Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Job Toom :
A Miracle with eggs and coins
Visiting a Lanna wisdom clinic

Text : Anne
Photos: Pon & Anne

My Grandma always said that people who had rather thin skulls would get sick easily. That's me exactly. Once, I had a serious fever with high temperature and unfortunately at that time we didn't have enough money to see the doctor. Therefore, the only hope for us was the village shaman (kon song), who played an important role in our small community. I was unconscious at the time of treatment so I can't describe it, but afterwards I felt that my body was getting better and cooler, thanks to job toom.

And what is job toom, I can hear you asking. Let me explain.

Healing pressure

In certain parts of Lanna, people believe that the sickness comes from toom lee (hidden rashes) in our body. Job means persuade. Thus, job toom is persuading toom lee to leave our bodies. And what's needed to perform that service are hard boiled eggs, rupee coins, handkerchiefs and ashes, and the ministrations of the shaman. Before the actual healing procedure gets under way, sacred water is served to the patient to drink. What follows is that the eggs are taken out of their shells, and the white of the egg is put it into a handkerchief, with a rupee coin - that's the old colonial Indian currency that you find a lot up here and over in Burma. Then the shaman folds the handkerchief, intones a spell or spells into it, and rubs it onto the patient's body, holding at the crucial point where the kon song thinks the illness or the cause of the illness is located. If the patient is really sick, the coin will turn black. Then the patients rub the coin with ash and water in order to clean it. That's it, basically - spells, rubbing of the cloth with the eggs and coin in it - and perhaps some faith on the part of the patient. After this treatment, the patient will have to take some of the sacred water back with them in case the fever or illness returns. In my case, I had to go through this process three times before I got relief. Nothing out of the ordinary happened, but with some people - so they say - the image of the evil spirit that's the cause of the illness is imprinted in the coin.

There's also a nice little extra involved, in as much as once in a while, the patient will take note of the numerals of the coin used by the shaman, and use them to get the lottery ticket with a winning number. So there's the possibility of a doubly positive outcome - cure of the illness, and a nice little bit of extra dosh in the pocket.

Rupees

Hardly surprising then that though we have quite a good number of clinics, government health centers, and hospitals in rural areas, some of us - especially the older generation - still turn to the local shaman. And not only the older generation. Just the other day, one of our office staff members was off colour and needing a bit of treatment, so we went to see Tam Nak Chao Noi, a particularly well-known shaman in our locality. People come from all over the North to be treated by her. She's very down to earth - doesn't hold with giving lucky numbers or indulging in black magic. It's spiritual power she and her patients put their faith in, and the cost to poor people who consult her is minimal - the job toom process costs only B.29 a time.

So just what it is that gets the effects she's noted for is a bit of a question. Anyway, our staff member had the whole service the other day - mantras, rubbings with the eggs and coin in the handkerchief and so on. As well as drinking the specially-charged medicine. Now we're waiting to see what will be the outcome. Here's hoping.