"[I]n Thailand... Buddhism has blended with a mélange of other spiritual traditions like animism, Hindu rituals and Chinese astrology to create a strong affinity for the supernatural in contemporary life."

"'In Thailand, superstition isn’t the opposite of modernity — it lives comfortably alongside it,' said Theeranuch Pusaksrikit, a business school professor at Chulalongkorn University....  'Each hospital has their own superstition culture,' [Thanat Tantinam, a colorectal surgeon, said]. He has also heard of colleagues avoiding nuts, pizza or coffee while at work, and knows of at least one hospital where bananas — otherwise regarded as a lucky food — are taboo.... But few medical superstitions have been as universal and long-running as the KFC curse...."

From "Why Doctors in Thailand Fear KFC/In a country where superstitions are as imaginative as they are many, physicians have come to fear a jinx involving Kentucky Fried Chicken" (NYT).