Thai/Burmese malas

[theravada_guy]

Greetings all,

I was just wondering what the malas are used for in Burma and Thailand?

Thanks!

[jcsuperstar]

in Burma i don't know, but an ajahn of mine brought me one when he went there. in Thailand, not too much these days, seems in the north a century back they were used in meditation but now i've only seen them used to count off repetitions in ceremonies when doing long repetitive chants on holidays where you'll chant itipi so... 108 times etc. they are not worn by the monks however.

[theravada_guy]

Oh, okay. Thanks jc!

[bazzaman]

.

[theravada_guy]

Thanks bazzaman.

[Virgo]

Greetings all,

I was just wondering what the malas are used for in Burma and Thailand?

Thanks!

Probably the mantra of Shiva.

Kevin

[Viriya]

I was surprised see a lot of malas among the Thai members of my Buddhist community in Australia. In true Thai style, they seem to be used more for luck and protection than for practical purposes: hanging from car rear-view mirrors, used as a support for amulets, etc.

[Sylvester]

If you pop over to the Northern Thai province of Chiang Mai, quite a few of the Theravada monks who follow the Lanna traditions (as a subset within the "Mahanikai" order) do use and wear malas. It's equally common for monks from the Central parts of Thailand to snigger at this practice.