Erawan Shrine

About

The Erawan Shrine, formally the Thao Maha Phrom Shrine (ศาลท้าวมหาพรหม, San Thao Maha Phrom — 'Shrine of Lord Maha Brahma'), stands at the busy Ratchaprasong intersection of Ratchadamri Road in Bangkok's Pathum Wan District, beside the Grand Hyatt Erawan hotel and a short walk from the BTS Skytrain's Chit Lom Station.

At its centre is a gilded image of Phra Phrom — the Thai form of Brahmā, the four-faced Hindu god of creation. The same name 'Maha Brahma' also evokes Mahābrahmā, the ruler of the Brahma realm in Buddhist cosmology. Around the shrine devotees offer flowers, incense, and elephants, and Thai dance troupes are often hired by worshippers to perform in fulfilment of vows answered at the shrine.

Though nominally Hindu in form, Phra Phrom is honoured here largely in a Thai folk-religious register, as a guardian spirit whose favour brings protection and prosperity. The Erawan Shrine is one of the most visited devotional sites in Bangkok, and is encircled by a small constellation of related shrines to Hindu deities — Phra Laksami (Lakṣmī), Phra Trimurati (Trimūrti), Phra Khanet (Gaṇeśa), Phra In (Indra), and Phra Narai Song Suban (Nārāyaṇa on his Garuḍa).

History

The shrine was installed in 1956 to remedy a series of misfortunes — cost overruns, injuries to labourers, the loss of a shipload of Italian marble — that had attended the construction of the then state-owned Erawan Hotel; the foundation had been laid on what was held to be an inauspicious date, and the Ratchaprasong intersection had once been used to display criminals. On an astrologer's counsel, a shrine to Brahma was raised to balance the karmic field. The image was designed and cast by the Thai Fine Arts Department and consecrated on 9 November 1956, after which the hotel was said to be completed without further incident. The original Erawan Hotel was demolished in 1987 and replaced by the Grand Hyatt Erawan. On 21 March 2006 the image was destroyed by a man suffering from severe psychiatric illness; it was carefully recast and reconsecrated. On 17 August 2015 a bomb attack at the shrine killed twenty people and wounded many more, an act mourned across the city; the shrine reopened soon after, and devotion has continued unbroken.

Significance

The Erawan Shrine is a much-loved Bangkok devotional landmark and a vivid example of the centuries-long blending of Hindu and Buddhist sacred forms in Thailand. Through Phra Phrom, devotees from many backgrounds — Thai, Chinese, and visitors from across Asia — offer prayers for protection, blessing, and the fulfilment of vows.