Thai Vehicle Safety Trends
Recently driving around Thailand, one sees lots of cars, and a few trucks, with small dolls dangling from chains on the rear bumper. Most of them look kind of cute, though I personally have no particularly strong interest in hanging a doll, or anything else for that matter, from my rear bumper. Yesterday I saw a 10 wheel truck with what looked like an 14″ tall Pooh Bear swinging from the bottom of the tailgate. Poor Pooh Bear seemed to be having a rather hard time of it, and was mostly grey from multiple layers of dirt the poor fellow had accumulated.
What is quite interesting is the reason why so many Thais are dangling dolls from their bumpers. Global trends in recent years have been promoting a wide variety of vehicle safety devices. Even entry level cars today have at least one airbag, and most cars have multiple air bags, side impact protection, antilock brakes, brake force distribution systems, vehicle stability control, automatic seatbelt tensioners, and other miracles of modern automotive technology.
Probably for as long as Thais have had cars, Thais have been having their vehicles blessed, adorned with various amulets, ancient Pali symbols, and written incantations to provide protection to the vehicle and its occupants. I myself have always had my Thai vehicles blessed, and always keep fresh flowers hung from my rearview mirror. My belief is that the flowers and other symbols help to remind me that Buddha rides with me, and that if I drive irresponsibly, Buddha will get out, leaving me to drive alone. This, in keeping with Buddhist philosophy of self reliance and self sufficiency, reminds me that my safety is in large part up to me, and that I must take personal responsibility for my driving behavior.
The newest trend in Thai Vehicle Safety is to hang a small doll from your rear bumper to prevent evil ghosts or spirits from attacking your car from behind. I suppose that even a ghost can only safely approach a car from the rear, to avoid getting run over, though I must say that I don’t know much about metaphysical logic or other such matters.
Most Thais are wonderfully practical people. They themselves may not always deeply believe in the various supernatural theories and practices that commonly circulate in society. However, many will simply justify their actions through the logic that “it might not help, but it can’t hurt”. I had a friend who, after having visited the west, was fascinated by the western habit of saying “God Bless You” after someone sneezed. His hosts explained the ancient western belief that when someone sneezed, his / her soul was expelled from the body, and to protect the soul from being snatched by the devil, it was necessary to bless the soul back into the body. Upon returning to Thailand, my friend realized that, if this Western belief had any basis in fact, he was in trouble, because in Asia nobody blesses anyone after sneezing. Hence, he took to saying “God Bless Me” after sneezing, just in case his own soul might be at risk for being snatched.
I suppose dangling bumper dolls is no more illogical than the devil snatching your sneeze - expelled soul. I wonder if they still make Smurff dolls. A nice blue Papa Smurff would match my blue D-Max nicely.
Frank T.