A large electricity transformer
The Ba Gua
at the shop opposite to that large electricity transformer
Consideration of Feng Shui is a heritage
science and knowledge of Chinese people who have learned and practiced for thousands
of years. Feng Shui considers good location and brings good luck to those living
in such area. Not only the nature and the environment, Feng Shui also involves
the beliefs, customs, cultures, and religions such as the Taoism and Confucianism.
When Buddhism spread to China, the Mahayana Buddhism is also based on the knowledge
of Feng Shui. Mahayana Buddhism clearly separates the Heaven, the Earth, and
the Hell. There is the Lord Buddha, the divines of Gods. Beliefs in mightiness
and miracles were well combined with the already existing belief of Chinese
people. The Mahayana Buddhism then could quickly spread into the Chinese society
and has become the customs that has also been part of the Feng Shui’s body of
knowledge.
Principles of Feng Shui consideration
focus on four components; horoscope, site, direction and seasons (24 directions
of wind blows), and auspices, which can be briefly summarized below.
1. The Horoscope. This means that
the horoscope of the location owner or selector must be examined for its relationship
with the selected place or the building. There are two factors.
1.1 Originated
horoscope, referring the horoscope of the birth.
1.2 Constructed
horoscope, referring to the related horoscope that have influences on human
actions in their lifetime.
2. The Site. This is a knowledge or
principles of Feng Shui, which was deeply learnt about the origin of power,
the components of site both above and under the ground, Yin, Yang, together
with current of the Earth, Water, and the Wind, which are important factors
for producing and receiving power.
3.
The Directions and Seasons. This involves the Universe, the earth spinning,
the current or circulations of the Sun, the airtime, and the 24 zodiacs.
4. The Auspices. These are the time
related to the reactive energy of all related components, resulting in both
goodness and badness.
Feng Shui: the existing guides of practice
and its mystery
Feng Shui is a scientific
and actual practice of Chinese people. It is, therefore, a common practice among
the Thais who have Chinese origin, especially in the commercial area of Yaowaraj
road, Charoen Krung road, Rajawong road, and in Klong Sarn and Talad Plue areas
in Thonburi.
Before discussing the actual
practice of Feng Shui, it is needed to separate the two main interests of Feng
Shui consideration.
1. Feng Shui inside
the building.
2. Feng Shui outside the building.
1). Feng Shui inside
the building. This kind of Feng Shui consideration takes account on
the Chi power or energy that can have influences on lives of persons living
inside the that building, including their happiness and prosperity. As such,
there must be careful consideration on every detail such as doors, windows,
beams, column angles, and stairs. All rooms, including living room, bedrooms,
kitchen, and bathrooms, must also be checked. The Feng Shui consideration starts
with checking the horoscope of the house owner, the house figures, lights, direction,
ventilations, and positions of furniture such as beds, working table, and dining
tables.
As aforementioned, the
consideration of Feng Shui inside the building is widely in practice among Chinese-Thai
people.
In case of being unable to comply with the considered Feng Shui arrangements,
there are ways to neutralize badness into goodness, for example, the use of
a big mirror at the front door, the adjustment of lighting, the use of bell,
planting, and feeding animals.
2). Feng Shui outside
the building. Its principle considers the building’s location and its
surrounding areas, the building shape, and the environmental condition of all
nearby areas.
The consideration of Feng Shui outside the building is very important because
the Chinese people do commercial business, which necessarily need good location
for their business. At this moment, three main focuses are briefly explained.
Their amazing effects are presented later.
1.
Shape of the building. In the belief of Feng Shui, buildings are comparatively
the mountains, which have influences on the business because the building’s
shape is related to the Five Elements.
1.1
The Fire. The building would have a shape similar to pyramid, staggered, or
sharpened top.
1.2
The Earth. The building’s shape is a square or rectangle.
1.3
The Water. The building has irregular shapes like flowing water.
1.4
The Wood. The building has slender shape (Male) or has branches (Female). The
tall buildings with rectangular shape are also considered to be the Wood element.
1.5
The Metal. The building has a circle or semi-circle shape. The shape of the
building supports commerce or businesses.
