On August 9th this year, a busy street in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, witnessed a peculiar incident. A truck carrying a 5-meter tall statue of "Kru Kai Kaew" struggled to pass under a pedestrian bridge on Ratchada Pisek Road, causing traffic congestion. Despite two hours of effort, the truck failed to navigate the obstacle, leading to the temporary placement of the statue outside a nearby hotel.
In recent days, some individuals have been paying respects to the "Kru Kai Kaew" statue, while Buddhist art experts have criticized its appearance as unsettling and demanded its removal. Moreover, on social media, there have been discussions about sacrificing small cats and dogs to the statue, raising concerns among animal rights activists and prompting the non-profit organization "Thai Watch Foundation" to initiate an investigation.
The 2.7-meter-wide "Kru Kai Kaew" statue is entirely black, with wings on its back, red eyes, sharp nails, and golden fangs. Originally intended to be transported from a foundry in Nakhon Si Thammarat Province to a temple in Bangkok.
Legend has it that the "Kru Kai Kaew" was one of the teachers of King Jayavarman VII of the Khmer Empire's Angkor Wat, although historians have questioned this claim. Some scholars believe that the surge in worship of the "Kru Kai Kaew" reflects the psychological unease of the Thai people in an unstable social and political environment.
King Jayavarman VII was a devout Buddhist who commissioned the construction of Bayon Temple. It is said that a monk from Nakhon Phanom Province in southern Thailand went on a meditation retreat to Cambodia's Angkor Wat and received a 5-centimeter-tall "Kru Kai Kaew" statue as a gift from a local monk. The statue then allegedly appeared to the monk's disciple, leading to the start of its worship.
In 2019, a devotee named Nathawut Latharnasuk set up a life-sized "Kru Kai Kaew" statue in Nakhon Nayok Province. However, he proclaimed that there had never been any animal sacrifices.
Nevertheless, many Thai religious scholars believe that the "Kru Kai Kaew's" legend lacks factual basis.
Pipat Krajanchang, an assistant professor of history at the National Law University, wrote in a newspaper article that there is no statue of the "Kru Kai Kaew" at Cambodia's Bayon Temple. Instead, there are similar statues at Angkor Wat.
After the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, a belief in the "Ghost King" emerged in 2022, with people seeking wealth from this figure. Some argue that the rise of the "Kru Kai Kaew" belief is occurring during a politically critical period where the nation's trajectory remains uncertain. One commentator states, "Given the severity of the political situation at the institutional level and the economy possibly not being as good as it seems on the surface, a large number of people worship the Gaew Gao Master, seeking wealth and good fortune."
A Thai cultural scholar, believes that while many question the origin of the "Kru Kai Kaew" the belief itself is not illegal. He admits that the Thai people worshipping an entity of unknown origin, neither human nor animal, and not an artistic sculpture, might bring unintended consequences.
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