At a press conference in 2016, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha tugged open his shirt to reveal over a dozen amulets hanging on his chest, and explained these would give him moral support in negotiations with Russia’s President Putin. The leader of globalised Thailand was vaunting the use in international diplomacy of devices made with arcane substances and blessed by monks with a reputation for expertise in magic.
Capitalism Magic Thailand: Modernity With Enchantment by Peter A. Jackson Singapore: ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute S$35.20 (860 baht)
In the 1990s, Peter Jackson of the Australian National University and some others began to write about the “cults of wealth” that had mushroomed in Thailand in the prior few years. They tended to relate the growing enthusiasm for worshipping historic kings, buying amulets, consulting spirit mediums and patronising…
