tesis2

CHAPTER I

Ban Maung Khao

1.Geographical Setting Ban Muang Khao is located in the Province of Prachinburi in the eastern part of Central Thailand. The province is characterised by two geographical land forms: in the west a vast flooded plain of the Bang Pakong River basin and in the east an upland stretching from the foot of the Dong Phraya Yen Range. Three settlement patterns are observable; clusters of houses forming a village on the border of the upland, clusters of houses in the flat plain and scattered homesteads in both the upland area and the flat plain.

The monsoon divides the year into three seasons; hot and humid from April to November; cool and dry from December to mid‐February; and hot and dry from late February to April. The temperature ranges from 59˚ to 89˚ F. with monthly means of 77˚ to86˚ F. (de Young, 1955: 5). A drop at night averages around 18˚F. in April, and 22˚F. in January, while the relative humidity varies between 65 and 81 per cent (Hauck, et al, 1958:12). Rainfall averages about 50 inches a year, 40 of which fall in the wet season (Janlekha, 1955: 21). Because of the run‐off once a year from the mountains in the east, the Bang Pakong River slowly rises. fills the streams and canals then covers the flat plain to a depth of four feet or more. In Ban Muang Khao, the land is under water from June to October. From November to March the waterways run low and the flat plain dries and cracks from the intense heat. From March onwards rains begin to fall and moisten the land again.

Ban Muang Khao consists of a cluster of houses on the border of the upland, and in line with it lie the other seven villages of the Commune of Ban Kok Peep. The villages are linked by road; and Ban Muang Khao is about half a mile from its nearest neighbours – the village of Ban Kok Peep, the Commune Centre to the north and Ban Ton Po to the south. A highway links Ban Kok Peep with the cities of Prachinburi and Chachoengsao and the district contres, and contact with the urban centres is maintained

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by buses. The nearest urban centre is the District of Panomsarakam 10 miles from Ban Muang Khao, and from Panomsarakam one can proceed along the highway to the city of Chachoengsao about another 21 miles away.

Ban Muang Khao is about 72 miles from Bangkok and is easily accessible by road. By car, the village is a two hour journey from Bangkok. If traveling by bus one has to change buses at Chachoengsao but the round trip from Bangkok to Ban Muang Khao can still be done easily in a day.

The geographical location of the village contrasts favourably with that of others in the flat plain. Its elevated position, about 16 to 30 feet above the flat plain in front of the village, allows the villagers to remain settled during the rainy season, undisturbed by the floodwaters.

The folded plain in front of the village serves as an economic base for the cultivation of rice. There is also cultivable land behind the village that can be cleared for growing other crops such as peanuts, yams, sweet potatoes and tapiocas.

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FIGURE II

Ban Muang Khao and its Surroundings

บ้านม่วงขาวและพื้นที่โดยรอบ

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2. History of the Village

The majority of the Muang Khao villagers are Lao Puan, who are descended from prisoners‐of‐war taken in Vientiane in 1827. Their ancestors were first allowed to settle in the District of Panomsarakam particularly in the villages of Ban Muang Klai, Ban Tao Lek, Ban Chiong Tai and Ban Muang Mad all of which were named after villages of their home.

Numbers of Puan of the next generation moved out to settle the adjacent areas, migrating north‐east to Sri Mahabodhi and founding several villages along the way. One of the new villages was Ban Muang Khao.

However, neither of these two areas in which the Lao Puan were allowed to settle, was uninhabited. Some scattered Thai villages already existed there. Near Ban Muang Khao, for example, were the villages of Ban Dan, Ban Chamwa and Ban Ton Po.

The exact date of founding Ban Muang Khao has not been recorded but it can be estimated that the Lao Puan were living there at least 120.1 In the period from about 1890 to 1910, the village was still small, consisting of about 10 houses grouped together behind the floodplain which was still a densely‐vegetated swamp. The upland area behind the village was a jungle infested with wild animals such as tigers and elephants. The villagers practised a subsistence economy based on slash‐and‐burn rice cultivation within the limits of the upland area near the village.

Existing with the village was the wat – Wat Muang Khao but at this time it consisted only of one or two small wooden buildings where a few monks resided. The neighbouring villages, Ban Ton Po, Ban Kok Peep, Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa were still small and separated from one another by swampy land and jungle. Contact between villages was by footpath or the small tracks of the buffalo carts.

During the early period of settlement there was strong antagonism between the Puan villagers and the Thai. The Puan still regarded the Thai as the enemy who had attacked their

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country and taken them captives. They did not interact with the neighbouring Thai villages but preferred to keep in close contact with other Puan villages. They married among them and joined with them in economic and religious activities.

As time passed, the feeling of antagonism declined, and Puan and Thai became friends and intermarried. One of the most important influences in the development of friendly relations between the two ethnic groups was the fact that the religion of both was Buddhism, and that nearby was the large, sacred Bodhi tree,2 the Buddhist symbol of their locality. The tree has stood in Ban Ton Po for several centuries. It is believed to be a branch of the Bodhi tree under which the Lord Buddha became enlightened and to have been imported to this part of the country almost a thousand years ago. Both the Puan and the Thai held the tree sacred and they would come together to worship it and celebrate it on a number of occasions every year.

During the first half of this century, a change took place in Ban Muang Khao and in the neighbouring villages. There was a movement of people into the villages because the surrounding area was fertile and natural resources were abundant. The flat plain in front of the village was cleared for paddy cultivation, and waterways formed during the flood season served as communication routes with other villages and the more distant urban centres. The land behind the village was cleared for planting rice, beans, potatoes and peanuts and the big trees provided timber.

Among the new comers to the village were Chinese from the Province of Chachoengsao and the District of Panomsarakam.

They came first as traders, bringing goods to exchange for the villagers rice, jungle products, and later moved in to settle, bringing their wives and children with them. Many Chinese men married the village girls. Soon a small market place developed in front of the village near the waterways of the plain. Most of the Chinese, who became store keepers, carpenters, rice and timber traders, lived here, There were others of them who settled sown

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on the outskirts of the village and cleared jungle to grow fruit‐ trees and vegetables, and raise pigs.

During the flooding season i.e. from June to October, Ban Muang Khao became a trading centre. Trading boats arrived from Bangkok, Cholburi, Chachoengsao and Prachinburi, carrying goods such as dried foods and clothes along the Bang Pakong River into the waterways of the plain to Bun Muang Khao. On the return journey, they brought rice, timber, charcoal and jungle products back to the trading centres in the urban areas.

Communication with the urban centres like Bangkok, Chachoengsao and Prachinburi was by motor boat alone because at that time there were no roads.

With the coming of the Chinese and the development of the market, there was a great change in both the economics and the ecology of the village. The village seemed to be divided into two major areas: the nai‐ban where the clusters of the villagers’ houses were located and the market place where the Chinese and other outsiders lived and ran their businesses. The villagers, on their part, turned to the growing of rice on a larger scale than mere subsistence level. The vast flooded plain was cleared for wet rice farming and claimed ownership of the paddy field by the villagers. Some villagers become rich and owned large amounts of land in the plain and the jungle. They became landlords and money‐lenders.

In the market place, some Chinese grow rich by trading in rice, timber and jungle products; they owned rice mills and stores in the market. During this period there was a great deal of intermarriage among the Puan, the Thai and the Chinese. Like the Thai and the Puan, the Chinese also worshiped Buddha even though they still practised the cult of ancestor worship. They helped to build the wat and became devout Buddhists who participated in all religious ceremonies hold there.

The outlook of the village today may have been different if the Chinese inhabitants of Ban Muang Khao had not been affected by the government’s anti‐Chinese measures of 1943. In that year an order was issued by the central government to expel all

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Chinese residents from the Province of Prachinburi and the entire province was declared a military area. The Chinese in Ban Muang Khao and in the neighbouring villages then had to sell their land and businesses and move out to live in Panomsarakam, Chachoengsao and Bangkok. Only these of Chinese extraction and a few Chinese who had changed their nationality were allowed to remain in the village. Some of these still occupy shops and run businesses in the market. At the end of the anti‐Chinese period only a few of the expelled Chinese returned to live with their children and relatives in the village.

Ban Muang Khao underwent a great change from 1953 when the administration cooperated with the villagers to build a road linking the Commune Centre of Ban Kok Peep with other villages of the Commune. And in 1955 the Surindhrawongsa Highway was constructed from the District of Panomsarakam, passing through the Commune of Ban Kok Peep, to the provincial city of Prachinburi. This put an end to seasonal trading and communication with the trading centres in Chachoengsao, Cholburi, Prachinburi and Bangkok by means of waterways.

Communication through the highway and roads was quicker and more convenient. The market at Ban Muang Khao was reduced to a small village market and Bangkok Peep and Peaomsarakam now became the trading centres.

The coming of the highway from Panomsarakam to Ban Kok Peep not only changed the trade and communication of Ban Muang Khao and the other villages of the commune, but also created the opportunity for young villagers to attend school in an urban centre, and to find jobs there if they were not content to work at home as farmers.

The village was now no longer isolated from urban centres, but easily accessible to people from different areas.

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PLATE II

Aerial view of the Commune of Ban Kok Peep in which Ban Muang Khao is located. ภาพถ่ายทางอากาศตําบลบ้ านโคกปี บ ซึง่ บ้ านม่วงขาวอยูใ่ นอาณาเขตของตําบลนี ้ด้ วย

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II. The Village

The term “village,” when applied to Ban Muang Khao needs some clarification. It is used by most writers to describe a natural and functional local unit as distinct from the administrative hamlet (Janlekha, 1955: 52). A village is viewed as a community which is served by a single wat and a single school. For example, Kaufman (1970: 17) says that in 1954 Bang Khuad consisted of three undemarcated hamlets with a population of 744 persons or 147 households. The village was clearly separated from adjacent villages; it had a school and a wat (Kingshill 1960: 13‐19) similarly defines Ku Daeng in the Province of Chiengmai as a clearly demarcated unit served by a school and a wat.

The definition of a village, using this criterion of the existence of a single wat and a school is not appropriate to this study Wijeyewardene (1967: 70‐73) also argues that a Thai village cannot be satisfactorily defined in these terms. He suggests that villages in Thailand, when compared with those elsewhere in Asia with regard to internal social structure, solidarity, stratification and factionalism are not rigidly defined social units, and that the terms “village” should be used with caution. It does not imply that a Thai version of local units similarly named in other parts of Asia.

The Thai pattern of rural communities may, however, be a variation of a general South‐East‐Asian type.

The type of village represented by Ban Muang Khao does not fit the definitions of Janlekha and Kaufman, but it is better described by the Thai term Ban for which perhaps the closer translation is “village community”. In the tern Ban is included the name of the village, its history and its boundary defined by the villagers. All of these help to delineate the feeling of community and define the village as a local group, distinct from the others of the area.

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1. The Ban

The word ban literally means “a house” but to the occupants of a house this term connotes a home ‐ a place where the family lives together. In rural areas the term ban has a wider meaning. It is an abbreviation of the compound word mu‐ban, mu meaning “group” or “cluster” and mu‐ban literally “a cluster of houses.”

Just as the occupants of a ban regard it as a family home, so the people who live together in that cluster of houses use the word ban not with its literal meaning but in the same sense of a community or a village.

The Ban which in this sense should be used with a capital letter, is the oldest type of settlement which still prevails today in rural Thailand. The Ban has a defined area or boundary known by its residents and it is distinguished from other Ban by its special name. The name of a Ban is derived from either the name of the sacred place such as the wat or the stupa which existed before the Ban was established, or the name of a culture hero or of my distinct natural feature like a tree, swamp, hill, etc.

Ban Muang Khao is a Ban, named after a white mango tree (Muang means “mango” and Khao means “white”) which existed in the locality at the time it was established by the Puan. Every neighbouring village or Ban has its special name to distinguish it from the others: Ban ton Po named after the sacred Bodhi tree and Ban Kok Peep after the Peep tree that grows in the village areas.

Ban Muang Khao has its components that help to validate it as a village community as well as to define its internal social structure.

2. Land

According to the history of the village, Ban Muang Khao was not set up under state sponsorship but by individuals.

Individuals moved into unoccupied land, acquired squatters’ rights and in due course formed a village community. Thus the village is made up of individual land‐owning households and all the village land except the wat and the road is owned by

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individuals. Village land is divided into the village site, rice fields and forest. a) The village site is located in the upland area with its defined boundary known among the local villagers as Ban Muang Khao. It is characterised by clusters of houses, the wat, the market, the shrine of the guardian spirit and the crematory place. Within this area there are approximately 797 people living in 158 separate households. (Table I)

Table I Population of the Village

Age distribution

(rough estimates)

Number of persons

From 1 year to 10 years old

163 11 ‐ 20

195 21 ‐ 30

126 31 ‐ 40

87 41 ‐ 50

69 51 ‐ 60

53 61 ‐ 70

24 71 +

21 No information

59

Total

797

When looking at the village in terms of expansion, the whole area can be discerned in three distinct areas of living; the original settlement, the nai‐ban or village heart, the later development, the chai‐ban or the outskirt and the talad or market. The village heart consists of groups of houses built around the village wat – Wat Muang Khao. It is the area in which the tiny village developed about 100 years ago. Nearly all the villagers who live around this area are the Puan who have been settled in Muang Khao for at least two generations.

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FIGURE III Ban Muang Khao

A. Wat Muang Khao.

C. Market.

B. Shrine of the Guardian Spirit.

D.Graveyard

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The houses are similar to village houses everywhere in Thailand (Kaufman, 1960: 19‐20, de Young, 1955: 29‐36, Hanks, 1963: 14). They are rectangular and rest on wooden piles about eight to nine feet off the ground. The floor and walls are made of wood and the gabled roofs are covered with corrugated iron. The space beneath the house provides storage for livestock, firewood, rice‐pounding mortar, home mill, farming tools and a resting place during the day time. The compound of the house is demarcated by a bamboo fence. Included in the house compound are rice granary, a separate shed for pigs, a small plot of garden, a small latrine, a domestic shrine (san phra phum) and a well.

Buffaloes and a cart are kept within the house compound but as many houses have not enough space for them, they are often kept in those of kin or neighbours. The size of a house cannot be used as a criterion of wealth in the village heart because nearly all the houses are inherited and were built at least 40 years ago when all building materials were cheap. All the households in this sector of the village are linked to each other by ramifying ties of kinship and affinity.

Beyond the village heart to the north, east, and south where Ban Muang Khao borders Ban Kok Peep, the highway and Ban Ton Po respectively, houses are few and widely spaced and each of them stands in the middle of a garden. The villagers who settled in this area are those who moved from the village heart to establish a new family, as well as the poor and the newcomers who have just moved in. Most of them are those who own no land, and earn their living by growing some fruit‐trees and hiring themselves out for wages. Their houses are smaller and of cheaper material than those in the village heart. Bamboo is used for walls and roofs are thatched with straw.

The market area in front of the village is characterised by lines of wooden shops set up along both sides of the roads that link Ban Muang Khao with other villages of the commune. The market dwellers are the Chinese, the Thai and the few Puan families who are not farmers. These people are the store keepers,

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traders, doctor, school teacher, money‐lenders, landlords and middlemen.

Each house in the village is connected with the others by road or cart‐track. There is a road running from the market to the wat and beyond it to join the highway at the back of the village.

From this road, there are several cart tracks and footpaths branching off to various parts of the village. Cart‐tracks also separate the village territory from the neighbouring villages of Ban Kok Peep and Ban Ton Po. b) Rice fields Ban Muang Khao is a rice farming village. About 122 households in the village own land for cultivation rice and among the 36 households that own no land (Table II) there are 14 who make a living as traders in the market.

TABLE II Land Ownership by Household Groups

Amount of Land Number of Household Percentage of

Households No Land

36

22.8 Less than ten rai*

9

5.7 Ten to thirty rai

82

51.9 Thirty to one hundred rai 14

8.8 More than one hundred rai 17

10.7

Total 158

100  1 rai equals 2/5 acre.

There are two kinds of rice field owned by the villagers; the na‐ thung which is the paddy field in the flat plain in front of the village (na means paddy field and thung means flooded land), and the na‐dong, the paddy field of the remote jungle area (dong means jungle). Every land‐owning villager has paddy fields in the plain, either by inheritance or by buying or both. Most villagers grow their rice in the plain because the rice fields are near their

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houses and the village. The rice fields in the jungle, on the other hand, are owned by a few rich villagers and the other villagers to there to grow rice when there is not enough land available in the plain or when they need more income. (See also on pages 71 , 72 .) c) The Scrub is a section of land behind the village owned by some of the villagers who may leave the trees to grow wild or clear it for growing fruit trees. In the early days of the village development, the villagers practised dry rice cultivation in this area for self subsistence within the village.

3. The Wat

The wat is another major component of Ban Muang Khao. It stands in the heart of the village and covers an area of about 18 rai.

It is surrounded by clusters of houses, indicating that it has existed close to the oldest settlement of the village for a long time. The date of its foundation is not known but the villagers believe that it was built at the time that the village was first established.

Wat Muang Khao takes it name from that of the village. The existence of the wat recalls that when the village existed only as a tiny hamlet at what is now its heart, it was very isolated and the wat was established at that time to fullfil the religious needs of the villagers. The wat, like the village, was built by the villagers and became, in its turn, a social centre and a symbol of independence for the villagers. For this reason many writers like Kingshill (1960), Sharp (1953) and Kaufman (1960) have used the wat to define the community.

I can only agree with this view of the village wat as a symbolic centre of the village in the context of the past, when the village was still isolated and self‐contained. Today the village has changed and developed. Some sections of the village people neither support, nor feel that they fully belong to the local wat.

They may be interested in another wat outside the village and go to perform and participate in religious rituals there.

In Ban Muang Khao, the village wat is supported and maintained by the rice farmers, particularly the old villagers and the women who do this as a tradition passed to them by former

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generations, but many of the market‐people and a few of the rich villagers are not interested in it and prefer to go outside to Wat Ton Po.

4. The Shrine of the Guardian Spirit

Neither in the past nor the present of Puan villages has the wat existed alone as the symbol of the community. The Puan worship the Pu Ta, or guardian spirit of the village and every Puan village has a shrine of the Pu Ta erected in the village heart.

In Ban Muang Khao, the Pu Ta shrine is located within the wat compound but this does not mean that the shrine was built within the wat compound, The wat and the shrine have shared the heart area of the village since they were established and have existed side by side with each other.

The presence of the Pu Ta shrine in addition to the wat distinguishes the Puan village from its neighbouring Thai villages, and indicates that the shrine, with the wat, has been a main component of the village community. In the Northeast, Sunthornpesattch (1968: 110‐119) and Keyes (1964: 9‐10) report that the cult of worshipping the guardian spirit is widespread and serves as a focus of village solidarity. (Wijeyewardone 1967: 73‐74) in opposing those who use the wat to define a community, has pointed out that the spirit cult in the Northeast appears to be a concomitant of more solidarity village communities.

In Ban Muang Khao, the villagers do not perform any ceremony of worshipping the Pu Ta but they inform the Pu Ta of every ritual that takes place within the village boundary and invite him to join in it.

5. The Graveyard

The village graveyard of pa‐cha is located at the northern end of the village where it borders on the territory of Ban Kok Peep. It covers an area of 4 rai, donated by villagers in the past. In the middle of the graveyard compound, there is an open building with a zinc roof, which is used for performing funeral rites, and in

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front of this these is a crematory place built for communal use by a landlady of the village.

It is general practise for the villagers who die naturally to be given funeral rites at home, then taken to the graveyard for cremation. After cremation the ashes of the dead are buried in the graveyard compound, but a small amount of them is taken by the family to be kept in the house, or enshrined in a small shrine in the wat compound. If a villager dies an unnatural death, his relatives usually prefer to bury him for a year or two before cremation his remains.

The fact that the village graveyard still exists in Ban Muang Khao is an indication of the self‐sufficient character of the village.

It is also a remnant of the old custom of disposing of the dead in village life, which decrees that the village must have a crematory place and separate graveyard from the wat. In many villages this custom is disappearing and the location of the graveyard and crematory place is being moved to the wat compound.

At present there is some change in the use of the village graveyard among the Ban Muang Khao villagers. Many of the rich no longer cremate their dead relatives there but turn more and more to Wat Ton Po where grander funeral ceremonies can be performed.

III. External Relations

Any village study reveals that a village nowadays does not remain isolated and self‐sufficient. It is a part of the larger framework of the regional and national culture. It bears not only a horizontal relation with other neighbouring communities but also vertical relation to the town and city.

Ban Muang Khao is no exception to this, so to understand the village life in Ban Muang Khao, we have to see how the village is related to its neighbouring villages and to the national government.

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1. The Market (ta lad)

The market is located in front of the village in an area where the village road meets the commune road that serves as a bus route between Chachoengsao and Prachinburi. There are 28 shops occupied by 25 households, open for business (Table III). The front part of the shop is open for business, and the rear kept as the kitchen and living quarters of the family.

TABLE III Occupations of 25 Households in the market

No. Occupations

Number of Number of Have No

Shop Householders land land 1. Store keepers 9 9 7 2 2. Restaurant owners 4 4 1 3 3. Dress‐maker and hairdresser 2 1 ‐ 1 4. Barber 2 2 ‐ 2 5. Furniture maker 1 1 ‐ 1 6. Teacher and dressmaker 1 1 ‐ 1 7. Commune doctor, drug store and clinic 2 1 1 ‐ 8. Rice mill owner and landlord 1 1 1 ‐ 9. Poultry sellers 3 2 ‐ 2 10. Mechanic 1 1 ‐ 1 11. Landlady and snack seller 1 1 1 ‐ 12. Wage labourer 1 1 ‐ 1

Total 28 25 11 14

People from other villages, particularly from the plain, also come to do their shopping and to take the bus from Ban Muang Khao market to the town and city.

The market is an open area of the village where people from outside meet and talk with the villagers. The restaurants serve as meeting places. Some people come to drink coffee and read the newspaper, while others talk about business, government and daily activities. Information from the outside world passes through the market into the village.

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In contrast to the inner area of the village, most of the people who live in the market area are not Puan villagers. They are Chinese and Thai from outside. Some of them have been settled in Ban Muang Khao for two generations and others are newcomers who have moved in to run a business. Because of the difference in their occupations and way of life from those of the rice‐farming villagers, they have different values, interests and attitudes.

Most of the market‐people are rich, receive a better education and have more opportunity to get to know the wider society than the majority of the farming‐villagers. They want Merton (1968: 447‐456) has called cosmopolitan in contrast to the local rice‐farming groups. This attitude reflects their participation in social activities outside the village. They are not fervent supporters of the village wat, but prefer to go to Wat Ton Po, the commune wat, and to have their dead relatives cremated there.

However, in spite of the differentiation between people in the market and those in the rest of the village, the market is not a separate part of the village, but exists as a component of it. The market people regarded as such by outsiders. Socially many of them have a close kin tie to the rice farming villagers, through marriage, consanguine relationship, etc., and economically they are almost interdependent with the rice‐farming villagers.

As a component of the village, the market reflects the socio‐ economic change that has taken place. It developed when the village ceased to be isolated, due to contact with the Chinese, and the method of farming changed from subsistence‐dry rice cultivation to wet rice farming for cash economy.

2. Ban Muang Khao and its neighbours.

The locality which Ban Muang Khao shares with its neighbouring villages is believed to be one of the oldest settled areas in the country. This is supported by the presence of its two historical landmarks, the ancient city in Ban Kok Wat about two miles from Ban Muang Khao and the huge sacred Bodhi tree in Ban ton Po.

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This Bodhi tree is believed to be an offshoot of the Bodhi tree under which the Lord Buddha attained enlightenment, and to have been imported to this country at the time when the ancient city of Ban Kok Wat still flourished (Wongstes: 36‐51). It has been held sacred by the people from various parts of the province and has become a pilgrimage site where the monks and lay people come to worship and celebrate every year. From this sacred tree the name of the District‐Sri Mahabodhi is derived.

The Bodhi tree has deep significance for every Ban Muang Khao villager and is an important part of his religious life.

Religious activities are not confined to Wat Muang Khao but extended to Wat ton Po where the Bodhi tree stands.

Through the Bodhi tree, the Ban Muang Khao villagers regard themselves as one people‐the people of Sri Mahabodhi with their neighbours. They join and cooperate with them in celebrating the Bodhi tree every year. They are brought into a closer and more friendly relationship with each other and forget the old antagonistic feelings which used to exist between the Puan and the Thai.

Apart from the cooperation in religious activities at Wat Ton Po, Ban Muang Khao is related to its neighbours through the ego‐ centred network of the villagers. This social network is established through intermarriage and friendship and it is established through intermarriage and friendship and it is expressed by cooperation in social and economic activities. When a Ban Muang Khao villager arranges any ritual in his house, for example, he will draw not only neighbours from his own village but friends and relatives from the other villages both far and near, to join in and help him.

In economic activities like transplanting rice, harvesting and threshing, a villager can exchange or ask for labour from his kin and friends in other villages. And in return, he has to vive them his equivalent help when it is needed.

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3. Ban Muang Khao and the Government

Ban Muang Khao is integrated into the administration through the administrative system that divides the province (changwad) into districts (amphur), communes (tambol) and hamlets (mu‐ban). It is within the Commune of Ban Kok Peep in the District of Sri Mahabodhi. It is within the Commune consists of 11 administrative hamlets and each hamlet has its own headman, elected by popular election within the hamlet.

The system of dividing the commune into administrative hamlets has cut across the ecological boundary of the village and has resulted in incorporating some parts of other villages as well as dividing the village into a separate administrative unit.

Kaufman (1960: 17) in his study of Bang Kauad reported that the village consisted of three undemarcated hamlets and Ku Daong studied by Kingshill (1961: 13‐19) was composed of the hamlets.

Ban Muang Khao is divided into two hamlets, administrative Hamlet 5 and Hamlet 6 and in each are incorporated parts of other villages and homesteads. Hamlet 5 covers the northern half of the village and some clusters of houses in the flat plain in front of it. It has within it, according to the latest census obtained from the headman, 98 households with 827 persons. Hamlet 6 occupies the southern half of the village and also includes Ban Ton Po and several homesteads at the back of the village. It has 194 households with a population of 1,015 persons. This administrative division3 has included the ecological village of Ban Muang Khao in an informal local unit that exists in a continuum between the hamlet and the commune.

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FIGURE IV

Place of a village in the Administration

4. Village Government

As Ban Muang Khao is divided into two hamlets, it has two hamlet headmen or pu‐yai‐ban and each is, according to the administration, in charge of his own hamlet affairs. In practise the two hamlets are not separate, and their headmen work together in the government of the village. In practise also, the Headman of Hamlet 6 has assumed superiority over his counterpart in Hamlet 5 because he is older, richer and a Ban Muang Khao man by birth.

The younger man is an outsider, and is more or less economically dependent on his superior.

Village government does not rest entirely with the headmen, though they are the legal leaders, but is shared by a group of elders who have a voice in the hamlet council. There are no - 22 -

apparent conflicts between the headmen and the elders of any faction within the village. The headmen prefer to leave the elders to wield authority in the internal affairs of the village, while they deal with external matters.

The present Administration has deprived the headmen of several functions he used to enjoy in the past (Blanchard; 1957: 190,191). One of these was his power to arrest and punish criminals and wrongdoers in his village. He now has to report to and cooperate with the commune headman and the police.

Although the headman is elected by the popular vote of the hamlet, he is a send‐government official and receives a monthly stipend from the government. His major duties are to report contagious diseases. crimes, and vital statistics such as births and deaths in his own hamlet to the commune headman. He has to report hamlet affairs to the commune headman and attend the monthly meetings at the district seat (thi‐va‐karn‐amphur), to receive the administrative and government policies and regulations from the district officer, and to keep the villagers informed of them.

5. The Commune (Tambol)

It is principally at commune level that the villagers come into direct contact with Administration, especially with the commune medical officer and his staff, and with the police. In relations with the district officer, the commune headman and his clerk act as mediators. Direct contract between district officer and villagers is rare.

The Commune Centre of Ban Kok Peep, to which Ban Muang Khao belongs, is not only an administrative centre.

Besides a Police Station, Medical centre, Post Office and power station, it contains a large permanent market. All these are grouped in the village of Ban Kok Peep from which the Commune takes it name.

The commune headman of kamnan is elected by the hamlet headmen of the commune from among themselves and should the headman of a hamlet other than Ban Kok Peep be elected, there is

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no necessity for him to establish himself at the Commune Centre.

His ties with the local community rather than with the bureaucracy are emphasized by the fact that he has no office, but operates from his private house.

The present Commune Headman was elected from the position of Hamlet Headman in Ban Kok Peep (this village consists of two hamlets, Hamlet 3 and 4). He is a pleasant, fatherly man of 65 who is content to leave affairs in other hamlets to their own headmen. He will intervene only when compelled to, in such matters as land disputes and civil order.

Like the hamlet headman, the commune headman is a semi‐ government official. He is in charge of statistics and must go each month to the district officer to report on events in his commune.

6. The District (Amphur)

The District seat of Sri Mahabodhi is 10 miles from the Commune Centre of Ban Kok Peep. It is a small town in which the District Headquarters (thi‐va‐karn‐amphur) are located. Owing to the fact that this relatively far away, contact between the Ban Muang Khao villagers and the District seat is rare unless they have to deal directly with the Administration in paying taxes, asking for a duplication of a family census, selling and buying land, settling an inheritance, borrowing money from the credit union, etc.

The district is administered by the District Officer (nai‐ amphur), who is the government official appointed from the central government in Bangkok. Like the provincial governor, who is his superior, the district officer has under his jurisdiction a group of civil servants representing various ministries, namely education, police, health, agriculture, finance, credit union and excise. The duties of the district officer are varied and manifold: he is the administrative officer and the chief local magistrate. (See Appendix A on page 205 .)

At the commune and hamlet levels, the District Officer administers through the commune and hamlet headmen, who report to him every month at his office. He will come into direct contact. With the villagers when crimes occur such as plunder or

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murder or when there is some serious dispute among the villagers. He is obliged to investigate such matters, and to cooperate with the police in arresting and dealing with the offenders. Apart from this he makes public appearances on such occasions as the wat fairs at Wat Ton Po, and some of the commune meetings in the wat.

7. The Province (Changwad)

Although Ban Muang Khao is located within the Province of Prachinburi, it has not much contact with the Administrative Headquarters at the Provincial City, which is 12 miles from the Commune Centre of Ban Kok Peep. Contact between villagers and the Administration seems to terminate at the district level. The present Provincial Governor has never come to the village or even to the Commune Centre, although it appears that he has passed by it sometimes when traveling along the highway to Chachoengsao.

Not many of the villagers travel to the city on business, though it is easily accessible by bus. They prefer to go to Panomsarakam and Chachoengsao through which they can proceed further to Bangkok.

8. School

There is no school in the territory of Ban Muang Khao. The use by some writers of the existence of a school to define the village community (See pages 9), is not justified as it ignores the process of change in the Thai village.

Before 1920 education among the village boys took place at the wat. The parents sent their sons to serve as temple boys in Wat Muang Khao so that they could learn to read and write and receive some vocational training from the monks such as carving, carpentry and masonry. In 1920 a private primary school was established in the wat by the Headman of Hamlet 5 who was also the commune Headman but the following year, a compulsory national primary school system was introduced and the school was registered and became a government school. It was moved at

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that time to a new location in Wat Ton Po to serve children from the villages of Ban Muang Khao, Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa.

In addition to the government primary school, there is a private primary school in Wat Ton Po run by a teacher who lives in Ban Muang Khao. The rich and well‐to‐do prefer to send their children to the private school because of its better standards of teaching and child card. Some children, after completing primary school attend secondary schools at Panomsarakam, which is close enough to Ban Muang Khao for them to return home each day.

Conclusion

Ban Muang Khao, “an old village” in Central Thailand, was established about 1840 by a group of the Lao Puan, whose ancestors were taken as prisoners‐of‐war from Lao. The village developed from a tiny hamlet consisting of individual land‐ owning households, occupying a patch of territory which is distinguished by a white mango tree. It was characterised by a village wat, a shrine of the guardian spirit and a graveyard.

In its earlier period the village was relatively isolated and self‐contained. The villagers subsisted mainly on dry rice cultivation within the area surrounding the village. Ethnic antagonism existed between the Puan and the Thai of the neighbouring villages for they regarded each other as the enemy.

The advent of the Chinese about 60 years ago brought about the interaction of agriculture and commerce in the village or in other words the progressive extension of an economic frontier, as Bailey (1957) puts it in his study of an Indian village.

A market developed in the village to establish trade with the urban centres trough waterways, and the villagers took up wet rice cultivation for cash economy. Muang Khao was no longer a closed village but welcomed the Chinese and the Thai who came in to settle. The construction of roads and a highway has brought the village into closer contact with its neighbouring villages, urban centres and national government. It is integrated into the nation by the administrative system that divides the village into hamlets supervised by the hamlet headmen who, in their turn, are

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supervised by the commune headman and the district officer respectively. The village is linked to its neighbours through the school, which their children have to share with those from other villages, through economic help and co‐operation between kin and friends from other villages and through its sharing of the sacred site, the Bodhi tree, with others.

Religion has played an important role in bringing people of various ethnic origins and occupations, both inside and outside the village, together, to interact and live in peace. Religion is represented through the wat, and in the life of Ban Muang Khao people the two important institutions are the village wat, Wat Muang Khao and the commune wat, Wat Ton Po in which the sacred Bodhi tree stands.

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CHAPTER II Social Organisation

1. Household and Family

In Ban Muang Khao, close kin live grouped together. Many of them have built their houses in the same compound with those of their parents and siblings. But this proximity of house‐sites does not by any means indicate a corporate kin group. It reflects only kindred while a corporate group is confined within a single household.

The household, here defined as a group of persons living together in a single house, is the basic socio‐economic unit of the village. It is also a residence group that carries out co‐residential and domestic functions (Bender, 1967). There are three distinct categories of household in Ban Muang Khao; a household consisting of a residential group, a household consisting of a nuclear family and a household consisting of a stem family. (Table IV)

Table IV Categories of Households

No Categories

Number 1.

Residential group

31 2.

Nuclear family

118 3.

Stem family

9

Total

158

The first category, numbering 31 households does not coincide with family because of its absence of a married couple. It refers simply to a residential group whose members are related by kinship ties. Many of these residential groups consist of a widow or widower who has no desire to remarry after the death of his of her spouse. These people live with their unmarried children.

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There are six households where wives are living with their children while their husbands work as wage labourers in the urban centres and send money home to support their families. In addition to these, there are another two households headed by unmarried women who live with their unmarried younger sister and nieces. (See Table V)

TABLE V Heads of Residential group

1.

Unmarried women

2 2.

Widow and widower because of

The death of spouses

21 3.

Divorced

1 4.

Wives with husbands working outside the village

6

Total

31

The second category comprises those households that consist of nuclear families. There are, in all, 118 families and most of them are two generation‐families in which a married couple live with their children. A few families include either a widowed parent or one or two unmarried cousins.

There are 9 households that consist of a stem family in which the aged parents, a married child and his or her spouse and their children live together in the same house.

From these three types of household, it can be observed that there are two kinds of families existing in Ban Muang Khao, the nuclear and the stem families and these are related to the residential group in terms of the developmental cycle of house holds (Goody, 1958). The Ban Muang Khao villagers have one thing in common with Thai villagers elsewhere in that the nuclear family is the ideal for them (Phillips, 1963: 23). A newly‐married couple, except in the case of the youngest daughter, moves from the family of orientation to establish their own family or

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procreation in a single household. This is the phase of expansion which continues through the period of procreation and rearing of children until they are ready for marriage. During this period the household consists of a nuclear family.

The phase of dispersion begins when a daughter marries and brings her husband to live with her parents. During this period the household consists of the parents, their unmarried children, a married daughter and her spouse, and their children.

When all older children have moved out to establish their own households, the parents will live with their youngest daughter who, when she marries will bring her husband to live in the house.

The final phase of dissolution occurs when one parent dies, and this marks the end of the cycle. This leaves the household consisting of a widowed parent and a married couple with their children. But in many households in Ban Muang Khao, one parent dies before the younger children marry and thus leaves the widowed parent living with them.

The economic pressures of the present day have forced the husbands of some poor families to leave the village to work in the urban areas. This reduces the nuclear families to a mere residential group. The husbands may come back to visit their wives and children every one or two months. At home the wives and children have to help to support themselves by hiring a little land to grow rice for their own consumption or by vending cooked food around the village.

The household is usually a landholding group headed by the father. The members of the household must cooperate to exploit the land for its agricultural products. Each household is responsible for its own income and consequently for the maintenance and up bringing of its members. At subsistence level, the household with a nuclear family must own a paddy field of not less than 30 rai. These households which own less than 30 rai.

Are compelled to hire more from a landlord. There are some households with no farms who have given up cultivating rice and hire themselves out for labour in the fields of their neighbours.

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FIGURE V Developmental Cycle of Household

Residential group Nuclear family

Stem family

Nuclear family Residential group

2. Kindred

Like the Thai villagers elsewhere, the Ban Muang Khao villagers have a bilateral of cognatic kinship system. Kinship terms (see the figure overleaf) are basically the same as these of the Thai villagers in general (see Kaufman, 1960, Wijeywardene, 1968). The kin group among then is merely a kindred which is formed by an ago‐focus relationship (Fox, 1967: 164, 165). Relationship and obligation among them is a matter of individual choice rather than of descent. It is based on reciprocity or in many cases on emotional ties.

