The Erawan Shrine was built in 1956 as part of the government-owned Erawan Hotel to eliminate the bad karma believed caused by laying the foundations on the wrong date.
The hotel's construction was delayed by a series of mishaps, including cost overruns, injuries to laborers, and the loss of a shipload of Italian marble intended for the building. Furthermore, the Ratchaprasong Intersection had once been to put criminals on public display.
An astrologer practices one or more forms of astrology. Typically an astrologer draws a horoscope for the time of an event, such as a person's birth, and interprets celestial points and their placements at the time of the event to better understand someone, determine the auspiciousness of an undertaking's beginning, etc....
advised building the shrine to counter the negative influences. The Brahma statue was designed and built by the Department of Fine Arts and enshrined on 9 November 1956. The hotel's construction thereafter proceeded without further incident. In 1987, the hotel was demolished and the site used for the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.
The shrine is located by the Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel, at the Ratchaprasong intersection of Ratchadamri Road in Pathum Wan district, Bangkok, Thailand. It is near the Bangkok Skytrain's Chitlom Station, which has an elevated walkway overlooking the shrine. The area has many shopping malls nearby, including Gaysorn, CentralWorld and Amarin Plaza.
Erawan Shrine (San Phra Phrom) in front of Grand Hyatt Erawan.
The significance of the four faces of the Brahma was to offer help to the people who come to him from all directions.
It is also believed that there are special significance to the religions items held by the hand and its posture. The significance of the items interpreted is believed to be as follows:
• Sutra: Represents knowledge
• Beads: Controlling karma
• Spear: Will power
• Flower vase: Wish fulfillment
• Conch shell: Wealth and propserity
• Mystic position of hand placed on the chest: compassion
• Flying wheel: To avert disaster and calamities, suppresses evil.
• Cintamani: (a kind of fan used by monks for blessings): Power of blessings.
Worshippers of Phra Phom usually offer jasmine flowers or jasmine garlands and young coconut milk (with water in them) in their worship. Another common way of worship is to place wooden elephant statues on the altar to honor him. Phra Phrom is also known to admire Thai classical music, which is played near the altar, accompanied by
dancers. Worshippers of Phra Phrom are also usually advised to abstain from consuming meat.
Shrine vandalised
In the early hours of 21 March 2006, the shrine was vandalised by a Thai man believed to be mentally ill. After smashing the statue with a hammer, 27-year-old Thanakorn Pakdeepol was himself beaten to death by angry bystanders. Two street sweepers who worked for the Pathum Wan district office were arrested and charged with the fatal beating.
Witnesses said Thanakorn stood on the base of the statue with a large hammer in his hands, and smashed the hollow statue to pieces. The deity's four-faced head, torso, six arms and weapons were fragmented. Only the part of lap and base of the statue were left intact. The incident occurred at about 1 am. A white cloth was put up to conceal the absence of a statue. The shrine was closed to the public for time, but officials later reopened the site, displaying photographs of the statue so that worshippers could continue to pay their respects.
The new Brahma statue was completed and placed in the shrine on 21 May 2006 at 11:39 a.m., the time the sun was shining directly above the shrine. According to officials with the Religious Affairs Department and the Maha Brahma Foundation, it was made of plaster, mixed with a mixture of gold, bronze and other precious metals, along with pieces of the old statue. Another statue, made wholly of metal, was cast from the same mold, and will be kept in the National Museum.
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