"Behind it there is a stone. Evil-minded people had allied with some in the Royal Household Bureau to allow a Khmer adept to go behind the Emerald Buddha and take the stone away, because that stone is the important thing for emitting power."
The idea of protective forces is a major part of saiyasat or supernaturalism. It has nothing to do with Buddhism but reaches back to older folk beliefs. Most villages have a shrine for a protective spirit. Cities have a pillar. No new house is erected without a ceremony.
Sondhi has selected sites that are closely associated with the Chakri dynasty.
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In old Siam, there were laws permitting the use of supernaturalism for defensive, protective purposes, but outlawed any usage with aggressive and malicious intent. Today there are no such laws but the same distinction remains in conventional practice. Wearing protective amulets is fine; cursing is questionable; rites to cause harm are unacceptable. This distinction is expressed by describing aggressive and malicious usage as "Khmer". In fact, there is no evidence that Cambodian supernaturalism is aggressive. Here "Khmer" is just a Thai word for "nasty". But of course this vocabulary reflects a bundle of narrow-minded, bad-neighbour prejudices.
Earlier Sondhi openly accused Thaksin of being behind the destruction of the Erawan Brahma statue in March 2006. Sondhi said Thaksin wished to thwart political forces rising up against him. Thaksin called the accusation "insane". Sondhi does not need to be so explicit this time but he seems to imply the same thing on a grander scale - a massive attempt to disrupt the spiritual forces protecting nation and monarchy.
Sondhi went on to describe his efforts in defence of the country. "The [base of the] Equestrian Statue is like this [draws hexagon with his hands] with the statue inside. Tacks had been inserted at the six corners so that the statue of the revered king could not emit its power. We drew out the tacks from all six places."
Presumably these tacks or nails are supernatural, imaginary articles anchoring an imaginary magical wall around the statue to pen in the spiritual forces. Presumably too, Sondhi's team used rituals to remove them rather than digging up the tarmac. He mentioned that "masters and adepts pulled out each of them". He went on to describe preventive measures for the future. Here the actions seem to have been real rather than imaginary.
"I must thank the women of the PAD because after [the tacks] were pulled out, to ensure they would not be replaced, they took sanitary napkins from menstruating women and placed them on the six points.
"Experts said the spirit adepts were furious because they could not send their spirits back; their magic was rendered ineffective."
Ideas about the fearful power of female sexuality are fundamental to a structure of male supremacy. In both Buddhism and supernaturalism, males are privileged in acquiring superior spiritual status. Only men can become Buddhist monks. Only men can draw yantra diagrams, activate amulets, utter incantations and use all the other techniques of saiyasat.
But female sexuality poses a terrifying threat to these powers. Thus monks have to remain celibate and avoid contact with women. Serious adherents of saiyasat also practice celibacy. Casual users remove their amulets before lovemaking to prevent their efficacy from getting annulled.
Menstrual blood is the most powerful symbol of this terrible, destructive power. There are rules and conventions about avoiding contact with this fearful force. In the past there were many restrictions involving women's underwear. But Sondhi is possibly breaking new ground by making active use of this substance as a weapon.
Since the clip of this speech made it to YouTube (search for "Sondhi"), contributors to several blogsites have concluded that Sondhi is "mad". Certainly he seems befuddled. Clearly he is espousing narrow-minded chauvinist prejudices about Thailand's neighbours and about women. Possibly his efforts to defend the capital's sacred sites are a form of desecration. The police, Fine Arts Department and Bangkok governor's office went to inspect the Equestrian Statue on the day after Sondhi's revelation, but no proceedings have been launched.
Sondhi concluded this part of his speech by asking: "We're talking about saving the nation. Is this part of saving the nation?"
How do his PAD colleagues and supporters feel about this new front in the fight to "save the nation" and about Sondhi's weapons of choice?
Somsak Kosaisuk, Somkiat Pongpaibun, and Pibhop Dhongchai seem to be hard-headed rationalists. Chamlong Srimuang's Santi Asoke Buddhism sect belongs to a purist tradition, which is highly antagonistic to saiyasat, though Chamlong might share some of Sondhi's male chauvinism.
How far can someone go as a self-appointed defender of religion and nation? When does the weaponry exceed some frontier of acceptability - slingshots, used golf clubs, guns, menses? What comes next?