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FIGURE VI

Puan Kinship Terminology: Cognates (Terms of Reference)

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The individualistic behaviour of the villagers is clearly manifested in the splitting of a married man from his stem family to set up his own nuclear family in a separate house. Such behaviour is also found among the Thai villagers in Bang Khuad (Kaufman, 1960), Bang Chan (Phillips, 1963) and in the Northeast (Sunthornpesattch, 1968). Many writers agree that the household is the smallest and most basic social unit around which centre all corporate activities, but none of them has given a satisfactory definition for the term household. Kaufman (1960: 21) uses the term “household” more explicitly to refer to a group which may occupy a number of houses in a single compound. He does not regard the single house as a significant group except when it is the only house in a compound.

In Ban Muang Khao I limit the term “household” to “a single house occupied by either a residential group, a nuclear family of a stem family”. Although the villager shares the same house compound, the same granaries for storing rice, and co‐operates in planting and harvesting rice and even cooks and eats at times with his siblings, he does not live in the same household with them.

The relationship is very loose, without obligations and based on emotional ties. It is easily reversed into enmity, if relatives are displeased with each other. Here, I view the tern “corporate group” as describing only those who live within a single household. The kin who establish their houses within the same compound I would term kindred, of perhaps, to be more explicit than this, the term “compound group” as put forward by Wijeyewardene (1967: 66) should be accepted.

Kaufman in his study of Bang Khuad (1960: 23) has gone further in describing the kin outside the domestic group into three categories; the spatially extended family, the remotely extended family and the fictional family, I find that this proposition is hard to follow. He seems to ignore what Murdock (1960: 4) has put forward. “An extended family… must necessarily be based on a lineal principal – either patrilineal, matrilineal, or amblilineal – rather than exclusively on bilateral filiations.”

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The Ban Muang Khao and the Bang Khuad villagers are bilateral and beyond their household level. They are related to their kindred which can be classified into two groups; a localised group and a non‐localised group. As a localised group, the villagers are divided into many kindred groups or “compound groups” characterised by a group of cognatic kin living in separate households near one another or scattered within the same village.

The non‐localised kindred are those who do not live within the same village but somewhere outside it, either in the neighbouring villages, or in distant cities and provinces. A villager interacts more with his kindred who live in the same village and in the nearby villages. They frequently cooperate in both social and economic activities such as household ceremonies, the planting and harvesting of rice. Contact with non‐localised kindred is sporadic and limited to those who have more emotional ties with the ego.

With non‐localised kindred, the villagers have extended a kinship network to the urban areas like Panomsarakam, Prachinburi, Chachoangsao, Sataheep and Bangkok. These kin will come to join them and support them during religious rituals and ceremonies. Many villagers send their children to live with their kin in Bangkok to attend school or to find a job.

3. Marriage and Residence

Marriage is the act that initiates the developmental cycle of the household and influences a choice of residence as well as creating a social network which can be extended through affinal ties to other groupings both in and outside the village.

There is no fixed rule of exogamy and endogamy or of mirages via arrangement or courtship. Ban Muang Khao seems to follow the same trend as the villages in the Northeast (Sunthornpesattch, 1968: 65‐69, Tambiah, 1968: 46, 47) in that it shows both a high incidence of village endogamy and a greater tendency for women to remain in the village than for men. Of 158 households in the village, there are 71 married couples (before widowhood and divorce) who are the heads of households, in Ban Muang Khao, 46

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couples, mostly Chinese and Thai, who have come from outside to live in the village, 39 households which are exogamous i.e., one spouse has come from outside; and 2 households which are headed by unmarried woman. The number of wives who are natives of the village is 110 as compared with 71 males while the number of men who have come into the village from outside is double that of females.

TABLE VI Marital status of adults in Ban Muang Khoa

Sex Born in BMK Born elsewhere Total Males 71

85

156 Females 110

46

156

Total 181 131

312

Village endogamy in Ban Muang Khao is explained by ethno‐centric influences of the past, firstly the obligation of the Puan to marry within their own group; secondly, the absence of incest rules restricting marriage between cousins (though marriage of first cousins is not permitted); and thirdly the willingness of boys and girls of the village for their marriages to be arranged by their parents. The selection of a spouse by parents ensured a more secure marriage and avoided problems of inheritance which could occur if the parents were dissatisfied with their son or daughter’s choice.

The parents have closer emotional ties with daughters than with sons. This is due to the conviction that girls are dependent, docile and home‐loving and that consequently they will take better care of their parents when they are old. Most married women express their preference for having daughters than sons.

Such views have been reinforced by the preference of most women of the village to have their marriages arranged by their parents,

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and by the fact that residence after marriage is usually matri ‐ uxorilocal.

After marriage the girl prefers to stay in her natal village and brings her husband to live with her parents in the same household. The parents expect the son‐in‐law to work for them for two or three years. At the end of this time they will help him to build his own house in the village and allow him and their daughter to leave them. The new house is usually built within the house compound of the parents‐in‐law. This is apparent in the village heart (nai‐ban) where cousins and kin share the same house compound. Nowadays, owing to shortage of space in the village heart, a new family is often forced to build their house on the village outskirts (chai‐ban) not far from the household of the parents of the bride.

In the case of the youngest daughter of the family, the husband is expected to live with the girl’s parents, helping them and looking after them until they die, when the couple will inherit the parental house and its contents. The only exception to this custom occurs when the parents have no daughters, and it is then the youngest son, who brings his wife to live and inherit the parents’ house.

Customs relating to marriage outside the village can be viewed in three periods. The first is the early period of the village, when ethnocentric feeling was strong. The villagers intermarried with the Lao Puan in the neighbouring villages such as Ban Kok Peep, Ban Sra Makhoe, Ban Kok Mon, Ban Ku Rampan and other villages in Panomsarakam, and when this happened men would move out to live with their wives in their villages, while the women would bring their husbands in. Kinship ties among them have lasted until today and are expressed through contact and cooperation in religious and agricultural activities.

The second period lasted from the advent of the Chinese until a decade ago. The villagers intermarried with the Chinese and the Thai of nearby villages such as Ban Dan, Ban Chamwa and Ban Nok‐Thung, and with Bangkok, Prachinburi, Cholburi and Chachoengsao people who case to the village as traders. In

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addition to these, some married people from outside moved into the village to settle in the market and the outskirts. These formed a neo‐local group in Ban Muang Khao as opposed to the Matri‐ uxorilocal of the Puan villagers.

The period from a decade ago until the present day saw a great increase in marriage with outsiders. Intermarriage was no longer confined to the rice‐farming villagers as in the past, but extended to the towns and cities. Boys who worked there as wage labourers met and married girls with whom they worked and village endogamy declined. However, residence after marriage is still largely matri‐uxorilocal because few of the girls go out to work like boys. Most of them remain in the village and bring their husbands in to live with them.

4. Inheritance and Succession

Every child has an equal right to inherit from both the father and mother. The partition of land and property is done twice in most families. The first partition occurs when the older children are married. The parents help to defray the cost of building their children’s houses and give them some land for the cultivation of rice for their own households. In this way the household of a new family of procreation becomes a basic socio‐economic and corporate group, separated from the parents’ household, though they may live within the same house compound.

The second partition takes place before the father dies. Land and property is divided among the children but the youngest daughter and her husband usually receive a larger share of land, and the parents’ house and its contents, and accept also most of the responsibility for arranging funeral rites and taking care of the widowed parent.

Owing to the lack of fixed rules for division of property, inheritance has often caused disputes among the siblings and ill‐ feeling between children and parents. Parents are likely to give more land and money to any children to whom they feel fore emotionally attached. There is also some competition among the children to win parents’ love so that they will inherit more land.

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In some families, siblings do not speak to each other because they are not satisfied with their share of land when they separate from the stem family. In others, there are disputes after the death of the parents as to which child should receive a greater share of the inheritance. Such arguments often have to be settled at the District Headquarters, or in the court.

Recently, because of these frequent disputes over property, some parents have refused to divide land and money among their married children when they move up to set up their own households. They simply help finance the building of the houses and assign some plots of land to each of them for cultivation their own rice. The division of land and property for inheritance is done secretly at the District Headquarters and revealed on the death of the father. This innovation is also reported to have taken place in some villages in the Northeast (Sunthornpesattch, 1968: 66‐68).

The question of property and inheritance can delay marriage, among the girls, particularly these who are the youngest daughters of rich and well‐to‐do families because it is not easy to find sons‐in‐law who are also rich and suitable. Boys seem to marry at a younger age than the girls, and as there is a better chance of getting a good job in urban centres like Bangkok, and Sataheep, they tend to go outside the village to work and to marry girls they met in the urban centres. As a result, many girls in Ban Muang Khao marry late, and some of them even remain unmarried.

As there is no descent group in the kinship system, succession among the Ban Muang Khao villagers seems to be vested in the youngest daughter and her husband who inherit the parents’ house and its contents. They accept a greater share of responsibility for arranging the funeral rites of the dead parents than the others. Mortuary rites are carried out in their house both before and after cremation. Some relics of the dead are kept in the house to be taken to be enshrined in the wat when the proper time comes.

The family name or surname is a recent innovation in Thai society. There were no family names among the villagers in the

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past and thus the identification of family lines was vague and depended on living memory. But in 1916, King Vajiravudha, adopting European custom, decreed that every Thai citisen must have a surname (de Young, 1955: 25) to be passed on through the male line. To meet the requirements of the Administration the villagers created their own surnames, either by combining the names of grandfather with grandmother, or by using the village name or some qualitative adjectives, such as Khayan‐ying (very diligent) and Dee‐ching (very good.)

Unlike the city people who prefer to give a greater share of their property and land to the sons who inherit the family name4 the inheritance pattern of the Ban Muang Khao villagers remains basically unchanged and is not at all related to the succession of surname through the sons. The youngest daughter still inherits her parents’ house and its contents.

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

The Puan have the same system of family and kinship as the Thai and also share the same language, which differs only in terms of spoken dialect. Some women may have two to three husbands in their life‐time but this is due to remarriage after the death of former husband. Consequently, in both the Puan and the Thai villages, there are several families containing members who are half‐brothers and half‐sisters to one another. Divorce rarely occurs in either group and they both prefer to have only one husband or wife. Any man who takes a minor wife or mistress is likely to be a subject of gossip and is referred to as sexually self‐indulgent and having no concern for the welfare of his own family.

Both the Thai and the Puan permit marriage among second cousins but the Puan observe an incest taboo that does not allow a younger brother to marry an older sister. It is considered inconsistent and unnatural for a younger brother to feed an older sister, and believed that the couple and their children will always be threatened by illness and poor health. Parents refuse to arrange a wedding for them and the couple has to elope to live outside the - 39 -

village. Further, marriage between two families can occur only in each generation. No further marriage take place between other members of the two families, since they are already linked by an affinal tie. This is in contrast to the Thai who have no incest taboo about younger brother‐older sister marriage and who allow marriage between two families to occur several times in a generation. In the village of Ban Chamus about one mile south of Ban Muang Khao, for example, three brothers from one family married three sisters in another family. The elder brothers married the younger sisters while the younger brother married the elder sister.

In contrast to the Puan and the Thai, most Chinese still retain the essence of their patrilineal kinship system. They practise male primogeniture i.e., the eldest brother succeeds the father as the head of the family, inheriting the major part of property, land, and the parents’ house and its contents. When he marries, he brings his wife to live with him, while his younger brothers and sisters move out after their marriage. Once they are married, the younger brothers nearly always set up neo‐local households in other localities with the help of their father and eldest brother. Married children retain close contact with the stem family and help each other economically and in any times of stress.

As trade is their career, the Chinese hold the belief that their children must learn to earn money by helping parents to run the shop. They are taught to sell and bargain with customers at an early age. This is in contrast to the Puan and the Thai who are farmers and whose children stay at home to help them with the household and farming work. Because of their different way of

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life, Chinese women sometimes boast that their daughters are diligent and work hard, while the Puan and the Thai girls stay at home and do nothing. The Chinese define the term work (ngan) as money but to the farmers this term also includes unproductive work like household work.

There are many Puan, particularly men, who admire the Chinese values in kinship and the bringing up of children and condemn their own way of life. They do not like the idea of going to live with their wives and working for their parents‐in‐law because they feel that it reduces them to the status of servant rather than husband. They criticise their fellow Puan and tha Thai for being lazy, and for competing and quarrelling with each other over inheritance, instead of helping their relatives, as the Chinese do. These people follow the Chinese example in training their children to work by selling things around the village, when they are free from school. They themselves work hard – hiring themselves for a wage, sawing timber and peddling goods when they are free from planting rice.

6. Social Relationships within the Village The villagers regard themselves as village brother – phi‐ nuang‐ruam‐ban to one another and this relationship cuts across the actual kinship relations as well as the patron‐client relationships which exist in the village community. The essence of the village brotherhood is that every one living in the village, should live in peace with his neighbours, treat them like his own cousins and help them in time of need. This is expressed through various kinds of cooperation and assistance based on interdependence in many social and economic activities.

When any one in the village dies, the neighbours and kin will rush to his family to help them in arranging the funeral rites.

A villager can call for free labour from close friends and neighbours in building his house. Many of them stop their own work to help until the house is finished. In planting and harvesting rice a villager is likely to ask for help from his close

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friends and neighbours in the form of assistance (Khau raeng) or exchange of labour (aw raong). (see pages 85‐87).

Status relationship within the village is based mainly on age and can be viewed in two categories – Phi nuang; and the pu yai and pu hoj relationships. The phi nuang relationship is concerned with people of the same generation. They treat each other on equal terms, though one way be older or younger than the other. If a man has been ordained, his name is prefixed with a polite term thid , but if he has never served as a monk, the term ba is preferred. For close friends or cousins, the prefix aj is applied to male and i to female names.

The pu yai and pu noj relationship is a relation between the people of different generations. The younger generation must treat the older with respect, as their elders who give them advice, witness their wedding ceremonies and are the senior members of the wat and the village. Respect for and intimacy with the elders are expressed through the kinship terms of address. Forms of address for people in the parent’ and grand parent’s generations are:

Lung…………………… older uncle (both paternal and maternal)

Na……………………… younger maternal uncle

Pa………………………. older aunt (both paternal and maternal)

Na……………………… younger maternal aunt

Ta………………………. maternal grand father

Jaj………………………. maternal grand mother

The elders regard the younger generations as their children and grand children and address them with prefixes thid, ba and aj for male and i for female.

There is another manifestation of the pu yai and pu noj relationship which has nothing to do with age. It exists between the lay villagers and those who have social status and position, namely the headman, the school teacher, the village doctor and

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monk. All these people share equal status with the olders. Forms of address for them are:

Pu yai…………………... headman

Kru……………………… teacher

Mo………………………. village doctor

Khun……………………. young monk

Luang phi………………. a monk who is the same age as the older brother Luang phau……………. a monk who is in the same age with the parents Luang lung…………….. a monk who is the same age as the older uncle Luang a…………………. a monk who is the same age as the younger uncle Luang ta…………………. a monk who is the same age as the grand Parents

Concomitantly with the village brotherhood (phi‐nuang‐ ruam‐ban), there is a patron‐client relationship between the rich and the poor, or more specifically between the landlords and tenants. This relationship is not strong enough, however, to create a social class between the rich and the poor. It operates within the frame‐work of village brotherhood. The poor and the rich treat each other as equal, although both of them are conscious of their difference in economic status. As in other villagers (Hanks, 1963: 1), the rich eat and like the poor and most of them still go to the village wat and join their neighbours in religious activities. At their household ceremonies, they draw more help and participation from their neighbours because every one is eager to become their kin.

The form of village brotherhood which I have described has served to maintain an egalitarian attitude in social relations within the village. It is in contrast to the pyramidal outlook of the wider society. Above the village community, the villagers are governed by bureaucrats like the District Officer, his staff and the police. The

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villagers do not address these people with kinship terms and their relationship with them is regarded as a superior‐subordinate one. 5 7. Social Conflicts and Competition

Conflicts among people in the same village are not so serious that they divide the village into factions. There are apparently three types of conflict: among siblings, quarrels over a minor wife, and conflict between the rich and the poor.

Conflicts among siblings arises from partition of property and land. Some siblings are not content with their share and turn against their parents, brothers and sisters. Such a conflict often carries through to the next generation. Quarrels about boundaries occur between married children whose houses have been built in the same family compound. This frequently results in a fence being erected to divide the original into separate ones.

Quarrels about a husband taking a minor wife are rare because polygamy is condemned in the village. In the past two decades, only two cases of husbands taking minor wives have been reported. The first incident did not cause a serious disturbance because the husband eloped with a woman who lived in mother village about six miles from Ban Muang Khao. But in the second incident the minor wife was a widow living in the village. There was a serious quarrel between the legal wife, her husband and the minor wife, which ended with the husband having to give up his mistress.

Open conflict does not exist between the rich and the poor. It appears in forms of avoidance and gossip and concerns only a few people in the village. A few rich villagers tend to stand aloof, boasting of their connections with friends and relatives in Bangkok. They do not care to join other villagers in social and religious activities in the wat. These people are unpopular with the poor, who gossip about the stinginess and covetousness that (they say) have made them rich.

Conflicts, though inherent in the social relationships of Ban Muang Khao, are by no means disruptive because they are confined within a family or a personal group. They are always cooled down and checked by the influence of the elders, kinship

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ties and the sense of belonging to the same locality. Whenever a villager comes into conflict with his siblings and friends, other kin, friends, neighbours and elders mediate and achieve a compromise.

Apart from some social conflicts, the Muang Khao villagers do have a sense of competition with their neighbours but it is rather in terms of maintaining status quo and traditional values than display of wealth and desire for power. Most villagers desire to have a large house built of wood with a zinc roof of the same size as the traditional house.6 Making merit by giving money to the wat and arranging household ceremonies such as ordination and funeral ceremonies are the duties that each family wants to fulfil. The acquiring of land is another goal which most villagers strive for. They want to have enough land for cultivating rice and for dividing among their children before they die.

The villagers do not display their wealth by eating, drinking and dressing but live and eat in the same way as their neighbours.

One of them may give more money to the wat but they never compete with each other in spending money on arranging big feasts and grand ceremonies, though some wealthy women put on gold belts, necklaces, bracelets and rings occasionally during the household ceremonies. Nobody knows exactly how much land and income the rich have. They assess it from the villagers’ position as landlord and the size of the rice granary in his house.7

8. Cliques

In Ban Muang Khao there also exist certain groups which Kaufman (1960: 37, 38) describes as cliques in Ban Khuad. There are apparently two kinds of clique; the gambling companions and the wat discussion groups.The gambling companions gather only in the market. There are three places where gambling goes on: a coffee shop, a rest‐house at the landing in front of the market and store whose owner is a member of the clique. The core of the clique is a group of five delinquent boys who are friends or kinsmen. Two of them are twin brothers who have been rejected

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and expelled from home by their father, a school teacher in the village, and who now live with their grandmother and maternal aunt. They used to go to school in Bangkok but did not finish their course and had o go back to the village. They do not want to work bur prefer to hang around the market place and are joined by the other three boys, who live in the market. They are united by ties of personal liking and common interest in fighting, carrying weapons such as knives and pistols, going out to other villages and towns, talking about heroic deeds from films and novels, playing cards and coin‐spinning.

These boys are joined in their gambling session by a few store‐keepers, and some of the men from other villagers who come to have coffee and wait for the bus in the market. Ban Muang Khao villagers coming back from the fields sometimes step and play with them, thus forming a bigger group of ten to sixteen people. However, only the delinquent boys and a few store‐ keepers are regarded as inveterate gamblers. The fringe members of the group play for fun and relaxation. The group usually disperses whenever the bus arrives, as the bus often brings the police.

The wat discussion groups are made up of villagers who come to the wat hall when they are free from their work. The gathering actually begins in the morning when the monks have finished their breakfast. There are three elderly men who come to talk with them and these are soon joined by other middle‐aged and young men. When nothing of particular is being discussed the old men turn to playing chess while the others watch and cheer them on. Such a gathering sometimes lasts until the monks’ lunchtime and may continue again in the late afternoon.

II. Life Cycle

As in other cultures, the life of the Ban Muang Khao villagers can b viewed as a series of different stages; birth, childhood, maturity, marriage, rearing a family, old age and

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death; and each stage is more or less demarcated by rites of passage, either conspicuous or minor, according to the economic status and the religious belief of an individual’s family.

1. Birth

Married villagers are apt to talk freely and broadly about sex but they are very secretive about actual sexual intercourse. The first child is usually born in the first year of marriage. During pregnancy the women, unlike those elsewhere in Central Thailand (Kaufman, 1960: 140,141, Hanks, 1963: 30‐46) do not follow any special pattern of behaviour, and have no food taboos. They carry on their ordinary household duties until they are ready to give birth and the husband then take over their work. Where there is easy access to an urban centre, some women now go to hospital to have a child (Hanks, 1963: 95, 107). But those who stay at home during parturition are attended by a midwife (mo tamyae) and some elderly women who may be their mothers, relatives or neighbours. The midwife is an experienced woman who lives in the village and is acquainted with the girl. She has no modern medical training but is experienced in adding childbirth.

The midwife massages and presses the abdomen of the girl to help the child out easily. When the baby is born, she cuts the umbilical cord with a sharp bamboo knife, ties the cord close to the infant body, sponges him and wraps him in swaddling clothes.

The afterbirth and the umbilical cord are put together in a clay pot and taken to be buried under a tree in the household compound.

After the birth of a child, the mother must undergo fire treatment (yu fai) which involves either lying for several days on a plank bed near a special fire place or using a hot ashes container (fai chut) and a hot water container. (See Hanks,1963: 101). In addition to this the mother is expected to take some pickled medicine (ya dong lauw) which is reputed to stem the bleeding by burning and drying out the stomach. The purpose of the fire treatment is to help the mother regain her strength and good health.

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Sukhwan ceremony

During the fire treatment period, the third day postnatal ritual popular among the Thai (Kaufman, 1960: 144), does not take place in Ban Muang khao, but there is a sukhwan ceremony (See also page 61 ) for the mother and child which takes place later.

The Puan regard the termination of the fire treatment period as a joyful period for the mother and the child, who have already passed through different stages of crisis. During pregnancy, parturition and the fire treatment, no one knows whether the mother and child will survive. During these periods, their life spirits (khwan) are in danger and frightened. So when they have passed, the life spirits should be soothed and restored, for the physical and mental health of the mother and her child.

The ceremony lasts for half a day and is performed in the morning. Members of the family, relatives and friends come together around the mother and child and an elderly man acts as an officiate (mo khwan) to perform the rites for them. He chants a long invocation to the Buddha, the gods and the spirits to come to witness the ceremony, calling the life spirits (Khwan) to enter the bodies of the mother and the child, and blessing them. He ties the wrists of the mother and the child with a sacred thread (saj sin) symbolizing the binding of the life spirit to the body. When the officiate (mo khwan) finishes the rites, the elders, relatives and friends come to wish the two happiness, long lives and good health. The sukhwan ceremony ends with a feast at midday. It is usual for the sukhwan ceremony to be performed only once – for the first child ‐ and confined to relatives and friends from within the village. There is no such ceremony for the following child because the danger exists only at the birth of the first child.

After the fire treatment period, a mother is expected to have a long rest within the house with the baby. She is not allowed to do any hard work for at least three months.

2. Childhood

After birth a child is always kept near his mother, and is fed as soon as he cries. A wet nurse is rarely needed but canned milk

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is always available. He continues to receive breast feeding from his mother until he is one year old and after weaning, he is fed with boiled rice and soup, and very often canned milk. Whenever the mother goes from house to house visiting her neighbours, the child is carried on her hip and sits or lies in his mother’s lap.

As elsewhere in Thailand, a child is given a name by his parents or grandparents who may either consult astrology books or the local soothsayer (Kaufman, 1960: 145, Wijeyewardene, 1968). It is hard to distinguish between a nickname and a proper name for they are much the same. Many of them consist only of one simple word such as Noj (little one), Daeng (very young one), Choey (cool temper), etc. Some children’s names are compound words such as Sombun (som – “deserving”, bun – “merit”) and Thongyu (thong – “gold”, yu – “to stay”). Recently, through urban influence, many villagers name their children with Sanskrit words such as Nirandra, Nukula and Laddawalaya. There are also many village boys who adopt Sanskrit names when they go to work or to study in the cities. However, in addressing each other, the two or three syllabic name is shortened to one syllable, such as Wan for Laddawalaya and Suk for Thongsuk.

A girl has her ears pierced when she is still a baby. The lobe of the ear is massaged and punctured by a needle with the help of some herbs. A thread is inserted and left in the hole, and is later replaced by silver or gold. When a child is about two years old, his mother stops taking close care of him and one of his sisters or brothers acts as nurse (phi liang) for him. He is also allowed to play with other children. When his parents go out to work and his sister is at school, he is left to be looked after by his grandparent.

Children in Ban Muang Khao are clothed and toilet‐trained in the same way as those in other Thai villagers (de Young, 1955: 53, 54).The boys, when they reach five or six years old, begin to join a big group of friends to roam freely in the village but the girls play among themselves near their home, and help their mother to take care of a younger child. From the age of seven, the children are expected to help their families. The girls must begin

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to help with household chores and the boy with such tasks as watching the buffaloes and going out weeding with the women.

At the age of eight, the children go to school where they meet and play with friends from the neighbouring villages. The friendship network of each begins to spread beyond their own village. Boys are more free than girls anf often to visit their friends in other villages. It is during this period that children start to observe and imitate what the grown‐ups do. For instance; they watch their elders preparing sky rockets (bang fai) for the Visakhabuja celebration at the wat and then try to make a small reproduction themselves. They practise weaving bamboo strips for making hats, fish traps, etc. the girl start to do some cooking, wearing and sewing.

In general most children leave school between the age of thirteen and fifteen and they are then on the way to adolescence.

They take more part in duties at home and in the field. Some boys may go out continue their secondary schooling in Panomsarakan, Prachinburi and Bangkok. The girls are, on the contrary, expected to stay in the village, practicing ploughing and broadcasting rice in the field. Some girls help their families to earn cash by spending their free time weaving bamboo hats, raising pigs, and selling various foods and sweets.

Kon Chuk ceremony (top‐knot‐cutting)

The ceremony that marks the transition from children to adolescence is the kon chuk or the top‐knot‐cutting ceremony. It takes place when a child is between thirteen and fourteen years old. In some Thai villages it is performed on a grand scale (Kaufman, 1960: 147), but in Ban Muang Khao, the villagers rarely arrange it. The kon chuk ritual is said to ensure the good health, long life and happiness of the child. On an auspicious day the child is brought to the wat and his parents ask the monks to perform the rite for him. The senior monk pours some lustral water (nam mon) on the child’s head, cutting part of his hair and then leaving the elderly man, who may be the grandparent, to shave the rest off. The monks chant the service until the shaving is finished.

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3. Adolescence

Boys and girls from the age of fifteen or sixteen years old begin to be conscious of their age and sex groups. They no longer mix and play with younger children but join those who are of their own age and older. A group of four or five boys may be found talking and listening to music from the radio when they are free from their work. They bring buffaloes to feed and work together in the filed. Sometimes they join the older men in the wat and listen to them discussing the affairs of the village and the wat.

During the rituals at the wat, as well as at the houses, they often participate as a group, or provide labour.

Unlike the boys, girls are more attached to the house and more reserved and shy. They prefer to be accompanied by friends when going out to other villages or to the wat fairs. They will group together during the ceremonies and help with cooking, preparing dishes and washing up.

In general, boys and girls pass through their adolescence peacefully. They rarely have any conflict with adults but are always helpful, and cooperate with them in the wat and village affairs. Except for the few delinquent boys in the market (see page 46 ), most village boys are not aggressive (nag leng). They do not like fighting and carrying pistols or knives like many boys in nearing villages, and never show any hostility when young men from other villages come in to court their girls. City life does hold an attraction for the boys, more so than for the girls who are expected to stay near their parents in the village and look after them. Many boys think of leaving the village someday to work in the shoe factory with their friends in Bangkok (see pages 102‐ 103 ) and there are also some boys who look forward to becoming singers, musicians and soldiers.

Like young men all over the country, a boy has to register for military services (de Young, 1955: 50,60) at the District Headquarters, when he is eighteen years old, and at the age of twenty one he is conscripted and serves in the barracks in Prachinburi for two years. Although many of the boys want to complete their military training and become professional soldiers,

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their general attitude towards conscription is negative as they do not enjoy the hard work or the harsh treatment from superiors in the barracks. Some rich parents in the village have even managed to bribe the military officer (sasadee) at the District Headquarters to have their sons failed in the conscription examination. Most boys come back to the village after their terms of military service, and only a few seek jobs as wage labourers in the city.

It is the supposition that every village boy, after serving in the army for two years, will become ordained as a monk for a period of at least three mouths during the Buddhist Lont (Phansa).

He is expected to perform this service in the wat before he is married and leads an adult life. But, in practise, not every village boy can be ordained. Some may marry and have to take care of the family and others have no money to defray the cost of ordination.

However, it is the practise for all parents in Ban Muang Khao to manage to hold at least one ordination ceremony in their life time.

If they do not have any son of their own, they may have their nephew, their grandchild or any village boy ordained for them. A child expected to enter the monk hood must come back to be ordained in the village wat before he is allowed to marry, no matter whether he is living in the village or elsewhere in the city.

Ordination is regarded as one of the most important rites of passage in Ban Muang Khao. It is the period when the boy is to fulfil his duty towards his parents. When child is born, all parents expect that a son will bring merit to them by becoming a monk, and that a daughter will look after them when they are old. By having at least one son ordained for them, they will be saved from suffering in hell (narok) whom they die. As for the boy, he is not regarded as having attained maturity if he is not ordained, but is a “raw person” (kon dib), still not ready to take the responsibility of married life.

Ban Muang Khao, boys become ordained at the village wat every year in July, before the beginning of the Buddhist Lont (from July to October). The number normally varies from two to three boys, but in some years it may increase to six, owing to the

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shortage of rooms in the other village wats, which brings the boys from other villages to Wat Muang Khao.

The ordination ceremony is always performed on a large scale. It lasts for at least two days and is accompanied by big feasts and celebrations. As it requires a large amount of money, the parents have to plan it at least one year in advance. They save their money and sell the rice they have stored in the granary, and some families have to hire more land and work hard in growing rice for sufficient cash to stand the cost of ceremony. Relatives and friends within the village and outside are informed long before the ceremony is due. They are expected to come not only to participate in the rituals and big feasts, but to lend a hand in arranging the ceremonies and to help defray the cost (see also page 54 ).

The ordination ceremony takes place partly at home and partly at the wat and involves other sacred sites within and outside the village. I will illustrate this with a case observed during my field work in Ban Muang Khao.

Buaj nag (Ordination) In 1969, six young men were to be ordained as monks in Wat Muang Khao, five of them Ban Muang Khao boys and the other from Ban Kok Peep. Of the Ban Muang Khao boys, three lived in the village with their families and the other two were working in Bangkok. Their families had first to contact the wat to make sure that there would be accommodation for their children and then to chose the date of ordination. In accordance with the astrologer’s prediction of auspicious days, two boys who were cousins would be ordained on the 26th of June and the rest on 22nd of july.9

The first two boys were brought to the wat twenty days before their ordination to study the wat regulation and memorise the Pali texts required for the ceremony. During this time they were called nag and had to come to the wat every morning to serve food for the monks and to remain in the wat for the whole day to study with them. At home their parents managed to buy the yellow robe and the other ritual items which were required in the ceremony and which the boys would use when they became

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monks. Friends and relatives both within and outside the village were informed both verbally and by invitation cards.

Two days before the ceremony began, various items of food were bought, dishes and plates and were borrowed from the wat and from neighbours and kin, and the gramophone, generator and amplifier were hired from the wat. Friends and relatives who lived within the same village came to help. There was a division of labour among them; old men preparing the household altar, the yellow robe and place for the monks to perform the rites; old women fixing and decorating ritual items and preparing various gifts for the monks; adult women and girls cooking and preparing food; and young men and boys helping to move heavy things like desks, tables, buckets of water, fixing the gramophone and generator, etc. The ceremony lasts for three days and on the eve of the first day, some friends and relatives from the cities and other districts far away began to arrive and spent the night in the ordinand’s house.

On the morning of the first day of the ceremony, cooking and preparing the place continued until noon. More kin and friends came in from outside the village. Upon arriving at the house they would go to see an old man who acted as the treasurer of the ordination and give him their contribution (ngen long‐ khan) to the ceremony (see pages 87‐89) before they joined other guests in the house. Some relatives and friends who could not come to the ceremony would send their sons or cousins to bring their contribution money to the treasurer and some flowers and joss sticks to offer as gifts to the monks. The guests were greeted by the parents and the ordinand himself, after which they joined in groups talking with each other. Eating and drinking continued all the time because guests did not all arrive at the same time. This was accompanied by music and songs from the gramophone and sometimes by a small band which was hired from the District Centre of Panomsarakam for the ceremony.

In the afternoon, the ordinand went to the wat to have his head shaved by the monk and then returned for the bathing ceremony at his home. He sat on a chair on the verandah with a

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sarong‐like cloth (pha khao ma) wrapped around his body while the elders poured a glass or a bowl of water on his body and blessed him. This procedure was then repeated by the younger people who were present in the house at that time. The bathing ceremony is intended to wash away his sins or impurity before he becomes a monk. And those who bathed the ordinand would gain merit (bun) through this act of helping a man to become a monk.

After the bathing ceremony, the ordinand dressed in white and put on a big gold necklace, and a gold belt which was normally used by his mother for social occasions. He was led by his father to pay homage to the household spirit at the spirit‐house in the house compound and after that a long procession was formed, and led by a musical band to the wat. In the procession, the father carried the aims‐bowl and fan, the mother carried the yellow robe, the siblings and elder cousins carried other equipment, gifts for the monks and ritual items. The ordinand followed them surrounded by his contemporaries. A man walked beside him, carrying a big umbrella to give him shade along the way. At his back were his friends and younger relatives.

The procession entered the wat compound where it met and joined the procession of the other ordinand, the cousin, and they all went to the shrine of the village guardian spirit – the Pu Ta to pay homage and inform him of their ordination on the following day. After that both ordinands sat together on a bamboo palanquin carried by their friends and relatives and the procession moved out of the wat along the village road to the Wat Ton Po where the sacred Bodhi tree was standing. The procession walked around the Bodhi tree three times in a clockwise direction and then entered its enclosure to pay homage to it. The ordinands lighted joss sticks and candles, in forming the sacred tree of their ordination, then prostrated themselves three times in front of it.

The procession then returned to the village.

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PLATE III

a. The ordinand paying homage to The Pu Ta, the Guardian spirit of The village นาคกําลังบูชาปู่ ตาผู้ปกปั กรักษาหมูบ่ ้ าน

b. Ordination procession encircling the sacred Bodhi tree at Wat Ton Po ขบวนแห่งานบวชกําลังเดินประทักษิณรอบต้ นโพธิ์ที่วดั ต้ นโพธิ์ - 56 -

In the evening, after the dinner feast, there was a tham khwan nag ceremony or; in other words, a sukhwan ceremony for the ordinand. This ceremony was performed in the same manner as elsewhere in the country (Kaufman, 1960: 202, 203). It has a dual purpose; the first, the general one of calling on the life spirit (khwan) of the ordinand (nag) to enter his body and secondly a more specific one. The officiant (mo khwan) recites the text informing the ordinand that in becoming a monk, he is fulfiling his filial obligations. It describes the burdens borne by his mother during her pregnancy, at childbirth, and in bringing him up.

The second day of the ceremony was the ordination day (wan buaj). The monks were invited to have breakfast in the house during which there was a ceremony of offering food to the monks – the tak batre. The gathering was joined by kin and neighbours bringing their food and gifts to offer to the monks and on this day more friends and relatives came into the village. The ordination ceremony began in the afternoon, after lunch. The musical band‐ led procession started out of the house again but this time the destination was the convocation hall (bod) in the wat. The procession encircled the bod three times and came to a stop at the front door. The ordinands then knelt down before the boundary stone (sema) of the bod to make apologies in Pali to it and when finished, they were grasped by as many of their friends as could get hold of them and were thrust into the bod.

Inside the bod, the ordinands were met by a chapter of monks presided over by the senior monk or the upachaya. The ordination rite was performed, following the same pattern as others all over country (Kaufman, 1960: 127, 128). The upachaya gave a brief lecture on the essence of ordination and then asked the ordinands a series of questions required by the Buddhist liturgy. The ordinands were directed and assisted by two tutor monks or kusuad and when they had answered all the questions, they were qualified and accepted as monks by the monks assembly in the bod.

When the ordination rite was over, the new monks came out to the front of the bod, where their parents, kin and friends

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presented them with gifts, which were all of a practical nature, such as matches, soap, cigarettes, joss sticks, candles, tea, medicine, etc. When finished, their families and other participants returned home to rest and prepare for the cerebration of the new monks in the evening.

