practical religion in northeast thailand

Bastian Friborg 040788-1907 mrf480

2

‘Practical Religion’ and its Influence on

Regional Identity in Northeast Thailand

Resume

Nye religiøse bevægelser dukker til stadighed op i det religiøse landskab i (nordøst) Thailand (Isan). Dette

projekt fokusere på de bevægelser, der i de sidste 50-60 år er opstået omkring ’spirit mediums’ og ’magic

monks’ og hvordan det kan have betydning for identitetsskabelse i Isan området, som af mange Thaier ses

som et andenrangs sted at komme fra. Jeg benytter mig af Yukio Hayashi og Stanley Tambiah, som begge

har været på flerårigt feltarbejde i forskellige dele af nordøst Thailand, desuden benytter jeg Pattana

Kitiarsa, hvis teori om hydridisering af religionen i Thailand, har været meget nyttig. Jeg ser, hvordan de

forskellige religiøse handlinger kommer til udtryk gennem det at gå til et ’spirit medium’ og prøver at forstå

baggrunden for dette, og hvad det kan betyde for identitetskabelsen. Blandt mine resultater er, at ’spirit

medium’ og ’magic monks’ passer godt ind i det senmoderne Thailand, hvor der kæmpes med at få de

traditionelle Buddhistiske leveregler til at passe ind i den kapitalistiske verdensorden, der til stadighed

trænger sig på.

Bastian Friborg, Humaniora, Københavns Universitet, 2014.

Keywords: Buddhism, religion, spirit, identity, Thailand, Isan.

Introduction

In this dissertation I want to explore the multifaceted phenomenon that is religion in Thailand and how

religion is an important factor for the construction of the individuals’ identity, Thai as well as regional, Isan.

I will especially be focusing on what Yukio Hayashi calls ‘practical religion’ in the northeast of Thailand.

Yukio Hayshi is one of the three main writers who have had great influence on the anthropological study of

religion in (northeast) Thailand that I will be using in this dissertation, the other two are Stanley Tambiah

and Pattana Kitiarsa, and since I use them a lot, an introduction to their works seems appropriate.

First, Yukio Hayashi, who in Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao, an in-depth study of ‘practical religion’

in northeast Thailand, attempts to study “the reality of religion by focusing on the social configuration of its

practitioners rather than upon the concepts presented in its sacred texts”1. This way to study religion makes

a clear difference between the sacred text, which is the usual way to study scriptural religion, and the daily

practice of the followers, it is a technique inspired by Edmund R. Leach and John R. Bowen, who in his

introduction to Religions in Practice: An Approach to the Anthropology of Religion talks about how there,

with all scriptural religions, is a huge difference on how the scriptures are used in Buddhism. Some find it

crucial to follow the word of the script as closely as possible while others never really read it; some go to

1 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 2.


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the wat every day with offerings, while others might only go there on special occasion and then maybe only

because of the social element in meeting with family and friends.

Second, Tambiah, who takes the Weberian approach, which points out that the sacred values of a religion,

even though they from outside seem to be directed to a ‘beyond’, it is not always desirable to study them

like that, because the practitioners of the religion in question may well have a different understanding of

what the ‘beyond’ is and isn’t2. Both Yukio and Tambiah have been conducting years of field work in the

Isan region and in this way they have gotten the 'local perspective' on beliefs and ideas rather than reading

the holy script and then see if the locals follow it; it is an inside-out study rather than an outside-in study

and it could be argued that the scholar is 'going native' and becomes part of the society he study3. And

finally I will use Pattana Kitiarsa’s approach to understanding the new developments in the religious

landscape of Thailand and how it has influenced the construction of identity4.

Theory

Yukio Hayashi uses the ‘practical Buddhism’ as a way of describing and explaining the complexity and

dynamics of religious practices among the Thai-Lao villagers in Isan and part of Laos. As mentioned above it

was Edmund R. Leach who was among the first to advocate the study of ‘practical religion’ by studying

“religion which is concerned with the life here and now’,”5 so dealing with everyday life and the actions

which can secure ones journey to the world beyond, rather than through the principles found in the sacred

texts. Leach pointed out that the gap between the theology of the religious enlightened and the principles

guiding the behavior of everyday life was quite immense. Until then the study of scriptural religions had

been based on these scriptures, while the anthropological approach had been reserved the non-text

religions6, springing to mind as an example is the study carried out by Mikael Rothstein among the Penans

on Borneo, these people have o texts, not even a word for religion, and Rothstein is studying them

anthropologically, writing everything down.

For a long time syncretism has been the model used in the study of Thai Buddhism, but as Pattana Kitiarsa

points out in his article, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, it

is without flaws. From the outside viewer Buddhism do look syncretic, a harmony between Theravada

Buddhism, folk Brahmanism and animism, but this model over-shadow popular religious beliefs and

practices and put the model under a microscope and you will find that it too has cracks; it is not all

harmony and smoothness. Yukio Hayashi, as an example, seem to have a romantic, syncretic, view on

Buddhism, which seem less relevant when studying the new religious practices and what Charles Keyes call

2 Tambiah, 1970, p. 55. 3 Bowen, 2014, p. 5. 4 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005. 5 Tambiah, 1970, p. 3. 6 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 11-12.


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the ‘crisis of modernity’ in modern Thailand, since Buddhism is no longer rosy and innocent7. Following

Pattana Kitiarsa, this idolizing behavior among scholars keeps life in a practice that might not be as useful as

it once were. It could be that the syncretic model can no longer explain the changes that we see in Thai

religious life. To come with a significant example on where the syncretic model comes to short, it is the

mass media. The syncretic model cannot account for the effects of the mass media and the role this might

play in religious practices and the construction and re-construction of the individual’s religious identity

(Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005).

