tesis

CONTENTS

Abstract Contents

List of Tables

List of Figures

List of Plates

Preface

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER I

Ban Muang Khao 1. Geographical Setting

2. History of the Village

II The Village 1. The Ban

2. Land

a. The village site

b. Rice fields

c. The Scrub

3. The Wat

4. The Shrine of the Guardian Spirit

5. The Graveyard

III External Relations 1. The Market

2. Ban Muang Khao and its Neighbours 3. Ban Muang Khao and the Government 4. Village Government

5. The Commune

6. The District

i vi vii viii ix xvii

1 4

10 10 11 14 15 15 16 16

18 19 21 22 23 24

ii

7. The Province 8. School

Conclusion

CHAPTER II

Social Organisation 1. Household and Family

2. Kindred

3. Marriage and Residence

4. Inheritance and Succession

5. The Puan vs. the Thai and the Chinese Concepts of Family and Kinship

6. Social Relationship within the Village

7. Social Conflicts and Competition

8. Cliques

II Life Cycle 1. Birth

Sukhwan ceremony

2. Childhood

Kon Chuk ceremony

3. Adolescence

Buajnag ceremony

4. Courtship and Marriage

5. Adulthood and old Age

6. Death

Conclusion

CHAPTER III

The Economy 1. Rice as a Staple Food and a way of Life

2. Rice‐farming

25 25 26

28 31 34 37 39 41 44 45

47 48 49 50 51 53 59 63 65 67

70 71

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3. Rice Cycle 4. Selling Rice

II Subsistence Living 1. Food and Supplementary Income

a. Fishing

b. Gardening

c. Poultry

d. Pigs

e. Weaving bamboo hats

f. Timber sawing

g. Miscellaneous

2. Living Conditions and Health

3. Mutual Help and Economic Cooperation

a. Khau raeng

b. Aw raeng

c. Long Khan

III Economic Change 1. Debt

2. The Landlord as Moneylender

3. Tractors vs. Buffaloes

4. Buffalo‐Stealing

5. Impact of Technological Change

a. Wage‐labour in the field

b. The tractor man

c. Seeking work in towns

Conclusion

CHAPTER IV

Religion and the Wat 1. Buddhism

2. Hinduism

3. Animistic Elements

72 78

79 80 80 81 81 81 82 82 82 85 85 86 87

91 93 94 97 99 100 100 101 103

106 108 110

iv

a. Luang phau

b. Chao

c. Phi

d. Kwan and winyan 4. Spirit‐Doctors

5. Black Magic and Poison

1. Wat Muang Khao 2. Wat Ton Po

111 111 112 114 115 117

II The Wat

118 122 128

III The Monk

135 1. Daily Routine and Religious Life of the Monks 138 2. The Monks and the Villagers

141

Abbot Yuen

143 (A life history of an abbot)

Conclusion

149

CHAPTER V Wat Ceremonies

152 1. General Charactoristics of the Wat Ceremonies 153

Phase I, Preparation

153

Phase II, Performance

154

Phase III, Recreation and Entertainment

158

II Calendrical Rituals and Occasional Ceremonies

160 1. Songkran (New Year Ceremony)

162 2. Visakhabuja

168 Bun Bang Fai and Lhow Phra (A case in 1969)

170 3. Koe Phra Sai Nok Ban – (Sand Pagoda Ceremony) 180

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4. Khao Phansa ‐ (Entering Lent)

5. Org Phansa – (Leaving Lent)

6. Ted Mahachad ‐ (Preaching on the Great Jataka) 7. Tod Kathin – (Prosenting of yellow robe)

8. Bun Chalong Wat – (Wat celebration)

9. Makhabuja

10. Bun Wat Ton Po

Conclusion

CHAPTER VI (Conclusion) A Unit of the wider Society

1. Ban Muang Khao as a Tradition‐Oriented Village 2. Trends due to Socio‐Economic Change

3. Administrative Change

4. The Wat and its Changing Role

Footnotes

Appendix

Glossary

Bibliography

181 182 182 185 186 186 187 188

190 192 194 196 199 205 209 216

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TABLES

I II III IV V VI VII

VIII IX X XI

Population of the Village

Paddy land Ownership by Household Groups.