The building with the Metal Element, having a circle or semicircle shape, has a united characteristic. That is, it attracts and gathers people. This shape is good for the meeting hall, cinemas, such as the building of Hua Lum Pong railway station in Bangkok. The building with the Fire Element, having a triangular shape or sharpened top roof, is good for the persons who work in civil service, performers, artists, stock brokers, and oil refinery business (Nattida Sookmanus, 2539 B.E.: 133).
2.
The matters of roads, which are commutation ways. They have motions and lives
as a current of the Chi energy, which have influences on the building locations,
people, occupations, and businesses. The road characteristics have the following
meanings.
2.1
Straight roads represent power and prestige. Places higher than the road keep
the energy while places lower than the road loses the energy.
2.2
Sharp bended roads. The building aligned with the road before the sharp bend
would suffer stabbing energy released from that corner.
2.3
T-shape or Y-shape junctions. The building aligned with the straight part of
the road before the bend would suffer stabbing energy released from that bended
corner.
2.4
Intersection. The circulated energy gathers here so that it is considered a
good location because there would be a consistent business and regular cash
flow. However, the building at the corner may be influenced by the edge of the
building on the opposite corner. If the buildings have similar edges at their
corners, it would not be affected. If its corner is flattened, the building
would suffer stabbing forces from the sharp edge of the building in opposite
corner.
2.5
Intersection with roundabout. The Chi energy is circulated in the direction
of car motions. The point that the cars enter the roundabout brings good. In
contrary, the exit point takes away the good luck.
2.6
Intersection with diverted lanes on left and right sides. The curve entering
point would take away good luck whereas points further from the curve bring
luck as they are embraced by the road.
3.
The nearby sources energy, especially when the building is opposite to the sources
of energy or miraculous power such as the temples, shrines, Garuda, Naga, or
large electricity transformers. All of these sources of energy always release
energy to the building opposite (or near, in the case of large electricity transformer).
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A large electricity transformer
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The Ba Gua
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at the shop opposite to that large electricity transformer
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The
three cases above are referred to general commercial buildings, which the Chinese-Thai
people already considered in their beliefs of Feng Shui. Those people living
in those buildings with good Feng Shui always get successful in their business.
Those people who live in the bad locations with improper Feng Shui have tried
to correct and neutralize the situation by these four methods.
1. To turn the enemy (threats to the
building) to be friends. For example, if the road has a straight direction to
the building (stabbing force), its direction must be considered. If the road
comes from the North, which has the Water Element, the building’s color should
be green because it has the Wood Element, which is green. Water is friendly
to wood such that the enemy is turned to be friend.
2. To redirect (deceive) the enemy.
This method uses mirrors to deceive enemy to other directions. Sometimes, the
edged wall is built to divert the undesired energy.
3. To dissolve the enemy. In this
case, a small round-shape mirror is used to reflect, divert, and scatter the
energy into many directions in order to dissolve the energy.
4. To resist the enemy. This method
applies the superior energy to resist or protect danger from the enemy. The
sources of the superior energy include installing the Ba Gua (or Poi Koi) and
the sword-mouthing Tiger (also the Lion).
The mystery of Feng
Shui
The belief in Feng Shui is a Chinese
science and body of knowledge that has been their heritage for generations.
At present, the Chinese-Thai still perform the actual practice of Feng Shui
consideration. As shown in previous samples, it can be seen that Feng Shui not
only provides the scientific knowledge of power, energy, and the natural or
supernatural changes, but it also mysteriously present the influences of the
Chi energy, which actually causes the changes. The followings are good examples
of the circulation of the Chi energy.
1. The Pra Tu Nam intersection. This
place used to be a normal intersection between roads. The business of the shops
nearby the intersection was very good. The walkway was always packed with customers.
But the situation totally changed after the construction of the overpass bridge
over the intersection headed from Pantip Plaza to Makkasan. There were very
few customers on this direction (the Chi energy flows across the intersection)
but there is no effect on the other road heading the Indra hotel and Bai Yok
tower such that the walkways are still crowded with customers and the business
is still very good.
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Buildings
at Pra Tu Nam intersection.
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2. The Sapan Kwai intersection. When this was a normal intersection, it was crowded with customers and the business in this area was then very good. After the overpass bridge was constructed, it was no longer crowded. Many shops were either closed or moved away (the Chi energy flows pass the intersection). At present, the overpass bridge was removed and the BTS line was built instead. However, it is considered that the road is still higher than the building so that the business in this area does not get better.
