Saturday, November 15, 2008

Male Amulet

Amulets in the form of the, well...um, male organ are worn and carried by Thai men to attract women, for masculine verility, and for invulnerability from bullets and knives. Known in Thai as "palad khik", these Hindu fetish objects are carved from wood or stone, or cast in metal, and contain inscriptions with ancient text. I was embarrassed to ask the driver about his little lucky charm, but I asked him why he has one in his taxi. He told me that he's had it for a very long time and he believes it makes him strong. I didn't want to know which part it makes strong, so after that I didn't ask him anything else. At that point, I already knew more than enough about the driver's "palad khik".