Occupations of 25 Households in the Market Categories of Households

Heads of Residential Group

Marital status of adults in Ban Muang Khao Money received from the long khan and Expense In the Ordination

Expense in Rice‐farming during January 1969 Cost of hiring tractor in agriculture

Employments in urban areas

Wat Committee of Wat Ton Po

11 14 18 28 29 35 90 92 101 102 134

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FIGURES

I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

Central Thailand

following page xii Ban Muang Khao and its surroundings “ 3 Ban Muang Khao

“ 12 Place of a village in the Administration page 22 Development cycle of the household following page 31 Puan Kinship Terminology

“ 32 Buddhist Cosmology

page 109 Ideal‐type wat

following page 122 Wat Muang Khao

“ 126 Wat Ton Po

“ 130

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PLATES Following page

I A Ban Muang Khao man returning home with his xviii

Buffaloes after ploughing.

II Aerial view of the Commune of Ban Kok Peep in

Which Ban Muang Khao is located.

8 III a The ordinands paying homage to the Pu Ta, the

guardian spirit of the village.

56 III b Ordination procession encircling the sacred Bodhi

tree at Wat Ton Po.

56 IV a Ploughing the irrigated field with buffaloes.

96 IV b Tractor man and his tractor ploughing the paddy

field in the floodplain.

96 V a The cerpound of Wat Muang Khao, showing the gong 124

tower, the monks’ cubicles in the foreground and the

bod and smell shrines in the background.

V b Villagers listening to the sermon in Wat Muang Khao

during the New Year Festival.

124 VI a The sacred Bodhi tree of Wat Ton Po.

133 VI b The ceremony of casting the Buddha image at Wat Ton Po.

The new bod is in the background.

133 VII a Ban Muang Khao women preparing food for the wat

Ceremony.

155 VII b Trays of food, preparing for offering to the monks

during the New Year Ceremony.

155 VIII a The bathing ceremony for the monks at Wat Muang Khao

during the New Year Festival.

167 VIII b Women making miniature sand pagodas in the Koe Phra Sai

Ceremony.

167 IX a The Bang Fai precession of Wat Muang Khao along the

road to Wat Ton Po.

176 IX b Bang Fai Lighting

176 X a Casting the Bronze Image at Wat Ton Po.

179 X b Villagers pouring water on the ground‐an act of

Transferring merit.

179

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Preface

The practise of Hinayana Buddhism in a rural village in Thailand is both a religion for the psychological well‐being of its inhabitants and an institution which maintains the structure of the community, preserves its solidarity and links the individual to the wider social system. It provides, through its traditions and its prescribed rituals, a pattern for the day‐to‐day existence of the members of a farming society. It is, as Leach (1968:3) says “a cult for the living, not a theology for the dead and dying…”

The centre of this Buddhist worship, ceremony and recreation in a village is the wat – a monastery where monks reside, sacred objects and places are located and religious rituals and festivities carried on.

The main concern of this thesis is to give a general picture of a tradition‐oriented village in Central Thailand during the present period of rapid socio‐economic change and to delineate the relationship of its members to the wat as a part of the village society.

The concept of merit (bun) plays an important role in linking villagers to the wat. In itself, it is the basic component of the relationship between the villagers and the supernatural world, which is mediated through the wat as sacred centre operated by a professional priesthood. In religious terms, “merit” can be best understood against the background of the notion of karma, the Hindu‐Buddhist law of cause and effect (see Obeyesekere, 1968: 7‐ 40) which states that every act has some ultimate reward or punishment attached to it either in this life or in the next. The result of a good act is merit (bun), while that of a bad one is demerit (bab).

For the villagers, merit is desirable and acquired through the act of merit‐making (tham bun) in accordance with the Buddhist Teaching. The following acts acquire the greatest merit‐giving food daily to the monks; contributing money for building and repairs at the wat; making kathin gifts (offering the yellow robe to the monk); becoming a monk oneself, having a son who becomes a monk or financing another to become a monk: and observing the Five

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Precepts, the holy day (wan phra) and other religious days (see also in detail in Mulder, 1969: 8, 9). It is believed that the merit one has acquired can be accumulated, providing its owner with happiness and good fortune either in this life of in the next. Moreover, it can be transferred to the dead, the spirits, the gods and all living beings.

Therefore, merit is more than a concept. It is a way of behaviour and an abstract good that can be acquired by appropriate action, resulting in a feeling of cultural and psychological well‐being. It forms part of the belief that guides individual and social action.

In the village situation, merit‐making is an activity largely oppressed in terms of rituals and ceremonies which require a social gathering of the individuals concerned. Every religious ritual, therefore, not only relates man to his natural environment, to the gods and the spirits but also to his fellowmen. In this study of village Buddhism, I am not concerned with its texts and theological philosophical outlook at the higher level but primarily with behaviour or social action, following Radcliffe Brown’s (1968:177) suggestion that “we need first of all examine the specifically religious actions, the ceremonies and the collective or individual rites.”

