Palad khik (phallic charms)
Meaning
A palad khik ('honourable surrogate penis') is a phallic amulet, often carved with a monkey, tiger or other creature riding it and inscribed with Khom script. It represents the god Shiva's linga and generative power, not simple erotica.
Intent
Men wore it on a waist cord (never around the neck), and shops and homes kept it for luck in business and gambling, protection against snakes, dog bites and black magic, and for charm and success. Women use it for fertility and protection.
Significance
It is one of the most distinctive Thai and Lao amulets, and famous monks such as Luang Pho Lee made highly prized ones. It shows Hindu, Buddhist and animist ideas combined in popular Thai practice.
History
Palad khik go back several centuries in Thailand and Laos and remain very popular. Collector values rose with the Thai amulet boom from the 1980s.
Making yours
2–15 cm carved wood or bone, inscribed with Khom yantra script and sometimes lacquered red.Sexual & Erotic Charms: the tradition
Sexual imagery is one of the oldest and most universal forms of protection. Fertility is life itself, and the exposed phallus or vulva was believed to shock, amuse or distract malevolent forces, especially the evil eye. Egypt had its ithyphallic gods, Rome its fascinum on every child, doorway and chariot, medieval Europe its obscene badges and sheela-na-gigs, Thailand and Japan their phallic shrines and charms, China its 'spring palace' coins for newlyweds. Victorian collectors hid much of this material in 'secret museums' such as the Gabinetto Segreto in Naples and the British Museum's Secretum, and only in the late 20th century was it studied openly as religion and social history.
More from Sexual & Erotic Charms: Fascinum & phallic charms · Tintinnabula (charm wind-chimes) · Egyptian & Graeco-Egyptian fertility figures · Sheela-na-gigs & exhibitionist figures · Chinese “spring” coin charms · Love charms & aphrodisiac talismans · Other & unsorted Sexual
Every type in the gallery
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