{"id":20170,"date":"2023-11-03T21:40:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T21:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/?p=20170"},"modified":"2023-11-03T21:40:36","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T21:40:36","slug":"the-thai-temple-and-palace-guards-and-their-roots-in-hinduism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/2023\/11\/03\/the-thai-temple-and-palace-guards-and-their-roots-in-hinduism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thai Temple and Palace Guards and Their Roots in Hinduism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>THAILAND, October 29, 2023 (SCMP): As visitors enter Bangkok\u2019s Grand Palace, they pass supernatural security guards. Standing inside the main entrance of the royal complex in the Thai capital are two towering statues, each with sharp fangs protruding from their mouths and clubs in their grip. They not only embody the colorful excess which makes the site so photogenic, but also depict a key figure from Thai mythology, the Yaksha, whose role is to protect palaces, temples and other sacred sites. While human threats are the responsibility of the white-helmeted, rifle-toting King\u2019s Guard soldiers who march through the palace, the Yaksha here and at other sites in Thailand monitor other worldly enemies, ready to tackle any demons that try to lay siege or lay curses on them. It is not clear exactly when Yaksha first entered the country\u2019s traditions, but they are depicted in Thai art that is more than 800 years old. A 12th century bronze sculpture \u2013 Yaksha Supporting a Naga \u2013 is part of the Asian Art collection at New York\u2019s Metropolitan Museum. <br><br>The first known appearance of Yaksha is in the <em>Ramayana<\/em>, the Sanskrit epic of 24,000 verses that was written over several centuries and is one of the two most important epics of Hinduism. It may not be readily apparent to tourists, but modern Thailand has been shaped more by Hindu culture than any other. More than 700 years ago, for instance, the Sukhothai Kingdom adapted the <em>Ramayana<\/em> to create the <em>Ramakien<\/em>, an epic which is also well represented at the Grand Palace. Painted in sequence along several interior walls are 178 murals that relate a long, spectacular battle between king of the demons Tosakanth and human King Rama. King Rama eventually saves his kidnapped queen after his army of monkey warriors defeats his supernatural foe. <br><br>More at source.<br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3239289\/mythological-figures-guard-thai-temples-and-palaces-bangkok-chiang-mai-and-their-roots-hinduism\n\">https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/travel-leisure\/article\/3239289\/mythological-figures-guard-thai-temples-and-palaces-bangkok-chiang-mai-and-their-roots-hinduism<br><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THAILAND, October 29, 2023 (SCMP): As visitors enter Bangkok\u2019s Grand Palace, they pass supernatural security guards. Standing inside the main,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20175,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20170"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20176,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20170\/revisions\/20176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hinduismtoday.com\/hpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}