Celebration of the new monks10 took place after dinner. The new monks, together with other monks from the wat, were invited to the house to chant the evening service. When the chanting was over, the parents and kin presented gifts to the monks before they took their leave and returned to the wat. And as soon as the monks left, the participants turned to eating, drinking, chatting and singing for the remainder of the evening.

On the following morning, the celebration continued. The new monk came early to his house to receive a bathing ceremony from his parents, kin and friends like the one he had received on the day before he was ordained. This was followed by a tak batra ceremony, in which the new monk and the party offered food and gifts to a group of monks who were invited to the house after the bathing ceremony, when this breakfast was finished, the monks chanted a blessing to everyone, while the new monk and his parents performed a water pouring rite (troj nam) to transfer meit (bun) to all the living and the dead. The ceremony ended at this point, when everyone had eaten and began to leave the house.

The ordination of these two cousins was a big event in the village because their families are long established ones in the village heart (nai ban), one rich and the other well‐to‐do. For three days the village was deafened by noise from amplified announcements and singing. The Hamlet Headmen, the monks and the village elders were present at the ceremony and more than 400 guests from within and outside the village took part.

There was no apparent competition between the two families in arranging the ceremony. Both spent about 4,000 baht or a little more (see Table VII on page 90).Neither wanted to spend less than this for fear of being thought miserly, nor to spend the larger amount necessary for arranging entertainments, such as films, for the villagers. This situation is completely different from

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that in Ban Chamwa, for instance, where villagers like to compete with each other in arranging a grand scale household ceremony.

In the same year as the ceremony I have described an ordination involving two families took place in Ban Chamwa. Both spent more than 10,000 baht in a celebration including a big feast and the showing of films.

As a general practise, an boy serves as temporary monk throughout the Lonton period and his family always take are of him at this time. Food is brought to the wat every day, either by his parents or some one in the family, for him to eat together with other monks. On returning to a normal life, he is addressed with a prefix thid – an abbreviation for the Pali term pundit, in front of his name. Now he is an adult, who is ready to be married and to rear a family.

4. Courtship and marriage

Girls seem to reach maturity before the boys. They respond to courtship when they reach seventeen or eighteen, while the boys still enjoy going out with their friends and begin to be interested in the girls only when they are twenty years old, or more. At present, boys and girls in the same village are not interested in each other because they have lived so close together since they were young. A boy likes to visit a girl in other villages or districts far away, such as Panomsarakam and Chechoengsao, many of them marrying the girls whom they meet and work with in the urban centres. A girl, on the contrary, is courted by a boy from other nearby villages like Ban Kok Peep, Ban Kok Mon and other Thai villages in the plain.

In the past, boys and girls used to meet each other when they worked together during harvesting and threshing rice, and the boys often come to court the girls at their house, sometimes in the presence of their parents. Now, the change from exchanging labour in the field (See pages 85‐87) to hired labour has changed the old courtship pattern. They now meet each other during the wat fairs, at the market and when the boys come to visit their

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friends in the village. Contact between them is rather secret and mostly by letter.

There are some differences between rich and poor with regard to the marriage of their daughters. Girls in poor families are free to choose their own husbands and tend to marry at a younger age and some of them, except for youngest daughters, any even move to live with their husbands outside the village.

Among most girls of rich families marriage seems to be something quite separate from courtship. There is competition among them about bride price, and they still prefer to ask for their parents’ approval of the boys they want to marry. Many girls, particularly the youngest daughters, still allow their parents to arrange their marriage for them.

There is an accepted standard for bride price among the rich and well‐to‐do families in Ban Muang Khao. It should not be below 6,000 baht and the bride’s parents generally prefer to receive it in cash rather than in the form of valuable objects, such as gold belts, necklaces and bracelets. If the bride price is less than 6,000 baht, the girl and her family appear humiliated and the boy his regarded as a poor bridegroom who comes to live with his wife. Bride price is always paid in a sum of even number such as 6,000 baht and 8,000 baht because odd numbers are regarded as unlucky for the bride and bridegroom. The highest bride price to have been paid in Ban Muang Khao is between 12,000 and 20,000 baht. Most boys cannot afford to pay a bride price of more than 6,000 baht without the help of their parents.

The demand of bride price is an effective means to discriminate against those suitors whom the parents or the girl do not like. It is regarded as impolite if the girl or her parents refuse at once the marriage proposal of a boy they do not like. So they find and alternative by demanding so high a bride price that the boy and his parents cannot afford to pay it. However, there are many cases where the boy has managed to meet such a demand and the girl has been forced to marry him. In such case the girl’s parents consider that the boy really loves their daughter and will make her happy.

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While the ordination is an opportunity for boy to fulfil the religious desires of their parents, marriage is to enable girls to bring their husbands to help their parents and take care of them in their old age. The wedding ceremony usually takes place in the girl’s house after the go‐between (thao kae), who is mostly an elderly man and woman acquainted with the girl’s family, has settled the bride price with her parents. An auspicious day is consulted from the astrology book or from the ritual expert, who will act as the officiant (mo khwan) in the ceremony.

The wedding ceremony is never performed on such a grand scale as the ordination ceremony. It is mainly a sukhwan ceremony that lasts only for one day, and those who come to take part in the ceremony are simply the elders, relatives and friends within the village and the nearby village. The bridegroom, accompanied by his parents, relatives and friends comes to the bride’s house in the morning and is taken to sit with his bride in the ritual room. The officiant (mo khwan) lights candles and joss sticks and asks everybody to pay homage to the Triple Gon (the Buddha, His Teaching, and the monk). When finished, he chants an invitation to the gods and spirits of various kinds to come to witness the ceremony and to bless the bride and groom. And when the invitation is over, he ties the wrists of the couple with a sacred thread and chants the calling of life spirits (khwan) to enter their bodies.

Next the officiant (mo khwan) gives advice and moral instruction to the bride and the bridegroom and sprinkles them with sacred water (nam mon). He picks up a lump of rice, a banana and an egg and puts them into the hands of the couple, and he is followed by the parents and the other elders who tie bits of thread to the wrists of the couple, put some coins in their hands and wish them a successful and happy married life. After the elders other, younger, relatives and friends follow the same ritual towards the bride and bridegroom. The sukhwan ceremony ends with the officiant (mo khwan) chanting the blessing for everybody taking part in the ceremony.

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After the sukhwan rite, the bride and the bridegroom are brought to the kitchen to take a look at the rice‐pot which contains three lumps of rice representing silver, gold and jewels. They prostrate themselves in front of the stove to pay homage to the Goddess of stove and fire (mae tao fai) and then come out to the front of the house to pay homage to the staircase of the house (hua kra daj ban) which is believed to be guarded by the spirit. There is a big feast for lunch and after this the bridegroom has to leave the girl’s house to stay in a neighbour’s house until evening. Most of the guests take their leave after lunch.

In the evening the bridegroom is called to the girl’s house and taken to the bedroom where he is greeted by two elderly men and women who have a happy married life. They prepare the bed for him and his bride, who pretend to sleep in the bed together as husband and wife. At this time another elderly woman approaches them and makes the sound of a cock crow to wake them up, so that they can bless the married couple. After this everybody has dinner together and then the wedding ceremony is over.

At night, before the couple go to sleep, the girl’s parents make a ritual tray of khan ha for their daughter. It is a tray containing five flowers, five joss sticks, and five candles. The girl takes it to present to her husband and then asks him for his forgiveness if she happens to do something to offend him. It is believed that the husband who has been ordained as a monk is endorsed with some sacred power which may stay in his head, and that if the girl happens to touch his head or step over his body, bad luck will befall her.

Three days after the wedding, the husband has to bring his wife to his house to pay homage to his parents. The girls shall to cook some food to offer to her parents‐in‐law at this occasion.

They spend a few days with the husband’s parents and then return to the girl’s house to begin their married life.

In some marriages, when a Ban Muang Khao girl married a Thai boy, there will be other Thai customs added to the Puan ones.

There will be a khan mag ceremony, for instance, a rod nam

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ceremony and religious rites performed by the monks before the sukhwan ceremony. I do not propose to describe them here. They have been practised in the same way in most of the Thai villages in Central Thailand and do not affect the traditional ceremony of the Puan villagers (see for example. Kaufman, 1960: 150‐156 for a description of the marriage ceremonies among the Thai in Bang Khuad)

During the wedding ceremony, there are many taboos that the participants have to observe and avoid. Most food and ritual items have to be prepared an even number and everybody must try to avoid breaking things like plates, dishes and glasses. No broken materials are admitted into the house because they are considered a bad omen foe the bride and bridegroom. If , on the eve of the wedding, someone in the family happens to die, the marriage must be cancelled and the bridegroom’s family have to send the go‐between (thao kao) to approach the bride’s family again to arrange the marriage ceremony. This procedure suggests a new bride and bridegroom, who have nothing to do with the former couple.

In the present day marriage ceremony of Ban Muang Khao Puan may marry Thai and the inclusion of Thai customs, particularly the performance of the monks at the wedding, is permitted. This reflects the encroachment of Buddhist rites into the traditional marriage customs of the village. The presence of the Buddhist rite in marriage is regarded as a feature of the rural areas of Central Thailand in contrast to other regions, particularly in the North, where the marriage ceremony includes only the sukhwan ritual and the placation of the spirits (Wijeyewardene, 1967: 67).

5. Adulthood and Old Age

After marriage both man and woman pass to adult life. The man works hard both in the field and at home. He has to fetch water from the well to fill the big jars in the house and to cut firewood for the household cooking. When he is free from his work in the field he hires himself out as a wage labourer for a

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small income in order to support the family. There are few occasions in a day when married men have time to break off their work for a chat.

Women, on the contrary, as soon as they are married, shake off their shyness and take up a sophisticated role. They often visit each other and sometimes join in groups chatting and gossiping.

In some social events like household rituals and New Year festivals (Songkran) they sing, dance and drink together. They become active participants in the wat activities, bringing food to the monks and giving free labour to the wat when needed.

When comparing the roles of the sexes in Ban Muang Khao at the present time, there are some disparities in terms of their social and religious life. The man is attached to the earning of income to support his family and often goes on business trips to towns and cities. He is not attached to the wat and will come only to relax and chat with friends when he is free from work or is asked by his wife and elders to help the wat. The women view the world in with a narrower scope than the men. The village is the world in which they have lived since they were born. The wat, their families, their kin and neighbour, rice farming, and what is going on in the village are the subjects that dominate their daily conversation and gossip. Because of this, the village customs and traditional values have been passed down continuously from generation to generation through the women.

However, the gap between man and woman in their social and religious life becomes smaller when both of them reach old age. The man disengages himself gradually from socio‐economic interests outside his own village and turns more and more to the wat. He often visits it, bringing food to offer to the monks, chatting and joining friends in the wat discussion group. (See pages 45‐46). For some old men who have come from outside as well as for the in‐married husband, old age seem to be the time when they are completely absorbed into the village. They become the strong advocates for maintaining the wat and the village rituals and ceremonies.

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Like the man and a woman, when she reach old age, becomes less active in mundane affairs and leaves the younger women to replace her. She turns to the wat and is concerned mainly in making merit (tham bun) which will help her to go to a happy place in afterlife.

6. Death

Most aged villagers face death with courage. It is regarded as natural and with their firm belief in the Buddha and making merit they feel well‐prepared for the next life. When a person dies, his friends or relatives who hear the news hurry to his house to help his family in arranging the funeral rites. This is done without any invitation from the bereaved family.

The first funeral rite to be performed is the bathing of the corpse by the living. It is aimed at washing away his sin and making him clean before he enters into the other world. For the living it represents asking the dead for what they may have done to him and also offers him honour and respect. The dead man is then dressed and covered with a white cloth. Joss sticks and candles are lighted and kept burning near his body. In the evening the monks are invited to chant the service and kin, neighbours and friends are in attendance throughout the ceremony.

The next morning the monks are invited to have breakfast and chant the service at the house and again the bereaved family is assisted by their kin and neighbours who bring food and gifts to join the tak batra ceremony to the monks. After the morning service, the dead man’s body is wrapped in a white cloth and put into a coffin in the middle of the room. Throughout the day, friends and relatives from outside come into visit the bereaved family and pay homage to the dead man’s body. Joss sticks and candles are lighted by each other visitor and kept burning constantly in front of the coffin.

It is customary for the body to be kept in the house for two days to give the dead man’s children, close kin and friends who are living far away an opportunity to come to take part in the

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funeral ceremony. Each day the monks are invited to chant the evening service and have breakfast next morning. Friends and kin from outside spend the night with the dead man’s family.

Neighbours and kin in the same village always come in and out to help the family to cook and prepare food for the monks and guests.

On the afternoon of the third day, the coffin is brought from the house to the crematory place. There is a long mourning procession led by a small band of musicians playing a mourning song. The coffin is put on a carriage which is surrounded by the dead man’s family, his kin and neighbours, including the hamlet headman, the elders and friends, all of whom carry the sacred cord which is fastened to the coffin. When the graveyard is reached, the coffin is taken to the ceremonial building, where the monks are invited to chant the service. When the proper time comes, the coffin is brought to the funeral pyre. The yellow robe attached to the sacred cord is placed on the foot of the coffin. The mourners begin to perform the mock cremation rite by putting tapers made of pinewood and of sandal wood fibre in the shape of flowers under the coffin. At this time the monks chant the service.

This mock cremation rite is aimed at giving all mourners an opportunity to perform a farewell rite to the dead.

When the mock ceremony is finished, a monk approaches the coffin and pulls the yellow robe from the coffin so that it falls to the ground, where it is collected later to be giving to the monk.

At the moment when the monk pulls the yellow robe from the coffin, the cremation rite begins. The firewood under the coffin is set alight and close friends and relatives help to add wood to the pyre. Most people leave at this time, leaving a few relatives and friends helping the caretaker to deal with the corpse until it consumed.

A final evening service in the house is held on the night of cremation. The monks are invited to perform the ceremony and they come again next morning to have breakfast and perform a short chanting ceremony. A water‐pouring rite is carried out to transfer merit to the dead and the family then goes to the

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crematory place to collect the ashes and bones of the dead. A small quantity of them is put into a small urn to keep in the house but the rest are taken to be buried in the graveyard by the caretaker

In some families, a special mourning service is held at the house seven days after the death to ensure the happiness of those who are still living. The monks are invited to chant the service and have either breakfast or lunch. Relatives and neighbours join in performing the tak batre ceremony and presenting gifts to the monks. A feast is provided foe the participants after the monks have left.

As it is always practised in Ban Muang Khao, there is another post‐cremation rite for the dead called “Tham bun banju kra duk” or the ceremony of enshrining the bone. The bereaved family keeps the bones of the dead person foe some years and when they collected enough money, and when other children and close kin are ready to take part, they will hold another funeral rite in the house. Friends, relatives and neighbours are invited to join, and the monks are asked to perform a chanting service and have breakfast. On the following day the urn containing the bones of the dead man is taken to the wat in a long mourning procession. It is then enshrined in a small shrine in the wat compound. The ceremony usually ends with a big feast in the wat for the monks and all the participants. After the ceremony of enshrining the bones, the family will perform from time to time a bang‐sakula rite to transfer merit to the dead person. Such a ritual is a short one and is usually included in other household ceremonies which are performed from time to time throughout the year.

Conclusion

The Ban Muang Khao villagers have, like Thai villagers elsewhere, a bilateral and ego‐oriented kinship system. With bilateral inheritance of rice land and property for every child, the family tends to split when it reaches a stem family level. Like the bilek family of the Iban in Borneo (Freeman, 1960: 65‐87) the children, when married, have a strong desire to establish their

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own nuclear household and such partition has precluded the development of laterally extended families.

A single household with a nuclear family is the ideal for all.

It is a socio‐economic unit which has both co‐residence and domestic functions. Beyond the household level, there is no corporate kin group but a villager lives close to his kindred, who may be the other married siblings sharing the same house compound with him. He is also linked by a kinship network to kindred living in other villages, towns and cities far away.

The residential pattern is matri‐uxorilocal. The youngest daughter inherits the parents’ house and its contents. Each older daughter, when married, brings her husband to live and work with her parents for a period of two to three years and then separates from them to set up a nuclear household in the village.

As most children, particularly the daughters, allow their parents to arrange marriage for them, a high degree of village endogamy is present, but this is declining in the new generation as most village boys now “marry out”.

Beyond the family household and kindred and cutting across the kinship ties, the villagers are bound together by an emotional tie of living in the same locality – the village. They regard each other as a village brotherhood (Bailey, 1960: 21) the phi‐nuang‐ruam‐ban relationship. This is expressed through their inter dependence in economic and social activities such as building a house, harvesting rice and holding the household ceremonies, and they address each other in kinship terms. Status relationship in the village, i.e., between the villagers and the rich, the headmen, the school teachers, the village doctors and the monks, does not depart from the egalitarian attitude of the village brotherhood. The lay villagers treat such people as they do their elders in contrast to the superior‐ subordinate relationship which exists between the villagers and government officials and police outside the village community.

There is apparently no class distinction within the village.

The poor and the rich have a similar life style and tend to mix freely together. Competition among them is mainly to maintain n

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the same way of living, i.e., to have a big house, to be able to arrange household ceremonies like ordination and funeral rites and to give some contribution to the wat. If any rich villagers try to break with this value and stay aloof, they will soon become the subject of gossip and avoidance. Social conflict within the village is rather personal and confined mostly within the family and kin groups. When it happens, the elders, other kin and neighbours often act as mediators. There is no power struggle or economic competition that separates the villagers into opposing factions.

The life of men and women in Ban Muang Khao is related closely to Buddhism and the animistic cults which are expressed in the rites of passage of the different stages from birth to death.

Each ritual has its significance in the social organisation of the village. It draws together people from various categories within the village, such as the headmen, the elders, the monks, kin and neighbours of different sexes and ages, to co‐operate with and support one another. Further, some ceremonies, like ordination and funeral rites, relate the villagers to their ego‐centre network outside the village community, i.e., they are performed on a grand scale and bring in friends and relatives from the neighbouring villagers, towns and cities for reunion.

There is some difference in the religious roles of men and women in the village situation. A man, though can be ordained as a monk to fulfil the desire of his parents, has less contact with the wat. He must move out to live outside the village when he marries and is more concerned with earning the family’s living. A woman plays a more important role in maintaining the religious activities and the wat. She lives most of her life in the village and is not greatly involved with social and economic activities outside the village. It is through women that the religious customs and values of village have been handed down from generation to generation.

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CHAPTER III The Economy

1. Rice as a Staple Food and a Way of Life

In Ban Muang Khao, as elsewhere in Thailand, rice cultivation is the main economic activity; and here more than 85% of all adult villagers engage in it as their principle occupation.

Even the specialists and professional men – shopkeepers, school teachers, village doctor, and the owner of the rice‐mill, either cultivate rice to supplement their income or lease their land a crop sharing basis to other villagers.

As a staple food, rice is both a subsistence crop and a cash crop to villagers. In everyday life, it is the main component of every meal. It is steamed and eaten with the kub‐khao which may be boiled vegetables, cooked meat or pickled fish (pla ra), etc.

Kub‐khao is a term for food which accompanied rice. The villagers say that they can survive in time of drought on only a small bowl of rice daily, and drinking water.

Rice also occupies an important place in the social and ceremonial life of villagers. It is always served during the feast at every social gathering. To become friends villagers must “eat rice” together and to invite a guest to eat rice is their way of expressing hospitality, intimacy and friendliness. Rice is offered to the monks at the wat in order to acquire merit, as well as to the household and village guardian spirits during various rituals that take place within the village. A poor villager will never lose an opportunity of accumulating merit, even if he has only a small bowl of rice to offer to the monk. For various ceremonial and festival occasions, rice is cooked in many kinds of special dishes such as bamboo rice (khao lam) for the Makhabuja festival and baked rice cake (khao griab) for the New Year celebration. Rice becomes the object of most labour; its production, consumption and sale are the most common topics of the village conversation. It is planted in a wide area and thus brings the villagers into an extra‐community relationship with the outside world.

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2. Rice farming

There are two kinds of rice grown in Ban Muang Khao; the non‐glutinous (khao chao) and the glutinous (khao neo). As elsewhere in Central Thailand non‐glutinous rice grown in greater quantity because it is a basic food and a cash crop that enters the world economy, while glutinous rice is planted for a special purpose food and for sweet meals. Each family may grow 4 or 5 rai of glutinous rice. This practise is in contrast to that of the North and the Northeast, where glutinous rice is plated both as a staple and cash crop and non‐glutinous rice is grown in a small quantity as a special food (Moerman, 1968: 195‐197).

In planting rice, the method, technique and kinds of rice chosen vary according to the type of land which, in its turn, is governed by the rains. There are three types of cultivable land for rice; the unirrigated land behind the village, the irrigated land in the jungle (na dong) and the irrigated and flooded land (na thung) in front of the village (See page 14). The unirrigated land behind the village becomes cultivable because of the great amount of humus on its surface. It cannot be irrigated because there are no streams, gullies or ponds in the area and therefore depends solely on rains and dew for its fertility. It is suitable for swidden agriculture. In the past, when the village was still isolated, the villagers practised dry rice cultivation in this area for a subsistence consumption. The farming technique involved was simple. A patch of the jungle was slashed and cut down with simple tools such as axes, knives and mattocks and was then burnt off so that the ashes of the plants would provide manure for the crops. In planting the rice, the villagers used a round stake to punch a hole in the ground into which they poured a few grains of rice of a type suitable for unirrigated land, and left it to grow until harvest‐time.

Today only poor villagers still practise dry rice cultivation.

Most of them new cultivate wet rice, in the flooded land and in the irrigated jungle land, for cash crops. The unirrigated land is left to lie fallow or for planting supplementary crops such as peanuts, beans, sweet potatoes and corn whenever the villagers are free from wet rice farming. These crops are for local consumption.

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The flooded land (na thung) is watered by rains during May and flooded by rising streams and rivers from July to October. The wet rice cultivation methods are involved, the broadcasting and the transplanting. In the area near the village the land is slightly higher. The villagers use transplanting rice (khao bao) here, as during flood‐time the water level does not rise too high for the crop to survive, and Khao bao gives a higher yield than broadcast rice (khao nak). In the deep waters of the low areas, which make up most of the flat plain, the broadcasting method is used, so that villagers practise broadcasting more widely than transplanting.

The flooded field (na thung) is the main economic base for the Ban Muang Khao villagers because most of them own the paddy fields and grow rice there both for their own consumption and as a cash crop.

The irrigated land in the jungle (na dong) is low land near the swamps, streams and gullies. It becomes dry during winter and summer but in the rainy season can be irrigated for cultivating transplanting rice. Only the rich villagers own paddy fields here,11 and others come out to hire land for cultivating rice only when they need more cash or have not enough land in the flooded plain.

3. Rice Cycle

The commencement of the rice cycle is marked by the coming of the rains which normally begin in March. The villagers are then occupied with the broadcasting of rice in the flooded land. Those who use a tractor to plough the fields usually start in February while those who use buffaloes prefer to wait until March to give their animals some rest from the previous year’s work.

The fields are ploughed twice; the first ploughing is done before planting to loosen the ground and destroy weeds and second is done at the time of sowing the rice. Before starting to plough the field most villagers consult the almanac or the astrologer for the auspicious day for the first ploughing. They do not practise the first ploughing ceremony (raegna khwan) like

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those in Ban Kok Peep and Thai villages elsewhere (Kaufman, 1960: 201). Ploughing by tractor is done at night or in the early morning from about 4 a.m. until 10 a.m. as it is cooler at this time for the tractor, while ploughing by buffaloes starts at 5 a.m. and continues until 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. when the buffaloes are allowed to rest and the men return home to have a meal. Normally ploughing is the man’s job but women will do it when labour is short.

Broadcasting or sowing the rice seeds is the women’s job and again each family has to observe an auspicious day for the first broadcasting (raeg wan). It is usually done in the morning when the sun is not so strong. About seven days after sowing, the rice begins to sprout. If there are good rains it grows well and quickly, but if not the villagers have to re‐sow it. During the period after rice has been sown, it is the duty of women and children to look after the fields, to do the weeding and supervise the growing of the young rice. Fertiliser12 is applied when rice is about a foot high and insecticide is sprayed if the rice is attacked by insects (See pages 74, 92).

May

Rain fall regularly in May, the fields become waterlogged and the broadcast rice (khao nak) grows hard and healthy. At this time the villagers turn to the planting of the transplanting rice (khao bao). A small plot of land is selected, ploughing and harrowed to prepare a seed‐bed and after rice has been sown in it, the villagers begin to work on the field, making or repairing the earth banks for irrigation.

Those who own or hire rice‐fields in the jungle (na dong) start out with their buffalo carts carrying farming tools, rice seed for planting, clothes, food supplies and cooking utensils for their farm houses in the jungle. Husbands and wives go out together leaving children with grandparents or relatives in the village because they have to go to school. When the seed‐beds are ready and the retaining banks have been repaired, most villagers spend their time repairing and making farming tools and fish traps. They

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have to wait for the seedlings in the seed‐bed to grow up for at least a month before the transplanting begins.

June In June, when the seedlings are ready and the irrigated field holds enough rain water, the villagers start to transplant the seedlings into the field. They do not perform any rituals of the first transplanting (raeg dam) but they do observe an auspicious day for it in the same way as at ploughing and sowing time. Two days prier to the transplanting work, the villagers are busy uprooting the seedling (thon kra) from the seed‐bed. This is urgent work and has to be done at the right time in relation to transplanting because the seedlings, once uprooted, have to be replanted as soon as possible. So if a villager cultivates only a few rai, he can use his own household labour, asking for some help (khau raeng) from his kin or exchanging labour with them. But if he has to grow rice ever an area of more than thirty rai, he has to exchange labour (aw raeng) with his kin and neighbours or even hire it.

The uprooting and transplanting of the seedlings into the field are done by groups of both men and women from about 7.30 in the morning until 5.30 p.m. The owner of the rice field has to provide lunch for those who work for him. Seedlings are uprooted from the seed‐bed, cut into equal lengths, tied bundles and then left soaking in the seed‐bed overnight. The next day they are transferred by buffalo cart to the irrigated field where they are replanted.

After the transplanting work is done, the villagers still have to devote more care to the growing seedling than they do to their fields of broadcast rice. The water level must be kept high enough for the plants to grow but when it rises too high, through heavy rain, some water must be drained off. If the rice field is attacked by crabs, water must again be drained off to prevent the crabs from biting the young plants. Fertiliser has to be put into the fields twice, first after transplanting and then when the rice is about three feet high. Those who go out to grow rice in the jungle (na dong) cannot return to the village but have to remain in their farm‐house taking care of the crop until the harvesting is finished.

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July to November

The period from July until October is the high water season.

Rains continue and the rice field (na thung) in front of the village is flooded by rising water. The rice hardens and flowers form.

Most villagers are free and spend their time in making and repairing fish traps, and other farming tools for the harvesting and threshing periods. Some go out to work as wage labourers, as timber‐sawers, carpenters and coolies for the rice merchants.

Others grow secondary crops such as sweet potatoes, peanuts, beans etc.

Late in August the rice is pregnant, and if it is healthy and appear likely to give a good yield, if it bring great delight to the villagers. They can now dream of the income it will bring and of spending to be done after the harvest. The Thai villagers go out into the field at this time with food, fruit and joss stcks to perform the tham khwan khao ceremony or ceremony of pleasing the Goddess of Rice (see the Ritual of Chalew in Kaufman, 1960: 206).

December

In December the transplanting rice (khao bao) is fully nature and ready to be harvested. Villagers go out to the field in the morning about 5 a.m. and work there until 3 p.m. Harvesting the rice (long khaeg) is done in groups on the basis of labour exchange (see pages 86‐87) and hired labour, just as in the transplanting of the seedlings. The owner of the rice field must provide lunch for his labour. Rice is cut very quickly with sickles and left in the field until the whole block of the paddy been harvested. The villagers then come back to bind it into bundles and put it on the buffalo carts which bring it to the threshing‐floor near the village.

Threshing the transplanting rice (khao bao) is usually done in the evening after dinner, i.e., about 7.30 p.m. until midnight.

Most villagers hire a tractor to thresh rice for them because it does the job more quickly than the buffaloes. A threshing‐floor is usually shared by 5 or 6 villagers. When one of them has his rice threshed the others will help to sweep and clear the stacks off the threshing‐floor and to winnowing it. After winnowing, the rice is

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transferred by buffalo cart to the granary in the household compound. By this time those who go out to grow rice in the jungle (na dong), begin to leave the farm‐houses, bringing their rice and equipment back to the village.

January and February

January is the time for harvesting the broadcasting rice (khao nak). By this time the flooded field (na thung) in front of the village has dried out and becomes dotted with groups of villagers harvesting the khao nak. Threshing‐floors are prepared in the middle of the field by the women and when this is finished, the bundles of harvested rice are piled up in a big heap (lom) around the threshing floor. Some villagers, particularly the Thai, perform the ritual of “soothing the life spirit of rice” (Tham khwan lan), and the auspicious day is ascertained before the rice is threshed.

Food, flowers and other ritual items are brought to be placed in the rice pile. Bamboo flags (made from coloured paper or cloth containing Pali script) are put at the four cardinal points on the top of the rice pile. The villagers light joss sticks and candles to make an apology to the Goddess of Rice because she is about to be threshed and to ask for a large amount of good rice from the threshing.

If any bad omen should occur before the rice is threshed – if some of the rice bundles are burnt or a strange animal is found in the rice pile, for example –the owner of the paddy has to invite the monks to eat breakfast in the threshing‐floor and then to chant the service to ward off the evil spirits. Such a ceremony is called Tham bun lan and is performed both by the Thai and the Puan villagers.

Threshing the broadcasting rice or khao nak is usually done in the day time by tractor, and when all the rice is threshed the villagers help each other in terms of exchanging labour (aw raeng) to do the winnowing.

After winnowing, the rice is left in heaps on the threshing floor for transferring to the granary in the house compound. An auspicious day is chosen foe this, and it is general practise for Puan villagers to perform a ceremony of inviting the Goddess of Rice (sukhwan yung) to the granary for the occasion. Three days

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after rice is taken to the granary, the sukhwan ceremony is performed. No rice can be taken from the granary or sold before the sukhwan rite.

An elderly female member of the household goes out into the field to the threshing floor again. She takes with her two kinds of baskets; the first is a flat basket (kra dong) for winnowing rice; the second (kra bung) is to contain the winnowed rice and take it home. On arriving at the threshing‐floor, the woman picks up some of the rice that is scattered there, to winnow it. Only fine and perfect rice is selected to be winnowed, after which it is placed in the kra bung. A piece of coulered cloth is used to cover the rice in the basket, and then the woman carries the baskets back to the house. This is an act of bringing the Goddess of Rice (Mae Phosob) to the house. At home the rice is placed with trays of food and other ritual items – the bai sri with a hard boiled egg on top, boiled chicken, a bottle of spirit,13 fishes, potatoes, glutinous rice, cake and sweets. All these are offered to the Goddess of rice, in calling her khwan and asking her to stay in the granary within the house compound. Joss sticks and candles are lit when the villagers inform the goddess.

During the sukhwan ceremony, the monks are invited to have lunch at the house and gilts are presented to them afterwards. There is a water pouring ceremony (troj nam) before the monks leave, to transfer merit to the spirits, the dead and all the living. When the ceremony is finished, the rice in the basket, together with other ritual items, is taken to be eaten and drunk by the participants. This is an act of inviting the Goddess of Rice to the granary.

Most Ban Muang Khao villagers regard the sukhwan yung ceremony as the most important of all rites performed in rice farming. The Mae Phosob or Goddess of Rice will now stay in the granary (yung) to protect rice against rotting and being eaten by rats and other vermin.

The sukhwan yung ceremony marks the end of the rice cycle, and after this rice can be sold or stored to wait for a good price sometime later in the year. At this time all the rice fields are

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burnt off to get rid of the straw and grass is preparing for the next ploughing season when rains come again.

4. Selling Rice

In selling their rice, Ban Muang Khao villagers are fortunate enough not to have to take it outside the village or deal with outside middlemen. There are four middlemen who are concerned with buying rice from the villagers and none of them is regarded as an outsider. Three of them live in the market; the owner of the rice mill, a rice merchant and a landlady. These people do not actively canvass the villagers to sell their rice to them, because they already have their own rice from their own land or from land they have rented. They prefer to wait for the villagers to approach them to buy their rice whenever they need money. When this happens they always give them the market price without requiring any additional profit for themselves.

The fourth middleman is the owner of the rice mill in Ban Dan, whose father‐in‐law was a Ban Muang Khao man who moved to live in Ban Dan with his wife. He is more active than the others and sends his man to approach the villagers whenever the market price of the rice is high. Most villagers prefer to sell rice to him because they always get a good price and some assistance in transportation.

The poor villagers, usually, start to sell their rice soon after they have finished threshing. They rarely bring rice to store in the granary because they need cash quickly to pay off their rent, debts and interest to landlords. During this period the middleman in Ban Dan sends his men to approach them and if they want to sell their rice, he will send a truck to collect the rice from the threshing‐floor. Some poor villagers do not sell their rice at once, but allow the middleman to take their rice for storage in his rice mill. When they want money, they arrange to sell it and collect the money from him.

If the rice does not bring a good price harvesting the richer villagers prefer to store it in their granaries until the price

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improves. Actually the broadcasting rice (khao mak) is sold first, while the transplanting rice (khao bao) is kept longer, sometimes until October when the villagers can estimate the yield of the following year. The price of broadcasting rice is lower than that of the transplanting. It is between 8 to 9 baht per tang (20 litres, while the transplanting rice is between 14 to 16 baht. As a general practise, villagers sell their rice in kwien, which is equal to 100 tang. A kwien of transplanting rice costs from 980 to 1,010 baht, and that of the transplanting rice from 1,200 to 1,300 baht.

In 1969, the government’s rice centre in the District of Prachantakan gave the price of broadcasting rice as 1,000 baht per kwien but charged 20 baht transportation fee from the seller. Thus the villagers received only 980 baht for a kwien. The middleman from Ban Dan gave the villagers 1,010 baht for kwien of broadcasting rice and sent his man and trucks to take rice from the granaries at their houses.The owner of the rice paid nothing for transportation. He had only to pay 6 baht to hire his neighbour to weigh his rice before it was transferred to the truck. Thus he received 1,004 baht for a kwien. Nearly everyone in the village sold their rice to this middleman, and none of them dealt with government’s rice agent.

II. Subsistence Living

Apart from growing rice as a staple food and for cash, there are other means, and mechanisms that serve to maintain the subsistence level of the villagers’ socio‐economic living.

1. Food and Supplementary Income

Every villagers eats three meals a day of very little variety, each consisting of steamed rice with one or two boiled or fresh vegetables, pickled fish, fish sauce, curry of pork or beef, chill pepper, a bit of garlic or onion, sometimes an egg and a small portion of fruit. There is a slight difference between the rich and the poor concerning food, in that the rich can afford to eat more meat more often than the poor. No one in the village is starving or

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short of food because the social and physical environments of the village provide various means to acquire sufficient food and to supplement income. This is deny by fishing, raising poultry, pigs maintaining a small household garden, weaving bamboo hats, timber‐sawing and working for a wage.

a) Fishing is a form of subsistence production as the fish which is caught is not sold, but used for household consumption, often pickled or dried. If the supply of fish is beyond the needs of one’s family, it is given to other kin and neighbours.

The villagers start fishing in late November when the floodwaters are retreating from the rice field. But, the large scale fishing takes place in January, when everybody has finished threshing rice and brought it home. At this time the villagers are free, and the flooded field (na thung) has dried out. The fish is now confined in the water ways and ponds and easy for villagers to catch. Fishing during this period is regarded as a social event because villagers go out in groups, talking, joking together and cooperating in catching the fish. When the day is finished, those who have caught the most will distribute some of it among those who have had a small catch.

Most of the fish caught is not eaten at once, but made into pickle fish (pla ra), which is the most basic items of food next to rice. Many old villagers say that they could easily exist without killing animals such as pigs and poultry, but not without fishing for their lives have owed a great deal to the pla ra. Each family is likely to have 3 or 4 jars of pickled fish stored for cooking and eating with rice and vegetables throughout the year.

b) Gardening is another source of subsistence contribution among the villagers. In most houses within the village, a small plot of ground in the household compound is devoted to the cultivation of a small garden for chilli, eggplants, ginger, etc., which are used for household consumption. In addition to this, there is a betel tree in nearly every garden. The villagers grow betel to chew themselves, to give to their kin and friends and sometimes to sell. Most of the villagers are addicted to betel nut chewing. It is part of their life and a social food. Nearly every

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house has it when entertaining guests, who can help themselves without asking their host.

Coconuts, papaya, mangoes and banana are grown in some household compounds for family consumption. Coconut milk is used to cook curry and sweets, the banana tree gives fruit and its trunk for pig‐food. Papaya bears fruit the whole year round and thus provides a casual food for the villagers. Mango bears fruit only once a year. It becomes a seasonal gait to eat with glutinous rice for household and also for offering to the monks during the New Year festival (Songkran).