The last few decades the ‘popular religion’ in Thailand has had a renaissance and is slowly getting to be

more and more a hybrid between different religious practices; and a materialistic consumer orientation.

This is ‘popular religion’ that cannot be denied, and should therefore have a fair share of the scholar’s

attention8.

Another who has worked with new models for studying religion in Thailand is Peter Jackson, who according

to Pattana Kitiarsa’s article, argues for the use of the term 'postmodernization of Thai religion'. Jackson

argues that modernity in Thai religion was "following a path of doctrinal rationalization accompanied by

organizational centralization and bureaucratization"9, and the postmodern Thai religion is dominated by

the revitalization of supernaturalism and decentralized religious movements operating beyond the control

of the state or the Sangha, expressing local religious authority, often with focus on commercialization of

the religion. Religion in this sense seem to bring together otherwise opposing ideologies or beliefs in a new

way of creating meaning and identity, what Pattana Kitiarsa calls ‘hybridization’ of ‘popular religion’10.

When it comes to identity, I will, in addition to the already mentioned theories, be using two of the five

cultural dimensions presented by Geert Hofstede. The two I use are: individualism vs. collectivism, people

of a certain culture tend to act as an individual or as a group; and short-term vs. long-term perspective,

describing if the culture is focusing on long-term values, like steady growth and persistence or short-term

values, like fast growth and ambition11.

Religion and Buddhism

Religion, at least in the Europe and the United States, tend to be thought of as belonging in a separate

religious sphere separated from the state, but I will argue that this way of understanding religion is flawed

when trying to comprehend Thai practical religion. For many Thais religion is an integrated part of everyday

7 Because of the upcoming of materialistic oriented practices, which I will talk more about in this paper. 8 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005. 9 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005, p. 476. 10 ibid. 11 The other three are: power distance, describing the degree of inequality among people in a culture and whether or not it is considered normal; uncertainty avoidance, the way people feel about uncertainty and how willing they are to take risks; masculinity vs. femininity describes how much values like performance, and competition are weighed compared to more ‘soft’ values like service and quality of life (Hofstede).


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life, where the cultivating of rice is closely related to the offerings made at the temple (wat) or spirit shrine,

and magical amulets are bought to protect the business or help with other everyday actions12. When talking

about the concept ‘religion’, it seems necessary to give some clarification as to what is meant by it. It is a

tricky business to define ‘religion’; it is not enough to say that ‘religion’ is literal traditions with sacred

scriptures opposite something like ‘magic’ as non-literate traditions, and one should always be vary not to

lose the context of the locality when making or applying definitions. So far there hasn’t been one definition

that could encompass all the different kinds of religion found around the globe, and I think it very unlikely

that such a definition will ever be found, since it either gets to broad, including football or too narrow

excluding some of the major world religions. What scholars of religion often do is, they use or in some cases

make up definitions that fits the specific field of study13. In this dissertation I will be following a rather

broad definition of religion, defined as beliefs and practices concerning supernatural agents14. And on a

more local level, I follow Yukio Hayashi when he suggests the differentiated classification of Buddhism and

non-Buddhism, as a discourse for the ‘religion’ and ‘magic’ already embedded in the locality and hence

indispensable when studying ‘practical religion’15.

About 95 % of the population in Thailand is Theravada Buddhist, making Thailand one of the main centers

for Theravada Buddhism in the world. Buddhism is very visible in the everyday life, with monks and novices

making alms-rounds in the villages every morning, and its influence on culture, and politics. Buddhism in

Thailand is far from limited to the sacred Pali canons; it is incorporated in the daily life of every individual16.

Compared to the Mahayana Buddhism, the Theravada Buddhism is very homogenous since the same Pali

texts (Tripitaka) are used in all the countries where Theravada Buddhism is present17. An example of the

same can be seen in Christianity; here the Catholic Church is significantly more homogenous than the

protestant tradition where we can find hundreds of different interpretations, much like in the Mahayana

tradition. Buddhism is a strong source for identity, since most Thai men, at some point in their life, live as

monks for at least a short period.

Buddhism, like any other scriptural based religion, does not only consist of sacred texts, it is also very much

a practiced religion with its own life in the everyday life of the villages, where the temple, wat, is the

natural center of social as well as religious activities18.

12 Bowen, 2014, p. 6. 13 This practice often raises questions about whether or not the scholar manipulate the research object by making being the one making the definition for what is and isn’t religion, but that is an whole other discussion better suited elsewhere. 14 Bowen, 2014, p. 3. 15 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 2. 16 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 3. 17 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 4. 18 Tambiah, 1970, p. 11; Yukio, 2003, p. 1


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Buddhism in Thailand is an authoritarian religion, even though they don’t exercise their power politically,

scholars and newspapers are very reluctant to write something that defames the Sangha or its leaders19.

So, while Thai Buddhism seems very tolerant on the outside, it is in fact becoming intolerant of critical

voices from the inside20. In the last six decades the religious stage in Thailand has seen some new actors,

‘forest monks’21 and ‘magic monks’22 who are gaining more and more influence, getting part in the mosaic

making up the religious identity of modern Thais. Other, older actors still relevant for this study will be

introduced later on, among these are the mo tham23.

Much like Buddhism is represented locally in each village by the presence of the wat, where the monks live

and service the villagers with merit-making activities, and again at regional festivals and pilgrimage, so do

the guardian spirit cult exist on both a local village level, at the shrines and with the spirit mediums; and on

a larger regional level, at festivals, connecting the villages together24. The spirit cult is by nature bound to a

certain area, this being a village or a region, since it is the spirits of that certain area, who are the center for

reverence, while Buddhism have a broader universal domain with no locational boundaries. Alongside the

cult of the guardian spirit, we have the above mentioned cults surrounding ‘magic monks’ and ‘forest

monks’, where it could be argued that they belong in the Buddhist tradition, being monks and living in

monasteries, as well as in the spirit cult tradition.