Choice of a Village Many villages in Thailand could have formed suitable fields for such a study, lying in areas hitherto comparatively isolated and backward, but now linked to major urban centres by motorable roads and other means. The village of Bun Muang Khao was chosen to study for the following reasons.

Firstly, this village is located in Central Thailand, an area where for anthropologists have worked. At present most anthropologists prefer to carry on their field work in the North and the Northeast regions, which offer more exotic traditions and more interesting political problems than the calm and banal situation of the Central Plain. The anthropological research which has been done in Central Thailand has been carried out by members of the Cornell Research Team. The best known of these studies are Kaufman’s Bang Khaud (1960.), Phillips’ Thai peasant Personality

xi

(1965) and Hanks’ Maternity and its rituals in Bang Chan (1963).

Their works are based entirely on data collected more than 20 years ago in two localities, Ban Chan and Bang Khaud, about 20 miles from Bangkok. As there has been consider‐able socio‐economic change since this data was collected, these works, though very useful, are no longer up‐to‐date. Like Bang Chan and Bang Khaud, Ban Muang Khao is a rice‐farming village and is located about 50 miles to the northeast of these two villages. This study will, therefore, serve as a comparison with what the Cornell researchers have already put forward, as adding to the ethnographical account of Central Thailand.

Secondly, my choice of this particular village community stems from the desire to know what part Buddhism has played in integrating the villagers, who are the descendants of an ethnic minority, to the wider Thai society. Historically the peasants of present‐day Central Thailand are of diverse ethnic origins i.e., Thai, Lao, Mon, Cambodian and Chinese. Apart from the Thai, most of these ethnic groups come from their original homelands as war refugees or as prisoners‐of‐war. As time went on, they became assimilated into the wider Thai society and now call them‐selves Thai, though they still retain some alien cultural features. These features still present some minor differences in the behavioural patterns among the peasants of various villages of Central Thailand.

The villagers of Ban Muang Khao are mostly Lao Puan, who came from Lao as war captives about 150 years ago (Phra kru Sri Mahabodhikanarasa, 1960:38, 39). They are Hinayana Buddhists like the Thai, so it is worthwhile investigating what Buddhism has meant in their village life as wall as how it helped to integrates them with the wider society.

Thirdly, the village of Ban Muang Khao is located near the sacred Bodhi tree of Wat Ton Po, supposed to be a scion of that tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment, and brought here from India, now constituting the most sacred pilgrim site in

xii

FIGURE I Central Thailand

xiii

the province. This proximity enabled me to investigate more easily not only the relationship between the wat and the village, but also to make a contrast of two types of wat – the village wat and the regional wat, as well as their connection with the social and religious organisations outside the village community.

Fourthly, I had previously visited Ban Muang Khao and happened to know a university student in Bangkok who was the son of a hamlet Headman in the nearby village of Ban Dan. He and his father were able to introduce me to the villagers and managed to arrange accommodation for me during my stay in the village.

Method of Study

The focus of this study is on the village and the wat. By “village” I mean here the ecological community of Ban Muang Khao, which cuts across the administrative hamlets created in 1943 by the government, since this constitutes the effective village community, recognised alike by the inhabitants and by those in the surrounding area. Various aspects of village life i.c., social structure, government, economics and recreation are surveyed in order to understand their relationship with the wat and the wider religious system. In addition to the village wat, some attention is also devoted to the nearby regional wat of Ban Ton Po which now shares with that of Ban Muang Khao the devotions of the villagers.

Two major techniques were employed in the field work; participant observation and interview, ‐ both direct and indirect. I was present at all rituals that took place during my field work period, both in the wat and in the houses, taking photo‐graphs and recording the rites and songs.

Ethnographical accounts as well as administrative and governmental documents relevant to the religion and the village being studied have been consulted. These were obtained from the National Library in Bangkok and from some private libraries. All of them are printed in Thai, some are loose‐leaf records preserved in the libraries: others have been printed and distributed as souvenirs to the guests at cremation ceremonies (there is a custom of printing literature, history of the country, province, district, wats, moments,

xiv

etc., or life histories of famous people for distribution on connection occasions). These sources and documents have provided me with the history of the village as well as a background for understanding the culture and the environment of the village.

This fieldwork was financed by two organisations; the Australian Government, through a Colombo Plan Fellowship, sponsored my transportation from Australia to Thailand and also paid for my living expenses during my stay in the village. The Department of Anthropology of the University of Western Australia provided me with finds for research materials, transportation during the fieldwork in the village and also the expenses incurred for informants and gifts. The research project was carried out from this department and I was under its direct supervision throughout the fieldwork period.

