Buddha: " Whenever you see things, just see. Whenever you listen, just listen. Whenever you know, just know."

The Erawan Shrine, San Phra Phrom (Tao Mahaprom), Bangkok.

The Erawan (Erewan or Erwan) Shrine
was built in November 1956 at the intersection of Ratchadamri Road and Ratchaprasong Road in the
Pathum Wan district of Bangkok, Thailand.

The shrine is less than 100m from the Chit Lom (pronounced 'chee lom') BTS Skytrain Station.

We visited the Erawan Shrine, San Phra Phrom (Tao Mahaprom), on an afternoon in November 2007 and found that the open air shrine that occupies a paved, gated area was busy with many Buddhist and Hindu devotees plus others looking for a good luck blessing by making offerings of flower garlands, fruit, coconut milk, holy water, wooden elephants, incense and candles. The air was warm and full of the smell of incense and the sound of low murmurs.

There is a small covered stage area, facing the left-hand shoulder of the seated Brahma statue, where devotees make 'fixed price' offerings of money for dancers and singers to perform for the benefit of the deity.

The shrine was named after the Thai Government owned Erawan Hotel that once stood close by. The shrine was built to appease the land spirits of the ground that the hotel was built on. You see; the hotel was not built according to Thai custom, by consulting astrologers, to find an auspicious date to lay the foundation stone, as a result the of which, construction was dogged by problems of every kind. Once an astrologer had provided a solution to the error, the shrine containing the Brahma statue was built and once offerings were made the bad luck lifted and the hotel was successful until it was demolished in 1987 and replaced by the present Grand Hyatt Erawan Hotel.

The original gold leaf covered, ceramic, four faced, Brahma statue with six arms that occupied the San Phra Phrom, Erawan Shrine was destroyed with a hammer in March 2006 by a vandal who was then beaten to death by enraged bystanders. The Erawan Shrine Brahma Statue was replaced in May 2006, with a new ceramic casting that included fragments of the original. Another casting was made in metal as a historic reference piece and resides in the National Museum of Thailand, Bangkok.

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