Thailand and Isan

As the only country in Southeast Asia Thailand have managed never to be formally colonized. Although they

during the Cold War had to choose side, resulting in a string of different reforms, all with the common goal

of centralization and unity. As a result of these reforms, regional traditions and languages came under

pressure and in many cases they succumbed to the mainstream religion, the Sanghas Theravada Buddhism,

19 McCargo, 2004, p. 166. 20 McCargo, 2004, p. 166. 21 'Forest monks', as the name suggest, is mainly used for monks who live in solitude in forest monasteries, practicing meditation and mind training. Some of these monks have used their training to use magic, and earn money in that way, hence they have moved from being 'forest monks' to being 'magic monks'. So even though the two are related ‘forest monks' and 'magic monks' they are not the same (Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005). 22 A magic monk is, like the name implies, a monk who has gained knowledge about and uses magic or supernatural powers. Asked about how they can be Buddhist monks and practice magic, the monks say that Buddhism and magic are entwined (Pattana Kitiarsa, Magic monks and spirit mediums in the politics of Thai popular religion, 2005). The magic monks are not to be confused with mo tham, who uses his knowledge about the sacred Pali scripture to exorcise evil spirits from the body of sick people or from places where someone wants to build a house (Hayashi, 2003), but mo tham are not monk when he practices his métier. Magic monks operate within the accepted boundaries of Thai Buddhism; they provide a service that is not expected of them, while still following the rules laid out by the Sangha. 23 The mo tham is considered a pious Buddhist (Tambiah, 1970; Yukio, 2003) and at the same time he uses his knowledge in a totally different way. He can be considered “both a caricature and an inversion of the orthodox Buddhist monk” (Tambiah, 1970, p. 322) since the mo tham uses the sacred Pali to drive out spirits, whereas the monks uses it to teach and transfer merit. 24 See also Thai and Isan Identity and Tambiah, 1970, p. 280.


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and central Thai language, which is now the language of education meaning that it is taught in schools

instead of the regional language25.

In many ways the northeast of Thailand (Isan) stands out as a special region. It is located at the Khorat

Plateau and covers one-third of the country’s total landmass, besides it is home to one-third of the Thai

population. Looking at the development of the region, Isan is the least developed, economically and

socially, compared to north-, south- and central Thailand26. This somewhat ‘lower’ status of the region have

had an influence on how the people living there sees themselves and how they talk about themselves,

which I will turn back to later. Placed bordering the relatively poor countries, Laos and Cambodia, the lower

economic development is quite understandable, this location similarly gives a very natural explanation

concerning the demography of the population in the Isan region. The population consist of a mix between

many different groups, counting Thais from other regions, Lao, Khmer (Cambodia), Chinese and of cause

people originally from that area, giving the region uniqueness compared to the rest of Thailand27. A special

characteristic for villages in Isan is that they are part of a network consisting of social relationships binding

villages together. Before the eighteenth century, Isan was a kind of no-man land keeping the kingdoms of

Vientiane and Champasak, subordinated to the Siamese kingdom, on a safe distance in case of rebellion.

Until the reforms introduced by king Chulalongkorn, Isan was almost independent, living their lives without

interference from Bangkok, except at the sporadic tax collection28. Before Prince Damrong Rajanubhabs

reforms of centralization were enhanced, limiting the movement of population, the people living in the

region had had a long tradition of traveling around, moving from place to place, buying or cultivating new

land for paddy rice. After the reform this changed, and for the identity of the people living there it meant

that it turned to be more and more regional instead of national or ethnical29.

The region of Isan is a true melting pot for identity. The word 'Isan' originates from Pali-Sanskrit and means

'Northeast'. And even though the majority living in the region is Thai citizens, most of them speak Isan

language, a kind of Lao, and identify themselves as Isan or Lao, rather than as Thai, at least among

themselves, to outsiders they are Thai. The construction of identity is very much a political issue, and most

often the Isan identify themselves as opposite an 'other', in this case people from central Thailand,

Bangkok30. The unique mix of cultural backgrounds among the population may well help explain the

dynamical religious life of the region, where changes happens all the time both connected to the

development locally of the village and the growing of paddy rice, and also as the effects of the global starts

25 Sakurai, 2006. 26 See Grabowsky, 1995, 107; and Hayashi, 2003, p. 5. 27 Southern Thailand has many Malay-Muslims and northern Thailand got hill tribes and Burmese, giving each of these regions their own unique source of identity. 28 McCargo & Krisadawan Hongladarom, 2004. 29 Keyes, 1995; Tambiah, 1970; Hayashi, 2003. 30 McCargo & Krisadawan Hongladarom, 2004.


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to show locally, and affect the individual. New religious movements and practices, often with ‘magic

monks’, ‘forest monks’ or ‘mo tham’ as a kind of spiritual leader, have started to show more and more, and

they are getting a still increasing attention from scholars31.

Religion and Identity

In this part of my dissertation, I will describe a couple of concerns. First, a selection of the different religious

practices, which can be found in the Isan region. For this I will use the works by Hayashi Yukio and S. J.

Tambiah, together with Pattana Kitiarsa who I have found relevant for this part of my study. Secondly, I will

describe identity and how it is created in Isan using Sakurai, McCargo and Krisadawan Hongladarom, as well

as Pattana Kitiarsa again.

As a consequence of using terms like ‘village religion’, ‘practical religion’ and ‘popular religion’ I have

thought it best to give a short explanation of what I mean with each of these terms. Starting with ‘village

religion’ it is the religion practiced in the village, whether this is Buddhism, spirit cults or something third.

