What Is a Buddhist Car Blessing Like?

While living in the United States, I never had any of my new vehicles blessed by any religious person. This situation changed, however, after I lived in Thailand and married a Thai wife who practices Buddhism.

After purchasing a new Mitsubishi Pajero Sport SUV on May 22, 2018, my wife immediately decided that we had to have the new vehicle blessed by a Buddhist monk the next day on May 23.

During mid-morning, I drove our new SUV to a small village temple 30 kilometers from where we live in Udon Thani. There resided my wife's uncle who is a Buddhist monk.

In this article, I first explain why we had our vehicle blessed. Next, I describe the ritual which our monk relative went through in blessing our SUV.

Although I never had a new vehicle blessed in the United States, car blessings are quite common among people such as Hindi, Buddhists, and Christians. The reasons, undoubtedly, are to protect and bring good luck to the driver of a vehicle and to avoid having an accident.

As a boy, I remember mom always telling dad to make sure we had a Saint Christopher medal in our car before leaving on a trip. Saint Christopher is the Catholic patron saint of travelers. He died around 250 A.D. According to Wikipedia, a famous legend tells that Saint Christopher carried a child, who was unknown to him, across a river before the child revealed himself as Christ.

In January of 2015, we had our previous new car blessed by a monk who is my wife's uncle. We had good luck driving that Toyota Vios so it was only natural for us to take our new Pajero Sport back to my wife's uncle for a blessing. He still resided at a small village temple and was free and willing to bless our new SUV on the morning of May 23, 2018.

As my wife, mother-in-law, and I entered the village temple, we saw my wife's uncle sitting on a mat on a raised marble platform. After bowing three times and an exchange of pleasantries, my wife asked her uncle if he could bless our new vehicle. The uncle sitting amidst a laptop, piles of paper, bananas, pictures, and a big Buddha statue in the background readily agreed.

He then started to prepare the materials needed for the blessing. They included a container filled with sandalwood powder and white cords. The sandalwood powder was mixed with holy water to produce a paste. White cords were then wound together to make a small rope. Before uncle went out to bless our vehicle, my wife left a monetary offering in one of his containers.

Upon entering our parked SUV, my wife's uncle monk proceeded to take his white sandalwood paste and make an inverted triangle inside the vehicle. The inverted triangle was made on top of the interior cabin above the driver's seat. It was made by making white dots in a 1-2-3-4-5 formation.

According to Wikipedia, the inverted triangle or yoni is considered to be an abstract representation of Shakti and Devi, the creative force that moves through the whole universe. I assume the symbol was made to protect the driver and vehicle from danger.

Next, the monk took a sacred white rope or sai sin and attached it to the steering column of our vehicle. This was done to provide protection to the person driving the vehicle. When attached, the rope formed a circle. This protective force is stronger because the circle is continuous.

My wife's uncle then went outside our SUV and proceeded to draw a triangle with while sandalwood paste on the hood. Above the triangle, he also made three or four unknown symbols which look like question marks.

The triangle or male principle represents the unmanifested power of resurgence. This, undoubtedly, was done to bring good luck and safety to the vehicle.

After attaching a Buddha amulet and honking the horn three times, the monk sprinkled holy water inside and outside of our SUV. Buddhist holy water or lustral water is sprinkled on people and objects to bring luck, safety, and success. The lustral water also brings protection from harm and keeps away evil.

As you can see, the Buddhist car blessing ritual is very interesting. My wife and I can now drive our SUV knowing that it has been properly blessed.