Goddess called in to scare off tsunami ghosts
Aug 19 11:38 AM US/Eastern


BANGKOK (Reuters) - With Asian tourists still shunning its southern
beaches, Thailand is calling in a revered Chinese sea goddess to ward
off the restive spirits of the thousands who died in last December's
tsunami.

A statue of Godmother Ruby, known as Mazu in Chinese, will be brought to
the Thai island of Phuket from the Chinese coastal province of Fujian
next month for ghost-clearing rites, said Suwalai Pinpradab of the
Tourism Authority of Thailand.

"After the tsunami, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Chinese and other East Asians
dare not come because they don't want to visit places where mass deaths
took place," Suwalai told Reuters on Friday. "It is inauspicious."

Mazu, a Taoist goddess of the sea, has a huge following among fishermen
and shipworkers in coastal provinces of southern China and Taiwan.

Thailand's official death toll from the December 26 disaster stands at
5,395, of which 2,436 are believed to be foreigners. Of these, fewer
than 50 were East Asians.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/08/19/MTFH93061_2005-08-19_15-46-07_EIC956684.html