C) Poultry such as chickens and ducks are kept within the house compound for eggs. Nearly every family keeps about 4 to 8 chickens and feeds them with rice and remains of meals. Ducks are found in few families, and not in large numbers. The villagers do not like ducks because they like muddy places and make the house compound dirty.

D) Pigs are raised in many household for cash, but only in a small number, i.e., about 2 to 4 at a time in each family. They are not raised at the farming level because of the lack of capital, and the uncertainty of income, namely the risk that the animals may die before they can be sold, which could involve the owner in considerable loss. After having been fed for a year, a pig is sold from 900 to 1,000 baht, depending on its weight, and when the expense of raising it has been deducted, the villager earns about 200 baht net.

e) Weaving bamboo hats provides a source of income among women when they are free from their work. Bamboo hats are very popular among people in rural areas all over the country.

They are very cheap but give good protection for those who work or travel in the sun and thus the market demand for them is very stable. There are three steps in making the hats: first is preparing the bamboo bands which are woven from the thin bamboo strips (tawk), the second is making bamboo bands into a hat with the help of sewing machines and the third is painting and decorating the hats before selling them at the markets in Bangkok and Prachinburi.

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The women who make these hats do not usually work through the whole process themselves. Some may prefer only the first step and when finished sell the bamboo bands to others, who make them into a hat and sell them again to those who do only the painting and decorating. In Ban Muang Khao the women are engaged in either the first or second steps of the hat‐making. The old and the married women prefer to do the first step because they can weave the bamboo strips into long bands whenever they are free. The girls are more interested in sewing the bamboo bands into hats because they can handle the sewing machines better than their elders. Income from manufacturing the hats varies from one person to another according to how much they have done.

Actually each person receives at least 100 baht a month while those who have put in more time may get about 300 baht.

On the social side, the making of hats has contributed to some extent to the tendency for the women to cling to village‐life and has discouraged them from taking jobs elsewhere to supplement their income from rice farming.

f) Timber sawing is done by some male villagers during their spare time. It is a recurring job that can be obtained both within and outside the village whenever someone needs planks for building or repairing his house. The workers form groups of from four to ten men, working in pairs with only a large hand‐ operated saw. When one pair is exhausted another takes its place.

Each worker usually earns from 30 to 40 baht a day.

g) Miscellaneous. There are a few villagers engaged in other small jobs like selling foods around the village, doing hairdressing, masonry and working as coolies carrying rice for the middleman during the rice‐selling period

2. Living Conditions and Health

Everyone in the village has a house to live in, whether he lives with kin or buys a plot of land to build a house of his own.

There are no problems about the availability of water or fuel.

There is underground water throughout the village and well are

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dug to utilise it. Some villagers do not dig a well in their house compound, but share one with their kin or neighbours. There is no reluctance to share because this is regarded as a sin (bab). The village is lit by electricity which is extended from the Commune Centre of Ban Kok Peep. Each family pays very little for this service as it is not used for cooking or other purposes. Heat for cooking is always provided by firewood which is available in the jungle behind the village.

The villagers have no special concern for dress nor for spending money on it. The rich and the poor dress in the same way in simple clothes. There are no special costumes that identify ethnic groups or mark the difference between the maid and the married woman. The man wears a sarong or short dark blue pants with a T shirt, and sometimes leaves his chest bare when he is at home. A piece of big rectangular cloth (pha khao ma) which may be used as a bath cloth and a turban, is often used to wrap around the waist in place of the belt.

Women over forty‐five wear the pha nung (sarong or dhoti like skirt) and the pha hang (a large piece of cloth than the pha nung wrapped around the waist like a sarong, drawn up loosely between the legs and tucked into the rear waist band) with under blouses. Women under forty‐five have given up the pha hang and wear only the pha nung14 with under blouses but among the unmarried girls outer blouses are also worn.

When leaving the village outer blouses are worn by all the women. The men wear long trousers and a short‐sleeved shirt.

When working in the field both men and women wear a long‐ sleeved black or dark blue blouse and put on a large straw (ngob) or bamboo hat. The girls may manage to have one or two suits made in the market for wearing on the festive occasions or when they make a trip to the city. Hairdressing is also done for such occasions.

Most villagers enjoy good health and have a long life, when compared with those in the surrounding village. This is many ways due to the physical conditions of the village and the villagers’ knowledge of sanitation. In the first place the village site

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is very hygienic. It is situated on the highland that slopes down towards the vast flooded plain and when there is rain, the water will sweep all the sewage from the household grounds into the footpaths and cart tracks and drain into the lowland area outside the village. Moreover, the ground is very porous; its surface and the layer beneath are laterite and the earth dries out quickly after rain, and is clean and free from mud. No one in the village suffers from skin diseases, such as leprosy which is prevalent in the nearby villages of Ban Kok Wat and Ban Kok Mon where the ground becomes muddy dirty during the rainy season.

Due to urban contact, old forms of medicine and medical care are giving way to modern treatments. For complaints such as headache, stomach‐ache and small cuts and wounds which can be cured by modern medicine, the villagers never hesitate in buying preparations from a drug store or getting treatment from the commune doctor, who has a clinic in the market.

Representatives of various pharmaceutical companies in Bangkok visit the village wat bringing advertising films to show to the villagers and this has done a great deal to spread the use of new medicine and drugs in the village. The people can buy pills, liquids, and ointments at low prices in the market.

Apart from this, the villagers owe a great deal to the commune doctor. This man is not an academically trained practitioner. His only medical training was gained as nurse in the army. He is very experienced with some recurring diseases such as pneumonia, influenza, colds, malaria, typhoid and diarrhea, and has set up a small personal clinic15 in the market under the supervision of a doctor at the hospital in Prachinburi, who may visit the village once or twice a fortnight. In giving medical treatment to a patient, the commune doctor is careful to treat only ailments he is acquainted with, but when a patient is seriously ill or he comes across a disease that is strange to him he will send the sick person to the hospital.

Most villagers prefer to receive treatment from the commune doctor at his clinic, rather than go to the health station at the Commune Centre or to the hospital in the provincial city16. The

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relationship between them and the commune doctor is very close, and they know that he will not expect payment until they have the money. Sometimes he waits for months, to be paid when a villager has sold his rice.

3. Mutual Help and Economic Cooperation

In a village situation like that of Ban Muang Khao, agricultural and religious are a part of the villagers’ lives but at their socio‐economic level, most of them are unlikely to carry them on alone without the help and cooperation are by nature based on reciprocity and emotional ties and expressed in terms of giving free labour (khau raeng) exchange labour (aw raeng) and the financial help (long khan) which is offered in household ceremonies.

a) Khau raeng is literally translated as asking someone for labour. It is done on the basis of helping each other without expecting anything in return. Such an act is confined mostly to kin and close friends and is present in many small scale activities. In all household ceremonies, close friends and kin will come to help in cooking and preparing the place and ritual items, and are present with the host throughout most of the ritual period. In cultivating rice, a villager always asks his kin and close friends to help him in uprooting and transplanting the seedlings, harvesting and threshing. Because of this some villagers who grow only a few rai of rice for their subsistence living do not need to spend anything in hiring labour or to exchange theirs with others.

The Khau raeng is an aspect of patron‐client relationship in the village. The landlord is assisted by his tenants whenever he needs help in his household activities. And in return for their help, the landlord is generous in the renting of land and also gives help, both with money and labour, when his tenants hold their household ceremonies. Thus the khau raeng system tends to break down the business‐like relationship between the landlord and his tenants.

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In Ban Muang Khao the khau raeng system also exists between the villagers and the wat and it is in this way that the village wat reduces its expenditure. It asks for free labour from the villagers in various activities such as in constructing and repairing the wat buildings, in digging the wall, and in preparing the place, ritual items and food for the wat festivities.

Between the villagers and the community the khau raeng system is a type of corveé labour. The headman, the monks and the villagers cooperated together in constructing a village road from the market into the village, passing the wat to join the highway behind the village. And before the village road was built, the Ban Muang Khao villagers gave their free labour with that of the neighbouring villages at the request of the District Officer, to build a commune road that passes the front of the village to link Ban Muang Khao with other villages within the same commune.

b) Aw raeng which means exchange of labour, is another from of cooperation among the villagers. It features in the activities that every family has to perform. The most obvious activities that require the exchange of labour are the cooking of special food for different festivities during the year, the uprooting and transplanting of the rice‐seedlings, and the harvesting and threshing.

As a tradition, most villagers have to cook special food to offer to the monks and eat among the family on various occasions throughout the year (see Chapter V), and as each family cook it in large quantities, they find that it is more economical to cook together and exchange labour with one another. A few days before each festival takes place a group of 10 to 20 women and girls will join together in one house to do the cooking. This sometimes takes the whole morning. The food is then divided among two or three families, and in the afternoon or on the following day, the women will go to cook in another house. Those who have already received food have to help in their turn. This continues until every family taking part in the cooking has special food for the festival.

In rice farming, particularly during the harvesting period, labour is exchanged on a large scale, both among the villagers

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within the same village and with others. A villager can draw labour through his friendship network which is extended by kinship and friendship ties to other villages. His friends come to his rice field in the morning and work until about 3 p.m. Each guest (khaeg) is given two fourths of a rai (two ngan) to harvest at a time and the host must remember and note down how many rai his guest has harvested for him so that he may harvest for him correspondingly. It is usual in exchanging labour, for different members of the family to give their help in different places – father and mother may work for one family while son and daughter work for another.

The aw raeng system in harvesting rice is an important social activity among the young villagers. Boys and girls meet each other and fall in love during this period. It is a joyful time for them. More boys from other villages come in as guests come in as guests during the harvesting and many of them volunteer to help with free labour whom their harvesting is finished.

Nowadays, however, owing to economic change and urban contact, the aw raeng or exchange of labour in the rice field is giving way to hired labour, the implications of which I will discuss later in this chapter.

c) Long Khan is another form of exchanging, but it is concerned with money instead of labour. It is an innovation that the villagers have devised to cope with ceremonial costs and the changing economic situation. To arrange a reasonable household ceremony such as ordination a villager has to spend at least 4,000 baht of which the major portion goes in providing feasts for the guests. If it wore not for the long khan system, this would probably put him into debt or deprive him of any money surplus he might have.

In the past, the kin and friends who were invited to take part in a household ceremony were expected to bring more or less food and other cooking materials to their host but nowadays they are expected to help him with money to help to defray the ceremonial costs. This practise of long khan is accepted on the grounds that every villager will have to arrange household ceremonies at some

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time in his life, so they are all at some time guests and hosts to one another; and money given to help friends will be claimed back when a villager holds his own ceremony.

Long khan begins with the invitation of the guests prior to the date of performing the ceremony. For all household ceremonies, except funeral rites, a villager will get in touch with friends and relatives, both within the same village and outside, at least one or two weeks beforehand. He will tell close friends and relatives by word of mouth asking them to assist at the ceremony, but to those who are not closely acquainted with him, he will send formal invitation cards.

The act of invitation is considered necessary because most ceremonies include a feast, and the villagers regard it as impolite to attend such a ceremony without the invitation from the host. So far as the host is concerned the invitation has two purposes – to display friendship, and to indicate that financial help will be welcome. It is an act of claiming money back from those he has helped in the past, and making new bonds with others whom he will agree to help in the future.

At the ceremony, the host appoints one or two people, perhaps his son or cousins, as treasurer, who will sit by a big silver or bronze bowl (khan) at one corner of the house. When the guests arrive, they will go to the treasurers and give them their contributions. The treasurers will put the money into the bowl and note down the names of the guests and the amount of money they have contributed. This is called an act of long khan (putting money into the bowl). The record of the guests’ names and their contributions will be kept and chocked by the host and at a later time a reciprocal contribution will be made. The guest will also note down how much he has given, so that when he becomes host he will know those to whom he is going to send invitation cards and how much money he can expect from them. The long khan record also helps the host to check who is absent from the ceremony and does not give a contribution. It is not likely that the host will be guests to those who do not help him.

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The guests who come to participate in a household ceremony are usually expected to contribute at least 5 baht each.

And it is the custom among the villagers that if a guest contributes 5 baht to a ceremony, the host must give at least 5 baht, when his turn comes.

The custom of long khan has helped the Ban Muang Khao villagers to stand the cost of arranging their ceremonies. Those who do not often hold ceremonies but attend many others as guests, are likely to claim back all the money they have paid in the past, once they do become the host. The custom helps to keep traditional rituals and ceremonies alive because a household which does not hold ceremonies tends to lose under the long khan system.

The following Table VIII gives the accounts from specific long khan that occurred in Ban Muang khao in 1969 at the house of Nai Sood (See pages 53‐59 dealing with the ordination ceremony). In fact more people attended the ceremony than the 337 recorded but the host had the name noted only of those who contributed more than 5 baht for the long khan. Most villagers contributed 5 to 20 baht; the rich, close friends and kin from 20 to 50 baht while those who gave from 50 to 100 baht were relatives and friends from Bangkok. The last ceremony of this household had been the marriage of the eldest son and for the six years preceding the ordination ceremony the host had taken part in the ceremonies of others. So for the ordination of his youngest son he received long khan contributions approximately equal to his expenses.

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TABLE VII

Money received from the long khan and expenses of the ordination ceremony

Long khan Number Contribution of in baht persons

No.

Cost in baht

No.

1.

5‐10

246

1793

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

10‐20 20‐30 30‐40 40‐50 50‐ 100

57 13 8 5 5

836 305 270 220 285

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

100‐

3

350

7.

Total

337

4059

8.

9.

Total

Expenses Items of expense

Yellow robe and ritual items Beef Pork Spirit Chicken Money offering to the monks (50 baht for the upachya, 25 baht for each kusuad and 10 baht for each of the other) Electricity generator and amplifier Musicians Miscellaneous

Cost in baht 550 750 1000 600 300

230 300 360 4260

III. Economic Change

Ban Muang Khao has undergone a rapid change during the last five years due to increasing urban contact and socio‐economic of a strategic highway Chachoengsao to Krabinburin in 1965, which passes through Panomsarakam, contact with Bangkok and other urban centres has become more convenient. Many young villagers, particularly from the nearby villages of Ban Ton Po, Ban Kok Peep, Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa went out to work with the Americans when they built an air‐base at U‐ToPao in Sataheep and strategic highways in the Northeast. Although only a few of the Ban Muang Khao villagers, who are landless have moved out - 90 -

to work, the community has been affected by these changes. They now desire goods like transistors, bicycles, sewing machines, etc., which have been introduced by those who have been working in urban areas. They now enjoy buying new food products such as sea foods, canned food and drinks such as Pepsi Cola which are available in the market.

The young men look forward to working and living in the city. Some of the rich now buy motor‐cycles and television sets and are on the way to a new life style, distinct from that of the other villagers. These trends are beginning to throw the subsistence living of the villagers out of balance and to cause a change in the village agriculture. Two problems that have a bearing on the present economic change are debt and the use of tractors to replace the traditional buffaloes in rice‐farming.

1.Debt

Debt among the villagers is caused mainly by the lack of sufficient land for cultivating rice for cash, in order to meet an increasing desire for spending beyond the subsistence level. The landless villagers and those who own less than 30 rai of the paddy field are now forced to hire more land from the rich to grow rice.

In the past, when the cost of living was not so high the tenants were able to make a reasonable income from growing rice and to pay off some of their rent to the landlords. They did not spend much money on expenses in the field because there were many things that they could do by themselves or with the help of others.

They could exchange labour (aw raeng) with their neighbours, for example, or asking for free labour (khau raeng) from their friends and relatives. They could use buffaloes to plough the field and they paid little rent to the landlords.

Today they have to pay for nearly everything required in growing rice from the time of preparing the field until the harvesting and threshing. Apart from the increasing rent of land, they have to hire a tractor for ploughing the field, and threshing the rice, buy insecticide, fertiliser, etc., and hire labour for uprooting, transplanting the seedlings and harvesting. All these

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expenses cause them to lose rather than gain, if they do not own enough land and have to hire more (see Table VIII).

TABLE VIII Expenses in rice farming during January 1969

1. Rent of land per rai

100 baht 2.

Ploughing by tractor per rai

13 baht 3. Ploughing by buffaloes per rai

20 baht 4. Uprooting the seedlings per 100 bundle 10 baht 5.

Rice grains for broadcasting per rai

required two tang

20 baht 6.

Rice grains for transplanting per rai

required one tang

10 baht 7.

Transplanting per rai

20‐30 baht 8.

Gathering the harvest per 100 bundles 20‐25 baht 9.

Harvesting per rai

30‐25 baht 10. Threshing per 100 bundles

10‐15 baht 11. Insecticide per rai

10 baht 12. Fertiliser, per rai

40 baht

The villager cannot be contain of a good harvest because his rice crop is at the mercy of the rains. If rain falls steadily from early March a good crop should result. One rai of broadcasting rice (khao nak) may yield from 20 to 30 tang (a tang costs 8 or 9 baht) and one rai of transplanting rice (khao bao) yields from 30 to 40 tang (a tang costs between 14 to 16 baht, See page 79). If rains are scarce, the rice‐yield will be poor. Sometimes a rai of broadcasting rice (khao nak) yields only 2 or 3 tang and this means that a villager will not only lose his expected income but will be further in debt.

In a village like Ban Muang Khao, most villagers, except for the few rich ones, have a very limited money surplus to use as an investment fund for farming rice. When they happen to spend it

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in other ways – in building or repairing the house, for example, in arranging household ceremonies, or in time of need, they are likely to be forced to borrow money from the landlords when the harvesting period is due. A villager who has to borrow any more than 2,000 baht from the landlord is likely to remain in debt for a long time, and to find it difficult to free himself finally without selling up his house and land.

2.The landlord as moneylender

In Ban Muang Khao in which the majority of the villagers own the land, debt is always a part of life. The poor, who own a small amount of land, hire more land and borrow money from the rich. Among the poor, not only is there less and less land being passed on by inheritance, but the little land they have is often sold or taken from them in payment of their debt. Most of the rich in the village who own over 100 rai are those who acquire land through their position of landlord and moneylender to the poor.

When a villager hires land from the landlord he seldom has ready cash to pay rent, and instead signs a promissory note.

Payment is made after the harvest when the rice is sold and may be made either in cash or in rice: if in cash the landlord often charges 100 baht per rai, but if in rice he may ask for a share of the harvest, perhaps half of it if the land is good. The rate of interest varies between 2 and 3 baht per 100 baht a month but some landlords may charge 10 to 12 baht per 100 baht for a year. If the tenant wants to pay interest in rice, he has to give 5 to 6 tang per 100 baht a year. Most landlords prefer to be paid in rice because each tang of rice costs at least 8 baht. If the tenant cannot afford to pay any interest, it will become capital for the following year.

Many landless villagers who cannot pay off their debt have to cultivate rice for the landlords and have their share in return.

Villagers who own land and cannot pay off their debt when it is due, may sell up their land to their creditors. In fact, there are many cases, where land is confiscated or has to be handed over to creditors.

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3.Tractors vs. Buffaloes

In rice farming, the use of buffaloes has occupied the central position in the traditional village technology for nearly half a century. Buffaloes are used to pull the plough in tilling the soil before broadcasting and transplanting rice, to draw the carts for transportation and to thresh rice after the harvest. The buffalo was regarded as a symbol of prestige for the villagers. Those who kept many buffaloes were the rich, who owned a large amount of rice field. But a gradual change is taking place. The villagers keep fewer buffaloes than before and are hiring tractors to plough their fields and thresh their rice.

The tractor has been used in the village since 1960. It reached Ban Muang Khao by way of the Commune Centre of Ban Kok Peep where the rich people had bought and used it. It soon become the labour saving technique for the rich farmers who owned large areas of rice field. With a tractor they could plough at least 50 rai a day so that they no longer has to hire labour for ploughing. Other villagers who did not own a tractor but appreciated its efficiency began to hire them. At first there were four tractors in Ban Kok Peep but when they could not meet the increasing demand during the ploughing period, there were more available for hire in other villages. In Ban Muang Khao a rich villager had bought a tractor17 and his son, who used to work as a mechanic and a truck‐driver, operates it. He runs a tractor ‘hire‐ service’ for the other villagers.

However, the tractor did not have a sudden impact on the rice‐farming of most villagers. The poor and the well‐to‐do still clung to the use of buffaloes because they were a familiar part of their life. They have pestered the skill of manipulating buffaloes in farm‐work and could pass this on to the young. Many villagers believed that buffaloes could plough the filed better them a tractor because the buffalo‐dram plough did not go deeply into the soil and turn up the unhealthy layer below while the disks of the tractor did. Buffaloes could be used to plough all types of rice field, particularly the irrigated and the low flooded field where the soil is always soft, whereas a tractor was easily trapped in the

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ditches and could also cause damage to the dykes around the field.

Moreover, the tractor was regarded as a cash technique. To use it to till the soil meant that the villagers had to pay either cash or rice for its rent. The amount of land owned even by most of the well‐to‐do was not enough to make a tractor necessary for ploughing, and if the poor and the landless villagers had to pay for a tractor as well as for the rent of land, fertiliser, tools, harvesting, etc., they were likely to plunge themselves into debt.

Most villagers could afford buffaloes, which cost from 1,200 baht to 2,000 baht each. The poor could usually manage to own two, but even if they only had one, they could borrow the other one from their friends or kin.

From the socio‐economic point of view, the use of the tractor has only recently become important, as its acceptance has been very slow in the ten years since its introduction. Its recent acceptance has been brought about by other socio‐economic factors – the most apparent being the prevalence of buffalo ‐ stealing and violent robbery.

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PLATE IV

a. Ploughing the irrigated field with buffaloes การไถนาด้ วยควายในนาทดนํ ้า

b. Tractor man and his tractor ploughing the paddy field in the floodplain. การไถนาด้ วยรถแทร็คเตอร์ ในนาทุง่ หรื อพื ้นที่นํ ้าท่วมถึง - 96 -

4. Buffalo‐Stealing

The most serious crime in villages everywhere in Thailand is buffalo‐stealing and robbery with violence. The main cause of such a crime is poverty and it often occurs during the slack periods when villagers are free from planting rice. They are the times when most villagers spend their money; some of them become involved in gambling and when they lose their money, they resort to robbery to keep themselves and their families alive.

Actually violence and robbery become more frequent when rain is scarce and the rice‐yields are bad, which happened frequently during the last decade when the jungle areas were thinned for roads and highways causing the motorways and streams to become shallow and rainfall to decrease.

Buffalo‐stealing is a constant threat to the socio‐economic well‐being of the peasants. The loss of his buffaloes deprives the villager of the main means of cultivating his rice and consequently affects the subsistence living of his family. Without buffaloes he cannot plough the land and rice cannot be sown, transplanted or threshed, and he has no names of transportation. Buffaloes are both a living asset and a commodity and when they are stolen, it means that the villager has lost his money and consequently his morale and will to work.

In trying to recover their stolen buffaloes, villagers run the risk of losing more money, and perhaps their lives. When buffaloes are taken, the owner may gather his friends and cousins in the village to go out in pursuit of them. When they catch up with the robbers they may fight, pay a ransom, or have to give money to those who return the buffaloes to the owner. During the pursuit, the owner of the stolen buffaloes has to be responsible for all meals and drinks for his companions, so the longer the trip is, the more expensive it becomes. Sometimes such a trip is abortive for they find no buffaloes and have to return to the village.

Buffalo‐stealing has often culminated in an inter‐village found. If the pursuing party succeeds in bringing the stolen buffaloes back from the robbers’ village it causes loss of face to the robbers and

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their companions, who will then look for a chance to assault the owner and his companions.

There is no real attempt on the part of the administration to control the bandits and robbers because the whole commune is served by only two policemen, who are stationed at the Commune Centre. When an incident occurs, the police always arrive after the criminals have flown. In 1969, when this study was conducted, there were 7 cases of crime in Ban Muang Khao and other nearby villages; the first was the seizing of buffaloes and the murder of their owner in Ban Muang Khao, the second and the third were violent robbery of poor villagers who lived no the outskirts of the village. The bandits beat the owners of the houses and took away their money. The fourth, fifth and sixth were cases of buffalo‐ stealing in the villages of Ban Bon, Dan Nong Chig and in Panomsarakam. The seventh incident concerned on inter‐village feud arising from buffalo‐stealing.

The fear of buffalo‐stealing and violent robbery has contributed a great deal to the decline in the use of buffaloes in rice farming. Villagers turn more and more to hiring tractors to plough their fields and to thresh their rice. Formerly the rich kept about ten to sixteen buffaloes but now they keep only five or six while the well‐to do and the poor may keep one or two.

The irrigated land in the jungle (na dong) in which the villagers grow transplanting rice with the use of buffaloes has been abandoned by most of them because it has become an area infested with bandits and murderers. Most villagers seem to restrict their farming to the plain (na thung) in front of the village, where tractor‐ploughing is widely used. Those who are affected most by the decline in the use of buffaloes are the poor villagers. It is no longer practicable for them to grow rice as a cash crop and they confine their rice growing to a few rai for their own household consumption. More and more of them now work as wage labourers in the fields of the rich and the well‐to‐do.

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5. Impact of technological change

The change from buffalo agriculture to tractor agriculture, together with increasing debt and the inadequacy of land for cultivating rice, has destroyed many aspects of the villagers’ traditional way of life. Many villagers complain that formerly they had an easy‐going life compared with the hard work today. In the past, for instance, the tilling period begin later. The villagers started ploughing in March and did it only in the morning. They ploughed one or two rai and when it got hot they would stop their work and let the buffaloes graze freely in the field.

Today their life is hurried for they have to start ploughing so early that the buffaloes hardly have time to rest from their work of the previous year. They must plough quickly to keep pace with the tractor, because if they are slow, the fields of their neighbours which surrounded theirs and which are ploughed by tractor will already be tilled, and they will annoy their neighbours if they bring their buffaloes to and fro across their ploughed fields. They cannot let buffaloes graze freely as before, for there is no grass and water around and the buffaloes may wander into the rice field of the others, eating and trumpling on the young rice. The villagers do not have such suitable ground for buffalo‐grating and if they bring them to grass out‐side the village, bandits may easily steal them.

In the past the villagers helped each other more than they do today. Those who did not have any buffaloes might borrow them from their kin and friends. Some of them, when they had finished ploughing their own field, would come to help the others. In transplanting, weeding and harvesting, they cooperated with each other on the basis of offering and exchanging labour, but new such cooperation is limited and they more often hire each other instead.

The tractor has taken over nearly all the work that used to be done by buffaloes but it has to be hired and cannot be used for natural help in the fields as the buffaloes were.

The technological change has given rise to new careers and occupations among the villagers: Wage labour in the fields to replace the helping (khau raeng) and exchanging of labour (aw

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rueng), the tractor men who earn their income by ploughing the fields and threshing rice, and the moving out of young villagers to work in the urban countries.

a) Wage – labourers in the field The poor and the landless villagers cannot stand the cost of growing rice as a cash crop, and are likely to be in debt if they try to do so. Most or them limit their rice growing to a few rai for their own consumption and hire themselves out for wages to the rich. The rich, on the other hand, are turning more and more to cultivating rice on a large scale.

There is competition in obtaining the labour for the harvest because part of the rice field will be burnt down as soon as one far farmer has finished his harvesting and it may cause damage to the crops of those who delay. Hiring out but is therefore a good job for the poor as they can bargain with the rich for a higher wage.

b) The tractor man As most villagers turn more and more to using tractors in rice farming, it gives ruse to a new occupation among the rich who can afford to buy a tractor. The rich farmer becomes a tractor man who owns a rice field himself and at the same time hires himself and his tractor out to plough the fields of other villagers. The presence of the tractor man in village agriculture seems to prevail everywhere in Thailand (Boraan, 1963). His work is an intervillage occupation, as is evident whom two or three tractor men from different villages join each other, working first in one village and then moving on to the others.

However, to cope with a cost of owning a tractor, a tractor man cannot live on ploughing rice fields and threshing rice alone; he has to earn additional income from other crops. The tractor cycle (see Table IX) starts with ploughing fields for broadcasting rice from February until April and for transplanting rice in May and June. From July to November, tractors are brought to plough the land for soya beans and tapioca in other villages in the jungle and from December to January they return to thresh rice for the rice farmers again.

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TABLE IX Cost of hiring tractor in agriculture

Months

Type of work

February‐April

ploughing rice field for

Cost in baht

13 to 15

broadcasting rice per rai

May‐June

ploughing for transplanting rice 13 to 15

per rai

July‐November

ploughing for soya beans and 70 tapioca usually ploughs twice for a rai

December‐January

Threshing rice for 100 bundles 10

c) Seeking work in towns. In earning a living, many villagers see alternatives in urban areas to rice farming or hiring themselves for work in the field. The villager boys who go to study in Bangkok do not come back to the village but prefer to take jobs there as teachers, soldiers and clerks in private companies. Many men have left the families to work as carpenters, shoe makers and wage labourers in Bangkok (See Table X).

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TABLE X Employment in urban areas

No.

Types of employments

1.

Carpenters

2

2.

Shoe makers

25

3.

Watchman

3

4.

Labourer

2

5.

Serviceman

1

6.

Clerk

1

7.

Cook

2

8.

Laundress

3

39

Total

Number

There is a shoe‐factory in Bangkok, the owner of which is a Chinese who used to live in Ban Muang Khao before he was forced to move out by the government’s anti‐Chinese campaign in 1943. This man still has contact with the villagers and has persuaded them to send their sons to work with him in Bangkok.

The boys are accepted first as apprentices, receiving about 40 to 50 baht a month, and after they became experienced they are paid more. The highest income per month for a trained worker is between 1,500 and 2,000 baht. There are many Ban Muang Khao boys working with this Chinese manufacturer and others in the village are expecting to join them.

Recently, many Ban Muang Khao villagers including the girls have begun to follow their friends in other villages in going out to work with the Americans in the Northeast and at the air base at U‐Ta Pao. Some work as watchmen or service men, earning

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from 900 to 1,500 baht a month, and others as clerks at 2,000 to 2,500 baht a month. The girls take jobs as cooks and laundresses, receiving between 800 to 1,200 baht a month.

Conclusion

Like other peasants also where, most Ban Muang Khao villagers practise rice‐farming as a livelihood and a way of life (Redfield, 1967: 13). Rice is a staple food for daily consumption, for entertaining friends and kin at social functions, for offering to the monks in merit, and for making special foods for the various religious festivals of the year. It is also grown on a large scale to sell for cash and thus rice‐farming because the rain occupation that governs other economic activities of the villagers throughout the year. Nearly every stage of planting is accompanied by ritual observations and ceremonies which relate the villagers to animistic belief and Buddhism, ad expressed in the performance of inviting the Goddess of Rice to the granary at the end of rice cycle.

Village life is based on subsistence living. No villager has problems about lodging, food, clothes and health. They all have houses to live in and all eat and dress in a similar way. Their health is relatively good, due to the spreading of medical treatments and preparations. They are helpful and cooperative to each other in agricultural and religious activities as can be seen from the khau raeng, aw raeng and long khan systems. These are mechanisms that serve to maintain the gameinschaft relationship (Mitchell, 1968: 103‐106) of the village society.

However, as the peasants always want to be something other than peasants (Redfield, 1967: 75), the Ban Muang Khao villagers are not content with their subsistence living. With increasing urban contact, the villagers look for more cash and income to spend in buying new materials and foods, which results in throwing their subsistence economy out of balance. Most villagers, particularly the poor, are in debt and often have to sell their land to the rich, who, in turn, acquire more land and property. This situation is intensified by buffalo – stealing and

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violent robbery which has caused the traditional buffalo agriculture to give way to tractor agriculture. The tractor is now institution aliszed and has caused a change (Barth, 1967) in the structure of the village economy. It has created the new occupation of “tractor man” who is hired to plough the field and thresh the rice of other villagers. The poor who can no longer meet the casts of growing rice are becoming alienated from growing it for cash and hiring themselves out as vage labourers to the rich.

Some of them find an alternative to this in moving out to take jobs in the urban areas such as shoe makers, watchmen, clerks, cooks, servicemen, etc.

As a result of such change, rice farming which used to be a personalised activity, manifested in the khau raeng (free labour) and aw raeng (exchange labour) becomes more and more a business‐like activity. Khau raeng and aw raeng are limited to small groups and beyond that are replaced by wage labour. There is an increasing patron‐client relationship between the rich and the poor. The life‐style in general shows signs of change, because of the growing interest of the rich in economic gain and investment in modern goods and service which is passed downwards to the middle and poorer peasants in turn.

Two distinct social strata, the rich and the poor are developing and this seems to agree with Sharp’s observation (sharp, 1960: 100) that:

“there are indications that the wealth

variations and the related minor variations

in prestige and power which do not exist in

villages society are tending toward the

development of a class system.”

Laurison Sharp saw this trend during his study of the rice farming village of Bang Chan as a member of the Cornell Research Team of 1959. By that time Bang Chan was already in contact with Bangkok through the building of a highway, while Ban Muang Khao was 60 miles from Bang Chan and was still isolated from the

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urban centres. Evidence of social class has begun to be apparent in Ban Muang Khao recently since the American contact and it will be more obvious in the future.

Aspects of villages life that have remained unchanged are found in religious activities. Rice is still a means of acquiring merit for both the rich and the poor. It is offered to the monks for their daily meals and also in other big religious ceremonies. Villagers still call for help (khau raeng) from his relatives, neighbours and friends. The long khan system of giving money still operates in the household ceremonies. The wat is still given free labour and supported by the villagers, and remains a part of their traditional life. Hence religion and the wat have a role in monetising the village economy. Blanchard (1957: 116) reported that about 25 percent of the villagers’ income was invested in the wat and religious activities. This is perhaps true in a village like Ban Muang Khao because the villagers spend their money not only in household religious activities, but also in maintaining the wat and supporting its fairs and celebrations.

In my next chapter I will discuss about the village religion, the wat and the monks in connection with the village society.

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CHAPTER IV Religion and the Wat

1. Buddhism The religion that is practised among the Lao Puan of Ban Muang Khao is subsumed under the title of Hinayana Buddhism which is also the state religion of the country. It is by no means a philosophical religion but rather a practical and syncretic one. It is syncretic because it allows other religious elements from Hinduism and animistic belief to be mixed with Buddhism.

Buddhism in its pure form is an atheism because, as Weber said, it leaves the nature of the gods undecided (Bendix, 1966: 167). It is a doctrine of self salvation in which the Lord Buddha is regarded as the Enlightened One who has discovered the Four Noble Truths (Ariya ‐ Sacca) consisting of dukka or suffering, samadaya which means the cause of suffering which is desire, nirodha which moans cessation of suffering which commodes extinction of desire or such longings of the mind and magga or the way to the cessation of suffering (Phra Khantipalo 1967: 3,4.). To hint, the human being is bound by the law of karma or will action which causes hip to be caught up in the natural circle of birth and rebirth or samsara.

There are two kinds of karma: good karma or bun produces good consequences and bad karm or bab produces unfavourable consequences. So the individual’s life‐fact or fortune is determined entirely by karma, good or bad. All karma produced actions are aspects of suffering in a philosophical sense. Hence the elimination of suffering must entail the elimination of karma so that the flow of continuity or circle of births and rebirths can be arrested. This is nirvana, the final release from samsara or suffering.

Nirvana (nippan, as called in Pali and also by the villagers) or salvation as Obeyesekere (1968: 18, 19) renders it, can be achieved by making the decision or the will to pursuer it. It is

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necessary to have done good deeds in order to enter the path of salvation. When this is done, all offer should be directed towards the elimination of all actions both good and bad.

The villagers grasp the concept of Buddhism is at a fairly low intellectual level, but all have some familiarity with the doctrine of karma, which determines the life‐fate or fortune of the individual. One’s morbidly and future existence is inexorably determined by bun or merit and bad or demerit (or sin) accumulated from the previous lives like the various incarnations of the Buddha in the Jataka tales. Those who have acquired a great deal of merit (tham bun) will harvest its good results at some time in this present life or in a future life, either in this earthly world or in the others. They may be rich and happy at some time in this life, or reborn into this world (loka) again with happiness, or into the other superior world or sawan (heaven). On the other hand, the person who has committed a demerit (bab) will suffer from its results either in this life or in the next, in being reborn into this world (loka) into the lower world – narok (hell). Therefore, one should accumulate merit in order to be happy in the future life either in this world or in heaven.

Apart from the doctrines merit and demerit, the villagers conceive the Lord Buddha as both the great teacher and a super‐ natural being (see pages 110‐112). Regarding the Buddha as the great teacher, the observe and celebrated the days that common‐ crete particular events in the life of the Buddah such as Visakhabuja day and Makabuja day. They pay homage to the image of the Buddha, to symbolic objects like the foot print of the Buddha, to the shrine that contains the relics of the Buddha, to the Bodhi tree that gave shade to the Buddha when he attained enlightenment. In private worship and at every religious gathering, the villagers always notion the Tri‐Ratana or the triple gem “I take refuge in the Buddha, I take refuge in the Dhamma, I take refuge in the Sangha” – the Buddha, who by himself discovered, realised and proclaimed the Dhamma, thereby establishing the Buddhist religion; the Dhamma (Universal Truth)

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discovered, realised and proclaimed by the Buddha; the Sangha or monks, who hear, follow and realise the Buddha’s Teachings.

