Erawan shrine ie close to Central World, Chidlam station. It is a Lord Brahma shrine. Board says it is Thao Maha Brahma.Thai Buddhist tradition associates Lord Brahma with creation. You see overview of temple. It is at a street corner and attracts lots of devotees. I saw many Thais and met some Chinese/Indonesian tourist as well.
A close up view of the Brahma image. The 4 faces of Brahma represent the Four Divine States of Mind. Brahma has four has four arms, he holds a lotus flower, his sceptre, his bow parivita, a string of beads, a bowl containing holy water and the Vedas. He has four heads and is therefore called Chaturanana or Chaturmukha. The 4 faces represent the 4 Vedas.
His vehicle is the swan or goose, the symbol of knowledge. He is thus said to be riding on the swan (hansa-vahana). Lord Brahma is known as Phra Phrom in Thailand. We present four pictures clicked from each direction walking clock wise. This is the second image.
This is the rear side image. You can see the four arms and on the left the Vedas.
Another side view. Some devotees said the image is also called the 4 faced Buddha. Each face has certain powers so devotees pray to a face depending on what they ask for. Front face represents work and job, Left is for love, Back side is for money and last face is for good health. Basically people come here to ask for your wishes to be fulfilled. The 4 faced Buddha or Brahma image was seen very often in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand that I travelled to.
Thais burn incenses like this and then pray to Brahma as you shall be in the next picture.
You can see incenses placed by devotees in front and flowers on the railing.
You see devotees praying to Lord Brahma.
In the complex is a small area where devotees can, on making a contribution, get a group of girls to sing for them. Showing many pictures for you to notice their dress, dancing style and musica l instruments. You see picture one.
A close up view. Note the headgear.
You see them sitting down and praying to Brahma hands folded.
A close up view, note the hand movement.
The group that contributes to the dance sits in front and prays to Lord Brahma.
A couple of musicians play very soothing music. You see them, the first one has what looks like a Mridanga. According to a friend there seems a similiarity between Manipuri and Thai dance.
Very close to Erawan shrine on the same side of the road is a small temple dedicated to Lord Indra. In the Siam-Niramit brochure it states `Ascend to Daow-wa-dueng, the second level of heaven, where Indra, the greatest deity of all presides. The temple design is typically Thai.
A close up view of Lord Indra. In India Lord Vishnu is shown with the chakra.
Devotees praying to Lord Indra. You see the main road in the background. What I liked about Thailand is that it is very clean.
On the opposite side of the road in the terrace garden of Gaysorn Plaza is a image of Goddess Lakshmi. It is not as popular as the Lord Indra or Brahma shrines but did meet quite a few devotees there.
A five minute at one corner of Central World are two shrines one Trimurthi and another Ganesha shrine. You see an overview, the left shrine is Trimurthi and right Ganesha.
Trimurthi shrine is located outside the Central World and it is next to a Ganesha temple. Saw lots of young Thais there. Trimurthi normally refers to trinity of Brahma (creator), Vishnu (sustainer) and Shiva (destroyer). The deity is a gold statue of a human body with two heads and four arms. The heads are one top of the other, the lower head has four faces. The statue is a replica of the original from Ayutthaya. The shrine somehow got associated with granting happiness in romance as it is now very popular with Thais who associate it with the God of love.
Image of Ganesha. Saw lots of devotees praying to Lord Ganesh.
Just opposite the Ganesha shrine saw boys wearing T shirt with `Om` performing some sort of a dance. I could not get the details from them but the look reminded me of a similar dance that was performed during recent 2009 Ladakh festival. There it is called Yak Dance, the costumes looked similar. Was told the colors represent character traits.
In front of the Ganesha shrine saw this group of boys who would form a vertical human chain by standing on each other`s shoulders. The youngest would sit on the top. After a short while they came down to claps from the people gathered there. Reminded me of the Govinda celebrations in Mumbai on the occasion of Janmashtami.
This is an overview of Sri Mariamman temple in Silom. It is dedicated to Goddess Uma, was built by Tamil migrants around 1877. On a Sunday evening I saw a number of Thai`s worshipping the Goddess.
You see image of Lord Brahma on entering Dhevasathan (Brahmin shrines) that has temples dedicated to Lord Shiva, Vishnu and Ganesh. King Rama I ordered temple to be built in 1784 to be used for holding Brahmin rites and ceremonies. In Thailand found the word Brahminism used instead of Hinduism. This temple is evidence that Brahminism mingled into the Thai way of life and its customs and ceremonies from the past to now.
Between the two temple buildings is a Linga that you see. The temple complex has a very good library that has books on Hinduism and on peaceful coexistence and synthesis of Buddhism and Hinduism in Thailand.
You see images of Lord Ganesh inside the Ganesh shrine.
Inside the shrine of Narayana. Left to right is Lakshmi, Narayana and Maheswari. Close to Wat Suthat is a new temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu that you shall see next.
Very close to the Brahmin shrine, across the road is a recent temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu. Note that the national emblem of Thailand is Garuda, the vehicle of Lord Vishnu.
A close up view of Lord Vishnu.
Bangkok is famous for traffic jams. This is the road outside Central World. Clicked this from the Goddess Lakshmi temple.Taken utmost care in narrations. In case of errors apologies, please mail me.