Mostly it refers to the spirit cult that is practiced in most of northeast Thailand. Next, the term ‘practical

religion’ is much what it sounds like. It is used for the religion actually practiced in the everyday life of the

villagers and is not necessarily closely connected with the religion described in the sacred scriptures. Lastly,

there is ‘popular religion’, which, as the name suggest, have to do with the religious practice that in resent

time has started to come forward, with magic monks, and spirit mediums, who take a more materialistic

approach to the religion, i.e. movie star monks, who go on television to preach the words of Buddha and

give blessings and winning lottery numbers in exchange for money. Of cause there are many overlaps in

these terms, which is why I, when such an overlap turns up, use the term that is closes to the meaning I

want to communicate.

As it is, it serves as a fact that most of the magic monks and spirit mediums have come from the lower

social classes, hence ‘popular religion’ can be used to understand class, gender, since many spirit mediums

are women, and religious practices. The magic monks and spirit mediums described here are using the

dynamics and complexity of the religious landscape, as well as the fast changing socioeconomic

environment to move from being marginalized individuals to being famous religious agents, moving up the

social ladder using ‘popular religion’ as a tool to empower themselves32.

31 Pattana Kitiarsa, Magic monks and Spirit Mediums in the Politics of Thai Popular Religion, 2005. 32 Pattana Kitiarsa, Magic monks and spirit mediums in the politics of Thai popular religion, 2005.


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Religion in Thailand

In Theravada Buddhism there is a strong tradition connected to the Sangha of the hosting country, it is an

institution of monks who ordinate others to monkhood and live, more or less, detached from this world in

search for Nirvana, through obedience to a long list of precepts prescribed by the Buddha33. Since

Buddhism is very philosophical in its theological ideas, the popular form of the religion tend to be focusing

on images, rituals and festivals; the monks who are the caretakers of these images and rituals have gained

considerable importance in Thai society, as we can see in the case of ‘forest-‘ and ‘magic monks’ described

in this paper. The Sangha is currently promoting a worldview with Thailand in the middle, instead of using

its potential political influence to uphold the universal ideas of Buddhism. The Sangha actually has close

ties to the state but have long been uncritical and silence when it comes to politics, hence the state have

gained more and more control of the Sangha. As Somboon Sulesamran put it, “[d]espite its esteem and

prestige, the Sangha has not been able to exercise its influence over the political authority”34.

Both in philosophical, orthodox Buddhism; village Buddhism and ‘practical religion’ in the villages there is

an ample focus on death. In fact death seems to be the most important rite of passage in Buddhism and

Thailand (Isan). Death, naturally, changes the status of the person and the fate of the dead is determined

by how the person has lived life and how the balance between bun and baab looks35. If the sum of good

deeds, bun, is greater than the sum of bad deeds, baab, then rebirth will be for the better, and the time

between death and rebirth will be pleasant. Villagers take special precautions in the case of abnormal or

sudden death, such as accidents, death by childbirth and homicide. They believe that the kind of death is of

vital significance for the soul of the dead (winjan36)37.

Hayashi describe two kinds of Buddhism in the beginning of his book. Instead of talking about just

Buddhism and non-Buddhism, which in Hayashi’s opinion is unable to grasp the dynamics of the religious

practices in northeast Thailand, then he introduces the ‘Buddhism of rebirth’, focusing on the merit-making

acts and social environment surrounding the wat, and the ‘Buddhism of power’ which is practiced by the

mo tham38 adding this to the spirit cult and we have a truly amazing cocktail of religious worldviews and

orders.

33 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 4. 34 McCargo, Buddhism, democracy, and identity in Thailand, 2004, p. 156. 35 Tambiah, 1970, p. 179. 36 Winjan is in some ways equivalent to the Western term, soul. 37 Tambiah, 1970, p. 179. 38 Yukio Hayashi, 2003, p. 10.


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The last few decades has shown an upcoming trend in the religious landscape of (northeast) Thailand, cults

of magic monks (kechi achan) and spirit mediums (khon song)39 have appeared in the villages as well as in

the towns. According to Pattana Kitiarsa40 this is a trait of the ‘crises of modernity’ and what he calls

’hybridization’ of Buddhism in Thailand. For long time the study of religion in Thailand has been using a

model of religious syncretism combining Theravada Buddhism with folk Brahmanism, and animism. Time is

apt for a new way of studying religion in Thailand, since popular Buddhism, with its magic monks and spirit

mediums, doesn’t quite seem to fit into the institutionalized structure that is Theravada Buddhism. In fact

the appearance of these cults might signify a new way to understand the development of religion, since

everyone are equals in this new way of practicing religion. The users of magic monks and spirit mediums

are coming from every layer of the Thai society, and they seem likely to have some common traits as to

why they use the services provided by these individuals (the monks and mediums). It may well be, as

Pattana Kitiarsa suggests, that they simply need some spiritual assurance to their existing way of life, with

all that it contains in material goods and wealth, something that Buddhism traditionally try to evade.

Therefore they seek out magic monks or spirit mediums that are believed to possess supernatural powers,

in order to get assurances41.

