Tattoo: Traditional Sak Yant in Thailand

In a small village temple an hour east of Chiang Mai, Thailand, I was blessed to receive a traditional Sak Yant from venerable monk Phra Ajarn Gamtorn. The ink consists of indigo, bamboo ash, and cobra venom, and is poked into the skin with a bamboo rod tipped in steel. The "twin tigers" design is of Khmer origin, and the script is the essence of a buddhist sutra in old Khom. It is believed by those who make them that sak yant are protective amulets, and that the formulae of their construction is sacred geometry. This one took about an hour and a half to complete, and when he was done Ajarn Gamtorn uttered a prayer and the sutra associated with the sacred design and then blew on it with the "breath of life," sealing the protection.

The music is my own, made with Evan Fraser and these tools: singing bowls, berenbau, jawharp, and sez.

The nasty sores on the Phra Ajarn Gamtorn's foot are from infected insect bites. The first vow that monks take is to abstain from killing, which can make for a gnarly bug situation in the jungle.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• sak
• yant
• healing
• meditation
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• skin
• flesh
• music
• thailand
• monk
• ink
• chiang
• mai
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• asia
• sacred
• geometry
• tibetan
• singing
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• berenbau
• sez
• jawharp
• brian
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• krishna

[james80196]

I been looking sak yants up .. and at first I was like "oh well finally someone sanitary with a rubber glove" and then I looked down and saw his feet... gotta loves monks

[888kabe]

scary lookn dirty feet on your back while he tatts you looks crusty as.

[vxphsycoxv]

Duse I have the exact same tattoo on my arm. I got it by a monk in Bangkok. Nice

[cjones897]

I live in Chiang mai and know where san patong is but was just wondering of the name of the wat (temple).

[oaOmoOoo]

@michaEdwards You can get there also at Wat bang pra in Nakhornprathom province(Near Bangkok). That is famous about thai tatto(Sak Yant).

Be invulnerable

[panyapatzaza55555]

สุดยอด เหนียวใหมครับ

[michaEdwards]

can you may tell me the directions to get there... i´ll be ther again 2012 and like to visit this place.. help would be much appreciated ...

[lileichmann]

Nice I have the same. From Phra Polilo at Wat Lod Chang Ayutthaya. He called it "Goo Roo Seua Goo"