Thai Buddhism in Thailand

There are quite a few Buddha images, however most of them depict him at the same age. This Baby Buddha image, called "pang prasut" in Thai, is relatively rare. It depicts the moment when the Buddha was born and he immediately started walking. I haven't seen one like this before. They only information that I can find says that you will have a prosperous life if you pray in front of it. However, this Baby Buddha image was installed at our school recently for a very different reason. You may remember last month that one of our students committed suicide by jumping from the 6th floor of the school building. The school administrators decided that they would have this image placed in the playground in order to protect the school children. The father of the boy that died was invited to the ceremony attended by monks.