 |


 |
 |
 |
|
S.P. Publishing Group Co., Ltd.
11/1 Soi 3 Bamrungburi Rd., T. Prasingh,
A. Muang., Chiang Mai 50200
Tel. 053 - 814 455-6 Fax. 053 - 814 457
E-mail: guidelin@loxinfo.co.th
|
|
 |
|
 |
Bid Tong Lang Phra - To do good by stealth
Sometimes - just once in a while - a person
might want to do a good act without making a big show about
it ...in other words, "to do good with the left hand that
the right hand doesn't know about." And there's a Thai
proverb in respect of it: bid tong lang phra.
When Thais visit their local temple, they frequently
take toob tien dork mai too - incense sticks, candles and flowers. The
toob they put in the large container filled with sand in front of one or other of
the main Buddha images in the vihara - the main chapel. Having
wai-ed in front of the Buddha image, they first light the incense sticks
and candles, and with the flowers, place them in the appropriate
receptacles. Still kneeling, they then bend their heads over their hands
and suad mon - say a short mantra, perhaps afterwards asking for
an intercession that may help them: pass an exam, do a
successful business deal, solve a family problem etc. - though strictly
speaking, invocations of this sort are best made to the appropriate spirits,
such as the jow tee or guardian spirit who can be best encountered in
front of the spirit house that every residence and major building will
have beside or in front of it. (Take a look at the spirit shines in front
of Chiang Mai University just before end of term exams? What does
the extraordinary number of floral offerings there tell
you? "It's true we didn't put in quite as much studying time as we should have, but
if nevertheless you help us get through the exam, we'll make an
appropriate `thank you' offering later -
OK?").
Digressions aside though, what does this
bid tong lang phra proverb really tell us. It means, `Putting gold on the back of the
image', and to explicate further, it refers to the wider practice of honouring
the Great Being and making merit by sticking gold leaf on any part of
an image. Now naturally, the face itself and the rest of the front of
the image are highly favoured, and that's where you'll usually see
gold leaf being put where images especially revered for their efficacy
are concerned. And after all, people naturally feel that while they're
making merit like this, it doesn't do any harm to let others see them
doing it. Not only merit sought for, in other words, but a bit of worldly
admiration too. But just as Westerners hold that there's special merit to
be gained from good works done without the desire for publicity, so too
in Thailand. And just as `not letting the left hand know what the
right hand is doing' is honoured more in the breach than the
observance, so too in Thailand, where it's pretty unusual to stick gold leaf on
the back of a Buddha image.
That's what the saying means, then, though
whether you interpret it to mean, `to do something in an
ineffective way' or `to do something meritorious, privately' -
well, you'd best consult a Thai acquaintance or two and
let them guide you. There's something decidedly
ambiguous about the saying the way it stands.
|