Good Karma, Bad Karma

Often thought of as the 'four-faced Buddha,' the Erawan shrine, which sits at one of Bangkok's busiest intersections, is actually a representaion of a  four-faced Hindu  Bhrama (Phra Phrom in Thai).

The shrine was commissioned by the management of the original and then government-owned Erawan hotel back in the 1950's to counter the supposed bad karma of the site; during the building of the hotel a number of workmen were injured, a shipment of Italian marble went missing and the budget was wildly out of control. To make matters worse the street that the shrine sits on was once used to parade criminals to the public. Apparently once the shrine was completed construction went without a hitch.

Day and night the Thai flock to the site to decorate it with garlands of flowers and other offerings. And some make merit by hiring the on-site dancers to perform whilst they pray.

In 2006, the Bhrama was smashed almost beyond recognition by a mentally ill man. He was chased down by witnesses, who failed, when they most needed to heed, the Bhrama's call for peace; they beat the man to death. Now, that's gotta be bad karma (should you believe in the hocus-pocus that karma is).

The statue was quickly replaced; a new Phra Phrom appeared just two months later.