Originally Posted by
hikouki
When they "bless" these planes, what is that 'ointment' that they use to put those 'dots' with their fingers?
Also when the ceremony takes place, is it attended by a representative from the namesake town or city? Royal family?
Yup! White-dot ointments, flowers, and blessed water. Here is a video of the blessing ceremony for the A359s HS-THO
Khun Phuket and HS-THP
Khun Phetchaburi:
The monk who presided over the ceremony is very senior, holding the rank
somdet, somewhat equivalent to being in the Council of Cardinals for the Roman Catholic Church. Though I could not see any obvious palace representatives,
somdets are royally-appointed so I suppose you could view this as a tacit royal-blessing. I do not think there is anyone from the namesake locales.
It is pretty cool to see how well-attended the ceremony is beyond the executives and extending to ground staff, mechanics, pilots, cabin crew, etc. I vaguely know a few people who work for TG and they seem to take a lot of pride in the airline, which probably explains this level of spiritual camaraderie. As a Thai, I think little traditions like this go pretty far in maintaining the identity of TG as
the national airline. Even if complaining about TG is also quite the national past time, most of us still have a soft spot for the airline.