Fieldwork Period My fieldwork period in Ban Muang Khao commended at the end of December 1968 and lasted until the end of July 1969. During this time I took one month’s holiday in the North in February and a few days each month to make a trip to Bangkok to see my family, to deal with by financial support and to obtain equipment necessary for my fieldwork. I spent a toal of about 6 months living in the village.

Limitations in Collecting the Data

I encountered three major difficulties in the process of gathering data. The first was the attitude of the villagers during the initial period of contact. Some villagers suspected me of being a communist and others of being a spy for the government. It took me nearly 3 months to establish good relations with then, but I was able to break down their suspicion in a number of ways, one being by serving as a photographer for them at religious ceremonies and festivals, both domestic and at the wat. Through the assistance of the hamlet Headman I was able to hire one of the village elders as my assistant and informant, and he proved invaluable in arranging and assisting at interviews with other villagers.

xv

The second obstacle in the fieldwork was the difficulty in obtaining accurate statistics concerning the size of the population in the village, the ago, birth and death‐rates and the ownership of land. The statistics collected by the hamlet and commune headman and the district officials are unreliable and out‐of‐date since they have been compiled only once in many years and in many cases are based on a rough estimation rather than real investigation. For example, a woman who is by now married with two children is still a raid in the statistical record at the District Headquarters.

The third limitation which I met was the reluctance of the villagers to answer questions about their income, the amount of land they owned and their debts. As well as being annoyed by my questions, the villagers were afraid that their confidence might be betrayed and were ashamed to reveal their economic status. This is because there are many well‐to‐do families in the village getting poorer, and even some getting into debt, but they still preserve their status by keeping a big house with a nine roof.

Presentation of Data

This thesis is divided into six chapters, each of which describes and discusses the relation of a particular aspect of village life to religion and the wat. Chapter I deals with the geographical setting, location and history of the village. It is also an attempt to define the village as a community, its structural components, both physical and social, and its place as a unit of the wider society.

Chapter II is divided into two parts. The first gives a general view of various aspects of social organisation, namely the household, types of family, marriage, inheritance and other social relations beyond the family level. The second part presents the various stages of the life cycle which social structure comes into contact with religion and the wat. This is also illustrated with some examples of rites of passage which took place during my field study.

Chapter III, an analysis of the village economy, is divided into three sections. The first is concerned with the importance of rice in the village society; with the farming cycle and techniques and their

xvi

relation to religious activities; and with the sale of rice as a cash crop. The second section deals with the subsistence living of the village. The third section concerns the technological and economic change taking place in the village under the influence of changes in the wider society. The effect of this change on the religious life of the villagers is discussed in the final three chapters.

Chapter IV consists of three parts; the first looks at Buddhism in terms of practical religion. Its syncretic components are analyzed in order to show their relation to the behavioural patterns of the villagers. The second part sets out the religious organisation i.e., the wat, the monks and their relation with the villagers and the village.

And the third offers an individual example of the role and the personality of the monk as a community leader.

Chapter V deals with the wat ceremonies, in which the religious beliefs of the villagers are expressed, the village’s economy is monetised and the role of the wat is manifested, as an agent for modernisation, recreation, social integration and for the linking of the village to the wider society.

Chapter VI concludes the thesis. In this chapter I attempt to show how both the village and the wat are changing in response to socio‐economic changes in the wider society.

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Acknowledgements

In completing this thesis I owe a great debt to Professor R.M. Berndt, whose help enabled me to return to Thailand to conduct my field research, and who gave valuable advice on many matters during my fieldwork period.

I am deeply grateful to my supervisor Dr. R. L. Rooksby for his kindness and patience in guiding and giving constructive criticism, as well as in correcting and reading the paper in detail. I am also very much indebted to Mrs. S. Bailey for correcting my English and for seeing the paper through to its final production.

My gratitude goes out to the villagers of Ban Muang Khao, as I can hardly hope to acknowledge all the assistance, both direct and indirect, which I received in the course of conducting my fieldwork.

My stay in the village was made much more pleasant through the comfort and hospitality offered by many friends in Ban Muang Khao and Ban Dan, of whom I can mention only a few: Pu yai Sampao Wongstes, Pu yai Sombun Somboon, Pu yai Smudhra Namprakong, Nai Proy Changkob and their families.

And for their great help in providing me with documents and information relevant to this study, from the National Library and other organisations, I wish to thank Khun Prungsri Bejrapirun, Khun Monvipa Chaiyapan and Khun Pised Chiachandrapongsa.

xviii

PLATE I

A Ban Muang Khao man returning home with his buffaloes after ploughing

ชายชาวบ้านม่วงขาวกําลังกลับบ้านพร้อมกับควายของเขาหลังจากไถนา