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| Before
the construction of the overpass bridge, there were many food shops in
this area packed with customers. |
3. The Uttayarn Road, which is the most beautiful road, links the 3rd and the 4th Buddhamonton roads. It also has a bridge crossing Tawee Wattana canal. When heading from the 3rd road to the 4th road, we can make a U-turn under the bridge. There are many food shops along both sides of the Uttayarn road. In the evening, these shops are packed. The difference is that there are very few shops before we cross the bridge, and these shop have also very few customers. In contrary, there are many shops lined up on the roadside nearly half a kilometer long. They are all packed (the Chi energy circulates back words and stop at the shops after making a U-turn).
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4. The Buddhamonton Intersection (Pin Klao – Nakhon Chaisri road). When it was a normal intersection, the shop on the left side of the road, before the intersection, was packed with customers. But after the construction of the overpass bridge from Buddhamonton to Sa La Ya was finished, there were much less customers.
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The restaurant near Buddhamontol Intersection (the red roof, number 1).
Before the bridge was built, it was packed with customers. After the bridge
was built, there are much less customers. |
When the bridge was ready for traffic, the cars from Bangkok can easily turn left into the 4th Buddhamonton road. The numbers of customers at the first restaurant (numbered 1) rapidly decreased. Instead, the fish-ball noodles shop (numbered 2), which was previously just a normal shop, became more popular and it was packed with customers. The Chi flows off the numbered-1 restaurant and flows in the numbered-2 noodle shop. It appears like the road curve embraces the shop (see topic of roads previously explained).
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| The
fish-balls noodles shop situated at curve to Buddhamonton road. Photo
taken on May 3rd, 2003. It looks empty because HRH Princess Chulaporn
came for a Candle Circulation Ceremony. Car parking was then prohibited.
Normally, both sides of the road are packed with customers' cars. |
The
author uses the word “mysterious” because it was learnt that the above examples
of locations effects. Feng Shui can clearly and deeply explains the phenomenon.
The author also has self-experience, having considered the previous four locations
before there have been changes. Changes were also observed (construction of
bridges, roads, or redirecting routes for cars). It was expected that, after
the construction, the business would go bad and there would be less customers.
The examples, including the pedestrian overpass at the Victory Monument, which
was considered as the road higher than the ground, have proved that the expectation
becomes true.
The author did not have previous knowledge
of Feng Shui. Having read documents and works written by the learned authors
has created mysterious feeling because the Feng shui, the Chi energy, Yin and
Yang, the Universe, the Nature, and the interconnection with humans are the
heritage knowledge of Chinese people for generations. At present, it can be
clearly seen from the actual practice of the Chinese-Thai people as previously
mentioned. Those who are interested in this kind of knowledge can always seek
for further information from the learned ones, from the documents, or from the
actual learning.
This article is mainly based on the
research documents of Ms. Nattida Sookmanus. The author also wishes to thank
the researcher for her diligence. Other additional references are listed in
the bibliography.
Bibliography
Nattida Sookmanus.
Beliefs of Feng Shui in the lifestyle of the Chinese-Thai people in Bangkok.
Thesis, Master Degree
in Anthropology, Graduate College, Chulalongkorn University, 2539 B.E.
Noramit Liewchanamongkol. Manual for choosing
astrological location for living places.
Bangkok. :Ekkaron Publishing,
2530 B.E.
Plue Luang (alias). Yin, Yang, Astrology ,and
Feng Shui. Bangkok.: Yellow publishing, 2536 B.E.
La-iad Silanoi. Feng Shui, The Locational Astrology.
Bangkok, OS printing house, 2530 B.E.
Department of Arts, Saam Kok, the version of
Chaophraya Phraklung (Hon). Pra Nakorn.: Klang Wittaya, 2506 B.E.
Amnuaychai Patipatpaopong. Feng Shui, the Astrological
Science of good and bad locations.
Bangkok, Dhammasarn Publishing,
2537 B.E.
________.Feng Shui for Business. Bangkok, Saeng Da, published date not identified.
Pirot Lertpiriyakamol. Journal of Academic knowledge and Research Works.
The Office of Research and Academic Services, Rajapat Institute Thonburi, publication year 11, academic year 2545 B.E., pp. 1-23.