When entering a spirit shrine, one will notice that there is a number of different icons at the altar,

indicating the hybrid religious practice taking place here, confirming Pattana Kitiarsas idea about the need

for a new analytical model for the study of religion in modern Thailand42. If we then take a look at the

rituals used in the spirit cults it is clear that Indian Brahmantism has had its influence. This is in large part

due to the affiliation between Brahmantism and the royal court of Thailand. Many mediums are convinced

that rituals following the liturgical of royal rituals have more power than those that doesn’t. Also, it is not

uncommon to see icons of Hindu deities around on the altars and in the shrines; just they may well have a

slightly different function in the Thai context than they do in a Hindu context43. For example the Hindu god

of war, Indra, who in Thailand is called, Phra In, is very popular in Thailand, where he is seen as a

39 Spirit mediums, as the name indicates, uses spirit possession to provide services like, the winning lottery numbers, or advice concerning business or personal life. It is always a negotiation between the medium and the spirit, the medium are normally offering to gain merit for the spirit, so that it can gain a better existence in the after-life, but if the spirit say no, there is nothing to do. To give an example, the famous magic monk Achan Samsak is guided by the spirit wicha duangtham39, and it is because of his relationship to this spirit that he can provide services like fortune-telling, exorcising evil spirits and bless properties with good luck. The medium is an agent making communication between the supernatural agent and normal people possible, which is why there are special rules for how a medium should behave. Hence it is normal that a medium follow four to eight of the Buddhist precepts, in this way connecting the spirit cult to Buddhism, and acts with the greatest respect around the alter or shrine of the spirit (Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005). Unlike magic monks, spirit mediums do not have a formal public space where they can gather their followers, they usually meet with the clients in their own house, where they have designated a certain area to the alter for the spirit that possesses them. 40 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005, p. 464. 41 Pattana Kitiarsa, Magic monks and spirit mediums in the politics of Thai popular religion, 2005, p. 214. 42 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005, p. 484. 43 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005, p. 472-473.


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rainmaking god, who ensure fertility to the rice fields by sending rain. In urban areas he is asked to bring

another kind of 'fertility', for example when he is asked to bring luck to a business or luck in the lottery44.

The justification for why spirit cults are to be accepted in a Buddhist context can be found in popular

Buddhist myths, telling that angels, thewada, possesses human mediums to defend Buddhism from fading

and disappearing after the year BE 2500 (AD 1957 following the Gregorian calendar), because the myth tells

that the religion of Buddha will last for 5000 years, but it will start to fall apart when it crosses half-way45.

This is why spirit mediums and magic monks46 are popping up all over Thailand, mostly in the urban areas,

where the population is dense. And unlike monkhood, many spirit mediums are women, a way for them to

hallmark the influence of women on practical religion47. Spirit mediums and magic monks are not new

inventions on the religious stage, rather they seem to have lurked in the local practices, half hidden, always

a potential. They bring together the existing religious practices remodeling them to fit the dynamics of

modern Thailand48.

Spirits in Isan

In addition to Buddhism and the affiliated magic monks, the religious scenery of northeast Thailand consists

of many spirit cults, often concerning the guardian spirit of the village. Spirit cults seem to be quite

numerous in this region, and like everywhere else in Thailand, there are six main groups into which the

spirits can be divided: thep, phrom (both of Hindu origin), chao, thewada, phii49 and winjan. While the two

first groups are mostly reserved Hindu gods and goddesses, the third is used for deities of Chinese origin,

and the fourth, fifth and sixth are classifications indigenous to the Isan region, and hence I will be talking

more about those two in the following50.

Thewada and phii are opposed categories, at least in this context. The thewadas are divine beings living in

the above, while phii are more atrocious and vile, living in this world51. Because of its vile nature the phii

are the one who causes misfortune for the business or in a person’s life, or it can cause illness. In these

44 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005, p. 480. 45 Pattana Kitiarsa write about this in his article Beyond Syncretism, mentioning different eras and how Buddhism will slowly disappear, until a new Buddha comes forth after 5000 years and renew Buddhism once again. 46 Wondering about how Buddhism can tolerate having all these other deities mixed into the practice, it is important to think about the fact, that 'Buddha' is a title for someone who have achieved enlightenment, and not the name of a god. Actually Buddhism operates with more than one Buddha, which also explains the difference of the statues made of Buddha, in China he is fat and in Thailand he is thin, and in some part of Buddhism, Buddha is a woman. That being said, Buddha always has the highest place of honor at the shrines, temples or alters. Buddha is seen as the most powerful spirit in the Thai spiritual world. And unlike almost every other spirit, no medium has ever claimed to be the medium for Buddha. (Beyond syncretism, 2005, 477). 47 Pattana Kitiarsa, Magic monks and spirit mediums in the politics of Thai popular religion, 2005B. 48 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005A, p. 471. 49 The category phii is a term that refers to powerful spirits. It is a broad category including permanent supernatural beings and those who are the spirits of dead people (also known as winjan) (Tambiah, 1970, p. 263). 50 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005A, p. 477. 51 Tambiah, 1970, p. 57-59.


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cases a mau song, religious specialist, specialized in diagnose, will summon a thewada to help make the phii

identify itself, afterward another religious specialist, cham52 or mo tham, depending on the kind of phii and

the sickness, takes over and uses either the thewada or in the mo thams case sacred Pali texts and ‘power

words’53 to exorcise the phii.

The villagers tend to see the forest, wilderness, as the home of (wild) spirits and a wild place, while the

village, society, is an ordered entity, where the spirits are under control most of the time, and guarded over

by the village guardian spirit. So what we have is kind of a dual worldview, chaos/wilderness versus

order/society54, where order is represented by the well-known village and chaos by everything that

surrounds the village and that can’t be controlled, such as the forest but also forces like national and

international politics and economy. The fact that there is something ‘out-there’ that can’t be controlled can

be scary and for that reason some could find it useful to identify oneself with a special area and seek the

protection of that areas special guardian spirit in order to gain at least an illusion of control and security

back in life.