Buddhism in the village situation has contributed a great deal to the psychological life of the villagers. The doctrine of merit‐making (tham bun) offers them not only a better place in their future life but also helps to relieve sorrow in this life. The villagers often attribute their misfortune, poverty and death which may result from accident, murder or disease to their own karma in the past.

2. Hinduism

As Buddhism derives from Hinduism, some Hindu elements have been so closely interwoven with Buddhism that they are indistinguishable to the ordinary worshipper. More apparent are the Hindu gods and the religious rituals. The gods Brahma and Indra have become the Buddhist gods referred to as Phra Prom and Phra In respectively. Other lesser gods or devata have become those the villagers call thewada. The gods and thewada have become the guardians of the Buddhist religion and render protection to its followers. They are beyond the magical control of human beings and are the subjects of propitiation and invitation in rituals and ceremonies, in the sukhwan rite, for example. Villagers learn about the Hindu gods and thewada chiefly through oral literature, particularly the Jataka tales – the story of the previous incarnations of the Buddha, which is preached by monks as a parable (See pages 182‐185 about Ted Mahachad).

The gods and thewada, as conceived by villagers, are those who have done & good deed and accumulated a great deal of merit (bun) in their previous existences and when they die are reborn in heaven (sawan), and enjoy happiness there as supernatural beings. To the villagers, the thewada and their abodes in the heavens are a more desirable goal in making merit than the state of nirvana (nippan) which offers them nothing but non‐existence.

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Apart from sawan (heaven) and thewada, the villagers learn about the narok (hell) where demons and spirits are confined.

They suffer and lead an evil life because of their bad deeds (bab) in past lives. The states of narok gives villagers an undesirable idea of bab and motivates them to avoid committing sin (bab).

Hinduism, as it is incorporated with Buddhism, contributes to the conception of villagers of the cosmos as consisting of three worlds: the lower world or narok for the devils, the loka or the world of human beings, in which the good and the bad may exist together, and the sawan or heaven in which gods and thewada of different ranks reside.

FIGURE VII Buddhist Cosmology

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For the villagers, the view of the cosmos is illustrated by a mural painting found in the wat building, particularly in the bod and wihan (See pages 120‐121) in many wats. The painting covers a complete wall in depicting the story of the Lord Buddha and some of his previous incarnations, particularly the last ten of these. The upper part of the painting illustrates the heavens or abode of gods of various ranks and their subordinates ‐ the thewada; the middle part is concerned with the world of human beings depicting the city‐life of the kings, the nobles and the rich, the outskirts of the city, the rural area and jungle where the poor and the commoners live out their lives; and the lower part is the underworld or narok where the devils are living and the pred or those who committed sin in the previous lives are tortured. It depicts the torture of various kinds of sin ranging from great sins such as adultery, patricide, murder to smaller and trifling sins such as stealing and telling a lie. The painting also describes the relationship between the gods and human beings: the gods and thewada who are subservient to the Buddha, render protection to a good Buddhist, and punish those who commit sin.

3. Animistic Elements

Buddhist knowledge and belief leaves great latitude in fulfiling the religious needs of the villagers in this present world.

It does not deal with crisis situations, or, as Nash (1969: 110) puts it in his study of Burmese Buddhism, “it does not apply in those situations ‘where hope cannot betray nor desire deceive’; it is austere, dealing chiefly with remote things and final ends. This lacuna in Buddhism is filled by an indigenous system of belief – propitiation of nats. Nats and nat worship are omnipresent, interwined with Buddhist ritual and knowledge.” As in Burma, animistic belief is of major importance in the daily life of the Ban Maung Khao villagers and other elsewhere in Thailand (Sunthornpesacch, 1968). There are four categories of supernatural beings believed to exist by villagers; the luang phau18 or the

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Buddha image, the chao spirits, the phi or ghosts and the khwan and winyan (life spirit and soul). a) Luang phau. The villagers not only regard the Buddha as a great teacher who shows then the way to the way to the final happiness they also worship and propitiate his image as a god who can render wealth and happiness and protect them from evil spirits, bad luck and even suffering. There is a cult of worshipping the sacred images of the Buddha: each image becomes personified as the luang phau, which nouns “the great father”, with its special name such as luang phau dam, because it is painted in black, and “luang phau Sothorn”, after wat Sothorn in which the image is housed. As a result there are many luang phau to be worshipped in every wat and some luang phau have their own annual celebrations.

Moreover, other small inanimate objects like the small printed image of the luang phau which one is given during its celebration, is held sacred and sometimes becomes the personification of the luang phau19 It can bestow magical power on the person who possesses it. The printed images of some luang phau specialise in making the persons who carry them invulnerable in attack from all kinds of weapons and others in making the person become attractive to other people.

b) Chao are spirits that are beyond the magical control of human beings, and can only be propitiator. There are two kinds of chao worshipped among the villagers: the first are natural gods and goddesses, which can also be called thewada – for example, Phra Ploeng (god of fire), Phra Pirun (god of rains). Mae Kongka (goddess of rivers), Mae Phosob (goddess of rice), Chao Khao (god of hill), Chao Pa (god of jungle), gods and goddesses of big trees, and Chao thi or Phra Phum Chao Thi (gods of localities).

The other kind of chao spirits are the spirits of great men and women that are still hovering in this world at particular places. They make themselves known to people, either in dreams or by come phenomena or miracles that can be observed or sensed.

This kind of chao are believed to respond to propitiation. Their worshippers build shrines for them in their localities. For some

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chao, there are podiums who serve as a contact between them and the people and annual celebrations are held in their hanour.

The male chao spirit in called chao phau or “the great father, and the female chao mae or “the great mother”. The spirit of the sacred Bodhi tree, for example, is male and is called chao Phau Ton Po. Only the guardian spirit of the village is called Pu Ta which names the great paternal and maternal grand father. When the villagers pray to the luang phau, the chao and gods, they call themselves lug chang or baby elephants. They regard themselves as children of the supernatural beings and the relationship between then is of parents and children or grand parents and grand children.

c) Phi are the ghosts of the dead, and devils or evil spirits that can inflict diseases and bad fortune on the people. They are less powerful than the chao spirits and can be either propitiated or controlled by magical and ritual means. The villagers classify the phi into benevolent and malevolent ghosts according to the way they have died; the ordinary phi are those who have died of natural causes, such as disease and old age; and phi taj hong or those who have died of violent death. For the phi taj hong, the people believe that since it is not yet time for the person to die, the evil spirit must hover about the body until the victim’s proper time of death arrives. To keep the corpse in the house would be courting sickness and fear. It is for this reason that the corpse has to be buried at once in the grave yard for at least two years before it is dug up to be cremated. This is in contrast to the custom in Bang Khuad (Kaufman, 1960: 206, 207), where the corpse must be cremated as quickly as possible in the hope that the phi taj hong will leave.

The other kind of phi are the evil spirits that roam widely to inflict disease and death on people. They are called phi ha and phi pob the first inflicts contagious diseases like cholera, small‐pox and plague; and the other seeks to possess a person to eat his intestines. The spirit will leave the victim’s body when he dies to seek possession of other people. According to the villagers, phi ha and phi pob will attack people only when they fail to observe

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taboos and offend the guardian spirits or the chao spirits who in their turn, allow the evil spirits to enter the village and inflict suffering. Both phi ha and phi pob can be controlled and warded off by magic and religious rites or by propitiation of the luang phau and the chao to ask them to expel the phi.

However, the villagers are convinced that all varieties of spirits, whether chao or phi, have one thing in common, ‐ they are likely to inflict suffering and bad fortune if they are not propitiated, or treated properly; even the spirit of a dead parent can become a thing of evil. It is hard to trust and rely on the spirits and they have to keep on the alert to avoid offending them. This is why, as the century passes, the villagers are tending more or less instinctively to take refuge in Buddhism: those who follow the path of the Buddha and always seek to acquire merit will be immune from the threat of spirits. The Buddha image or luang phau is the mighty being that can control the spirits and small printed images become charms to protect and bring luck to those who carry them.

The wat is regarded as a sacred place that evil spirits cannot enter; and the monks are the lug phra tathakata or the sons of the Buddha who cannot be harmed by the spirits. They can perform religious rites to ward off the evil spirits and any monks who happen to be expert in magic and incantation, are likely to be asked to help by villagers. Any magic, incantation and charms that close from the monks or that relate to Buddhism are deemed more affective and reliable than others because they are regarded as unlikely to produce any ill‐effects in comparison with others, such as black magic (See pages 117‐118), etc. At the same time, the spirits, particularly the chao spirits have become Buddha‐ired20 in the belief of the villagers. This is supported by the absence of animal sacrifice to propitiate the spirits. There is no particular rite to propitiate the Pu Ta, such as the sacrificing of pigs and chickens which takes place in the Northeast (Sunthornpesacch, 1968; 107,109).

Instead, the villagers have incorporated the propitiation of spirits into the Buddhist rites. They invites the spirits to take part

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in the rituals and offer food to them just as they do to the monks.

They make merit with the monks and the wat and then transfer the merit (bun) to the spirits, in the belief that it will make them happy and avert their bad will from themselves.

Although in such ways the villagers turn more and more to Buddhism, they still believe in the existence of the spirits, which thus exert a from of social control in the village society. The villagers believe that if they act in an immoral way or “commit sin”, they are likely to expose themselves to attack from the spirits.

Those who have committed a bad deed (bab) in the previous lives are also attacked by spirits, so the idea of making merit in this life is a very encouraging one.

d) Khwan and winyan. Villagers believe that there is a spiritual essence connected with the human body – the life – spirit of a person. It is known by two names; the khwan and winyan.

The Khwan is attached to an individual when he is still alive, but at the time of death it leaves the body and is called winyan. This belief is a little different from that of the Northeast communities who treat the Khwan and winyan as separate entities (Tambiah, 1968: 39, 40) but the idea is basically the same.

The Khwan is associated with the life of an individual and its absence causes its owner trouble, i.c., it expose him to suffering, illness and misfortune. Because of this, the essence of the sukhwan rites (see Chapter II) is the calling of the khwan to come back to the body and the binding of it to the body of the person for when the ceremony is being held. At the moment of death the khwan or winyan leaves the body for good and cannot be recalled. Thus at a funeral there is no sukhwan rite for the dead person, but in its place a rite to transfer merit to the winyan so that it may be reborn in a better place.

Apart from the khwan of human beings, the villagers believe that the Rice Goddess or Mae Phosob also possesses a life‐spirit (see also Kaufman, 1960: 204‐206). When the rice bears grain, Mae Phosob believed to become pregnant like a human another and her khwan tends to depart at every stage of growth of the rice. The Thai villagers seem to observe and perform the sukhwan rites for

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each of these stages but the Puan of Ban Muang Khao perform them only when taking rice to store in the granary.

4. Spirit‐doctors

Spirit cult, as practised in the village, is limited to a certain group of villagers headed by two female spirit doctors. It is a therapeutic cult which relies on the help of two kinds of chao spirits, the phi fa and the chao phau.

The phi fa is a female spirit living in the sky or in big trees: she is very fond of human beings and likes to make friends with them. Aware that human beings are afraid of spirits and that they will not easily become her friends, the spirit approaches them by causing illness, then curing it when the villagers call for help and so becoming their friend. The spirit doctor serves as the go‐ between in curing the illness and as a contact between patients and spirit.

When a villager informs the spirits doctor of his illness, her procedure is to invite the spirit who is her friend, to possess her during a consultation. Her assistant will ask the spirit about the cause of illness and whether it can be cured. If the spirit informs them that the illness has been inflicted by the spirit, it can be cured by the spirit doctor, but if they are told that it is a natural disease, the spirit doctor will refuse treatment and tell the patient to attend the hospital.

When the spirit doctor accepts the patient, she will usually ask 15 bath for the ritual fee and then make an appointment to perform the therapeutic rite at her house. She takes her assistant who serves as the musician (mo kaen) during the ritual. The spirit doctor lights joss sticks and candles and chants an invitation in Laotian verse to the spirits (one spirit is her friend and the other the one who inflicts illness). The chanting is always accompanied by music from the pan‐pipe (kaen) played by the assistant. Soon the spirits arrive to possess both the spirit doctor and her patient who them chat, sing and dance together, the spirits take their leave, after possessing them for about 45 minutes, and at that

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point the spirit doctor and her assistant can also leave. The next day, or two or three days later, they come back to repeat the rite and after where or four visits the patient becomes stronger and finally recovers.

After his recovery, the patient must join the phi fa group.

The spirit that possesses him during the therapeutic rite becomes his guardian spirit who will contact and possess him again during the annual meeting ceremony (the wai kru ceremony). Each year, on one of the Thursdays of the Sixth month (May) the members are expected to come together at the spirit doctor’s place to invite the spirits to a big feast. Those who cannot come must send some ritual items, and sometimes money and food, to support the ceremony. At the ceremony, the spirit doctor, who is regarded as the chief instructor, chants the invitation to the spirit to come to possess their friends and eat the feast. When the spirits take possession, the members chat, sing and dance to the music of the pan pipe, which is played throughout the meeting. Each period of possession takes about an hour, after which the members have a break to eat their meal. Two or three hours later they invite the spirits to come again. A possession takes place every four hours throughout the day until the ceremony finishes late at night.

As matter of fact the villagers do not like to turn to the phi fa for treatment unless their illness cannot be cured by modern medical treatment. Many villagers who are devout Buddhists condemn the phi fa and do not believe in them. The spirit doctors who are mother and daughter have more than 200 followers but only 15 of them are Bun Muang Khao villagers. During the wai kru ceremony of 1969, there were 68 participants, from Ban Kok Peep, Ban Dan, Ban Chamwa, Ban Nong Sakaem, Prachinburi and Bangkok.

When interviewed, the spirit doctors revealed that they do not practise this therapeutic cult as a profession but only to help their follow‐humans. According to the rules of the phi fa, they cannot charge more than 15 baht and if they violate this they will meet with disaster and become the victim of the phi pob. Their belief in the spirit does not conflict with their faith in Buddhism.

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They go to the wat to offer food to the monks and take part in all kinds of merit‐making ceremonies.

Chao phau. In addition to asking the phi fa spirits to cure illness, the spirit doctors consult the chao phau spirit about illness that the phi fa cannot cure and also seek advice from it about the fortunes of the villagers. There is a shrine of the chao phau in the house compound of a spirit doctor in the village, and the spirit is said to have been invited from the province of Cholburi.

In consulting the chao phau, the spirit doctor dresses herself like a man, holding a sword and asking the spirit to possess her and then letting the villagers consult it through her. Sometimes the chao phau, through the medium will sanctify water for the patient to drink or bathe his body to bring good luck and recovery. Every time the rite is held, a tray of food and ritual items have to be offered at the shrine. The spirit doctor charges a small fee and receives gifts from the villagers.

5. Black Magic and Poison

At the present time, the villagers are both mentally and physically free from the threat of black magic and poison which used to be prevalent in the Commune. Its decline can be attributed to the influence of Buddhism and to urban contact. The knowledge of black magic and poison in believed to have come from the Cambodians in some villages in Panomsarakam, who still practise their use.

So far as the Ban Muang Khao villagers are concerned, there were two kinds of black magic, the same ya‐phad and the khun.

The first was concerned with love and it might be either contagious magic, which was applied to something connected with the victim, such as hairs or clothes, or imitative, using a clay or wax image of the victim. Figures of a couple might be bound together by sacred thread to make them fall in love, or pierced with needles or thorns to cause them to hate each other. The latter, the khun, was protective magic and was more dreadful than the former. The sorcerer used objects such as meat or needles reducing

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them to a very small size, blowing them into the air and then forcing then to enter the victim’s body.

Villagers believed that both types of magic were evil and contrary to Buddhist teachings. Those people who practised them became their own victims; some died and others went insane, so nobody wanted to learn and practise their rites. The last victim of the khun magic was a Chinese in the market who died about fifteen years ago. They found a big piece of buffalo meat in his stomach, which was believed to be a khun released by a buffalo trader from the Northeast 21 who was cheated by him.

As for poison, there were two kinds, the ya bue and the ya sang, both of which were placed secretly in the food that the victim was to eat. The difference between them is that the first would take effect soon after the poisonous food was eaten before.

As a general practise, the poisonor would warn the victim beforehand not to eat a particular food.

Like black magic, using poison was regarded as a sin (bab) and very often the person who used it to harm a man became the object of his friends’ or relatives’ revenges, Some people know how to make poison but not an antidote, if they themselves were poisoned. Many villagers, for example, the Hamlet Headmam of Hamlot 6 and a few other old men preferred to learn the art of curing it from the monks, who were their teachers and who passed on their knowledge to cure and protect the people.

II, The Wat

Among the villagers, Buddhism is represented through the wat or monastery. It is the place where the monks, who are disciples of the Buddha, live, the sacred objects like the Buddha images (luang phau) and relies of the Buddha are housed, and the religious buildings are erected. The primary function of the wat is that it is the place where villagers come to make merit and perform religious ceremony in order to fulfil their spiritual and psychological requirements. And consequently, since most acts of

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merit‐making are connected with social gatherings, rituals, recreation and entertainment and sometimes big feasts, the wat has a socio‐cultural function in village life. In Ban Muang Khao, where it is located in the heart of the village, the wat is omnipresent in everyday life: villagers may go to offer food to the monks either at breakfast of lunch time; may pass by on their way to work in the rice field or come to spend some time, when free from work, chatting with friends and monks or taking a nap. The wat belongs to everyone and thus it exists as the symbol of the village identity and solidarity.

There are two main types of wat in Thailand, wat luang and wat rad. The first are wats built by kings and members of the royal family or by high ranking officials, and are patronised by kings.

They are usually big and beautiful wats in which large numbers of monks and novices reside. In contrast to wat luang, wat rad were built by commoners, either by a single rich family or by a group of people. They are smaller and less beautiful and one their existence mainly to the support of local people. But the purpose in building them is common to both: they have been built to make merit, either for oneself or in memory of dead cousins, friends, teachers or great men and for the transferring of merit to them.

Under the law of 1941 governing religious institutions in Thailand, both wat luang and wat rad were brought under the control and supervision of the government through the Department of Religion in the Ministry of Education. That is, although the body of the monks is governed by the Sangha Order headed by the Sanghraj or prince patriarch in Bangkok, the land and property of the wat belong to the government, and are the responsibility of the Department of Religion. The law has divided the wat into two kinds, the wat with wisungkamasima or land declared sacred by the king, and the wat with no land confered by the king, and regarded only as a samnak sangha or monk’s dormitory. The first is firmly established and must here not less than five monk residing there continuously for at least five years since it was built.

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Physically the wat is characterised by a collection of buildings in a compound and its typical structure can be divided into three parts, the Buddhawasa or the Buddha area, the sanghawasa or the living quarters of the monks, and the open compound for various functions (see figure VIII).

The Buddhawasa is the area devoted to the Buddha and held as the sacred area in which nobody can live, not even the monks. It consists of the bod, the wihan, the stupa and other shrines. In most wat luang, there building are grouped together and surrounded by either a brick enclosure or by cloisters. The bod or Convocation Hall can be distinguished from the other buildings by the boundary stones or sema that are erected around the building. It is the sacred edifice where the monks perform their daily serviced and ritual and where layman can be ordained.

The wihan is the sacred hall in which the main image of the wat – phra prathan or luang phau is housed. It is the largest and most used construction in the compound. It serves as a repository for various Buddha images donated by the laity and it is the place where the monks deliver special sermons to the people. The stupa and the chedi are the shrines in which the relics of the Buddha or the ashes of the dead are housed. There may be many shrines in the compound but usually only one rain chedi is devoted to the relics of the Buddha and used when celebrations are held.

Buddhawasa is not only the most sacred area of the wat but is usually the most beautiful part of it. All the buildings are expected to be elabourately constructed in a traditional style because it is the ideal of all contributors that the best and most beautiful things should be given to the Buddha. Here one finds traditional architecture, sculpture, carvings both in wood and stucco, mural paintings and beautiful images.

The sanghawasa or the living quarters of the monks are characterised by lines of groups of cubicles (kuti), the dining hall (hau chan), and kitchen, the gong‐tower (hau klong), the storeroom, the bathrooms and toilets, etc. In the past the monks cubicles were built in wood in the style of a Thai house,22 elevated on piles with a steep gable roof, and each was expected to be

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occupied by only one monk with his temple boys (dek wat). But nowadays, the cubicles are built in brick or cement and each of them houses from one to three monks with their temple boys.

However, each monk still has his own room, separate from the others.

The remaining section of the wat compound is mostly left open and shaded by big trees. In some wats, a certain part of it may contain the nun’s dormitory, which has to be completely separate from the monks’ living quarters. Other building like the hall for sermons (sala karn parien), library (hau samoud), resting hall (sala pak ron) and school buildings may be built in this part of the compound. The open ground in this area serves as a ceremonial ground, a temporary funeral place and the entertainment area during the wat fairs and celebrations. In addition, there may be a few beg Bodhi trees that the people hold secred, shrines of the chao spirits, the graveyard and the kudang phi (a building in which corpres are kept, see Kaufman, 1960: 97‐ 100). This makes the wat notably the Buddhist centre, but also the abode of supernatural beings.

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FIGURE VIII Ideal‐Type Wat

Buddhawasa Sanghawasa Ceremonial Ground

1. Wat Muang Khao

The village wat – Wat Muang Khao is a wat rad and classified as a samnak sangha or monk dormitory owing to the small and fluctuating number of monks and the paucity of necessary buildings required by a typical wat. It has only the bod, the living quarters of the monks, the dining hall, the gong‐tower, the sala karn parian (hall for sermons) and the unfinished shrine of the Buddha’s foot print. Every building in the wat is aimed at utility rather them beauty or ornament. Only the bod was built in brick in traditional rectangular from, but this is covered with a zinc roof instead of the traditional glassed tiles and inside it there - 122 -

is one main sitting Buddha image flanked by two small images of his disciples. There is no mural painting on the wall or ceiling and no other decorations. There is no wihan or the main image of the Buddha (luang phau) to worship, no chedi that houses the relics of the Buddha, but a number of small shrines containing the ashes of dead villagers are scattered along the fence of the wat. (See Figure IX).

There is no demarcation between Buddhawasa and sanghawasa. The monks live together in a long wooden building attached to the dining hall (hau chan) and the gong‐tower.

Throughout the year, most of the religious ceremonies are carried out in the hau chan (dining hall) at the end of which is a dais, holding a group of Buddha images placed on stands. This building serves as the wihan for the wat. The sala karn parian (hall for sermons) is the largest building in the wat, but stands empty nearby the whole year round. It is used only once a year for the Ted Mahachad festival (see pages 182‐185) and serves as a lodging for visitors who wish to stay overnight during the wat fairs. The former abbot had begun to construct a mondob of the Buddha’s foot print as the sacred shrine for the wat but it has been left unfinished since his death: and nobody attempts to continue the work as the abbot directed construction himself and only he who know what it was intended to look like when finished. The only buildings that have been completed recently in the wat are bathrooms and toilets for the monks and for lay people visiting the wat fairs.

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PLATE V

a. The compound of Wat Muang Khao, showing the gong tower, the monks’ cubicles in the foreground and the bod and small shrines in the background ภาพบริเวณวัดม่วงขาว ในภาพแสดงหอกลองและกุฏิสงฆ์ไว้ ด้านหน้ า ส่วนฉากหลังของภาพเป็ นพระ อุโบสถและเจดีย์เล็กบรรจุอฐั ิ ที่รายล้ อมพระอุโบสถ

b. Villagers listening to the sermon in Wat Muang Khao during the New Year Festival ชาวบ้ านกกําลังฟั งพระสงฆ์เจริ ญพระพุทธมนต์ที่วดั ม่วงขาว ในงานบุญเทศกาลสงกรานต์ - 124 -

The compound of Wat Munag Khao is still open and allows big trees like mango and Bodhi trees to grow. In the past there was one huge Bodhi tree standing close and giving shade to the Pu Ta shrine which is also located in the compound; villagers held it sacred and worshipped it. About six years ago the tree fell down and left one of its offshoots to replace it.

There is no graveyard, no store room for corpses and no crematory place; and no one suggests providing them (See pages 16‐17), so the wat remains a traditional but small village wat with which the villagers have daily contact in their religious activities and small social gatherings. It is the place where they come to make merit, become monks. It is also the place where the shrine of the Pu Ta is located.

Since the wat is a small one, without rich endowments or special claim to sanctity, its existence depends almost wholly on the support of the villagers themselves. Support for the wat comes in three forms: in food supplied to the monks, in money and in labour for the wat. Food is brought to the monks every day at breakfast and lunch‐time and they have no need to go out begging. During the wan phra day and on other religious occasions more food, as well as other necessary utensils and ritual items, is offered to them. Money support and income derives from the villagers’ donations, from renting equipment such as dishes, pots, gramophones and electricity generators to villagers for their household rituals, and from the proceeds of the annual wat fairs and other occasional celebrations. Labour is given to the wat in forms of the khau raeng system (see pages 85‐86). When the wat is about to held away ceremony or to undertake any building, the wat committee will inform the villagers and ask for their help.

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FIGURE IX

Wat Muang Khao

The administration and management of the wat is carried out by the abbot and the wat committee. The abbot is in charge of the discipline and behaviour of the monks and novices and is

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himself responsible to the chief monk of the commune. But in matters concerning money and property he has to share his authority with the wat committee. This committee is a recent innovation initiated by the Department of Religion in 1950 to reduce the authority of the abbot in secular matters (see also Kaufman, 1960: 112) because there have been many cases where abbots have become corrupt and used the wat funds in their own interests. According to regulation the wat lay committee is selected and appointed by the abbot (Mulder, 1960: 20) and in practise the abbot usually selects the most respected people of the village to act as committee members. He is not likely to appoint anyone who has no credit within the village community for fear of gossip and dissatisfaction among the villagers. In Wat Muang Khao the present committee members were selected by the former abbot who died about six years ago.

The wat committee consists of 14 members, most of them elders and well‐to‐do villagers as well as devout Buddhists. The Hamlet Headmen of Hamlet 5 and 6 are also included in the committee but the most important position among laymen is the wat manager and treasurer (wayawatchakorn). He is a man of 53, rich and respected for his honesty and his interest in the wat affairs. His family – wife, daughter and sons – is always the first to be ready to help the wat when asked. He works close to the abbot and is the one who calls the committee meetings, keeps the wat accounts and is responsible for any construction work in the wat.

The wat committee is very influential in the affairs of Wat Muang Khao, consisting as it does of most of the leading men of the village. The abbot, who is chairman of the committee, is still a young man and newly appointed to his position. He is not of Ban Munag Khao but comes from the Aranyaprades near the Cambodian border. He leaves the secular affairs almost wholly in the hands of the wayawatchakorn (wat manager) and other committee members and if he wants anything done he will ask the committee to do it for him.

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2. Wat Ton Po

The main reason that the Ban Muang Khao villagers are not interested in building a sacred shrine in their own wat is that they already share with their neighbouring villages the sacred Bodhi tree at Wat Ton Po, which they worship in place of big images and other sacred objects. The tree is standing in the vicinity of Ban Ton Po and is about one‐third of a mile from Ban Muang Khao. It has been held sacred by people from various parts of the province for a very long time and it has become a pilgrimage site for worship and yearly celebrations. In 1896 a monk named luang phau Id helped by the villagers, restored an old wat at the site of the Bodhi tree by building a bod and cubicles for the monks to reside in and when it was finished, he named it Wat Ton Po after the tree. He asked the king to confer the wisungkamasima, i.e., to declare the wat compound a sacred area and to patronise it. The king declared the wat land sacred in the same year as it was restored and in 1908, on his visiting tour to Prachinburi, came in person to pay homage to the tree.

The villagers hold the bodhi tree sacred for two reasons.

Firstly, because of its connection with the Lord Buddha, as the tree under which he attained enlightenment. Secondly since the tree is old, huge and sacred, it has with it a guardian spirit who can bestow good fortune on the worshipper. So in paying homage to the Bodhi tree, the villagers also worshipped the guardian spirit – Chao phau Ton Po. Some of the Chinese villagers in Ban Munag Khao and Ban Dan have built a brick shrine in Chinese style for worshippers to pay homage first to the tree and then to the chao phau underneath the Bodhi tree and it is the custom for worshippers to pay homage first to the tree and then to the chao phau in the shrine. In addition to the sacredness of the tree, some of the older villagers believe that there is a relic of the Lord Buddha enshrined in it. Many of them claim to have seen a light coming from the tree during the hours of darkness – a miracle attributed to the presence of the relic.

The Bodhi tree exists as an important part of the religious life of the villagers: they come to pay homage and to inform it

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before they become ordained, to ask for protection and consult it when seeking good fortune. They cooperate with friends and neighbours in celebrating it on many varied occasion throughout the year. As a result Wat Ton Po has become the most important wat of the Commune, or perhaps of the entire region. It is the centre for big religious festivals like the Bun Nai Ton Po and the Visakhabuja festival (see Chapter V) in which thousands of people from various places come to take part.

Apart from the sacred Bodhi tree, Wat Ton Po itself is close to Ban Muang Khao in many respects both physically and socially.

The abbot of Wat Ton Po is the head monk of the Commune, so it is his duty to supervise the monks in Wat Muang Khao; he is also regarded as the phra upachaya who performs the ordination ceremony for the villagers. In nearly all religious ceremonies, held either in Wat Muang Khao or in the villagers’ houses, the abbot of Wat Ton Po will be invited to preside and when the ceremonies require the presence of more monks, other monks from Wat Ton Po are invited.

Wat Ton Po, like Wat Muang Khao, is a wat rad but has the added honour of wisungkamsima conferred by the king. In everyday life, it is attended by villagers from Ban Ton Po, Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa (there is no wat in the last two villagers) and food supplies to monks, and labour support come mostly from these three villagers. Because of its sacred Bodhi tree, it receives financial support, income and donations of equipment, money, land and other property from outside, beyond the local level.

FIGURE X

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Wat Ton Po

The wat compound occupies an area of over 32 rai in the western part of Ban Ton Po. A cement wall has recently been built around two sides of the wat while the other two are under construction. The whole wat is now being renovated: the old

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buildings like the bod and the cubicles (kuti) which were built in wood will be replaced by brick building. Two buildings that are nearly completed are the bod and the sala karn parian (hall for sermons). They are built in traditional Thai style, the roofs covered with glazed tiles and the gables decorated with beautiful sculptures and carvings. Inside the bod, there is one big sitting image which has recently been cast in bronze at a big religious ceremony (See pages 177‐180). It is intended to be the sacred image (luang phau) of the wat. The building will also hold a beautiful mural depicting the Jakata tales and Buddhist cosmology. When it is finished, it will be the biggest bod in the Commune. The sala karn parian (hall for sermons) is an open building serving as the ceremonial hall for the wat: in the middle, there is an altar used by the monk when he preaches to the villagers on curtained religious occasions. Most big feast and religious rites are held in this building.

There are no buildings of the wihan or the sacred shrines in the wat and there will not be any in the future for it already holds the sacred Bodhi tree, with a wooden cloister around it, which serves as the wihan –wihan Ton Po. It is located outside the wat wall but is still included in the wat compound. Other buildings in this area are the hau trai (wat library), a big well, bathrooms, a big cement water tank and toilets. The government village school is also located here. (See Figure X)

During the celebration of the Bodhi tree and at other wat fairs, the area around wihan Ton Po is used for recreation and entertainment. A temporary enclosure is put up, and inside it are stages for the liké, the lamtad, musical bands, cinema, the khon, boxing and various shows (See pages 159‐160). There will also be many shops and vendors’ stands, selling food, drink, toys, and souvenirs. At such times the wat earns a great deal of income from entrance fees, and the rent of land to merchants and vendors. It also earns a yearly rental from land occupied by villagers who have built their houses in this area.

Apart from the compound and the land around it, Wat Ton Po owns more than 70 rai of the paddy field in the flooded plain

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(na thung) and in the jungle area (na dong). These lands were donated by the villagers who wanted to make merit before they died: many of these people did not have any children to inherit their property and chose to leave it to the wat. The wat now rents this land to villagers and earns a reasonable income from it every year, either in money or in rice.

As the main wat of the Commune, Wat To Po is the residence of the head monk of the commune. At present, the head monk is also the abbot of the wat which is the centre of monastic instruction, where the monks and novices within the Commune are examined. In future, there will also be a school here. The government takes a great deal of interest in the development of the wat, and Wat Ton Po is one of those included in the wat Development programme of the Department of Religion in Bangkok. As a result it has always received a subsidy from the Department; for example 50,000 baht in 1964 and 25,000 baht in 1965 to spend in its construction programme. Wat Ton Po is also often used by the Administration as a centre for such activities as vaccination programmes, distribution of identity cards, large commune meeting during the visits of the District Officer or other high ranking officials. During the general election of 1969 the Administration set up a polling place for the Commune in the wat compound.

Wat Ton Po is like Wat Muang Khao in that it is, in principle, administered by the wat committee headed by the abbot. But the majority of the committee members are not villagers from the patron villages, but people from various positions, such as hamlet headmen, school teachers, a business man and a commune doctor (see Table XI). Moreover, the wat is supervised closely by the District Officer, and the Education Superintendent of the district, who is also in charge of the religious affairs. Unlike his counterpart at Wat Muang Khao, the abbot of Wat Ton Po is a very

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PLATE VI

a. The sacred Bodhi tree of Wat Ton Po ต้ นโพธิ์ศกั ดิ์สทิ ธิ์แห่งวัดต้ นโพธิ์

b. The ceremony of casting the Buddha image at Wat Ton Po. The new bod is in the background พิธีหล่อพระพุทธรูปที่วดั ต้ นโพธิ์ ด้ านหลังของภาพเป็ นพระอุโบสถใหม่

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TABLE XI Wat Committee of Wat Ton Po

No. Position on the Age Years in offices Hamlet

Committee office

residence 1.

Chairman 55 7 Abbot 2.

Wat manager 64 12 Rich farmer Hamlet 7 3.

Hember

66 15 A former

“

headman of Hamlet 7 4. “

66 20 Headman of Hamlet 6

Hamlet 6 5. “

65 12 Headman of Hamlet 7

Hamlet 7 6. “

69 15 Rich farmer Hamlet 6 7. “

63 17 Well‐to‐do Hamlet 8

farmer 8. “

42 10 Headmaster of Hamlet 6

the private

school 9. “

40 8 Commune “

doctor 10. “

44 16 Headmaster of Hamlet 7

village

school 11. “

36 10 Rich men

“

influential monk: although he has to share responsibility with the wat committee and other officials of the government, he is the one who formulates policy and makes the decisions in wat affairs.

The Ban Muang Khao villagers do not have much voice in the affairs of Wat Ton Po. It is the monks, and particularly the abbot, who dictates the policy and the villagers simply give service when asked. Wat Ton Po remains rather impersonal to the villagers for it is big and requires order and discipline. This is in contrast to their village wat with which they have an intimate association. It is the place where they can relax, chatting with the - 134 -

monks and friends. Wat Muang Khao belongs to the villagers but in their relationship with Wat Ton Po, the villagers belong to the wat.

III. The Monk

The monks are a social component of the wat, and in the wat hierarchy there can be seven categories of wat members: 1) the abbot, 2) the permanent monks, 3) the temporary monks, 4) the novice (non), 5) the temporary novice, 6) the nun, and 7) the temple boys or dek wat (see the detail of each category in Kaufman, 1960: 116‐128).

In both Wat Muang Khao and Wat Ton Po, there exist all these categories of personnel except nuns, who seem to be rare in the socio‐economic situation of a village like Ban Muang Khao.23 The abbot or chao a‐wad of the village wat is usually selected from the best educated and most senior monk by the head monk of the commune or chao kana tambol with the suggestion and the approval of the monks and villagers. But in a big wat like the commune wat of Wat Ton Po, the abbot is usually a well‐educated monk who is very active in the wat affairs and should have passed the third grade – the nak tham eg of monk education so that he is entitled to be the upachaya who can perform the ordination rite for the young men.

The abbots of both wats seem to have one thing in common in that neither is interested in magic and incantations like some of the other abbots (see Kaufman, 1960: 117‐119), who act as magicians of ritual experts in curing diseases, exorcising evil spirits, giving charms and forecasting fortunes to villagers. The abbot of Wat Muang Khao is 32 and has been a monk for nearly eleven years. He came to stay as a permanent monk in Ban Muang Khao six years ago when the former abbot died, he was chosen to fill the position.

The permanent monks are these who intend to be monks for a long period or for life. Some become ordained when they are still

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young and spend much of their time studying Buddhism. They pass different examinations such as the nak tham grades and parian24 grades to become scholars. These are the ones who become the high‐ranking monks of the country and enjoy a position of the hierarchy of the Sangha Order. Some monks do not have any ambition for bureaucratic promotion but pay more attention to meditation instead. They often become pilgrims (phra thudong) and travel about practicing meditation in the jungle and visiting various sacred sites all over the country.25 These monks are regarded as the ones who know some of the secrets of life and can forecast the future. Some of them know a lot about magic and incantation and can cure diseases and help suffering. There are many monks of this kind who leave the pursuit of nirvana, abandoning their meditation and turning to worldly occupations, such as magic, astrology and fortune telling.

