A strange banana tree with three blossoms attracted
a superstitious crowd of gamblers, who thought it somehow would bear winning
lottery-number fruit
Boonlua Chatree
A strange banana tree with three blossoms attracted a superstitious
crowd of gamblers, who thought it somehow would bear winning lottery-number
fruit.
The tree of two families of three banana blossoms was found at the Nongchumhed
Pattanaram Monk Center near the Pattaya Floating Market Sept. 14.
Monk Lamhong Jakhorntoe, 55, and a group of locals surrounded the two-meter-tall
tree behind the monks’ quarters. It had two bunches of leaves, but one bunch had
two blossoms, one more than normal. The locals counted 32 bananas, which they
figured was a better number to bet than any on the government lottery.
Lamhong said the monk center was founded three years ago by Sa Thammarato as and
the banana tree was bought as a sapling with two others for 500 baht each from
Yansangwaram temple.
The banana tree always blossomed one bunch but this past August, in a dream he
had in which he was chatting with an angel, he had questioned as to why the
angel was here instead of heaven. The angel replied that he has been living in
trees and flowers because it is pleasant.
He said he spotted the unusual blooms on Aug. 29 and, since then, locals have
been coming to pray and rub powder on the tree for good luck in picking winning
lottery numbers. He had to tell them to stop putting powder on the tree, and not
stick burning incense in it, as he fears the gamblers could end up killing the
tree.
For the record, 35 - not 32 - was the winning two-digit number in the Sept. 16
lottery drawing.
