Don’t be fooled by the skyscrapers, the roads clogged with the latest luxury cars or the high-tech gadgetry in pockets and purses. This country of 65 million people has embraced modernity, yes, but many Thais will tell you that ghosts and spirits still wander the streets and inhabit buildings. Important business decisions often require consultations with a fortune teller. Cabinet ministers and military officers are sometimes so concerned with numerology and advice from their shamans that politics in Thailand could be called the black art of the possible.

“We still have our ghosts, we still have black magic,” said Todsaporn Jamsuwan, the co-founder of Holy Plus, a company that makes “spirit houses,” the ubiquitous miniature structures that resemble dollhouses and serve as dwellings for protective ghosts.

Far from abandoning traditional beliefs in the paranormal, Thailand is harnessing the forces of technology and modernity to reinforce them.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • Science & Technology • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Thailand

More than 200 adults receive Baptism every year in Bangkok archdiocese, and for some of them the decision is made in the face of stiff opposition from people they love most.

However, after a while, their family members grow to accept their decision, say several new converts to Catholicism in this predominantly Buddhist country.

"Wait until I die before you convert," was the request of the mother of Ravipun Jaruthawee. Nevertheless, the 25-year-old post-graduate student got baptized secretly this year on Holy Saturday, April 11, at Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok.

Read it all.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Asia • Thailand • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Churches • Roman Catholic