It should not be forgotten that in addition to the above mentioned indigenous categories’village

religion’also operates with the same primary concepts of merit (bun) and demerit (baab) as the national

religion, Theravada Buddhism; and like the other six mentioned categories they are frequently used in

everyday life55. There are a great many ways in which merit can be earned; these include giving food to the

monks, bringing offerings to the wat or part taking in the big annual festivals like Bun Phrawees56. In

general, people avoid acts of demerit and seek acts of merit to achieve certain goals. These goals are often

a better afterlife for oneself or some dead kin57, but it can also be a hope for improving this life. I see this

drive as something like what Aristotle noted, “[w]e may lay it down that Pleasure is a movement, a

movement by which the soul as a whole is consciously brought into its normal state of being; and that Pain

is the opposite”58. Villagers generally believe that, if a person has lived a good life and earned a lot of merit

then his winjan will go to heaven, where it will have pleasant existents until it is born again59.

52 The cham and tiam are intermediary and medium for the guardian spirits, respectively. The cham is chosen by possession of the guardian spirit, who thereafter rarely or never possesses him again. The tiam is also chosen by possession, but unlike the cham he experience possession on later occasions as well, when he summons the spirits for curing ceremonies. Neither cham nor tiam have, in the case that Tambiah present, ever been novice or monks (Tambiah, 1970, p. 274). Unlike the mo tham that Yukio describes, who is a devoted Buddhist. 53 Special words in the sacred Pali language that carries a special meaning, which can be used to drive out spirits from a body or an area, the mo tham knows these words because of his time as a monk (Tambiah, 1970, p. 320). 54 Yukio, 2003; Feldt, 2012. 55 Tambiah, 1970, p. 53. 56 Bun Phraawes is the largest festival and ceremony for merit-making in the villages. The name originates from the myth of Phraa Wes, relating the story of the Buddha in his last incarnation before attaining Buddhahood (Tambiah, 1970, p. 160). 57 Tambiah, 1970, p. 53. 58 Aristotle, book 1, Chapter 11. 59 Tambiah, 1970, p. 54.


13

The guardian spirits cults that I am describing have an all but simple relationship to Buddhism. Some might

call the cults ‘animism’ or pre-Buddhist, since there is a lot of crossing back and forth between the spirit

cult and practical Buddhism60, as described earlier some religious specialists in the guardian spirit cult, uses

Buddhism as their source of power when dealing with the spirits. Two indigenous categories, which are

important to mention here, are khwan and winjan, both kind of spiritual essences connected with the body,

to describe them can be difficult, the khwan is kind of a ‘life soul’, which is connected to the body, yet able

to leave it. There is some discussion among scholars as well as people living in Isan, whether the khwan

leaves the body because the body gets sick and weak, or if the body gets sick and weak because the khwan

leaves it, it is like the Danish saying about the chicken and the egg, which one came first61. When talking to

people in Isan I have heard most say that the body gets weak because of the khwan leaving it62.

Winjan rites are about death, and both monks and villagers work together preparing the body and sending

the soul of the deceased safely on its way to the next circle in Samsara63, 64. Khwan rites (sukhwan) are

performed for the younger generation by the elders, who have more religious experience as well as more

life experience65. There are different kinds of ‘sukhwan’ rites for different occasions: rites of passage, such

as marriage, ordination and pregnancy, one of the village elders, often a religious specialist of some kind,

depending on the ceremony, calls to the khwan and ask it to protect the young (couple) who is the center

of the particular rite, and give a peaceful life with lots of happiness; threshold ceremonies, when someone

enter a new phase of activity, for example get a new job, and therefore needs protection, and ceremonies

of reintegration, when someone get back after long time of absent or recover from illness, where the

khwan might have lingered behind leaving the body temporarily. All these different rites are referred to as

sukhwan and the general technique by which the calling of the khwan and the binding of wrist is performed

is the same for all of them, even though the actual way of doing it can differ depending on who is

performing the ritual66. As in Buddhist rites, the wording is the most essential part of the sukhwan rites.

What distinguishes sukhwan rites from the ones performed by Buddhist monks is that the language spoken

is the local language (Isan), and that it is therefore understood by the audience. The monks on the other

hand chant in the ancient Pali language, which is the sacred language of Theravada Buddhism, but

understood only by the educated monks, and people studying Pali67.

60 Tambiah, 1970, p. 263. 61 Tambiah, 1970, p. 58. 62 Friborg, Khamkongkaeo, Khamokongkaeo, & Khamkongkaeo, 2014. 63 The great wheel of rebirth in Buddhism 64 Tambiah, 1970, p. 223. 65 Ibid. 66 Tambiah, 1970, p. 224-227. 67 Tambiah, 1970, p. 229.


14

As it is often seen two of the phii have higher status than the rest68. They are called Tabubaan and Chao

Phau Phraa Khao69. Both are referred to as chao phau and they are respected as deities as well as phii70.

Villagers in Northeast Thailand sees Tabubaan and Chau Phau as belonging in a different, even opposed

domain, compared to Buddhism when it comes to religious actions. Naturally the Buddhist monks take no

part in the celebrations and cult activities surrounding the guardian spirit cult. Where religious Buddhist

activities are understood in terms of the idea of bun (merit) and how to get it or transfer it to dead love-

ones, by giving gifts to the wat or to the monks. The actions in the spirit cult are more like a bargain, where

the spirit gets gifts, offered to them by family members of the sick, to take away sickness caused by a phii,

maybe as a result of some offence committed to it71. As mentioned earlier there are many different

religious specialists in the villages, who can cure diseases and communicate with the ‘beyond’ (spirits). They

each have a title or a name with the prefix mau or mo. Some examples are “mau song

(diviner/diagnostician) [and] mau khwan (intermediary for khwan/or spiritual essence, who is also called

paahm)”72 and the mo tham (exorcist)73. Each of them has their own area of expertise, as well as their own

way of performing the rituals.

