you'll eat anything. The dog I ate in North Korea also tasted fine, although I was not told what I had eaten until after dinner. No problem, as long as it is not your own dog…
Cat or roof hare has been eaten for years when times get tough: https://origin-production.wikiwand.com/nl/Overleg:Dakhaas
Tino,
Shouldn't that be the fable of the lion and the rat?
หนู means both rat and mouse. The word เมาส์ seems to me to be derived from the English word mouse, from which I deduce that, just like with rabbits and hares, very early in Thailand they did not have mice or did not distinguish between the two species.