For several days now, some strange people (by which I THINK I mean people I don't know) have been coming to look at one of our banana trees. I have been taken to look at it several times but have no doubt shown my farang insensitivity by being very unimpressed. I knew I had to look at the small bunch of bananas growing on it, and I have taught some of the people how to say "hand of bananas". I had no idea why they attracted so much interest.
Today, when quite a group of people all arrived at the tree at the same time (it is at the back of our house), I found out what all the fuss was about. There are three 'hands' and they are growing in the wrong way. Or the wrong place. Or something. Actually, they hardly seem to be growing at all. However, they are very significant, apparently. Here they are:
A mor song 'an expert who can see things' had been called in by someone (not anyone in our house) and here he is making his preparations:
Soon he addressed the banana tree, but he did it in silence as far as my hearing goes:
As owner of the tree, Pensri was called from what she was doing to make a little offering to her tree. I should perhaps point out that Pensri and most of her sisters have a deep scepticism of this sort of thing which they learned or inherited from their father, a very rational man.
And then the expert took over again:
There followed some careful peeling back of the soft bark of the tree, some picking away at the surface of the trunk, and quite liberal sprinkling of scented talcum powder. I had wondered what that little pink container was for. And then some gentle, thoughtful hands on.
And this is what he had found:
The important bit being this:
And he wrote down what he saw:
And here are two people who now aim to put his information to lucrative use. I know and like them both and wish them success (though as the saying goes, neither of them is short of a bob or two).
And you too could strike lucky, thanks to our banana tree. Not me, because I never buy lottery tickets. Still, remember where you got the numbers, if you should happen to win big.
Our banana tree has been attracting a lot of interest here in the village. Not because lots of people here read this blog (although a few do)but by word of mouth, the mouths of the two women in the last picture to start with, I guess. So yesterday and this morning about 20 people have strolled through our garden to take a look. Most of them were clearly making their own interpretation of what they saw.
And now (15.54 local time) we have just been told that the last two digits of the winning number (and it is these last two digits that people bet on) are 89. Is this a result, as they say. Well, apparently it is, at least in hindsight. I'll explain:
The banana flower is called plee gluay (ปลีกล้วย) so they are saying plee represents eight (แป) and gluay represents 9 (เก้า). In other words, the last two digits begin with the same consonants as banana flower in Thai. Got it? Too late now, if you wanted to win.
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Posted by: Lawence | 01 February 2011 at 04:09 PM
Lawrence Thai people never cease to amaze me when it comes to the lottery and ways to get those winning numbers. Trees, frogs, naga's and who knows what are all sought out to get the winning pick.
This post should get you quite a few search hits.
Good post but I'm not sure I follow your 8&9 explanation.
Posted by: Martyn | 02 February 2011 at 05:57 PM
I'll try to explain the 8, 9 business.
P is the first consonant sound of 8 (paed) and g is the first sound of 9 (gaew) as well as the first consonant sounds of Plee Gluay (banana flower). It looks confused because the vowel letter is placed before the consonant.
Anyway, I guess like me, you didn't win, Martyn. So what are we? No, of course we are not. We didn't lose any investment for a start.
Posted by: Lawrence | 02 February 2011 at 10:15 PM
Lawrence now I understand the 8&9 connection.
If you can remember my Sang Khom Naga lottery story which featured a car shrine then I have an update.
The car's registration numbers were 5983 which didn't hold the winning numbers in the mid month draw but do contain the two number winner this time. The 8&9 are in their but the wrong way round. Weird.
Posted by: Martyn | 03 February 2011 at 01:55 PM