Thai and Isan Identity

Radical Buddhist thinkers, like the prominent social critic Sulak Sivaraksa, argues for a definition of

‘Thainess’ based on traditional Thai Buddhist traditions. They think that the Thai identity is endangered by

increasing western influence and western consumerism, Thailand is an attractive market for Western

economies, which needs a market for investments and trade74. Because of the different culture found in

Thailand, the country is still struggling with incorporating the modern, Western technology and the

ideology of capitalism into their Buddhist-based culture75. A cultural conflict that could be seen as

threatening to both the local, village way of life and the ‘Thainess’ as such, is the conflict between: the

traditional values based on Buddhism where one of the best things to do is to give vs. the Western values

where capitalistic thought of achievement and material goods as a sign of success.

When Buddhism says that attachment to material goods is not something to strive for and Western thought

says the opposite, it will have to result in some alternative ways of building relationships and doing

business, in order to incorporate both the old and the new values. For example, Thai businesses

traditionally build on the concept of Buun Kuhn, which basically meanings, mutual help; if I give you

68 Think of the spirits in Chinese or Japanese mythology here as well we see that some spirits have more influence than others. See Andersen, 2011 and Sørensen, 2011. 69 Translation of names 70 Tambiah, 1970, p. 263. 71 Tambiah, 1970, p. 264. 72 Tambiah, 1970, p. 271. 73 Yukio Hayashi, 2003. 74 McCargo, Buddhism, democracy, and identity in Thailand, 2004, p. 162; Niffenegger, Kulviwat, & Engchanil, 2006. 75 Klausner, 1998.


15

something now, then you give me something later. At the same time the businesses in modern Thailand are

funded by Western investors, who are trying to make the relationships between the companies more

transparent, and they are trying to focus on fast results; however, both approaches have proved to be

ineffective, simply because Thais tend to rely more on long-term than short-term orientation76. The Thai’s

in general have this struggle when trying to find a place to stand, and after the centralizing reforms, the

combination of economic scarcity, second rank citizen status, and the fact that many Isan people lived long

time in other regions working as factory workers or in the service sector, the Isan created an identity for

the Isan people as a disadvantage and marginalized group, at least seen from the outside, and to some

extent from the inside of Isan as well. Perhaps as a consequence of the economic disadvantage in the

region, Communism and other left-wing parties have emerged in Isan, and still today most of Isan are 'red

shirts'77.

The people of Isan take great joy in festivals and parties, and they have a lot of them. The most important

ceremony or festival in northeast Thailand is Bunbangfai, where it is associated with the guardian spirit and

the ‘Naga’ spirit of the (Mekong) river and swamps78,

the ceremony is a show of respect, and a request to

him for plenty of rain to the rice fields and buffaloes,

who otherwise would fall ill, this is often done by

having big parties with lots of food and people

coming from different villages to meet with family

and friends and walk from house to house eating and

drinking79.

The construction of identity is not a simple matter; I

have therefore chosen to add a figure80, to help

understand the complexity of ‘Thainess’ and to show

the many different aspects that is in play:

76 Niffenegger, Kulviwat, & Engchanil, 2006, p. 408. 77 McCargo & Krisadawan Hongladarom, Contesting Isan-ness: Discourses of Politics and Identity in Northeast Thailand, 2004. 78The myth about the ‘Naga’ serves to form a regional identity and a sense of common history. According to the myth, all the swamps are results from the eating of the Naga prince, Pangkee, in the shape of a squirrel, by the villagers. It brought disaster down upon the villages and made them into swamps (Tambiah, 1970, p. 298-299). As the mythical reason for the Bunbangfai festival it is providing the foundation of the guardian spirit cult and deals with the relations between the wilderness and society (Feldt, 2012; Tambiah, 1970, p. 285). Addressing both the ‘Naga’ spirit, and the two village guardians, Tabubaan and Chao Phau Phraa Khao, the festival put into play both the wat and the shrine of the guardian spirit. 79 Tambiah, 1970, p. 286; Friborg, Khamkongkaeo, Khamokongkaeo, & Khamkongkaeo, 2014. 80 Sakurai, 2006.

RegionalismIsan/Lao

NationalismCentral Thai

Religion,TheravadaBuddhism

Thainess

Monarchy ‘Popular religion’

Thai Sangha


16

Where all three circles overlap we have ‘Thainess’, while the other areas describe parts of the Thai identity,

each of which might take up more or less space than any other of the three depending on the individual. In

this sense some people may well have regionalism playing a big role in the definition of their identity,

whereas others may well be more religious or national in their orientation and way of identifying

themselves81.

Taking a quick look at the language used to describe someone coming from Isan, it is the term khon Isan,

people from Isan, that is most commonly used among Isan people, since it can include everyone living in

the region and not only the ones speaking Isan language. At the same time it allows the people to assume a

kind of Thai identity, without giving up the roots connecting to Laos, Cambodia or Vietnam. A sort of

hierarchy exist among the words used to describe a person from Isan, to illustrate this I will use this quote,

"[i]f someone called me Lao, I wouldn't be angry but I wouldn't like it. If someone called me Phu Tai, I

wouldn't go so far as to say I liked it. If someone called me Isan I'd be indifferent. If someone called me Thai-

Isan, I'd really like it"82. So just like Bangkokians tend to look down upon Isan, the khon Isan can look down

upon Laos, simply because Isan, as a part of Thailand, is more developed and people are better educated

than their counterparts in Laos, therefore they have higher status83.

The Isan identity have a different meaning to different people, and it especially differs between age groups,

where elder people tends to be more proud of the regional origin, the younger generations are more

orientated towards Bangkok and the possibilities accessible with a (central) Thai identity.

