Superstition in Thailand

Sunantaa rang to say that Kitaloo, her one year old puppy, had been killed in a road accident. He had escaped from their fenced garden. Unusually for a Thai, she was very tearful on the phone.

Some monks had said that a hill tribe family had accidentally ran him over and brought him to the temple for them to bury so that he could be born again. Her husband, Surachai, was not so sure. He employs Burmese and hill tribe workers and knows they eat dog flesh. Despite not believing the monks, he was wise enough not to comment either to them or his wife. That would be a taboo in Thai culture.

His sister had said that she had seen the body in the wat (temple). But when he went there and asked to take the body home, the monks explained that he could not do so. If it was indeed Kitaloo, he wanted the dog to be buried in its own garden. But Surachai could not go against the monks.

Surachai still has his doubts about what really happened. He is too old in the tooth to think that what you are told is always factually correct in Thailand.

Sunantaa is quite content to think that Kitaloo is now resting on holy ground.