What is Guman Thong and how many different types are there?
Guman Thong is a little boy with a topknot, wearing Jongraben (a traditional cloth rolled between legs and brought up to the back), nothing on top, wearing a sash of gold and diamonds. The Guman Thong is in fact a spirit of a child that has been captured in the idol by a medium or monk that understands and has knowledge of arcane spells and incantations. It is thought that these spells are preserved by the spirits in the Himpan forest (known to us from Thai literature) There are two types of child spirit – the spirit having fate and karma from a past life and the spirit without fate and karma. If a spirit previously had bad karma then it is their karma in this life to be exploited by practitioners of magic or controlled by withayathorn. (a guru of black magic) They are susceptible to become Guman Thong. The other type of spirit is that has no previous karma and cannot become a Guman Thong. They will be re-born according to karma.
