Although Thais are mostly Buddhist, they have picked up a number of Hindu traditions and paying respect to Ganesh is one of the most popular. So, willing to accept any help or protection I can get, I told Nuch I'd join her.
Here's a picture of Lord Ganesh.
Not the best looking guy in the world, but be sure that each of his unique features holds a special significance:
-The elephant head indicates fidelity, intelligence and discriminative power;
-The fact that he has a single tusk (the other being broken off) indicates Ganesh's ability to overcome all forms of dualism;
-The wide ears denote wisdom, ability to listen to people who seek help and to reflect on spiritual truths.
-Ganesha's pot belly contains infinite universes. It signifies the bounty of nature and equanimity
-The four arms of Ganesha represent the four inner attributes of the subtle body, that is: mind (Manas), intellect (Buddhi), ego (Ahamkara), and conditioned conscience (Chitta).
I don't know much about Ganesh except what I've read, but it seems that he basically represents all the good stuff - wisdom, intellect, success, good fortune, perfection...
Ganesh's story has an immaculate beginning.
Once, while his mother Parvati wanted to bathe, there were no attendants around to guard her and stop anyone from accidentally entering the house. Hence she created a boy's idol out of turmeric paste and infused life into it, and thus Ganesha was born. Parvati ordered Ganesha not to allow anyone to enter the house and Ganesha obediently followed his mother's orders. After a while her husband, Shiva, returned from outside and as he tried to enter the house, Ganesha stopped him. Shiva was infuriated at this strange little boy who dared to challenge him. He told Ganesha that he was Parvati's husband, and demanded that Ganesha let him go in. But Ganesha would not hear any person's word other than his dear mother's.
Shiva lost his patience and had a fierce battle with Ganesha. At last he severed Ganesha's head with his trident. When Parvati came out and saw her son's lifeless body, she was very angry and sad. She demanded that Shiva restore Ganesha's life at once. Unfortunately, Shiva's trident was so powerful that it had hurled Ganesha's head very far off. All attempts to find the head were in vain. As a last resort, Shiva approached Brahma who suggested that he replace Ganesha's head with the first living being that came his way which lay with its head facing north.
Shiva then sent his celestial armies (Gana) to find and take the head of whatever creature they happened to find asleep with its head facing north. In their search they came across a mother elephant and it's baby. The mother elephant had died, but the baby elephant would not leave her and slept by her side. When the army saw this loyal, innocent elephant they knew it was what they were searching for and they decapitated it, attaching the elephant's head to Ganesha's body and bringing him back to life.
Ok, enough Sunday School for one blog.
At Ganesh's temple, you can pay respect to him by offering flowers, candles, and incense, and then, you can make a wish.
Here are some pictures of Nuch paying respect to Ganesh and his parents, Parvati and Shiva.
These are the children of the family that takes care of the temple. They sell the candles, incense, and flowers to devotees.
Apparently, the flowers are recyclable. When the statues start getting full of yellow flowers, the kids would come take them off with long poles and take them back to their parents stand to be resold. I shouldn't say the flowers are resold - they are a gift you receive when you make a non-obligatory donation. So, I suppose that's fair.
This is a statue of Ganesh outside the temple.
My boss tells a story of a friend/ colleague of his, Dave Gebby, who was visiting Thailand from India, where he was working on a project. On their way to dinner a fortune teller stopped them on the street, and as a joke, they decided to see what the future had in store for them. Apparently, the fortune teller told Dave Gebby that he had disrespected Ganesh somehow and he would become very ill in the near future.
As the story goes, Dave Gebby had a heart attack the following day and was put in the hospital. Unfortunately, what he had failed to realize was that he had brought a sandalwood statue of Ganesh as a gift for Joe and had left it in the bottom drawer of his desk in the Bangkok office.
Joe said that after visiting Dave in the hospital his only request was to get the statue of Ganesh out of his desk and put it someplace comfortable and high.
There is no greater cynic than my boss, but to this day, Ganesh is sitting high atop the bookshelf in his office - clearly visible to anyone who enters and respectfully placed so Ganesh can comfortably oversee and protect those in his presence.
Some other pics from Ganesh's temple.
