Wai Kru Archan Tia

Every wondering what is wai kru? Before that make sure you read it as "WAI" not "WAT". At the beginning i read it Wat Kru and i thought its a temple in Thailand that famous with sakyant and possession until recently i been told by a kid that met during the 1st of May "Praying to Master" festival in Wat Sungai Siput its actually waI not waT (Wat means Thai temple) and i did some research on the internet and find out its actuall pronounce as "Wai Kru". Wai Kru means Wai - to pay respect, Kru - teacher. Student wai kru (pay respect) to teacher in the school, Muay Thai student wai kru (pay respect) to their master and the spiritual tattoo (sakyant) wai kru to its master which is Archan Tia. Wai Kru is a also traditional dance that gives honor and respect to teachers, parents, mentors, etc. Thai warriors used to dance to give respect or strength. It's the strongest way to show respect and give honor to someone.

For the people who do not get in what is going on. first these people are not on drugs or possessed by ghost or demon spirit, most of them (you see the word "most" means even if you dont have any sakyant you still will be possessed) have tattoo picture of certain kind of animals such as monkey, gecko, tiger, bird, butterly and more so they all believe that the master have gave the spirit and the animal strenght to them so at this day they all came to show their respect to their teacher or master. And no they won't hit you when they are in trance (you see how closed i took the picture and video of them) even you not being a good human being, if so i must have been hit badly cause i being a lazier most of the time, lol, their priority is just to show respect to their master and struggle hard too to get away from anyone who try to stop it.

Who want to get the tattoo have to have strong faith and fallow the rule of the tattoo magic. At least few things you have to do according to the buddhism precept are:

1. Don't fight / stare your parents and your master.
2. Don't kill or torture any life.
3. Don't steal anything.
4. Don't rape or have sex with anyone's wife, husband or children.
5. Don't lie.
6. Don't drink alcohol/drug.
7. Don't eat foods that prayed to ghost (except your own ancestors)

Sakyant is not the teachings of Buddha, its just the beliefs of Thai and its like Tao in Chinese where you can see we pray to spirits and we have possession too. They have been mixed thousand years ago because of cultures cross and its not something bad when you can learn to be good. Its the same theory with, if you are a doctor, your discipline background is medical and science but when you saved someones life who in other discipline background he/she will show respect to you. In Chinese's Tao we believe in "learning together, advance together", so its not hard to link Buddha and Thai beliefs together to form what it has been today and what you saw from wai kru.

Make sure you check out the video that captured during the 1st of May "Praying to Master" festival at Wat Sungai Siput, its nothing if compare with those in Thailand but its certainly something here in Malaysia.