The Essence of Chicken - and other False Idols

I have rarely written about the school Cheryl and I work at, however there are some things that just must be written.

In Thailand the public school system is considered adequate but many choose to send their children to private schools for a higher education. This entails enrolment in a school that can easily be considered a business and is therefore suspect to business practices such as corporate sponsorship. There are many events within Lertlah School that are somewhat open to public business finance, interest and even commercial sales. One such represented interest is by "Essence of Chicken"

Each morning the students gather outside around a large fountain complete with Buddha statue and recite many ritualistic cultural practices in the form of oaths, songs, and chants. These are done in a solemn and uniform manor each and every day.

Cheryl and I arrived at school one morning to see the students gathered for their usual morning rituals, however, this morning there was a large pyramid of boxes erected in front of the large Buddha fountain at the centre of the solemn circle.

As per most mornings, the students were going about their rituals in an appearing form of grace superceding the day, however the boxes were a startling contrast to this particular morning's events. Scheduled to follow the morning rituals was an awards ceremony for a spelling competition that had been sponsored by "Essence of Chicken"; a product which is a brand-name of chicken bullion for soup and various other cooking in which one might want an artificial chicken flavour. The boxes all sported the "Essence of Chicken" symbol and were stacked in a toweringly excessive manor so as to dwarf even the magnificence of the statue of Buddha. And gathered all around in ancient ritual fashion were hundreds of Thai students chanting, praying, and bowing their heads as if in recognition of some powerful commercial deity represented by the magnificent pyramid of cardboard in front of which they lay their blessings. One student would lead with a short phrase followed by hundreds of children chanting similarly in response and then bowing after each line. It brought to mind scenes from old movies depicting ancient civilizations of people worshipping various idols. I was half expecting Charleton Heston to descend from Mount Sinai and smash the boxes along with the Ten Commandments.

Of course not only was the seemingly religious commercial event comical but also the fact that here we were, one of the most prestigious schools in all of Thailand and our students were bowing before an idol made from recycled paper and pronouncing the goodness of cooking with chicken bullion, which likely consisted of more MSG than animal. If this is the kind of reverence produced for a pile of boxes, I would like to see what sort of brewhaha would erupt if someone parked a Coke machine in our midst.