Conclusion

In this final part of my dissertation, I try to draw some conclusions on what have been covered; this has

turned into eight aspects following here:

First, it would seem that a certain kind of popular religious practices is gaining ground in the constant

negotiating and renegotiating of belief, religion and identity; and it looks like syncretism, as a model for

studying Buddhism in Thailand, has played its role and is slowly being replaced by Pattana Kitiarsa’s model

of ‘hybridization’ or Jackson’s postmodern approach to Thai religion, since it can no longer explain the

dynamical changes that has happened the last few decades in the landscape of religion in Thailand, with

the many new movements popping up around magic monks and spirit mediums. It is a revitalization of

decentralized religious movements not controlled by the Sangha, bringing together opposing thoughts like

economics and Buddhism, creating a new way of identification, which can be necessary in a global world,

81 Sakurai, 2006. 82 McCargo & Krisadawan Hongladarom, Contesting Isan-ness: Discourses of Politics and Identity in Northeast Thailand, 2004, p. 231. 83 McCargo & Krisadawan Hongladarom, Contesting Isan-ness: Discourses of Politics and Identity in Northeast Thailand, 2004.


17

where global politics and economy play a role in the life of the individual. Hence hybrid is indeed a soothing

word for the new and ever-changing landscape of religion in modern Thailand. Hybridization, as it is taking

place in Thailand with the appearance of spirit cults, can be understood in several different ways. First of

all, it is an interaction between religious beliefs and the market economy, when the 'magic monks' sell

supernatural protection to their clients, or spirit mediums take a fee for giving lucky lottery numbers.

Secondly, it is a mix between different gods, from slightly different belief systems, here talking about how

Hindu gods and goddesses can be found on the same altar as Buddha and indigenous spirits. Thirdly, the

hybridization of Thai religion, has made it possible, or rather more normal, to see social movement, from

rural temple monk to high class 'magic monk', and fourthly, it seem to fit into and solve some issues in a

society that is developing very fast, and where people may well be in need of something spiritual to hold

onto, with everything around them getting more and more rationalized84.

Third, it would seem that Buddhism continues to be a strong source of identity for Thai people, partly

because there is still the tradition that most men at some point doing their life, spent time as a monk

learning about the scriptures. Buddhism is more than just a religion; it is a source of identity for many Thai

people. Even though there is a huge difference on how close people follow their holy scriptures and how

they are interpreted; some follow closely every word, while others stretch the meaning allowing to be part

of a fast changing socioeconomic environment and thus profit from their religious practices. So fourthly,

even though Thai Buddhism looks very harmonious to the outsider looking in, there is actually a growing

intolerance, among the Sangha leadership, to critical voices from the outside as well as the inside; this is

also why many Thai scholars and critics are reluctant to write anything critical about the Sangha.

Fifth, the multicity of religion in Thai villages, with spirit cults, the cults surrounding magic monks and

Buddhism, gives the individuals free choice between local as well as (inter-) national religions and beliefs.

This can have an influence on how they create and support their identity; if needed they have the bound to

the locality through the spirit cult, since the spirit cult in its nature is bound to a certain area, whereas

Buddhism isn’t, and thereby have a much broader, international, domain. It should be said that many magic

monks and spirit mediums in urban areas because of the tendency for higher accumulation of wealth and

hence a more materialistic way of life in the urban areas. So the multicity of religion means that there are

some individuals, who use religion to move up the social ladder, from being born into poor rural families to

becoming popular magic monks with many cars and lots of land at the disposal. However, these popular

religions have always been part of the religious picture in Thailand, the new evolvement is the significance

of these movements presence and their impact on the way people construct and reconstruct their

identities.

84 Pattana Kitiarsa, Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand, 2005A, p. 485-486.


18

Sixth, the conflict between Western and Buddhist ideologies have influence on how identity is constructed.

Thais are struggling to find their place in a world lead by capitalistic ideologies, and for the relatively poorer

citizens of the Isan region, who often works as factory workers in other regions, this mean that they have a

disadvantage in starting point and often are identified as a marginalized group, both by themselves and

others. Seventh, the somewhat lower status of the Isan region, have an influence on how people from that

area talk about themselves, especially when around people not from Isan. It is not always they want

‘others’, meaning people from outside Isan, to know that they themselves are Isan, simply because Thais

from other region have a certain bias, when it comes to people from Isan. So in company with other Thais

the language spoken will be standard Thai, while many will use Isan language when together with family.

Even though this changes from person to person, there is a tendency among the young generation to

identify themselves more with central, Bangkok, Thai than with Isan.

Eighth, the unique composition of cultural and linguistic backgrounds represented in the Isan region can be

used to explain the dynamics and changes in religious as well as regional identity; similarly it might very

well be part of the reason as to why regional identity underwent a boost after the reforms enhanced by

prince Damrong. The region was what the people had in common, they didn’t share linguistic or cultural

background, but they shared the land, hence the growing identification with the Isan region. And then

identity is very much a political issue, and claiming to be Isan, even though other Thais would look down

upon you, then Isan was still better than Lao or Cambodian, this without giving up the identity of the region

with all its many facets.

The topics that I have tried to cover in this dissertation are huge and deserves more room, but

unfortunately because of my limited space, I have had to exclude some otherwise relevant names and

themes; it could have made sense in a dissertation like this to include the writings of James Taylor in his

book Buddhism and Postmodern Imaginings in Thailand and questions about gender in practical Buddhism,

likewise I could have made use of two other books written by Tambiah, The Buddhist saints of the forest

and the cult of amulets and Magic, science, religion, and the scope of rationality, like a more extensive use

of Regions and National Integration in Thailand 1892-1992 by Volker Grabowsky, perhaps could have given

more depth in the question of identity, but unfortunately I have had to make some tough priorities. I can

only recommend the books, if the reader seeks more knowledge about these and related areas. Lastly I can

only hope that I will be fortunately enough to get the chance to go deeper in to this and similar topics in the

future.


19

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practical religion in northeast thailand

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