Bangkok, Thailand

Goddess Tuptim Shrine

A forest of phallic offerings found in a quiet corner of a hotel car park.

Accompanying the jasmine, lotus, and incense gifts left at this urban shrine are thousands of phallus (lingam) offerings. Some are well over six feet tall, made of stone, but many are small wooden carvings, colorfully painted, left in bouquets around the site. The result is an extraordinary penis forest found in a quiet corner of a hotel car park.

This ‘spirit house’ was built by Nai Lert for a spirit inhabiting a ficus tree, the goddess Chao Mae Tuptim. Her nature remains somewhat obscure: it has been suggested that her name comes from the Thai for pomegranate (taptim), evoking fertility. This fruity connection might explain the bright red coloring of many of the offerings left here. The Goddess Tuptim Shrine is more popularly known as the Fertility Shrine.

Spirit houses and shrines have sprung up all over Bangkok, and leaving offerings of flowers or coins is an everyday part of spiritual life in Thailand. A place of devotion can appear anywhere, and the explicit fertility offerings left at this particular shrine may well be blush-inducing for the owners of the nearby hotels, but it would be catastrophically bad luck to remove it. It’s unlikely that the hotel owners themselves will advertise this shrine, but take a discreet stroll and you will find this astonishing phallic forest.

Ladies, be advised that women often visit this shrine to implore the goddess to grant them fertility, so you may leave with more than you bargained for…

Update January 2017: The items and shrine have been removed and the area is now closed off to pedestrians.

Update April 2017: The shrine is no longer closed off. It is available on public display, albeit at a minuscule fraction of its previous size. There are less than 2 dozen of the phalluses on display.

Know Before You Go

It is located in the Nai Lert Heritage Home which features antiques and artifacts, and the grounds are beautiful with lush plants and a nursery, sections of water, a restaurant, the (much smaller) shrine, and century-old boats.