There are also many monks, among whom the monks in Wat Muang Khao are included, who become ordained when they reach middle or old‐age because they are tired of family or secular life.

They turn to the wat in order to live the monastic life and have no desire to become a scholar or practise meditation. At present there are three permanent monks in Wat Muang Khao. The first two are older but have reached only the elementary school level of education. These have given up family life and turned to the wat for refuge.26 The other monk is younger and more educated than the abbot but became blind 27and thus cannot participate fully in the wat activities.

There are temporary monks in the wat only during the Buddhist Lenten period (Phansa) which lasts for three months from July to October. There are usually rooms available for about six visiting monks. There is only one permanent novice who comes from the Northeast to take up residence in the wat and who intends to be ordained as a monk when he reaches the required age. At present there are no boys in the village interested in becoming novices, nor families wishing to have their child ordained as a temporary novice during the cremation of an elder member of the family. Some of them are interested only in having

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their children come to serve the monks as a temple boy. Four of the six temple boys are sent by their parents to serve the monks during breakfast and lunch: they may spend the night in the wat or go back home to sleep. The other two temple boys come from poor families in the village in the jungle. They have come to live in the wat in order to attend the village school at Wat Ton Po.

Despite the formally hierarchical structure of monastic life in Hinayana Buddhism, relations between the monks of Wat Muang Khao are amicable and even egalitarian. Far from presuming on his status, the abbot always recognises that the other two monks are his senior in age, though his juniors in the religious hierarchy, and accordingly does not assign them any duty or even insist that they study Buddhism. He gives his elders responsibility and lets them make their own decisions in minor matters concerning the day‐to‐day running of the wat. Apart from the requirements of daily duties and proper conduct as Buddhist clergy, the monks lead as easy and happy life. They have thins to talk with villagers and to relax when they have finished their religious service. Most of the responsibility of the wat is vested in the wayawatchakorn (wat manager) and the wat committee and all that is expected of the weeks by the villagers is the conduct of religious services.

While the monks in the Muang Khao are leading a non‐ ambitious and easy life, those in Wat Ton Po are not: they all have to work hard and are assigned a specific duty to perform for the wat. This difference is due to the difference in the physical and social environment and to the personal attitude of the abbot. Wat Ton Po is big and important wat of the district with a large number of resident monks‐at present there are 11 permanent monks and 3 novices, but the number increases during the Lonten period when temporary monk come in. It possessed the sacred Bodhi tree, for which several rituals and celebrations are held each year, and it is visited and worshipped daily by visitors, so it has to be kept clean and preserved in good order. As it is apart of the Wat Development programme, there are many buildings to be constructed and equipped, and if the work is to run smoothly and

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economically, practical as well as religious service is required from each monk.

Many of these monks are ambitious to become scholars and gain promotion in the order or to become famous as monks for their contributions to the wat and the and the community. Phra Kru Yuen, the abbot (see also pages 143‐148) is very active and has a special interest in construction work. He wants the wat to be the biggest place in the consume and has it included in the Wat Development programme in order to detain financial support from the government. He acts as designer, architect, as on and carpenter for the wat buildings and he also becomes a labourer when necessary, other monks cannot be idle. This is why the monks in Wat Ton Po are income as “working monks”. As this is a large wat with a large member of monks and as the abbot is also the head monk of the commune, good discipline and order must exist under the abbot’s supervision. There is hierarchy according to seniority and monk and there is seen here little of the egalitarianism of Wat Muang Khao.

1. Daily Routine and Religious Life of the Monks

Although the monks in Wat Muang Khao load an easier and happier life than those in Wat Ton Po, their religious life and daily routine are more disciplined than those of some lay people. They are expected to fulfil two function; first they have to renounce worldly pleasure and conduct themselves in accordance with the 227 Precepts laid down for them in order to pursue the Noble Eightfold Path, whereby they may achieve salvation or nirvana: secondly, they have to preach to the laity in order to save them for suffering and this involves them in officiating at various rituals and ceremonies such as death, puberty and ordination.

The Buddhist practises of donating food and gifts to the monks does not mean that the monks are in need, but that they receive donations to help the fulfil their duty merit making. To sacrifice one’s personal belonging or to offer gifts and food is, according to Buddhist teaching, an act of intention to keep one’s

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mind free from desire and covetousness. While the donation of gifts and food by villagers is interpreted as an act of making‐merit, the receiving of gifts by the monks is regarded as an act of releasing the people from the cycle of suffering (prod sattava).

These duties and rules of conduct expected of the monks, although very hard to fulfil by villagers with a low level of education, are a blueprint that they have to follow if they are to be called Buddhist monks The villagers never criticise the monks in Wat Muang Khao for being lazy and self‐indulgent compared with the “working monks” of Wat Ton Po, but rather observe whether or not both behave according to the blueprint, and any monk who does not is likely to become the subject of gossip and criticism.

The day begins for the monks and novices shortly after down, when about five o’clock, they have to chant a prayer of loyalty and thanks to the Buddha. This takes about twenty minutes and from then until six o’clock the wat is quiet. At six the monks in Wat Ton Po begin to leave to collect food in the villages.

Their custom is to divide into two groups one going north and ending their round at the market of Ban Muang Khao, the other going to the south to Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa. The next day they exchange routes. The monks in Wat Muang Khao do not need to make a begging round become the villagers bring daily food to them at the wat, both for breakfast and lunch (this practise is also found in the Northeast, Tambiah,1968:64).

Breakfast between seven and seven‐thirty is served by the temple boys and some of the villagers who have brought food.

Before the breakfast starts, every attendant pays homage to the Buddha image and to the monks, chanting the appropriate words for offering food to them. While the monks are eating, villagers pass the time by chatting with each other and stop, when the monks have finished the meal, to receive their blessing. The monks chant a verse to thanks and bless the people, while at the same time, the villagers pour drop of water into a vessel to transfer merit to the dead and the spirits, and then take the water and pour it on to the earth. After breakfast the monks retire to

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their rooms to study, but some may study onto talk with the villagers.

At eleven preparations for the midday meal begin: the gong in the tower attached to the dining hall is beaten to announce the time. Villagers bring food in their laden baskets to the wat. Lunch must be eaten before noon, for monks and novices are forbidden food after twelve o’clock until the next breakfast. There is a period of rest for them until two o’clock and after that they have to go back to their rooms to read and memorise the Buddhist text. In some city wats, the monks and novices have to attend the monk school but in villages, where there is no such school, the abbot decides whether they spend this time in further study or are assigned some other work. In Wat Muang Khao, the abbot does not assign any for the monks‐ they are free to do as they like – but in Wat Ton Po, the construction work goes on and the monks are expected to help with it.

The late afternoon is used for bathing and resting and at about half past six, the monks go to the bod for the religious service (tham wat yen) which lasts for about 20 minutes and consists of a prayer to the Buddha, the Dhamma and the Sangha.

Sometimes on the holy day, (wan phra) for example, an additional half‐hour service of worship is hold. At night before going to sleep, the monks are expected to chant a prayer of loyalty to the Buddha.

Life in the wat is not uncomfortable. Though the monks and novices cannot eat after midday, they can take tea with sugar (no milk).29 chew betel and smoke at any time. Although he takes a vow of poverty and celibacy,30 the individual monk in fact often has money, which he has received as a gift. The monks have privacy in their cubicles. They are not allowed to use mattresses but sleep on mats on the floor. Mosquito net and pillows are used.

The monks have to clean their own room and wash their own clothes

Before going out into the villages or towns to visit their families and friends, both monks and novices must ask permission from the abbot. If a family member is ill or some special

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emergency arises, they may secure permission to stay with their families for a period of seven days, after which they must renew the permission from the abbot. At times they may visit the provincial city or large market town to see friends or make purchases. Often, they stay overnight or a few days at a wat in the town.

During Lent, they are not allowed to leave their wat but must always sleep there at night. The rhythm of life changes somewhat during the Lent season or the Khao‐Phansa period.

There is an intensification of religious activity on the part of both monks and laymen. The monks have to attend several religious services every week and new monks arrive as the temporary monks who serve during the Lenten period. There are also more villagers, particularly the old and the women, who come to practise meditation observing the 8 Precepts and attending special religious service on the wan phra day.

When a monk or novice wishes to leave the order, he consults his family and if they agree, he informs the abbot of his decision, presenting a tray of candles, incense and flowers when making the request. The abbot does not accept his resignation immediately but talks to him and advises him to reconsider his decision. A few days later, if he still wishes to leave, he goes with the abbot before the statue of the Buddha in the bod or in the wihan. After worshipping the Buddha, he again declares his intention to leave the wat. He changes into ordinary dress and meets again with the abbot to receive his blessing and listen to the Buddhist Precepts. Then he is ready to return to his home and begin life again as a commoner. However, according to ancient custom, he must return to the wat for the next three days, either in the morning or in the evening and do some temple work such as filling the water jars of the monks, cleaning the toilets and sweeping the wat compound.

2. The Monks and the Villagers

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There are two main perspectives in the relationship between monks and villagers – the religious and the secular. In the ritual activities of their religious life, the villagers need the monks to receive their gifts and food in merit‐making, to preach to them about morality and the way of salvation and to perform ceremonial rites. To them, the monks are the legitimate followers of the Buddha and any religious rites performed by them are sacred, bringing happiness, prosperity and protection from evil spirits and bad luck. This leads to the emphasis in the monks’ studies on Pali chants which have to be recited on many ritual occasions, in preference to the practicing of salvation techniques.

The monks in both Wat Munag Khao and Wat Ton Po are concerned only with this level of Buddhist teaching. None of them is believed to practise meditation for his own salvation or to act as a fortune teller and magician who can forecast lucky lottery numbers (houy), cares illness, sprinkles lustral water (rod nam mon) for expelling spirits on the villagers and gives chares and talismans to make them invulnerable against weapons, etc.

The absence of this kind of monk has an effect on the behaviour of the villagers themselves, in that they are less likely to indulge in superstition, or to rely on it in gambling or lottery results, assured of their invulnerability and magical power. This belief may cause villagers to become militant and aggressive though they are naturally peach‐loving31.

In secular activities, both monks and villagers are expected to perform the duties of maintaining the wat. It is the monks who initiate the building or repairing programmes. They let the wat committee know what has to be done and then play their part in persuading people to give donations and labour, and in raising funds by holding wat fairs, celebrations and entertainment. The monks can often exert political influence in the village. In the general election of 1969, for example, a candidate approached the abbot of Wat Muang Khao offering a large sum of money to the wat, and in return the abbot urged the villagers to vote for him.

Actually the growth of the wat depends largely on the personality of the abbot: if the abbot is greatly concerned with the

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strict rule that requires the monks to be content with their detachment from secular affairs the wat tends to remain static and calm. Construction is confined to repairing the old buildings, or is left to become the responsibility of laymen. But if the abbot is very active and accepts the growth of the wat as his personal concern, the wat tends to expand and flourish. Some wats, where the abbots are renewed for their magic, charms and forecasting, are likely to acquire a large amount of financial support from the people for building etc. Moreover, if the abbot is interested in community affairs, he finds it easy to raise funds and ask for the cooperation of people in building such amenities as a school, a water reservoir, wells and roads.

In Ban Muang Khao, the village wat remains static because the abbot is young and prefers to leave secular policy of the wat to wat committee. He is not ambitious, unlike the former abbot, who tried before his death, to improve the wat by constructing the tower (mondob) of the Buddha’s footprint, intended to be the central shrine which would enhance the sanctity of the wat.

In contrast to Wat Muang Khao, Wat Ton Po is flourishing, not only because it has the sacred Bodhi tree as its invaluable asset but also because of the personality of its abbot – Abbot Yuen. This monk is not an expert in magic or in forecasting fortune, but simply a hard‐working and ambitious monk.

He is devotedly concerned with the development of Wat Ton Po as the religious and cultural centre of the region and this causes him to become involved in secular affairs and to take the role of a community leader. Relations between the lay and the religious communities in Ban Muang Khao will now be further explored in terms of the life history of the present abbot of Wat Ton Po.

Abbott Yuen

Abbot Yuen who is now 55 years old was born in Ban Chamwa, about one mile south of Ban Muang Khao. During his

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childhood, he want to live in the Northeast and finished his elementary schooling (prathom 4) there. He come back to his natal village and was ordained as a monk at Wat Sra Khoj in 1936. He was able to pass the highest grade of the nak tham and was qualified as the nak tham eg monk. He moved to stay in Wat Ton Po and was promoted in 1950 to the rank of vice‐abbot (rong chao a wad). But in 1953 when he quarreled with the abbot, he retired and moved to take up residence in Wat Muang Khao. When the abbot of Wat Ton Po died in 1957, the villagers and the monks asked him to come back to Wat Ton Po to fill the vacant position of abbot,32 and in 1962 he was promoted again this time to the rank of chao kana tambol or the head monk of the commune.

As a monk who has received the grade of nak tham eg, Abbot Yuen is regarded as well‐qualified. He teaches the phra pariyattidham or a course in Buddhist study to the monks in the Communes of Ban Kok Peep and Kurampan. When he became the abbot, he accepted another position that means a great deal to the villagers in becoming the upachaya or the principal officiant at the ordination of the villagers in Ban Muang Khao, Ban Dan, Ban Chamwa, Ban Ton Po and Ban Sra Khoj. The abbots of Wat Muang Khao and Wat Sra Khoj are not eligible for the position of upachya because neither of them has passed the nak tham eg examination.

They can be only the kusuad or tutor monks for Abbot Yuen at ordination ceremonies.

Though not highly‐educated, Abbot Yuen was trained in practical skills such as carpentry, masonry and carving. He is a man of creative power who likes to initiate new projects for the wat and the community. His stay in the Northeast had provided him with knowledge of local cultures there and when he came to stay in Wat Muang Khao, he observed that the art of making the bang fai or sky rocket which villagers light to celebrate the Bodhi tree was dying out as a custom, due to the lack interest of younger generation. He set out the reviving it by making the rockets himself and training the young villagers to make them. When he become the abbot of Wat Ton Po, he encouraged every wat in the Commune to make the rockets and arranged for them to compete

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with each other during the celebration at Wat Ton Po, providing trophies for the winners. As a result, the Ban Bang Fai or the sky rocket festival became the most popular celebration of the year.

As the abbot of the wat that possesses the sacred Bodhi tree which attracts thousands of worshippers from various parts of the country, the abbot became obsessed with the ambition to make the wat the religious and cultural centre of the region. He made many trips to visit wats in Bangkok and in the Northeast and brought back new ideas about construction and custom to use in his wat : the most apparent of which is his attempt to make that Wat Ton Po equal to one of the large wats of Bangkok in starting on the planning and building of a big and beautiful bod, sala karn parian, a school for the monks, new buildings for the monks’ cubicles, a cremation place, a water reservoir, etc.

To fulfil this ambition, he himself works devotedly in the construction of new buildings and tries to raise funds by various means such as getting the wat listed in the development programme of the government in order to obtain a subsidy; widening the entertainment programmes of the wat fairs in order to attract more visitors, thus gaining more income from the entrance fees, rental of land by vendors, donation and contributions, etc. The abbot often asks villagers to give their labour to the wat in clearing and digging the well, clearing the wat grounds, preparing the place for wat celebrations and providing food for the monks and guests during ceremonial occasions.

Donations are also required from the villagers when renting the wat equipment such as the electricity generator, gramophone, etc.

Abbot Yuen has recently completed building a water tank and big wells in the wat which are useful for the villagers in time of water shortage. The big bod, the sala karn parian and the wat wall are also nearly finished. The main image has already been cast and other decoration work is planned.

The abbot is the patron of the government village school as well as the private school which are built in the wat land, and the villagers in Ban Dan, Ban Ton Po, Ban Chamwa, Ban Sra Khoj and Ban Muang Khao respect him as their upachaya, and as one who

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has devoted himself to the development of the wat and of the community as a whole. As he has become popular among villagers, he has become also a man to be pleased by other local leaders such as the Commune Headman, the Hamlet Headman, School teachers, the Commune doctor, traders, the wat committee members etc. These people cooperated in writing a long letter to the head monks of the District and the Province to ask for the rank of phra kru to be conferred on the abbot by the King. The appear was accepted and the abbot was elevated to the rank of phra kru with the special name of Phra kru Mahabodhapiwattana in 1969.

Instead of archan Yuen, the people called him Phra kru Yuen.33 On being promoted to this rank, the abbot received a ranking fan or pad yosa from the king. (See Appendix A.)

Celebration for Abbot Yuen

This promotion was a great joy to the abbot and the villagers and they joined is holding a big celebration for him. The celebration is called Chalong pad yosa (celebrating the ranking fan). According to custom, the newly promoted monk must go to receive the fan from his provincial superior (chao kana changwad) at the provincial city and then take it back for the celebration at his own wat. A long procession of cars and buses brought Abbot Yuen and his followers from Wat Ton Po to the city. People sang and danced along the way, declaring the good deeds the abbot had done for the wat and community.

At the city wat, the abbot went into the kuti (cubicle) of his superior, paying his respects to him and receiving the fan. He prostrated himself in front of the Buddha image and his superior and after receiving his congratulations and blessing he bade him goodbye. He returned to the car, accompanied by the Commune Headman and the school headmaster, to lead the procession back to the wat.

On arriving back to Wat Ton Po, the procession circled the Bodhi tree three times and the abbot then entered the cloister to pay homage to the tree. There he was greeted by several candidates for the current parliamentary election,34 and the

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District Officer and his staff who carried the fan for him and followed him into the wat. Inside the wat, the abbot paid homage to the Buddha image in the bod and went up to the sala karn parian, where he was greeted by a large number of monks, ranging from the high‐ranking monks from Bangkok and other regions to the ordinary monks from within the District, whom the wat committee had invited to take part in the celebration. Abbot Yuen paid respects to the high‐ranking monks and then invited talk of them to have lunch. The lunch was provided by the villagers, certain families having been assigned to provide various dishes for the celebration. While the monks were eating in the sala, the lay people ate together at the tables and benches in the wat grounds.

When the lunch was over, Abbot Yuen and a high‐ranking monk were invited into a stand decorated with white cloth and religious and national flags, and the srong nam ceremony (bathing ceremony) began. The monks were the first who came to pour water on them and wish them happiness and long lives, then the lay people came in to give them a bath. This ceremony is an act of paying respect and conveying good wishes to the elders. After the bathing ceremony the abbot changed into new clothes and returned to the sala karn parian to listen together with the other people to the preaching of a high‐ranking monk from Bangkok.

The preaching was done in honour of the abbot and marked the end of the ceremony. On this occasion villagers and visitors were persuaded to donate money to the wat and in return they were given printed images of the abbot and the Bodhi tree as souvenirs.

At night there were various kinds of entertainment such as music, movies, like, etc., in the wat. There was no entrance fee for these entertainments. Villagers from different villages came to rejoice and celebrate the occasion.

There are some socio‐economic implications in what the abbot has done in the wat and the community. When the abbot used as his model a large wat in Bangkok, he overlooked the economic background of his wat and of the villagers who supported it. Though Wat Ton Po is a big wat, it cannot be

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compared with those in Bangkok or in the urban centres where there are enough rich people to make a large – scale construction programme viable. The abbot tried to meet the wat expenses by requiring to much free labour from the monks and villagers and by raising funds too often. Some monks, who could not stand the hard work and had no opportunity for study, fled to take up residence in the town or in the others wats, where they could have time to attend the school for monks.

Some villagers complained that the wat asked for their labour too often and when they refused to take part, the abbot would express his dissatisfaction over the microphone during meeting. Others objected to the high entrance fee charged for the wat fairs, after which more charges were made for entertainment such as music and boxing.

There seems to be a trend developing towards a more impersonal relationship between the villagers and Wat Ton Po. When the wat makes frequent demands for free labour and donations from villagers, the poor cannot satisfy them and begin to withdraw from their obligations to the wat and leave the rich to cope with them. The wat used to be an intimate recreation centre for the villagers. In village life, the only occasions for enjoying entertainment are during wat fairs and celebrations. In the past, the villagers could go to the wat on such occasions without spending much money, but now they have to pay for nearly all the entertainment in the wat and they cannot afford it, with the result that many old and poor villagers seem to be deprived of recreations they used to enjoy in the past.

Wat Ton Po is becoming a wat for the rich. Most of its buildings have been contributed by the rich, whose names are inscribes or declared during the social gathering. Every panel of the wat wall, for example, has been constructed by a rich family and it contains the ashes of one of their dead members together with his name. Many of rich in Ban Muang Khao, particularly those in the market‐place give their largest contribution to the building of the permanent funeral pyre and cremation building, as they wish to be cremated there.

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Conclusion Religion and the wat are an important aspect of village life in Ban Muang Khao. The religion is, as elsewhere in the country, syncretic and subsumed as Hinayana Buddhism. It consists mainly of Buddhism with Hindu and animistic elements. These elements are interwoven to provide the villagers with an answer to and means to cope with suffering both in this world and the next.

Here, Buddhism holds a more eminent place than other religious beliefs, as is evident from the absence of some major spirit cults practised in the North and Northeast of the country, as well as some violent elements arising from the use of magic, incantations and charms. Such practises and beliefs are drawn into the context of Buddhism and are subservient to it. The Lord Buddha becomes both the greatest teacher who shows the villagers the way to salvation, and the god who can render wealth, fortune and protection to them in this life. The concept of merit‐ making is central to every religious practise: it provides villagers with the way to acquire merit for their happiness both in this world and the next. Moreover, merit itself can be transferred to the spirits and the dead. Thus merit‐making and transferring of merit becomes a means to placate spirits and replace other propitiation cults.

What serves to provide grounds for the superiority of Buddhism is the wat. It is the place where sacred objects and shrines are housed, religious buildings for performing rites are built and the monks who perform rituals for villagers are living.

Nearly all religious activities and celebrations are performed within the wat and since each of them requires a large gathering of people, together with feasts and various entertainments, the wat serves also as a social and recreational centre for the village. It becomes the place that everyone is expected to help maintain, and any act support for the wat is regarded as merit‐making.

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There are two wats which have a religious and social connection with the Ban Muang Khao villagers: Wat Muang Khao and Wat Ton Po. Wat Muang Khao is the village wat, in which the villagers perform most of their religious activities, such as the daily offering of food to the monks, ordination and some calendric activities. Wat Ton Po is the regional wat, which possesses the Bodhi tree, hold sacred and worshipped by villagers. It is the residence of the head monk of the commune, who is the upachaya for the ordination of the young villagers. It is also the recreational centre and pilgrimage site where people from various places come to worship, celebrate and enjoy the entertainments.

The monks are central to the organisation of the wat: without them, the wat cannot be maintained and the religious desires of the people cannot be fulfiled. They are teachers, advisors and spiritual leaders to the villagers. The monks in Wat Muang Khao and Wat Ton Po have something in common, when compared with some monks elsewhere, in that they are not so deeply religious that they isolate themselves from dealing with people nor do they act as astrologers, fortune‐tellers and magicians to intensity their superstitions and beliefs and practises.

The personality of the abbot has played an important role in the growth of the wat and this is apparent in the contrast between the two wats. The abbot of Wat Muang Khao is younger, more passive and loss ambitious than his superior at Wat Ton Po: he enjoys a quiet monastic life and leaves most problems of maintaining and constructing the wat to the wat committee members who are the village elders. Thus the wat remains static and calm, and the villagers prefer it to remain this way, as the place where they perform daily religious activities. They have no desire to develop it as a religious centre with worship at the Bodhi tree of Wat Ton Po. In this situation their religious needs are met by belonging to two wats.

In contrast, the abbot of Wat Ton Po is older, high‐ranking and very active. As the abbot of a large wat which possesses the sacred tree, he has become ambitious in making it the cultural centre of the region. He has assumed the role of community leader

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and is involved in secular activities. He administers and dictates the wat policy through the subservient wat committee. Funds are raised in many ways for building, for enhancing the wat with beautiful decorations, and for various projects such as a monk education school, cremation place, and ceremonial ground. Some old traditions such as the sky rocket lighting ceremony and other religious rituals (see Chapter V) have been revived to make the wat a social and recreational centre. As a consequence Wat Ton Po is flourishing, and with the financial support of the rich villagers, it is on the way to becoming the wat for the rich impersonal and less concerned with the poor, in contrast to a small and personal village wat – Wat Muang Khao.

As the place that the wat holds in the socio‐cultural life of the villager is a central one, I will deal in Chapter V with the religious ceremonies which are held there, both annually and occasionally, and with their importance in the relationship between the wat and the community of Ban Muang Khao.

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CHAPTER V Wat Ceremonies

In Ban Muang Khao, as in other villages of the area, religion is expressed in terms of action, through rituals rather than through discussion or theological dispute or teaching. I use the term ritual here strictly in its relation to Buddhism and it has three main features which distinguish it from other rituals. Firstly, it is regarded by the villagers as an act of merit‐making, which gives rise to the use of the term Bun – an abbreviation of Tham bun – before the name of a specific ritual: Bun Khao Phansa, for example, which means “merit‐making on the occasion of entering the Buddhist Lent”. The desire to attain merit is expressed through enact of offering food, gifts, money contributions or labour to the monks and the wat, or through listening to sermons given by the monks. Secondly, there must be a religious rite performed by the monks for the villagers and thirdly, the ritual itself is a social gathering which requires the presence of other persons beyond the household level such as kin, friends, and neighbours.

As far as the villagers are concerned, there are three major categories of rituals performed in the village: the household ceremonies among which rites of passage are included, the agricultural rites and the wat ceremonies. In this chapter I will deal only with the wat ceremonies for most of those in the first two categories I have already discussed in the previous chapters.

In addition to the features of other rituals, wat ceremonies have two important characteristics. Firstly, they are also village ceremonies, because every villager is Buddhist and is expected to take part, not only for acquiring merit for himself, but also for the peace and welfare of the village as a whole. And secondly, most of the wat ceremonies are fairs and involve entertainments of various kinds which are an important pare of the social and recreational life of villagers, so that the wat serves as the main

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social centre, where visitors from outside come to worship the Buddha and the Bodhi tree and then watch the entertainment. It brings friends and relatives who are not living in the same village into contact with each other and it is also the meeting place for boys and girls.

1. General characteristics of the wat ceremonies

A wat ceremony, on the fullest scale, usually consists of three phases, involving both villagers and the wat; the first is concerned with the preparation, the second with the performance of the rites and the third with recreation and entertainment. But if the ceremonies are carried out on a smaller scale, only the first two phases are found.

Phase I, Preparation, starts both at home and in the wat several days before the ceremony is held. At the wat, the wat committee will ask, during the daily offering of food to the monks, if the villagers will come to help prepare the wat when they are free. The main source of free labour (khau raeng) is usually the older villagers and the married women, who most frequent the wat. They contribute their own labour, and also bring their children, kin and husbands. Some of these may interrupt their normal work for a day or two in order to give their help to the wat.

There is cooperation between the monks and villagers and a division of labour in such activities. Young villagers and monks do the manual work like cleaning the wat compound, the bod, and other buildings, putting up temporary stands and stages for the entertainment, arranging the ceremonial place and doing the decorations. The old help with light and skilled tasks, such as decorations and preparing ritual items and ceremonial places. It is usual for the wat to provide lunch and some light foods for those who are working. Money is given to certain families to do cooking but it often happens that rich families volunteer to provide food at their own expense. The act of giving help to the wat on such occasions is, to devout Buddhists, not only an act of acquiring

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merit, but also a personal obligation. They are likely to criticise their own children or others for not lending a hand, whenever too few people come to help the wat.

As the ceremony is always accompanied by the holding of a big feast for the monks, it is necessary for the people who want to offer food to prepare it beforehand at home. For some ceremonies, the villagers also have a tradition of cooking special food to offer to the monks and to eat among themselves: for example, the khao lam (bamboo rice) is for the Makhabuja ceremony and khao kriab (baked rice cake) for the Songkran (New Year) festival. Usually there are large amounts of special food to be cooked by many families, so they find it more convenient and pleasant to do it in groups and to exchange labour (aw raeng) with one another. The women, both old and young, who may be relatives and friends and who come from groups of adjacent families will cook together in one house either for a morning or an afternoon, (See pages 86‐ 87). This cooking activity is a social event which all the women enjoy. As they work they chat about the coming event, gossip and joke with one another.

Phase II, Performance, begins when the ceremonial day arrives. Villagers bring both the normal and special food in baskets to the wat early in the morning. They are dressed in normal clean clothes and gather in the wihan (in Wat Muang Khao, the dining hall is used as the wihan) waiting for the monks to come. They place the trays of various dishes including the special food on the platform of the hall where the monks are to sit to eat their meal and chant the services. The rice is not put on the trays with the other food but kept in silver or bronze bowls for the tak batra ceremony (putting rice into the alms bowls of the monks). About 7.30 a.m. the monks come to the wihan carrying the fans and hand bags, followed by the temple boys who bring with them the alms bowls and some containers (pin to), and when they come to the platform the alms bowls are placed in a row so that the villagers can perform the tak batra.

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PLATE VII

a. Ban Muang Khao women preparing food for the wat ceremony ผู้หญิงชาวบ้ านม่วงขาวกําลังเตรี ยมอาหารสําหรับพิธีกรรมทางศาสนา

b. Trays of food, preparing for offering to the monks during the New Year Ceremony สํารับอาหารสําหรับถวายพระสงฆ์ในระหว่างงานบุญสงกรานต์ (ปี ใหม่)

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When everybody is ready for this ceremony to begin the monks chant a short service and then the villagers form a long queue so that each in turn can put one large spoonful of streamed rice taken from his container into every alms bowl (batra) in the row. When the tak batra ceremony is finished, the temple boys and some of the male villagers cooperate in handing food to the monks.

When all the food has been offered, the villagers stop talking and prostrate themselves three times in homage to the monks.

Then an elderly man from the wat committee, who is the ritual expect, acts as the leader of the congregation in chanting verses inviting the monks to eat the meal. As he completes each sentence of the verse, the villagers repeat it after him. All the while the monks are eating, with a few old and middle‐aged men in attendance to help serve them. There is apparently a division by sexes and ages among the congregation. The old and adult men are grouped together near the monks: the old and the married women chat among themselves: the girls gather in one corner of the hall exchanging greeting and talking with each other; the young men do not even come inside the hall, but wait in a group outside. As they are too far away to listen to the monks’ sermon, they enjoy talking with each other throughout the ceremony. The children form another section of the congregation. They are grouped together in the far corner of the wihan, playing or watching the performance of the rites.

When the monks have finished their breakfast, they chant the anumodana (receiving – with – satisfaction) blessing to the villagers who then perform the troj nam ceremony (merit transferring) by dropping water from a glass or cup into a container in order to transfer merit to the deads, the gods, the spirits and all the living beings. When the monks have finished chanting their blessing, the villagers come down from the wihan and pour all the water in the bowl upon the earth, symbolizing the transfer of the merit accumulated during this ceremony to the beings referred to in the troj nam rite.

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The troj nam ceremony is the most significant part of the merit‐making (tham bun) ceremony because it marks the point where the villagers have fulfiled their wishes in making merit and are happy. The merit‐making ceremony of offering food to the monks has, therefore, both a manifest and an economic function: a manifest one because the villagers believe that they acquire merit from it and that they transfer the merit to the spirits and the dead to make them happy and benevolent; and an economic one in that it enables the monks to survive by means of the regular offerings of food from the villagers. The villagers themselves enjoy both the social gathering which is a part of the ceremony, and feeling of release from sin (bab) accomplished by their merit‐making (bun).

When the water pouring ceremony is finished, the villagers sit in a position of homage, with both hands raised in front of their breasts, before the monks. The leader of the congregation chants the requesting of Precepts and the chief monk or the abbot then recites the Five Precepts to the audience in Pali. They are generally translates as follow: 1. Do not kill 2. Do not steal 3. Do not commit adultery 4. Do not lie 5. Do not take intoxicating liquor

In receiving the Five Precepts. (See in detail in Obeyesekere, 1968:27), the audience repeats every Precept as it is recited by the monk, and after that listens quietly to the services chanted by the chapter of the monks. The chanting of the services during the ceremonial occasions takes about an hour and when it is over the monks take leave with their gifts and food, which are carried back to their residence by their temple boys. At this point the villagers go to pay homage to the Bodhi tree and the Buddha image. It is the tradition to light jess sticks and candles, place them with a bunch of flowers and then put the gold leaf on the image (pid thong) or on the tree.

In mid morning the villagers come back again to the wat, bringing lunch to offer to the monks, and the pattern of merit‐

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making is repeated: the offering of food is followed by the ceremony of transferring merit, the requesting of the Five Precepts, and the preaching of a long sermon. On some occasions, a communal feast is held after the monks retire to their residence.

In the afternoon, there may be another sermon in the wihan. A senior monk or the abbot is invited to sit at the preaching altar to present some moral lesson from Buddhist philosophy to the villagers. These sermons are usually attended only by adults, especially the older people and money and gifts are always offered to the monk when the sermon is over.

The afternoon is left free for the villagers and visitors to pay homage to the Buddha image and the sacred Bodhi tree. In the evening from 6 p.m. there may be a religious rite in the wat but it is held in the bod and restricted to the monks only. In a few ceremonies like the Makhabuja, Khao Pansa and Visakhabuja, there are religious rites for monks and laymen again at night. The monks chant the sermon, after which they form a long procession with the villagers, carrying joss sticks, candles and flowers and walking three times around the bod or the sacred Bodhi tree in a clockwise direction, to pay homage to the Lord Buddha. This rite is called the wientien ceremony.

Some ceremonies last longer than a single day – perhaps three or five – and at these times the villagers come on each of the mornings before or following the main ceremonial day to offer food to the monks and perform the ceremony of transferring merit.

Phase III, Recreation and entertainment, begins in the evening after 7 p.m., when the villagers return to the wat after dinner. Those who have not yet worshipped the Buddha image and the Bodhi tree will do so before they go to watch the entertainment. If there is a wientien ceremony they will join the monks in performing the rite and then go out to enjoy the entertainment.

The evening phase is the most joyful part of the ceremony.

There are various kinds of entertainment such as the dontri lug thung, film, the like’, the lamtad and the khon sod. If the villagers

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are not satisfied with one entertainment, they can move on to the others. There are also various shops and stands at the fair, which sell food, fruits, toys, goods and souvenirs.

There has been some change in the recreational pattern of the wat fairs from that reported by Kaufman (1960: 170‐172) in Bang Khaud. The shadow play or the nangthalung has completely vanished from the village scene, and the like’ and lamtad still persist but are less popular. Perhaps the Khon sod, or the masked dance drama, has replaced the shadow play because it deals with the same story, the Ramayana of India ( in Thai this is called Remakien). The most popular entertainments appear to be the dontri lug thung and films.

The dontri lug thung is “pop” music played by a band, either from the city or from the nearby villages of Ban Chamwa and Ban Kok Peep 35. The band is presented on a stage erected in the wat ground and is composed of singers, both men and women, and musicians, who play violins, trumpets, drums, organ, etc. All performers are dressed in urban‐type clothes. The songs they sing are by no means folk‐songs, but popular ones which are enjoyed by the rural people in general. Their verses still depict the rural life and retain a rural character, but the rhythm and the method of presentation are Westernised. Most villagers who attend the dontri lug thung are young men and women. This group is no longer interested in folk‐songs or music played by the traditional pan pipe (Kaen) 36 but whenever the wat fair approached, looks forward to the coming of some well‐known band from the city, “Pop” music dominates the everyday life of the young villagers: they sing modern songs when they are working and listen to them on their transistors when they are free.

Next to the dontri lug thung in popularity are films (nang)37 , which are enjoyed by villagers of all ages. They are presented at wat fairs by representatives of commercial and drug companies, who advertise their products during the interval and sometimes distribute samples among the villagers. Film shows take place in the open air. The films are projected from a car on to a screen erected in the wat grounds and the audience sits or stands about

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on the grounds to watch it. Both Thai and American films are shown.

Apart from the main entertainments, there are usually various side‐shows, such as mongoose and cobra fighting, presented by certain drug companies, Thai boxing, weird attractions like a boy with two faces, the man with several knives through his body, and so forth.

At about 8 p.m. when most people have arrived at the entertainment area, all the shows and entertainments start, and they continue until 2 a.m. the next day. During these hours the whole area is noisy with conversation, laughter and music or announcements relayed by loud‐speaker. The wat is represented by an announcer who urges people over the microphone to enter the wihan to pay homage to the Buddha and the Bodhi tree and to donate their money to the wat. He informs the people of the building programme of the wat, the construction of the bod, for example, or the sala karn parian. He tells them how much money has been raised, how much is still required, and persuades them to make merit by donating their money for the building’s completion. He also announces the names of those who have already contributed, and the amount of their contribution.

The evening phase of these celebrations is the recreational period for villagers. In their village life, they cannot afford as much entertainment as city people and the main opportunity for them to relax from their tedious work in the field and their daily routine at home is offered by the wat fairs.

II Calendrical Rituals and Occasional Ceremonies

There are two kinds of wat ceremonies here, fixed and occasional. The first are the calendrical rites fixed by tradition in which the local villagers play no part. Villagers still use the lunar calendar in dating the wat ceremonies as well as different stages of the rice cycle, although in other events and activities, they use the western calendar as the official one, like other people in Thailand. (See Appendix B on page 206 ).

