amuletsPalad khikปลัดขิก

said pā-làt kʰìk

also: palakhik · palat khik · honorable surrogate penis

amuletMainland Southeast AsiaThailandconfidence mediumneeds checking

A carved phallus, from a couple of inches to several feet long, in wood, metal, bone, horn or ivory, usually with sacred inscriptions cut into it. The small ones are worn by men and boys on a cord round the waist, under the clothes, hanging to one side of the wearer's own. Wearing several at once is ordinary. The large ones are not worn at all: they stand in shops, restaurants and other premises, often by the till. Cast metal ones do not always carry the inscriptions; some carry animal figures instead.

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Thai ปลัดขิก; the phrase is rendered in English as 'honorable surrogate penis' — palad, a deputy or stand-in, and khik
The name states the function: it stands in for the wearer's own, and takes what is aimed at him. cited

When

undated: brought from India via the Cham, still worn now still carried cited

Period	not dated in this project's sources
How the date is known	nobody here could date it
Note	The source traces the form to India and to transmission through the Cham without giving a single year. This project prints no year rather than a guess, which means the record carries a blank on the timeline and says so.

Years are stored astronomically — 1 CE is 1, 1 BCE is 0, 500 BCE is −499 — and printed the way a reader says them. How these dates are made.

The thing itself

Form	Figurine
Made of	Wood · Copper and bronze · Bone and ivory · Tooth, tusk and claw
Goes	At the waist · In a pocket or a bag · At the till
Made by	monks who specialise in them; the empowering incantation belongs to the maker's lineage and school
It says	sacred inscriptions cut into the piece; cast metal examples may carry animal figures instead (Khom Pali)
Retired	no — it is kept
Note	Published size range: a few inches to several feet. Materials named are wood, metal, bone, horn and ivory; this atlas has no key for horn as a material, so it is named here instead.

What its carriers say it stops

Reported, attributed, not tested here. Each row below is somebody's claim, with their name on it.

Blades and bullets — invulnerability charms; reported, never recommended citedsaid by Thai men who wear one, for protection from dangerous objects — the source names bullets and knives
Attracting custom, luck or love — the charm that pulls rather than blocks citedsaid by Thai men, who wear several at once in hope of attracting women and of luck in gambling; and shopkeepers, who display one at the register for trade
Theft citedsaid by women in Thailand who carry one in a purse; the source names mugging and rape
Infertility citedsaid by the animist reading of the form as a fertility sign, through the linga of Shiva

The story

The form came from India, tied to Shiva, who is represented by the linga; the Cham carried it into Southeast Asia and it stayed. Where the linga is set with a yoni, the pair stands for creation and destruction together, and the Chinese yang is named as the comparable idea. As a phallic representation of Shiva, the palad khik is also an animist fertility sign. In Thailand a penis amulet hanging in a convenience store or a restaurant, or sold by an older woman on the street, is unremarkable.

Who wears one and why is documented, and it is not what the outside write-ups usually make of it. Men wear them for three named reasons: to attract women, for luck in gambling, and for protection from dangerous objects — bullets and knives are the two the source names. Women in Thailand carry one in a purse against rape and mugging. Shopkeepers set one by the cash register to protect the business and to bring in sales.

The rule that tells you what kind of object this is has nothing to do with sex. A palad khik can be taken into places counted as lowly or unclean — a bar, a gambling house, a brothel. An amulet carrying the Buddha cannot. It is the charm you can take where the Buddha may not go, and that, not the shape, is its place in the Thai kit.

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How it is made and carried

Carved by monks who specialise in the form. Cutting the sacred inscriptions is treated as a rite in itself and can take days. The piece is then empowered by the repetition of incantations Thais call Kata Bucha, from the Sanskrit ghata puja; which kata depends on the maker's lineage and school. Worn on a waist cord under the clothing, off-centre; carried in a bag; or stood by a till. It is not renewed on a cycle and not retired.

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Now

Still carved, still sold, still hanging by tills in Thailand as of the accounts this project has read — and routinely written up abroad as a curiosity, which is a fact about the writers rather than about the charm. This atlas describes it the way the trade does: an object with a stated function, a named maker, a lineage of incantation, and a waist cord.

inference