The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXIV, Part 1-2, 1976 - Khamkoo

lll'OI>l!JST i'ILCHJMAGE IN NOHTHEASTERN THAILAND 197
blind musicians, and certain beggars who also "follow the pilgrims."
A flow of pilgrims who seek out sacred places for purposes of merit
promotes a flow of entrepreneurs who seek out pilgrims for purposes of
profit. However, the linkages between pilgrimage to Mecca and the
commercial life of Islamic Africa, Central, and Southeast Asia have no
parallel with regard to Theravada Buddhist pilgrimage and large-scale
inter-regional commerce in Thailand. Similarly, no apparent connection
exists between pilgrimage and patterns of labor migration. As in Brazil
(Gross 1971 : 145), there is no evidence that pilgrimage in Thailand
provides an occasion for the exchange of information on jobs and business
opportunities.
VI.
Discussion and Conclusions
While its chief objective is the individual contact with the sacred,
pilgrimage is an activity undertaken by groups of diverse back-grounds
from different localities. In this final discussion, attention will be
directed to the social aspects of pilgrimage as a type of group action.
These aspects may be viewed in terms of the social structure of pilgrim
groups in their home communities, or the concepts and norms which
govern their conventional behavior.
Scholars have noted the quality of change involved in the movement
of pilgrims from local community to sacred center. Obeyesekere
( 1966) views Buddhist pilgrimage in Sri Lanka as an activity which
transfers pilgrims from the localized model of the village and region to
the national model of the pilgrimage center. The "localized model"
refers to the local deities, their attributes, myths, and the rituals associated
with tbem, which vary from one village or region to another. This
complex, for each village or region, defines the limits of the community
of devotees (over which the respective deities have jurisdiction and
authority) and validates its social structure (1966: 16). The "national
model" refers to the sacred Buddhist shrines which attract devotees
from villages all over the country who share understandings, meanings,
prayers, and rituals associated with tbe Buddha and his teachings, who
assemble together at sacred places ''in a commonality of worship" wbere
status distinctions are irrelevant (ibid.: 23). The transfer of pilgrims