Previous studies have shown that the Thai
daily way of life is related to their belief in
ghosts from the time they are born to the
time they die. Phaithayawatthana (1995:
91) states that Thai people believe that
ghosts are in everything and that human
beings belong to certain ghosts even
before they are born. Some believe that
powerful ghosts invent a human body
through magic and give life to it by
catching an aimless soul, putting it into the
body and bringing that live body to a
mother’s womb. There is, therefore, a Thai
tradition called s luuk (meaning
‘buying a child’), which has led to a
ceremony in which a mother pretends to
buy her newborn baby from a ghost,
otherwise, the ghost will take the newborn
back in three days, and it will die if the
parents have not observed the tradition. If
the newborn can survive this period, it will
thrive.