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The second group of ceremonies are the occasional rituals which do not follow the calendrical cycle and are held only on special occasions. They are sometimes included in the calendrical rite and thus become a big event of the year for the wat. Such rituals are, as elsewhere in Thailand, a celebration of either a wat building, a senior monk, or a casting of the Buddha image for the wat. In constructing the bod, for example, there may be four rituals involved: first, the phang lug nimitra or the ceremony of laying the foundation stone of the bod; secondly, the yok choe fa or the ceremony of placing the spire of the bod, to mark the completion of its superstructure. There are usually two spires (choe fa) on top of the roof, which have to be hoisted from the ground with accompanying ceremonies, to be fixed on the roof.

The spires are made of wood in the shape of a naga (king of snakes) head and inlaid with small fragments of mosaic glass.

During the ceremony, spires are placed on a stand to let the people see them and place a gold leaf on them, and when the auspicious time comes, the high‐ranking monk38 who is invited to preside over the ceremony will direct the lifting of them to the roof of the bod where they are fixed in place.

The third ritual of the construction is the lhow phra or the ceremony of casting the main image of the building. (See page 176‐179). The main Buddha image is an indispensable component of the bod or the wihan, and as it is destined to be the most sacred object, its installation has to be accompanied by important religious rites. The fourth rituals is the Chalong bod mai, or the celebration of the bod when everything in it is completed. The ceremony known as the chalong pad yosa or celebration of the ranking‐fan, takes place on the promotion of the abbot or of a senior monk who is respected by villagers. (See pages 146‐147).

In addition to these occasional ceremonies, there is another lesser ceremony of pha pa, or ritual of offering the yellow robe to the monk, which can be performed at any time of the year by an individual family or a group of people. The family brings the yellow robe, rice, dry fishes, sugar, some equipment and other gifts to the wat and leaves them under the Bodhi tree (if the

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ceremony is held at Wat Ton Po) or in the sala kern parian or some other building in the wat. Somebody may go to inform the monks about the pha pa gift and, on hearing of it, a monk comes to see the people who have left it and chants a short service for them. He then takes the gifts into the wat, where they will be put to a communal use. The yellow robe may go to the monk who needs it most and the other gifts may be distributed among the monks.(See in detail and the tradition behind the pha pa in Kaufman, 1960: 189‐190).

The following calendrical rites are the recurring events of every year and have a social bearing in the villager life of the Ban Muang Khao villagers. I will refer to each of them according to the calendrical cycle. Case and detail will be illustrated in some major and important events and some occasional ceremonies that took place during the period of my field work will be also included.

1. Songkran

As everywhere in Thailand, Songkran (New Year) falls between the 13th‐15th of April, but, owing to regional and climatic variation, it is celebrated during the rainy season in Ban Muang Khao, when rice has already been broadcast, while in the Northeast the dry season has not yet finished. (See Tambiah, 1968: 71). Officially, the first day, i.e. , the 13th, of the festival is the end of the old year (Songkran), the second day is the intervening day (wan naw) and the third day is the beginning of the new year (thalerngsok). In the past, the festival lasted for seven days but today, owing to economic pressure, it has been shortened to three to five days.

The villagers celebrate the Songkran festival within their own village and perform religious rites only in Wat Muang Khao.

For several days before the Songkran festival arrives, they are engaged in preparing food and ritual items for ceremony. There are two special foods for this occasion, khao kriab and khao neo ma‐muang. The khao kriab is cooked from pounded glutinous rice mixed with pork oil and sugar. It is spread thinly on banana leaves

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to dry in the sun. When dry, it is stored in the house and is ready for eating or offering to the monks. To eat the khao kriab, one has to bake it on the fire until it becomes swollen.

The khao neo ma‐muang consists of steamed glutinous rice and ripe mango. It is not prepared in large quantity like the khao kriab but made only by a few families who grow mangoes, or by rich families who buy them from the market. Because of these two special foods, the festival is known either as Bun Khao Kriab or as Bun Khao Neo Ma ‐ muang after the act of offering them to the monks.

The special ritual item required for the ceremony is tien sok koj or a home‐made wax candle of about an arm’s length tall.

Everybody is expected to have one to be lit during the religious rite at the wat. Most old men and women spend their leisure time in making one for themselves and their children.

The significant events in the Songkran rites of Ban Muang Khao are usually confined to one day, the 13th of April, or the first day of the festival. It starts with feasting the monks in the morning, receiving the Five Precepts and listening to a long chanting. The second stage of the ritual is the sea krao rite for which villagers bring baskets to the wat, each containing ritual items: consisting of nine pieces of khao kriab, nine betel leaves, nine areca nuts, nine banana fruits, nine lumps of rice, a few items of clothing and the home‐made candles representing everyone in the family. This rite is aimed at dispelling bad luck and bring in good fortune and happiness. The monks are invited to chant the service for about 30 minutes and the villagers light their candles, place them on the edge of the baskets and sit quietly listening to the chanting. When this is finished all the articles, except the clothes and the baskets, are offered to the monks, and this is followed by the tak batra ceremony and the serving of food to the monks. There is a ceremony of transferring merit to the dead ancestors and spirits, and a communal lunch at the wat hall, after the monks retire to their rooms, for which everybody brings food to share and eat together.

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In the afternoon, a srong nam phra39 ceremony takes place during which the Buddha statue and the minks are bathed by villagers. The monks are invited to sit in a row on the verandah and the image of the Buddha is set up on a stand in front of them.

The villagers line up. Each carrying a glass and a bowl of water and first bathe the Buddha image, them each monk, wishing him happiness. After this a senior monk preaches a sermon appropriate to the Songkran occasion.

As soon as the preaching ends, the wat hall turns into a battle of water as villagers throw water at each other. Some of the respected elders are excused from this but the young may approach them, asking permission to give them a bath and wishing them long lives. And the old in their turn, wish them happiness and prosperity. Some old men who are less reserved allow the young to play jokes on them. The women may get hold of them, painting their faces with charcoal and powder and soaking them with buckets of water.

Visitors, particularly men, who happen to come into the village during this period are caught by a group of married women and asked to pay a ransom to buy spirit (laow). By this time the throwing of water at other villagers and at anyone coming into the village ahs spread from the wat to the other parts of the village, every bus that comes into the market is stopped by village women for a ransom and if its driver refuses, it is likely to be soaked with water.

In the late afternoon around 4.30 p.m. , villagers gather in the wat ground to perform the koe phra sai ceremony or the ritual of making the sand pagoda. They donate some money to the wat and then bring sand from the wat compound to make the miniature pagoda. Old women help each other to make the main one. A small bamboo pole three feet high is erected on the ground: the sand mixed with water is piled up around the pole and then moulded into a pyramid shape: and when finished, the sand pagoda is decorated with coloured paper flags and bands. The other villagers then make small pagodas around the main one.

Using small bronze cups filled with wet sand they turn them

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upside down on the ground to leave the mounds of sand which they decorate with small paper flags. The koe phra sai ceremony continues next morning with the feasting of the monks and inviting them to chant the victory blessing (chayanto) for the happiness of the villagers. The tradition of koe phra sai is believed to be an act of making merit and to symbolise the acquiring of merit as limitless as the numbers of grains of sand.

On the second day of the Songkran, there is no conspicuous ceremony at the wat, only the usual offering of food to the monks in the morning. But some families arrange a Songkran rite in their home. Monks are invited to chant services after breakfast, and friends and relatives are asked to take part. There is a tak batra ceremony and the offering of lunch to the monks and at this time food is also brought to the spirit house and the Pu Ta shrine. After lunch the monks perform a bangsakul – a short mortuary rite for the dead and this is followed by a water‐pouring rite (troj nam) to transfer merit to the dead and spirits. The religious rite ends with the senior monk sprinkling the nam mon (lustral water) on the participants and in every room in the house to exorcise the evil spirits and bad luck.

When the monks leave, there is a big feast for the family members and guests. In the afternoon, the elderly members of the family, particularly the grandparents, are asked to come out to let the younger ones perform the rod nam or bathing ceremony. Two or three cups of water mixed with perfume are poured by each participant over their shoulders or hands and the participants of both generations wish each other long life and happiness.

On the third day of the festival, as well as on the following days if it lasts for five, villagers continue to offer a feast to monks both at breakfast and lunch. And the sporadic throwing of water at each other continues throughout the period. Usually in the late afternoon of the last day, there is a ceremony of koe phra sai nai ban (making the sand pagoda in the village centre). The presence of this ritual makes the Songkran festival here different from that of the neighbouring villagers and those elsewhere in which there is only one sand pagoda making rite. The ceremony takes place in

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the wat ground but this time in front of the Pu Ta shrine. It is aimed at the welfare of the village and it ends with the offering of food to the monks and the chanting of the victory blessing (chayanto) by them the following morning.

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PLATE VIII

a. The bathing ceremony for the monks at Wat Munag Khao during the New Year Festival ภาพการสรงนําถวายพระสงฆ์วดั ม่วงขาว เนื่องในเทศกาลสงกรานต์

b. Women making miniature sand pagodas in the Koe Phra Sai Ceremony กลุม่ ผู้หญิงชาวบ้ านกําลังก่อพระเจดีย์ทราย ในพิธีก่อพระทราย - 167 -

During the Songkran period, there is no entertainment arranged in the wat, nor any recreational games. But it is the time that villagers enjoy talking, playing, eating and drinking together.

The girls join in groups, roaming everywhere in the village, taking part in water sports and throwing water on each other. It looks like a role reversal or mock period of the year when adult women become aggressive, drinking like the men, making fools of the old ones, arresting strangers for a ransom and playing like children.

They engage in a kind of horseplay in games like the yod lum and toy kong (throwing coin‐like objects into a hole or a circle on the ground). They sing songs and dance together, making merry in large groups while they drink.

The Songkran festival among the Ban Muang Khao villagers shows a multiplicity of themes and interests. It is still a very strong tradition in the village because the older generations and their ancestors have upheld it regularly for a very long time. The tradition of using water to give a bath to the Buddha, the monks and the elders, and to throw at each other, is shared with people in other areas of the country. Water is regarded as a means of washing away impurity and bringing freshness and happiness to each other. To give a bath to the Buddha image and the monks is to wash away the past year’s sins and bad luck of the worshippers; to give a bath to the elders is to ask them for forgiveness and to get their blessing and to throw water at each other is to forgive, to offer one’s good wishes and to bring the freshness and happiness of the new year to each other. Thus the social relationship between the elders and the younger (pu yai‐pu hoj) and the village brothers (phi‐naung ruan‐ban) are renewed and accentuated.

The congregation at the wat brings them into contact in attending the big feast, and in merit‐making. The spirits are invited to attend and are offered food. The monks are given a feast and the merit (bun) of offering food to them is transferred to the dead and other spirits. Thus the Songkran period helps to bring the village world into harmony. It reaffirms the relationship between man and man, man and environment and man and the supernatural.

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2. Visakhabuja

Visakhabuja falls in May or Duen Hok of the lunar calendar, which is a period of hard work in preparing the fields, ploughing and transplanting. It seems inappropriate in terms of the rice cycle, for elabourate rites; but, to the Ban Muang Khao villagers and others in the entire commune, such an event is of great Buddhistic importance and must be celebrated on a grand scale.

Visakhabuja is a day on which the Buddha was born, attained enlightenment and died. It is customary on this occasion for the villagers from various villages in the commune, as well as from other areas, far and near, to come to pay homage to the sacred Bodhi tree and to light the bang fai (sky rockets) during their worship. Because of this Visakhabuja is known among the villagers as the Bun Bang Fai (merit making with sky rocket). This makes the occasion and object of lighting the sky rocket different from those of the Northeast. The bang fai is the invention of the Lao people of the Northeast who light it only when they perform the rain‐making ceremony and this excludes the participation of the monks. It is probable that the bang fai was brought to the District of Sri Mahabodhi by the Lao Puan who were taken as prisoners‐of‐war from Lao. In fact, although the Ban Munag Khao villagers light it to celebrate the Bodhi tree during the Visakhabuja occasion, some old people in the village still believe that it will help to bring regular rains for a good crop.

The Bang fai is a kind of firework, composed of a bamboo shaft with an iron tube about one metre long and containing gun powder attached to its head. It is decorated with a small figure of the naga (king of snakes)40, made of cardboard and coloured paper. When it is to be lit, the villagers build a stand or tower of bamboo poles in an open space on which to lean the rocket, and someone is required to climb up the tower to light it. A well made bang fai will shoot into the sky for a distance of nearly a mile.

The survival of the bang fai ceremony during Visakhabuja at Wat Ton Po is largely due to Abbot Yuen, the abbot of the wat.

Before he became the abbot, he had observed that the knowledge of making the bang fai was going to die with the old people, so he

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set about reviving it by making the rockets himself and encouraging the young villagers to learn to make them. The abbot had lived in the Northeast and while there had learnt a better technique of making the bang fai than that used in Ban Ton Po. When he became the abbot and the head monk of the commune he initiated a new tradition by inviting every wat in the commune to send their bang fai to compete with those of other villages during the Visakhabuja celebration at Wat Ton Po. This innovation resulted in transferring the task of preparing the rocket from laymen to the wat and it is brought to be lit during the festival in the name of the wat. In some wats the monks41 make the rockets themselves, and sometimes they invite monks from the Northeast, who are bang fai experts, to make it for them.

In Wat Muang Khao the young villagers make the bang fai for the wat under the supervision of the monks and the wat committee, but in Wat Ton Po the abbot makes it himself. He makes it for exhibition only as Wat To Po does not enter the competition, but acts as host and offers prises for the winners.

As a result of Abbot Yuen’s initiative, the Bun Bang Fai or Visakhabuja ceremony has become the most significant event of all the annual wat festivities. Villagers both old and young talk of it and look forward to it when the new year comes. Those who go out to work or live elsewhere are expected to come back to stay with their families and take part in the celebration.

Moreover, the bang fai celebration at Wat Ton Po has become an extra‐village affair. Every village in the commune takes part and people from even further away, in order to worship the Bodhi tree on the Visakhabuja occasion and to watch the bang fai competition.

Bun Bang Fai and Lhow Phra (casting the Buddha image)‐ a case in 1969

The Bun Bang Fai of 1969 was a bigger event than those of the previous years because the wat had added to it the ritual of

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casting the main image (phra prathan) of the new bod – the lhow phra ceremony. The wat had given notice of the ceremony to the villagers of every village in the commune about two months before and asked them to take part by bringing traditional bronze objects such as bowls, lamps, betel nut trays, etc. , to use for casting the image. Those who did not possess any bronze objects were asked to buy pieces of bronze to give to the wat. The ceremony would be a big one, in which the monks from many parts of the country would be invited to participate.

The Ban Muang Khao villagers were aware of the image casting ceremony and managed to collect the bronze objects which they gave to the abbot at his residence. During the Songkran ceremony, they talked about the bang fai festival and the preparation of the bang fai of the wat for competition. Three adult women often walked around the hall, holding a tray and asking the villagers to make donations towards the expense of the bang fai.

When the Songkran had passed the villagers looked forward to the coming of the Bun Bang Fai, but the young abbot of Wat Muang Khao was concerned about the people’s lack of interest in preparing the bang fai for the competition. He complained to one of the wat committee that many of them care to the wat but did not give their help, preferring to sit and talk, and eating the khao kriab and drinking tea the wat provided for the helpers. He announced that if the villagers would not provide more help, he would not send a bang fai to compete in the following years, and that, as Wat Muang Khao had always won first prise in the competition, it would be better not to compete than to come last through lack of interests.

The complaint was put before the wat committee by one of its elders and the next morning, during the offering of food to the monks, the committee informed the villagers of the abbot’s concern and encouraged them to give their help more enthusiastically for the sake of the wat, and so that they could continue to take part in the competition. This declaration had some effect because in the afternoon a greater number of helpers

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arrived at the wat. The married women were the most active of all and also urged their children and husbands to come to the wat whenever they were free. They themselves worked continuously, replacing each other when household work had to be done.

Preparing the bang fai

The preparation of the bang fai required six days. The work continued all day and until late at night, and was shared by the villagers and the monks. The wat committee provided all the necessary materials such as gunpowder, bamboo poles, iron tubes, coloured paper, etc. The women and the monks pounded the gunpowder, the men did the heavy jobs like cutting the bamboos and fixing them to the iron tubes. The old men prepared small fireworks which would be lit before the bang fai, and sometimes stopped to boil water for tea and to bake the khao kriab for the participants. The old monks were occupied in cutting the coloured paper to decorate the rockets.

The most important work of estimating the amount of gunpowder and other elements necessary for a good bang fai and of fixing the various parts of it together was done by a young man, a son of the wat manager, who had learnt the art of making the bang fai from Abbot Yuen during his stay Wat Muang Khao.

When the preparations were finished, there were nine bang fai altogether, four of them for the competition, and the rest reserves.

Three different‐sized rockets were to be entered in the competition. The largest one was 3 inches in diameter and 75 inches long measured from the iron tube that contains the gunpowder, the second was 2 ½ inches in diameter and 55 inches long; and the smallest was 2 inches in diameter and 45 inches long.

One bang fai of the first two sizes was required for the competition, and two of the smallest size.

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The Bang Fai Display

As soon as the bang fai were completed, preparations for its procession and exhibition began. At this time some of the young men who had been away began to return to the village, and offered their help to the wat. Some spent their time making big masks and others used coloured paper for the decoration of the bang fai and the car that was going to carry them on the exhibition tour. The tractor was brought into the wat, decorated like an army tank with cardboard and canvas, and used as a carrier to take the bang fai to the ceremonial ground.

It can be seen here that the tractor had been incorporated into the ceremonial life of the villagers. The procession of the bang fai from each wat is composed of cars, trucks, buses and tractors. It has become the custom for the owner of a tractor to bring it to join the procession of his wat to help make it look more impressive than those of its rivals. One of the cars in the procession carries an announcer, who boasts of the excellence of the bang fai, the procession, and the decoration of his own wat, and does his best to bluff the rival processions. On the day be fore the ceremony a group of Ban Muang Khao women who were fond of singing and dancing, accompanied by a few men, took three of the bang fai to exhibit outside the village. It is traditional that before the bang fai is lit in the celebration there must be an exhibition tour to other villages or towns. On this tour, called the seng bang fai, a group of villagers carries the bang fai into the market or through the village from house to house. One woman in the group I am describing sang verses from a traditional folksong telling the story of the bang fai or Phra Wessandon from the Jataka tale. As she finished each stanza, others acted as chorus to repeat what had been sung, while everybody danced and played some musical instrument to accompany the song.

The bang fai troupe sang and danced at any shop or house along its way and it was customary for the owner shop or house to give them some money to be used for tham bun (merit ‐ making) in the celebration. Upon receiving money, the troupe would sing their thanks and a blessing to the host and then move on to the

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next house. There was no reaction if the host refused to give a donation because this was an act of merit‐making, and so a matter of individual choice. The exhibition tour usually continues until the eve of the day the bang fai was to be lit.

On the first day of the tour, the bang fai was taken to the provincial city of Prachinburi. The wat hired a taxi for the troupe from a Ban Muang Khao man who charged only for the petrol.

The bang fai were put on the roof of the car and the troupe left the wat early in the morning. They sang the sing of the bang fai and heat musical instruments all along the way to the city. When they came to a village market, they stopped and took the rocket to exhibit to the different shops for donations.

At the city, they took one small bang fai from the car and carried it to display in the market and other sections of the city, singing and dancing until about 5 p.m. , when they started the journey back to Ban Muang Khao. On the second day, the bang fai was taken to be shown at the District Centre of Sri Mahabodhi, and on the third to Panomsarakam. On the morning of the fourth day, on which the bang fai competition took place, it was displayed in various villages of the commune. Each day the troupe collected from 300 to 400 baht, after paying for petrol, food and drink. All the money collected from the donation was given to the wat.

In the afternoon of the fourth day or the third day of the Visakhabuja festival, all the bang fai were put on the tractor and the villagers formed a long procession which left Wat Muang Khao and set out along the road to Wat Ton Po. It was led by a group of singers, dancers, musicians and an announcer. The villagers were dressed in fancy costumes; some men put on big masks, some women dressed themselves like men and some of the boys were female dress, etc. By this time, the bang fai procession of other wats were also entering the arena at Wat Ton Po. Each, in its turn, circled three times around the sacred Bodhi tree in a clockwise direction, before moving to the competition area. Each wat boasted of its bang fai and mocked at its rivals, while the villagers joined in groups and cheered their own wat.

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The Competition

The competition started at 4.30 p.m. Some minor fireworks were lit first, them the small bang fai, followed by the medium and large sizes. Each time a rocket shot into the sky the crowd roared and its supporters cheered it. The winner was decided from the height the rocket reached and the distance from the launching tower to where it fell to earth. There is a sub‐committee appointed by the Wat Celebration Committee to judge the height and distance reached by the rockets. It is composed of the school headmaster, the Hamlet Headmen of Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa (these two villages share the same wat – Wat Ton Po – and thus take no part in the competition) and representatives of each competing wat. On this occasion the large bang fai of Wat Munag Khao exploded when it took off, so did not travel far from its starting tower. It lost to the bang fai of Wat Mai of Ban Kok Peep but the wat had its competition in winning the contest of the medium and small bang fai. The villagers did not blame the young man who made the bang fai for their defeat, but excused it by pointing out that the bang fai of Wat Mai had been made by a monk from the Northeast, who was an expert.

At this festival a novelty in the bang fai was introduced when Abbot Yuen, the abbot of Wat Ton Po, brought his bang fai to light during the competition interval. There was a rocket‐ shaped bang fai among them. Instead of using the bamboo shaft, the abbot’s rocket was a metal cylinder resembling in shape the rockets used in traveling to the moon. This rocket was launched not from the tower but from the ground and it shot into the sky higher than the traditional bang fai. When it came down, it did not break up, and the abbot filled it with gunpowder to enable it to be sent off another two times. The villagers looked at it with interest and it is likely that the bang fai may change its shape in the years to come or that there will be a competition for the new ‐ shaped bang fai as well as the traditional ones.

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Plate IX

a. The Bang Fai procession of Wat Muang Khao along the road to Wat ton Po ขบวนแห่บงไฟจากวั ั้ ดม่วงขาวระหว่างทางไปวัดต้ นโพธิ์

b. Bang Fai lighting การจุดบังไฟ ้

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Lhow Phra (casting of the image)

Apart from the Bang fai activity, the ceremonial period in the wat lasted for three days. On the first day, the villagers brought food to offer to the monks at the wat and listened to the chanting. In the afternoon monks began to arrive from other parts of Thailand, from Bangkok, and from the eastern, central and northeastern areas. Abbot Yuen had met those monks and had now invited them to participate in the ceremony of casting the Buddha image. Within the wat compound, a temporary pavilion had been erected to store all the bronze objects that villagers had brought to the wat for the casting of the image. There was a mixture of good and broken objects, and many of them were of artistic merit such as bowls, flower trays, vases and betel nut trays, which, until now, the families had kept as household treasures42.

There was also ingot‐brass which the wat committee had provided to sell to those who wanted to contribute some metal to the casting.

The announcer in the pavilion continuously urged those who came to the wat to bring more bronze objects, to buy the ingot‐brass and to donate money to the ceremony. By this time more and more villagers, including those from outside the commune, were arriving, bringing bronze objects to the wat committee.

Next to the pavilion, in front of the new bod, an area of ground was enclosed with a fence, to serve as the casting place of the images. Inside it there were three moulds, a big one for the main image and the two smaller ones for the images of the disciples, which would flank the main one in the bod. All the moulds were erected upside down as the molten metal was to be poured in from above. Several kilns for melting the bronze objects and ingot‐brass were ready.

The new bod was used as the ritual room for the casting rite.

There was a small pavilion built inside decorated with bamboo, sugar canes and banana trunks and leaves at the four cardinal points. White cloth was used to cover the roof and posts of the pavilion and in the enclosure surrounding it were several big jars

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to contain the holy water. This ritual place is extremely sacred. The women were not admitted.

None of the monks of the Wat Ton Po or from other parts of the commune was familiar with the ritual surrounding the casting ceremony, so the abbot invited a monk from the province of Nakorn Nayok, who was a ritual expert, to officiate. The image casting ceremony consisted of two parts: the first a Buddhist rite performed by the monks to consecrate all objects that were about to be molted for casting the images; and the second, a Hindu rite, of inviting the gods and the thewada to witness and help the casting.

When everything was prepared and the auspicious time had arrived, the ritual began at 5 p.m. on the second day. All the bronze objects and ingot‐brass were taken from the exhibition pavilion into the ceremonial pavilion in the bod and the monks invited from various regions were asked to take a sent on the raised platform inside the bod for the performing of the ceremony.

The rite started when the abbot lighted the ceremonial candle, after which the monks changed a long service. In this rite only the monks participated and no laymen were permitted in the bod. The chanting continued throughout the night with only a few short breaks. The rite of consecrating the images was an important one.

On the morning of the third day, which was the last day of the Visakhabuja festival, the ceremony of casting the images was performed in the wat grounds in front of the bod. The ceremonial ground was fenced and decorated with white cloth, bamboo, and banana leaves and trunks. This preparation was for the Hindu ritual. The people who were inside the fence were clad in white.

There were stands and altars offering food to the gods and spirits.

A group of seven to nine people, headed by an elderly man who acted as a Brahmin, prostrated themselves in front of the offering altars to invite gods, thewada and spirits to be present at the ceremony. The bronze objects were taken from the ritual pavilion in the bod to the kilns.

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PLATE X

a. Casting of the Bronze Image at Wat Ton Po การหล่อพระพุทธรูปสําริ ดที่วดั ต้ นโพธิ์

b.

Villagers pouring water on the ground – an act of transferring merit ชาวบ้ านกําลังรดนํ ้าจากการกรวดนํ ้า ลงบนพื ้นดินเพื่ออุทิศส่วนกุศล

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By about 10 a.m. all the bronze had been melted down. The abbot of Wat Ton Po was the first to pour the melted bronze into the moulds and after that other people who were working in the ritual area joined in bringing the bronze to fill each mould. At about 11 a.m. the casting ceremony finished. The images were left in the moulds until they were ready to be removed, two days later.

During the casting, a large crowd of villagers and visitors from outside gathered around the fence of the ceremonial ground to watch the proceedings and when the ceremony was over, they were allowed to ask for some of the holy water that had been consecrated during the religious rites of the monks on the previous night. There were more visitors to the wat on this day as they could attend the casting ceremony in the morning, the bang fai lighting in the afternoon and the entertainment in the evening.

Throughout the three day period of the Visakhabuja festival, villagers came to offer food to the monks for breakfast and lunch and to listen to the chanting services. There were no particular events in the afternoon of the first two days; people simply visited the Bodhi tree to pay homage, giving offerings of gold leaf for the Buddha image and the tree, donating money to the wat, etc. In the evening there were various entertainments for all villagers and visitors – the liké, lamtad, khon sod, films and dontri lug thung, which lasted from 8 p.m. until 2 a.m.

On the Visakhabuja day the monks and devout Buddhists performed the evening rite of wientien at the Bodhi tree.

3. Koe Phra Sai Nok Ban

After the Bun Bang Fai has passed the village returns into normal. The rain falls steadily and the villagers are busy uprooting the seedlings and transplanting them into the fields throughout the month of June. In July, when the rice is hardening, they begin to have time to relax, and in the middle of this month there comes the ritual of the sand pagoda. The object in performing it is to make merit for the dead villagers, not only for one’s own relatives, but also for those who are not kin. Nobody seemed to know why it

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was performed in July or how long it had been practised but the villagers regarded it as a tradition which it was their duty to continue.

The ceremony is performed outside the village heart (nai ban) near the road that passes the market place, so it is called Koe Phra Sai Nok Ban, which means making the sand pagoda outside the village (nok ban). The village elders and women select and clear an area near the road for the ceremony. Several buckets of sand are brought from the wat and all help in making a large pyramid. When this is completed, the helpers make their own smaller ones to surround it. Like other koe phra sai ceremonies, the ritual takes place in the late afternoon, around 4.30 p.m.

The ceremony continues next morning at the wat. Villagers bring food for the monks and ask them to chant the services for the dead and the victory blessing sermon for the welfare of the village, after which the troj nam (merit‐transferring) ceremony is performed by villagers.

The Koe Phra Sai Nok Ban ritual, though not a big one, is a feature of Ban Muang Khao for there is no other village within the same commune which practises it. It is carefully preserved by the elders and the women because it is regarded as a ceremony that brings happiness to the village.

4. Khao Phansa

Not so long after the sand pagoda ritual, the village becomes engaged in a festival period of ordination ceremony. (See pages 53‐59) which ends up before the Buddhist Lent begins. The ceremony of entering the Buddhist Lent or Khao Phansa takes place at the end of July. Phansa or Vassa is the rainy season, which lasts three months. The ceremony occurs at the height of the rains, when the amount of rainfall will crucially affect the future yield of the rice. To observe the orthodox Buddhist Lent, the monks are expected to stay in the wat throughout the three months period.

They are not allowed to go out anywhere for fear of walking over the crops in the fields and damaging them. Apart from the

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requirements of Lent, this time is not a convenient one for traveling around the countryside as it rains constantly and the land turns to mud. Among the villagers, it is a time for the elderly people to intensify their piety in an unusual way, by dressing in white clothes, going to the wat on the wan phra day (holy day) and staying overnight in the sala karn parian, where they observe the High Precepts and practise meditation.

The ceremony takes place in Wat Muang Khao on the first day of the Lenten period. On this occasion the villagers present the bathing cloths (pha abnam fon) to the monks for bathing in the rain. (See also in Tambiah, 1968:73). At night there is a wientien ceremony around the bod after which the monks chant a long service, bestowing protection and blessing on the eve of Lent.

5. Org Phansa (ritual of marking the end of Buddhist Lent)

During the three month period of the Buddhist Lent (from the end of July to the end of October) the village and the wat remain calm. No public ceremony takes place, the monks are confined in the wat, while the villagers have a long rest from farming as they wait for the rice to mature. At the end of October, when both Lent and the rain come to an end, the village comes to life again. The first ritual then performed is the Org Phansa.

This ritual signals the emergence of the monks from their seclusion, and from now on, wat festivitities begin to take on an air of conspicuous merit‐making. Like Khao Phansa, the ritual lasts for one day; villagers bring food for the monks’ feast, listen to a long sermon and perform a wientien ceremony.

6. Ted Mahachad (Preaching on the Great Jataka)

The Ted Mahachad ceremony comes shortly after the Org Phansa. It is a grand merit‐making ceremony in Wat Muang Khao.

It is also known as Bun Phra Wes because it derives from the story of Phra Wes or Wessandon. This is the story of the Buddha in his

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last incarnation before the one in which he attained Buddhahood, and is regarded as the great Jataka or Mahachad.

For Ted Mahachad, which lasts for two days, there is cooperation among various wats of the commune because the recitation of the Jataka story is not an easy one. It requires trained and experienced monks, and individual wats do not have enough monks to carry out the performance by themselves. They usually cooperate in terms of the aw raeng (exchanging labour) system. If the ceremony takes place first in Wat Muang Khao, the monks from Wat Ton Po and Wat Sra Khoj are invited to take part, after which the festival will move on to the other two wats and monks from Wat Muang Khao will participate.

For villagers, the Ted Mahachad festival is an inter‐village activity. They act as hosts to people from other villages, providing them with food and drink throughout the festival period. And when the wats in the other villages hold the Ted Mahachad, Ban Muang Khao villagers are expected to be their guests in return.

A few days before the festival takes place, the villagers cooperate to cook the khanom chin (rice noodles) and the khao tom (fried glutinous rice with banana) to offer to their guests. The sala karn parian which has been left empty for rest of the year is cleaned and decorated with bananas, sugar cane, bamboo and flags, both national and religious.

The first day of the festival starts in the morning, after the villagers’ offering of breakfast to the monks. The recitation for this day is called malai muen and malai saen. The monks preach the story of Phra Malai – an enlightened monk (Phra arahat) who visits the narok (hell), preaching to the people there who suffer because of their own sins. Phra Malai has pity on them, presents them with a moral lesson and teaches them to do good deeds in order to free themselves from their suffering and torture in hell.

On the second day of the festival, the Phra Wessandon story is recited; this is a longer story composed of thirteen chapters (kan), and requiring more monks to take the parts of various characters in the story. One monk usually represents Phra Wessandon, the hero, and others represent his wife, son, daughter,

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the villain, etc. The story purports to show the thanbarami or the selfless giving of Phra Wessandon, the Buddha‐to‐be in his final incarnation before he was born to become the Buddha in the following life.

The climax of the story occurs when Phra Wessandon gives his son and daughter as servants to the beggar (Chuchok). The recitation is dramatic because it relates how the hero suffers as he decides to give his children to a beggar, who beats them in front of him. The experienced monks who represent the characters usually impress their audience with their dramatic voices. As the story is very long, the preaching does not end until about 5 p.m. or later.

The Ted Mahachad festival is one of the greatest events of the year for the Ban Muang Khao villagers, and it reflects several interesting aspects of the village society. Firstly, in terms of the traditional village life it has an educational function as an occasion when moral lessons and Buddhist philosophy are related to the villagers. In the past, there were no schools and books where these could be studied and only the men had the opportunity to read and learn with the monks in the wat. But through this festival Buddhist beliefs are passes on orally to all villagers, regardless of sex or age. The recitation of the Phra Malai story is aimed at lifting the moral standard of the villagers, in dramatizing the dire result of sin (bab), and urging the good Buddhist to avoid it. The story of Phra Wessandon show them selfless giving and its deeply moving drama leads from tragedy to final vindication and triumph. The villagers believe that listening to the recitation of these stories will confer upon them great merit and the fulfilment of their wishes in the future life.

Secondly, this festival has a social value as an intervillage activity that unites people of nebouring villages. Old friends and relatives meet and join each other in acquiring merit by listening to the recitation. During breaks in the ceremony they talk and eat together. It is also a great occasion for boys and girls from different villages to meet and often leads to love affairs afterwards. Monk who give good dramatic performances are

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admired and villagers look forward to their talking part again the following year.

7. Tod Kathin ( offering yellow robe to the monk)

In the beginning of November, not long after the Ted Mahachad, there comes the grand ceremony of offering the yellow robes and other gifts to the monk – Bun Tod Kathin. It is another big village merit‐making ceremony which celebrates the emergence of the monks and the ending of the rains. In some other villages it precedes the Ted Mahachad festival but in Ban Muang Khao, it takes place after it. However, all the villagers share the tradition that the Kathin must be held once a year in the period between the end of October and November.

As a general practise, the wat receives its Kathin gift from donors in another village or from outside the commune. If this is not forthcoming, people of the local village make the presentation (Tambiah, 1968:75). This is in fact what happened very often in Wat Muang Khao because it is a poor village wat, with nothing to attract the outsider.

As in most major merit‐making rituals, the Tod Kathin activity is spread over at least two days. On the first day after giving a feast to the monks, decorations are put up and all the gifts to the monks are assembled in the sala karn parian. Throughout the afternoon people bring gifts and other small items to add to them and all gifts are placed together on the hau kathin, a decorated wooden palanquin. The monks from Wat Ton Po then arrive to participate. In the evening all monks chant the service and at night there are entertainments in the wat ground – a film is shown and sometimes there are also the liké and a band of dontri lug thung is brought from either Ban Chamwa or Ban Kok Peep.

On the following day, the villagers and other participants offer food to the monks in the morning, and after that the presentation ceremony begins. The hau kathin which contains the yellow robe and other gifts is brought down form the sala karn parian and the participants form a Kathin procession led by a

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band of musicians playing drums, flutes and trumpets. The procession goes around the bod three times and arrives at the wihan, where the Kathin is presented to the monks.

In presenting the Kathin, the laymen request the Five Precepts from the monks and then offer the yellow robe and other gifts, usually to the monk who is abbot of the wat. The ceremony concludes with the monks receiving their gifts and chanting and appropriate blessing. (See also in detail in Kaufman, 1960:185‐188).

8. Bun Chalong Wat (Wat Celebration)

After the Bun Tod Kathin, there is no wat ceremony until January. During December the villagers are engaged in harvesting and threshing the transplant rice (khao bao). And in January, while the broadcast rice (khao nak) in the floodplain (na thung) is being harvested, there comes the celebration of Wat Muang Khao.

It is an annual celebration, and its main objective is to raise funds for the wat. It lasts for two days and on each day the villagers bring food to the monks, listen to the sermon and transfer merit to the dead and the spirits. In the evening there are various kinds of entertainments such as the like’, lamtad , films and dontri lug thong in the wat ground. The wat earns quite a large amount of money from this fair. In 1969, about 11, 000 baht was raised from the entrance fees after expenses had been paid. Funds raised in this way are used for the wat expenditure throughout the year.

9. Makhabuja or Bun Khao Lam

Soon after the celebration of Wat Muang Khao, the harvesting season is completed. The villagers bring rice to store in the granaries, and some of it is sold. Then comes the religious occasion of Makhabuja. It falls at some time about the end of January or the beginning of February. By the lunar calendar, it occurs on the 15th day of the waxing moon (full moon) of the third month. According to legend, it is the day on which 1,250 monks from all parts of India, without previous notification, appeared

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simultaneously before the Buddha. They requested him to announce to them the regulations that they must follow. The Buddha proceeded to relate to them the 227 Precepts which monks still have to observe today. Because this was such a significant event, all Buddhists celebrate the day by making‐merit, listening to a sermon and taking part in the wiention procession.

