Galleries: Please click below to see the images
Wat Bang PhraWat Bang Phra, the tattoo temple
Ajarn Thoi Ruesi Ajarn Thoi
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Since hundreds, if not thousand or more years, were Thai and Khmer warriors renowned and feared for the magical markings tattooed on their skin. These markings have come to be known worldwide as “Sak Yant tattoos”. These markings were a mix of Buddhist psalms and prayers, and shamanistic spells and sorcery that had survived the Religious transition from the pre-Buddhist era and been incorporated in the belief system of the newlyborn Buddhist countries.
Sak Yant tattooing is not only performed by Ordained members of the Buddhist Sangha (monks), there are also a great number of revered laymen who practise as ascetics or take certain spiritual vows and make yant tattoos. The popularity of a certain master is normally attained through hearsay from other devotees of the master; tales of being shot or stabbed without wounds being inflicted, or being in car crashes where the vehicle was crushed into a box shape like a concertina but the individual with the yant tattooed remaining safe and without a scratch inside the vehicle, have led to some masters being so highly revered as to be thought to have supernatural powers in their own right.
Most people who recieve yant tattoos will be men, although women also recieve yant tattoos albeit to a much lesser degree.
*text extracted from sak-yant.com*
I'd like to thank Spencer for the great, amazing work he is doing through his web page www.sak-yant.com . He was so kind to introduce me in the Wat Bang Phra and to Ruesi Ajarn Thoy Dabos. Please have a look at his web page, it's a place full of usefull information about Sak Yant and Thai culture in general.