Loi Krathong festival, each 12th month of the lunar calender in Thailand. In Bali and Thailand people follow a lunar calender. Smal boats beautifully decorated with flowers, incense, candles and such are put into the water. Traditionally this was done tho honor the Buddha and the godess of the water.
Thousand of people are participating in a cleansing ritual by making offerings to the energy or spirits of the water, with the small boats with candles, accompanying it with the intent of getting rid of something negative in their lives. People have the intent to let their anger, grudges or other negative sentiments flow away, out of their lives.
People are paying respect to the spirit which belongs to the area of this University.
This says a lot and shows how different cultural soils can lead to another type of development.
There is a spirit linked to this university and people are expected to pay respect to it before they start their studies there.
This ghost is specif to this university, not to universities in general. In this case it is the spirit of someone who also possessed magic powers through occult sciences.
This tells a lot… when a university links a spirit to its institution. Such a center of academic activities, showing this openly its acceptance of things from the non physical reality. Not like a patron saint who once was, but like a ghost who is still there…
A statue of the Buddha, with in front of it a statue of the figure with magical powers, who is linked to the area of this university.
Offerings for the spirit.
People who can communicate with spirits, can perceive what types of things a specific ghost likes to feed on. That would then be offered to it. This particular spirit likes sweet drinks. You can see the soft drinks an coconuts.
Sometimes ghost can make deals in which the promise something specific if they receive something they ask for.
Other times they would just inform sensitive people about what sort of things they would like for offerings.
I was in Bali, just after the second bomb had exploded there, a few years ago. In a rather remote temple I met some police sitting there. They said the spirit residing there would give the names of the people who where responsible if they would guard his sword, laying in that temple, during three nights. And sure, after three days a woman went into a trance during which she was temporarily possessed by the spirit, who gave the names through her.
This is a statue of the guy linked to this university. In a lot of Eastern countries a statue is considered to have a soul or to be a link to the soul which is represented by the statue.
Loads of statues…
In this room people would shake sticks with numbers on them until one fell to the floor. Next they would look up the meaning of the number on the stick.
The spirit residing here, also likes music and dance. Someone who gained success after finishing his studies and after he succeeded in or gained what he asked this spirit for… he thanks it by having a big band perform traditional songs and dances. All people can attend the performance for free.
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