In Ban Muang Khao, as in other villages throughout the commune, the villagers call this occasion the Bun Khao Lam, the occasion of making merit with khao lam (bamboo rice). For a few days before the Makhabuja day, all the families are busy preparing this special food. Glutinous rice is soaked overnight and bamboo is collected from the jungle and out into sections. In the morning coconut milk is squeezed from the coconut meat, mixed with sugar and glutinous rice and poured into each bamboo section.

When this is finished, a banana leaf is used for a lid. In the evening groups of neighbours combine to roast rice contained in these bamboo vessels in hot embers in one of the house compounds.

On the morning of the Makhabuja day, the villagers bring the khao lam and other food to offer to the monks at wihan Ton Po. (On this occasion both the monks from Wat Ton Po and Wat Muang Khao are assembled there). The abbot of Wat Ton Po preaches a sermon to the audience on the story of the Makhabuja day and its importance, then leads the other monks in chanting the Patimok a long service concerning the 227 Precepts.

In the evening after dinner, the villagers return to Wat Ton Po perform the evening rite with the monks. The ceremony ends with the monks and the layman performing a wientien procession around the sacred Bodhi tree. There is no entertainment or fair in connection with this Makhabuja ritual, which lasts only one day.

10. Bun Wat Ton Po (the celebration of the Bodhi tree) The period from the Makhabuja festival until March is the rejoicing time for the villagers as it is the time when they can enjoy relaxation from the past year’s work, sell their rice and spend their money, though some may begin ploughing in preparation for the

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broadcasting rice of the new year. Some families now plan household ceremonies, such as weddings, funeral, ordination etc.

This is also the time of the festival of worshipping the Bodhi tree.

People from various villages of the region now come to pay homage to the tree and to enjoy the entertainments and there is a wat fair that lasts for two days. This is the last wat festivity before the villagers are engaged again in the rice cycle of the new year.

Conclusion

The wat ceremony as it has been described is an indispensable component of the socio – cultural life of the Ban Muang Khao villagers. Each time it occurs, it serves to integrate the wat with the village. It is conducted by the monks before a congregation of villagers, which consists of all social categories, the aged, adult, young people and children of both sexes.

In the belief of the elders and devout Buddhists, the ceremony must be performed if the village is to continue in peace and prosperity. All acts of participating in the rituals are merit – making. Central and omnipresent at wat ceremonies are the offering of food and gifts to the monks, and the transferring of merit to the spirits, the dead and all the living. This ritual helps to keep the relationship harmonious between man and the supernatural beings, as the act of transferring merit is a substitute for the rites of propritiating the gods and spirits. A villager finds a psychological relief from sin (bab), worry and fear of the future once he has acquired merit (bun) by taking part in the ceremony.

Though the young villagers have not yet such a strong attachment to the wat, nor belief in its ritual, the wat ceremony is for them a major social event of the community. As they are obliged to help their elders and the wat in arranging the ritual, it is an opportunity for them to meet each other. The enjoyment of various entertainments associated with the wat celebrations is important to this age group.

During the ceremony, the wat becomes a recreational and social centre for villagers from within and outside the village.

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Some of the big social events, like the Songkran, Bun Bang Fai and Ted Mahachad, play a part in keeping families united. Those who have been away from the village to take up residence and to work elsewhere come back to join their families in enjoying and celebrating such occasions. Friends and kin living in the other villages meet each other. Relationships between the elders and the young are reinforced, and village unity is revived (e.g., in the bang fai competition). These examples of its influence imply that the wat ceremony has a function in the preservation of social integration and solidarity of the village society.

The wat ceremony also has a functional role in the socialisation of the villagers. The young villagers attend the ceremonies and become familiar with the traditions of the village and the wat that their elders have always practised. In some ceremonies like Songkran, Ted Mahachad and Makhabuja, a horal lesson is presented by the monks and Buddhist philosophy and literature are passed on orally to the villagers. Such customs confirm that the wat is remaining an agent for traditional education in the village.

The wat itself depends on the ceremony for its economic survival. Donations, entrance fees and rent of land during fairs are the sources of most of the wat income, which is used for its maintenance, repairs, contraction of buildings such as the bod, the wihan, sacred shrines, kuti etc.

The village wat – Wat Muang Khao, still exists as the social centre of the traditional inward – looking village community, for most of the rituals, both daily and annual, are still held in it and attended by its local villagers. The wat also serves, during its religious rituals and festivities, as an intrusive organisation at a local level, when it draws other people from the neighbourhood into contact with its local villagers. This is in contrast to the commune wat , Wat Ton Po, which is a regional centre linking the villagers to others from outside, beyond the sphere of the peasant society.

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CHAPTER VI A Unit of the Wider Society

Ban Muang Khao as a Tradition – Oriented Village

Ban Muang Khao is still a tradition – oriented village when compared with other villages of the same commune. This can be seen from the socio – economic changes which have taken place in Ban Kok Peep, Ban Dan, Ban Chamwa and Ban Ton Po since 1955, when the communication route with urban centres changed from waterways to roads. Ban Kok Peep has become the Commune Centre and a growing town. It is now directly linked with other commune and District centres and provincial cities; and, besides a Post Office and a bus station, it contains a rice market and a big rice – will, some restaurants and many shops. which sell a wide variety of goods. By contrast with the rice – farming community of Ban Muang Khao, its population is economically heterogeneous, including, besides rice – farmers and wage – labourers, merchants, shopkeepers, landowners, government officials, artisans and others.

There is an obvious class distinction berwoon the rich and the poor in Ban Kok Peep. Most of the rich live in the market area in brick houses equipped with refrigerators, television sets, cars, etc., and they enjoy urban values and life style. Their children are sent to study and work in Bangkok. They have built their own wat separate from the old village wat, which is left for the poor to take care of, and have invited monks from elswhere to live there. They have built a cremation – place for themselves in the new wat.

During the bang fai competition, they give financial support to the wat for the making of the bang fai and the preparation of the bang fai procession.

The poor, on the other hand, receive only a low – level education at an elementary school. Some are still rice farmers and others have become wage – labourers because they do not own enough land for farming. These people cling to the village wat and the local monks.

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In other villages like Ban Ton Po, Ban Dan and Ban Chamwa, there is no market place, and class distinction like that of Ban Kok Peep does not exist. These are poor villagers. Most of them do not have land of their own, but have to hire land to cultivate rice and supplement the income derived from it by hiring their labour. Some households are gradually being forced to take up occupations other than farming and even to move to urban areas, where the men work as truck – drivers, day – labourers, etc.

Some families encourage their children and support than in obtaining better education, to enable them to find work other than rice – farming in the village. This is bringing the younger generation increasingly into contact with the more sophisticated urbanite causing them to depart from old value patterns of the village society.

Ban Muang Khao, though it is also changing, has not yet experienced much development of heterogeneous occupation and the class distinction of Ban Kok Peep, nor the increase in the numbers of young people leaving the village to work in urban areas. This is largely because the majority of its villagers still own enough land to be able to subsist by rice farming. As farmers, villagers still share the same life style, which does not encourage class distinction among them. They are less ambitious in seeking education beyond the village elementary level and this also discourages them from looking beyond their traditional way of life.

Women have also played an important role in preserving the traditional village way of life. Marriage custom that favours matri – uxorilocality, together with ownership of land, influences village girls to remain in the village for life. They accept the village as their world and their obligations to help maintain it. Village traditions and values, therefore, have been passed from the old to the young through women.

The centre of all traditions and values cherished by villagers is the wat. Every religious ritual performed with the monks is an act of acquiring merit; and merit is the thing that enables villagers to obtain their withes either in this world or in the other. It can be

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transferred to the gods, spirits, the dead and all the living to keep the cosmos in harmony.

Religious ceremonies performed in the wat are not merely a means of psychological solution and relief for villagers; they also have social significance in maintaining the structure of Ban Muang Khao as a community and preserving its solidarity. Friends, relatives and neighbours join in the performance; relationships between the old and the young are maintained; boys and girls have an opportunity to meet; families are reunited and the village unity is revived.

Trends Due to Socio – Economic Change

Socio – cultural change in Ban Muang Khao is likely to occur rapidly if some infrastructures of the village are undermined. The infrastructures I refer to are the ownership of farming – land by the majority of the villagers, and the role of women and elders in maintaining the village affairs, traditions and order. Socio – economic pressure, from both within and outside the village, is threatening to cause such a change.

Within the village, the decline in the death rate and the increase of young members of the family are causing land to be divided more and more until each family has too little land for cultivating rice. This is due to the inheritance pattern which requires each child to have an equal share of land. This forces some members of the family to take up jobs other than rice – farming.

Contact with the urban area through better roads and better transportation brings in new goods and materials as well as new ideas and values from the city. The villagers begin to enjoy new foods which are available in the village market. They desire new material acquisitions, so their spending increases and money becomes more important in their life than before. Some families which have not enough land encourage their sons to work in the city, and in others husbands go to work as wage – labourers in urban areas, leaving their wives and families in the village. The

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villagers are beginning to appreciate the value of education, and encourage children to learn more in order to find a better job than rice – farming.

Because of the prevalence of buffalo – stealing by groups of bandits, the villagers have turned to the tractor for ploughing their rice; but as use of the tractor involves cash, it favours the rich, who own large areas of rice – field and can better afford to hire it. The poor, who cannot afford to hire a tractor, give up their rice cultivation, selling their land to the rich and hiring themselves out as wage ‐ labourers in their fields. All of these influences increase the importance of money and create a class distinction between the rich and the poor, thus threatening to destroy the egalitarian attitude of the village brotherhood and paving the way for the expressive patron‐client relationship. The rich will have an increasing say in the affairs of the village and the wat rather than the elders and the women, because they provide the money to support and build the wat.

The American programme of building air‐strips and strategic highways in Sataheep and in the Northeast has absorbed large numbers of young villagers of the Commune of Ban Kok Peep as wage‐labourers. This has provided an example for the Ban Muang Khao villagers to follow. Some of the young women who, until now, would have stayed at home are beginning to leave the village to work in Suttaheep, and this is likely to increase in the future.

As the younger generation, both men and women, leave the village to take up work in urban areas, they come into contact with a more sophisticated way of life. They become attached to the new pattern of living and to urban values and when they return to live in the village they no longer appreciate the value patterns and traditions of the older generation. This widens the gap between the old and the young and makes it hard to re – integrate the young who return into the old way of life. Economically, the village is becoming a society heterogeneous in occupation, like Ban Kok Peep. Rice – farming, and even the fact of owning land there, can no longer bind the young to the village, and an

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increasing number can be expected to leave in search of economic opportunity and urban living styles.

Administrative Change

Apart from the evident change in the socio – economic pattern of the village, Ban Muang Khao is to undergo another drastic change in the near future, brought about by the administrative programme of the government, which involves the establishment of a new district – centre in the Commune of Ban Kok Peep.

The proposal for a new district – centre was put forward by a group of local leaders of the Commune, consisting of the commune doctor and three of its rich merchants. This has two main objectives, the first being the development and welfare of the Commune. Ban Kok peep is a large commune, consisting of 11 hamlets with about 1,708 households and a population of 10,760.

It is located far from both the provincial city and the District Centre of Sri Mahabodhi, so communication between the two is not easy. The District of Sri Mahabodhi is a very large district with 12 communes under its administration, and its District officer, with his small group of officials, has a difficult task administering effectively the affairs of the entire District. Another most urgent problem is that the Commune of Ban Kok Peep is infested with robbers and bandits, and there are never enough police available to protect the social security and welfare of the villagers. The establishment of a new district – centre at Ban Kok Peep, separate from the District of Sri Mahabodhi was put forward as the best solution to the problem.

The second objective in making the proposal is the advancement of business interests, including these of the initiators. If Ban Kok Peep becomes a district, a new town will develop where the district – centre is located, to the advantage of business and commerce. Some of the business men who support this programme have offered their own land, located between Ban

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Kok Peep and Ban Muang Khao, to the government for the construction of the district headquarters.

The proposal was submitted to the Governor of Prachinburi, who sent it on to the government. It has new been approved and the government is planning to establish a new district called King Amphur Sri Mahabodhi – a branch of the District of Sri Mahabodhi, but administratively separate from it.

A new district – centre will incorporate Ban Muang Khao and Ban Kok Peep into municipal area. It will bring the Ban Muang Khao villagers and those of the entire Commune into close contact with the Administration. There will be a new District Officer (nai amphur) and representatives from various departments of the central government in Bangkok will be stationed at the new centre. A big market will be built and within it, a post office, health – station, bank, bus station, etc. A police station and a new school providing secondary education will be established. There will be an influx of outsiders coming to settle in the new district, which will bring people of different areas, occupation and interests to live together.

This development is going to cause problems of land – ownership for the Ban Muang Khao villagers. The area behind the village near the highway, which is now barren land and mostly owned by the poor, will become expensive. This land will be sold to the rich, who will see its potential, or to outsiders; and the villagers will have to cope with newcomers who are more educated and cleverer than themselves in business.

Another effect of this development will be the loss of the village boundary. Some of the open land now serves to separate it from Ban Kok Peep and Ban Ton Po will be filled up by houses and roads, integrating the entire area. The hamlet headmen and the elders will lose their control of village affairs and surrender their prestige to the government officials, the rich merchants and the police.

Some of the advantages the new district centre and town will offer are new professions and attractive work for those who are not able to make a living by rice – farming alone; men will now

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have a choice of occupations such as day labourers, clerks, merchants, mechanics, shopkeepers, etc. Children will have an opportunity to attend a secondary school. With the establishment of the administration office and police station, villagers will no longer have to make a long trip to contact the administration.

Robbery, plunder and murder will be more closely controlled by the police. But, with the new system will come new dangers. The villagers will have learned to live with corruption on the part of government officials and the police, as well as the tricks of sophisticated newcomers who are better equipped by education and familiarity with urban ways.

As Ban Muang Khao is incorporated into a district centre in which people have different occupations and economic status, social class will inevitably develop. There will be a division between the rich and the poor, between government officials, merchants and peasant villagers. Finally the village will lose its own identity and become a part of the new and wider society.

The Wat and its Changing Role

As far as Wat Muang Khao is concerned, these socio – economic changes in the village community will affect its socio – cultural position. The village wat is going to lose its significance in preserving village solidarity as the village itself is going to be incorporated into a larger community. It will only be attended and supported by small groups of villagers who still cling to rice cultivation and live close to the wat. Or perhaps, if it cannot support itself, it will be wholly incorporated into Wat Ton Po.

Wat Ton Po, on the other hand, is the regional wat which possesses the sacred Bodhi tree. As such, and with the strong leadership of its abbot, it will become the centre of both religious and secular activities and dominates other wat in the community.

In the first place it still remains as a place to fulfil the religious needs of the villagers i.e., a place for worship and performing merit – making rituals. And since most of the religious ritual performed in the wat is a collective expression, requiring the

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presence of people from all sectors of the community, the wat serves to bring them into contact and hence helps to reaffirm friendship, unity and solidarity.

The wat becomes not only a religious and social centre of the community but also an economic one that helps in monetising the village economy. Villagers spend money in performing rituals and making contributions to the wat, in recreation, in buying the food and goods that are brought to sell at the wat during the festivities.

The rich invest more money in building and decorating the wat to enhance their social status, as well as to acquire merit for a future life. Thus, the wat is going to be a sign of social status for the rich, and a centre of high culture, as well as a symbol of solidarity for the local community. However, in one respect, the wat reflects a conservative aspect of the community which resists and controls the flow of socio – cultural change. Nearly all religious rituals and festivities taking place in the wat are aimed at preserving and renewing the old traditions and culture and since a part of the villagers’ income is invested in the wat and its religious activities, it blocks economic investment to a certain extent.

Beyond the community level, Wat Ton Po will serve to link the community with the wider society. With its sacred Bodhi tree, it is being elevated to a pilgrimage site at national level, where monks and laymen from many areas worship. Its religious ceremonies and the entertainments that accompany them, draw other people in the neighbourhood into contact with those within the community.

In terms of government and polities, the wat has a major role in linking the community to the State organisation and bureaucracy of the country. It is in the wat compound that the government has established the school. The meeting between the Administration i.e., the District Officer, his staff and other high ranking officials always takes place in the wat as there is no other place here more suitable. Other activities sponsored by the government, such as vaccination to prevent contagious diseases, making identification cards, voting for the general election of the country and the like, are held within the wat compound. The

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abbot of the wat is an influential community leader whose cooperation the Administration is anxious to retain in dealing with the villagers; and similarly, candidates for political office woo him in the hope that his influence with the local voter will be used on their behalf.

In conclusion, it can be stated that for the past decade the area has been undergoing a process of modernisation that causes the village to be integrated into the wider society. Wat Muang Khao, the village wat is decaying and losing its functional role in preserving the structure and solidarity of the ‘traditional’ inward – looking village community. It is going to be replaced by the regional wat – Wat Ton Po – which is getting more like other urban wats, in that it serves as the socio – cultural centre of the changing community.

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Footnotes

1. King Chulalongkorn (1968: 2) recorded in his diary that when he visited the Bodhi tree at Wat Ton Po, he was greeted by the Lao Puan villagers from Ban Muang Khao. He saw that the Puan women over 60 years old still wore the pha sin (a sarong or dhoti – like skirt) of the traditional Lao villagers. His visit to the Bodhi tree took place in 1908 and as he saw the Puan women of over 60 years there, it can be estimated that Lao Puan villagers have lived there for at least 120 years.

2. The botanical name of this tree is ficus religosa (Royal Forest Department, 1948: 227‐229). It is generally known by the villagers as Ton Po or the Po tree.

3. This division has been made for administrative purposes. The area in which Ban Muang Khao is located is close to Ban Ton Po and to groups of homesteads, both in the flat plain and at the back of the village. The government has grouped these settlements together under two headmen.

The consolidation of several villages under one headman has apparently been carried out the central government as an economy measure. The central government has attempted to bring the hamlet headman under more direct control by paying him a small monthly stipend, and the appointment of a single headman for several settlements has made it possible for this stipend to be increased. Thus the boundaries of an administrative hamlet are drain simply with a view to administrative convenience and the villagers may not even know where the official boundaries lie.

4. Before the introduction of surnames, there already existed in the city a means of indicating social background comparable with the significance of surname. The urban society has been viewed as a pyramidal one; with the king and the members of the royal family at the top, and below then the bureaucrats of various ranks forming the upper class. The rich, the merchants and minor officials are the middle class; and the poor and the villagers are the lower class. For a commonor, to become a government official was to climb the social ladder, because in doing this he places himself in the middle or upper class and enjoyed the privilege and prestige relative to the position.

So, for most people, it was an ideal to have the son who became a government official or a daughter who married one.

They looked to the son to inherit their estate, property and family name.

Kindred was ancestor – centred in contrast to the ego – oriented kindred of the villagers. The city people traced their ancestors back beyond the third ascending generation and tried to link themselves with any ancestors who were high – ranking officials. The introduction of the surname enabled them

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to group themselves easily and to know with which ancestors they were linked.

5. Villagers do not address government officials by kinship terms, but use a more polite and respectful term such as Khun for the lower – ranking officials and than for high – ranking ones. They do not trust the police or government officials at the District Headquarters and often accused then of being corrupt.

6. The ideal and traditional house was from 24 to 32 feet long and from 16 to 24 feet wide. The house was characterised by a high gabled roof covered with grass; the eaves of the roof sloped down over the house in a lower position than those of today. On the top, at each end of the roof, ware two decorative wood – carvings in the shape of a buffalo – horn. This old – type house has now completely disappeared. The last ones were demolished about 6 years ago.

7. The rice granary (yung khao) is a wooden building raised on piles two foot above the ground. It is rectangular in shape, and is divided into blocks or rooms by pairs of posts. Most of the well – to – do have a granary of one or two rooms but the rich have from three to five. The number of rooms serves to indicate the amount of rice obtained from the field.

8. Such medicine is picked with spirit (lauw) and the women drink it during the fire – treatments period. In this way army women first acquire a taste for spirit, and continue to drink it thereafter. Ban Maung Khao women here acquired the reputation of being as fond of spirit as their men folk.

9. Normally the ordination ceremony is held in July or Duen Paed, according to lunar calendar, but this year, according to astrology, the Duen Paed falls both in June and July, so ordination can be performed in either month.

10. In the past they did not hold this celebration at this time but would wait until the Lenten period came to an end. The new monk would be celebrated before he left the wat and returned to a secular life. But today, owing to economic pressure, they prefer to include it with the ordination ceremony.

11. Paddy fields in this area were formerly cleared and owned by villagers in the jungle villages, but were later sold to pay off their owners’ debts, mainly caused by gambling, to landlords in Ban Muang Khao etc. These fields are fertile, and as they are suitable for the transplanting method, yield better crops than the broadcasting fields of the floodplain, but became of their distance from the village most villagers are reluctant to use then unless they are short of land in the flat plain and need more cash.

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12. The fertiliser used by the villagers is a phosphate fertiliser which they can buy from the Agriculture Officer at the District Headquarters or from the markets in Ban Kok Peep and Panomsarakan. Most of the villagers have not used animal dung and hours as fertiliser for at least 10 years. They have become familiar with the use of modern fertilisers and insect – icides through the Agriculture Officer, the Hamlet Headmen and rich farmers.

13. The spirit (lauw) as it is drunk among the Ban Muang Khao villagers and others in the region is sent from the government factory in Prachinburi to be sold in the village market. It is sold at 9 baht per bottle or 2 baht for a small cup.

14. The pha hang is an old – fashioned cloth worn by Thai women about fifty years ago. It has now given way to the pha nung and skirts. Only elderly village women still wear it.

15. This clinic and the private treatment it offers to villagers is quite separate from his duties as commune doctor which are paid for by the government.

The government defines these duties as assistance to the commune headman in the care of village health, including the reporting of contagious disease, the performing of the vaccinations when the order and medical supplies are received from the District Officer etc.

16. The villagers do not like to go to the hospital because they know they will have a long wait in a queue before receiving treatment, and they are antagonised by the impersonal attitude of the doctors and the nurses there.

17. At that time the price of a tractor was about 110,000 baht. It could be bought on hire purchase terms with a deposit of 25,000 baht, and monthly payments of 4,000 to 5,000 baht. Maintenance costs were not high as the owner was his own mechanic and zola oil, which was used as fuel, cost 15 baht per gallon, which would plough 100 rai of paddy field.

18. The people apply the term luang phau to both the Buddha image and monks of their parents’ generation.

19. The use of small images of the Buddha (phra phim) as charms is derived from Tantricism which spread into Thailand from India in the sixth century A.D. Today, in addition to the printed image of the Buddha, the people keep the printed image of the monks who are famous for their magical power.

Village boys and girls hang them as pendants around their necks, top protect them from bad luck and evil spirits, and as ornaments.

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20. I use the term “Buddha – ised” after Spiro (1967) in his study of Burmese supernaturalism. He saw that Burmese worship of the nats become subject to Buddhism.

21. Buffaloes are reared in the Northeast and each year after the harvesting season, are brought to Prachinburi and Chachoongsao to be sold to villagers.

Villagers say that buffalo – traders are brave men who are equipped with both black magic and weapons. They travel in a big group and have no fear of the bandits because if their buffaloes were stolen, they would be powerful enough to recover them.

22. This is, in many cases, because devout Buddhists have bequeathed their houses to the wat. In Wat Muang Khao, for example, the monks’ cubicles have been built and enlarged from timber donated by the villagers.

23. The women who usually become nuns are those who do not live close to the wat. They may live in the urban areas and retire to the seclusion of the wat when they become tired of secular life. Most of them are from rich and well – to – do families who can give them some financial support. But in Ban Muang Khao, the women live so close to the wat that it becomes a part of their life. There is no event or incident that excludes them from their families.

Because of their economic status, they would be a burden to their families, if they become nuns,

24. In their education, the monks are expected to take a series of examinations. The three elementary tests are naktham and beyond them are the seven grades of study in Buddhist scriptures the parian. Great prestige is attached to passing the parian examinations, and individual monks may display their parian ranks in the same way that Westernors display their academic degrees: they may, for example, call themselves “P.7.”

25. In the past, large numbers of pilgrim monks visited the Bodhi tree during January and February each year. Today, owing to improved communication, there are only a few of them who still travel by foot in the traditional way.

26. Such behaviours is prevalent among the villagers when they reach old age and when their families are well – established and no longer dependent on them. This is usually encouraged by their wives for it will bring merit to them.

27. According to Buddhist law, a blind man or a cripple is not allowed to be ordained, but this young man became blind when he was already a monk.

28. Literacy is a pro – requisite for ordination as a monk. This is because during training, a monk is required to study and memorise the Pali text.

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29. Milk is regarded as containing flour which equates with other kinds of meal such as rice, bean etc.

30. The monk must take his vow of celibacy very seriously. He must avoid females and cannot even let them touch his body. If any monk violates this rule by having an affair with a woman, he is no longer a monk, is forced to retire and become the subject of condemnation by the villagers.

31. In other villagers where villagers believe in incantation, charms and magic, there may be a group of boys headed by a few strong ones. They are called nag leng, are very aggressive and often go out to visit other villages either for wat fairs, during the village festivals or to visit the girls. They may court or tease the girls and sometimes bully boys from other villages. During the wat fairs, there is often fighting among the aggressive boys (nag leng) of different villages and people are sometimes killed.

32. It is the monks and the villagers who select the abbot first and them the Council of Alders (Maha Thera Samakom) in Bangkok, through the head monk of the commune appoints him.

33. Yuen is the mane of the abbot, the term archan means teacher and in the village, it is always applied to some of the senior monks.

34. This year, 1969, was also the year in which general elections wore re – introduced after being abolished for 10 years under the military government.

Abbot Yuan was approached by several parliamentary candidates to encourage the villagers to vote for them but he angrily ignored their efforts for fear of becoming involved politically.

35. Because of the popularity of dontri lug thung, the rich families in Ban Kok Peep and Ban Chamwa bought musical instruments and other equipments necessary to form a band, and encouraged their children and other young villagers to become musicians and singers and to play during the wat fairs.

They are amateur bands and charge less than bands brought in from Bangkok.

36. Folk songs are still sung during the bang fai display, and by the phi fa (the spirit doctors and their companions when inviting the spirits). The traditional pan – pipe (kaen) is also preserved by the phi fa group (see pages 115 – 117).

37. Films or nang have become popular with the villagers because they see them more often than other entertainments. The drug companies bring them to the village an their advertising tours several times a year.

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38. In urban wats, high – ranking officials, such as the Prime Minister, government ministers or army – generals are often invited to open the ceremony.

39. The bathing ceremony is held for the Buddha image, for monks or for the royal family, the tern srong nam is used, but when it is held for a commoner, it is known as ab nam or rod nam.

40. In Thai the term naga (which in India simply means snake means “a great snake” or “King of snakes”, possessing supernatural power, as distinct from ngu, the general term for “snake”. The presence of the figure of the king of snakes refracts the original purpose of lighting the bang fai as a rain – making ceremony because according to the traditional belief, the king of snakes is the contributor of water. In the lunar calendar of each year, there will be a prediction of a fertile or barren year, according to the number of the kings of snakes. If there are only one or two in the calendar, there will be a low rainfall for that year, but if there are more than four or five, a good rainfall can be expected.

41. Klausner (1968: 186, 187) reports that in the Northeast the monks have taken over the preparation of the bang fai from the laity and the traditions of lighting the bang fai has become a wat affair.

42. It has long been the custom, when casting the bronze image, for villagers to donate their bronze objects to the wat, so that by sharing in the casting they may acquire merit. Because of this, old bronze vessels, household and ornaments are rare today.

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APPENDIX A Structure of the Administration and Relationship to the Sangah

Constitution Head of Government King Protector of the Buddhist Religion

Council of Ministers

Supreme Patriarch (Sumdej Phra Sangharaj) Ministry of Interior Ministry of Education

Dept. of Religion

Council of Elders (Maha Thera Samakom)

Ecclesiastical Governors General (Chao Khana Yai)

RegionalEcclesiastical Governors (Chao Khana Pak)

Provinces (Changwad) Provincial Ecclesiastical Governors Provincial Governors

(Cha Khana Changwad)

The Provincial Council

Revenue Chief Health Agriculture Education Etc. Officer Police Officer Officer Officer

Districts (Amphur) District Ecclesiastical Governors District Officers (Nai Amphur)

(Chao Khana Amphur)

District Council (Functioning on the same lines as.

Provincial Council) ************************************************************************************************ ** Communes (Tambol)

Commune Ecclesiastical Governors Commune Headmen (Kanman)

(Chao Khana Tambol)

Hamlets (Mu Ban)

Abbot Hamlet Headmen (Pu yai Ban)

(Chao a wad) Wat Manager and Wat Committee Electors

Ordinary Monks

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APPENDIX B

Calendar of Wat Ceremonies and the Agricultural Cycle.

Name of Ceremony

Songkran

(New Year)

Visakhabuja

Khao Phansa (Entering Lent)

Koe Phra Sai (Making sand pagoda)

Org Phansa (Leaving Lent)

Ted Mahachad

Tod Kathin (Presenting of Yellow robe)

Bun Chalong Wat (Wat Celebration)

Makhabuja

Bun Wai Ton Po (Celebration of The Bodhi tree)

Lunar Calendar Western Calendar Phase of Agricultural

Cycle.

Duen Ha

April Beginning of rainy (Month 5)

Season. Broadcasting

rice.

Duen Hok (Month 6)

May

Rainy season. Preparing for transplanting rice.

Duen Paed (Month 8)

Duen Paed (Month 8)

July

July

High water period.

Growing period of rice.

ʺ

Duen Sib Ed (Mont 11)

October

Duen Sib Ed (Month 11)

October

and November

Duen Sib Ed Month 11)

October and November

Harvesting the transplant rice.

Duen Yi (Month 2)

January

Harvesting the Broadcast rice.

Duen Sam (Month 3)

January and February

Harvesting completed and celebration.

Duen Si (Month 4)

March

Rains Begin. Time for ploughing and broadcasting rice.

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End of rains. Rice are maturing. ʺ

APPENDIX C

The Certificate of Wat Ton Po (After Wongstes, 1968 : 32)

This certificate was issued in 1896, ‐by the Royal Command of King Chulalongkorn, to confer the wisungkamasima (the declaration of wat land as sacred land) on Wat Ton Po.

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APPENDIX D

Some Heights and Measures used by the villagers

Measures

1 rai equals 4 ngan 4 ngan equal 2/5 acre 1 ngan equals 100 wa 400 square wa equal 1 sen 20 sen equal 1 kilometre 4 sog equal 1 wa 1 wa equals 8 feet 1 niu equals 1 inch (approx.)

Weights

1 kwien equals 100 tang 1 tang equals 20 litres (20 qts)

Currency

1 baht equals 4.5 cents Aust.

100 satang equal 1 baht 25 satang equal 1 salyng

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Glossary

a

arahan, arahat

aw raeng

‐ the enlightened bank who has achieved the highest status in buddhism ‐ labour exchange b

bab baht baj sri

Ban

ban

bang fai bangsakun batra

bod Busjnag Bun

bun

‐ demerit, accrued by any action contrary to Buddhist teaching; sin ‐ a monetary division equal to 4.5 cents Aust.

‐ a small decorative, five‐tiered structure made from banana leaves and flowers, used in some religious ceremonies

‐ village

‐ home, house

‐ sky rocket

‐ a special chant used at mortuary rites

‐ the monk’s almsbowl ‐ the convocation hall of the wat, open only to the monks

‐ ordination ceremony ‐ an abbreviation of tham bun (merit making) used as a prefix for a merit making occasion, Bun Bang Fai, for example, means “making‐merit by lighting the sky rocket in worship of the Bodhi tree”

‐ merit accrued by meritorious action in accordance with Buddhist teaching

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c

chai ban chaiyanto

chao

chao mao

chao phau chedi

chuey

‐ village outskirts ‐ the victory blessing chanted by the monks ‐ prince, mighty being ‐ mighty mother, great spirit (for female) ‐ mighty father, great spirit (for male) ‐ pagoda ‐ cool temper d

daeng

dam

dek wat

dhamma

don tri lug thung duen

‐ red, young ones ‐ black ‐ temple boy ‐ the Buddha’s Teaching ‐ rural popular music ‐ month, moon h

hau kloag hau chan hau trai hua kra daj houy

‐ gong tower ‐ dining hall of the monks ‐ wat library ‐ staircase ‐ lottery k

kan kaon khan

khan ha

‐ a chapter in the Jataka tale ‐ a pan ‐ pipe ‐ bowl ‐ mind and body represented by a set

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of ritual item and flowers khan mag

‐ wedding procession khao

‐ rice khao bao

‐ transplant rice khao chao

‐ non – glutinous rice khao lam ‐ glutinous rice cooked in bamboo section kho kriab

‐ baked rice cake, a kind of food khao nak

‐ broadcast rice khao nso

‐ glutinous rice khao tom

‐ boiled rice, rice cake khau raeng ‐ asking for labour, a form of nonreciprocal labour khun ‐ a profix, used in speaking with a person, equal to the terms Mr. and Mrs. khus

‐ supernatural missile khusuad ‐ two monks present as witnesses or tutors at ordination khwan

‐ life‐spirit koe phra sai

‐ making sand pagoda kon dib

‐ ras man, a man who has not yet been

ordained kub khao

‐ ʺwith riceʺ, food eaten with rice. kuti

‐ monk’s cubicle kwien

‐ cart, 100 tang or one wagon load

l

long khan

‐ an act of putting money into the bowl loka

‐ eath, the world of human‐beings luang phau

‐ the term for the image of the Buddha,

and of respect towards senior monks

lug ‐ chang

‐ baby elephant, the term used to refer

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to oneself while praying to the supernatural beings

m

mae tao fai

‐ spirit of the stove malai muen malai saen ‐ a recitation of the story of Phra Malai

‐ funeral pyre mo

‐ doctor, specialist mo khwan also mo phorn ‐ a ritualist, an officiant at the sukhwan ritual mondob a Thai version of the term mandapa in Sanskrit; the shrine of a sacred object mo tam yae

‐ midwife mu ban

‐ a hamlet

n

na

‐ rice field na dong

‐ paddy field in the jungle na thung

‐ paddy field in the floodplain nag

‐ title of the ordinand naga also nag

‐ a great snake, the king of snakes nag leng

‐ aggressive person naktham eg

‐ ecclesiastical examination level 1 nam mon

‐ lustral water ngan

‐ work, 1 rai equals to 4 ngan narok

‐ hell nai ban

‐ village heart ngern

‐ money ngern long khan ‐ money contributed in the long khan system nen

‐ movice monk

nippan

‐ nirnava

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noj

‐ little, young ones p

pa cha

‐ graveyard patinok ‐ the 227 regulations which should be

followed by all monks pha hang

‐ a piece of cloth wrapped around the

waist like a srong, drawn up loosely

between the legs and tucked into the

rear waist band pha khao na ‐ a long piece of cloth worn by men as a wrap – around skirt : also folded and worn across the chest and one shoulder as a sign of reverence by either sex pha nung

‐ dhoti – like garment worn by women pha ab nam fon ‐ a bathing cloth for the monk during the Buddhist Lent phi

‐ spirit, ghost phi ha

‐ malevolent spirit causing contagious diseases phi pop

‐ malevolent spirit haunting and eating intestine of human‐beings phi taj hong

‐ malevolent spirit phra kru

‐ a rank of monk pinto ‐ tiered, segmeuted, metal food container pla ra

‐ pickled fishes pratom

‐ elementary school pu yai or pu yai ban ‐ the hamlet headman

r

rai

‐ land measure, 2/5 acre riagkhwan

‐ to call back the life spirit rod nam

‐ giving a ceremonial bath to someone

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rod nam mon ‐ a ceremonial act by the monk of pouring lustral water on someone

s

saj sin

‐ a holy string used in various rituals sala

‐ building in the wat sala pak ron

‐ a rest place sala karn parian ‐ a hall for sermons in the wat san phra phum ‐ domestic shrine sawan

‐ heaven sema

‐ boundaries stones of the bod sukhwan ‐ the ceremony of calling, soothing the life spirit

t

tak batra

‐ putting food in the monk’s almsbowl tang

‐ 20 litres. 20 kilograms thambun

‐ norit ‐ making thaw kea

‐ a go‐between in marriage arrangements thewada ‐ lesser gods, spirits, a Thai version of the devata in Sanskrit troj nam

‐ an act of transferring merit

u

upachaya

‐ a monk who is qualified to ordain

w

wai kru

‐ ceremony of paying respect to teachers waiyawatchakorn ‐ tha wat manager wan phra

‐ holy day wat lung

‐ a wat built or patronised by the king wat rad

‐ a wat built by commoners

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wihan ‐ the building in which the main image or sacred object is housed and sermons are delivered to laity wisungkamasina ‐ the wat land declared sacred by the king

y

ya bue

‐ a kind of poison ya phaed

‐ a kind of love magic ya sang

‐ a kind of poison

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