The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

JOURNAL 

OF THE 

SIAM SOCIETY 

JANUARY-JULY 1983 

volume 71 parts 1+2

THE SIAM SOCIETY 

PATRON 

VICE-PATRONS 

I-I ON. MEMBERS 

I-I O N. VICE -PRESI DEN'l'S 

His Majesty the King 

Her Majesty the Queen 

Her Majesty Queen Rambai Barni 

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Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn 

The Ven. Buddhadasa Bhikkhu 

The Ven. Phra Rajavaramuni (Payu!to) 

M.R. Debriddhi Devakul 

Mr. Fua Haripitak 

Dr. Mary R. Haas 

Dr. Puey Ungphakorn 

Soedjatmoko 

Dr. Sood Saengvichien 

Mr. Alexander B. Griswold 

Mom Kobkaew Abhakara Na Ayudhya 

President 

Vice-President 

Vi ce-P.resident nnd L e nde r , 

Natural History Section 


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Assistant Honorary Secretary 

Assistant Honorary Librarian 

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Mr. Hartmut W. Schneider 

C O UNCIL O F THlil S IAM S O CIETY FOR 1983 /Sd. 

Khun Varun Yupha Snidvongs 

M.R. Patanachai Jayant 

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JOURNAL 

OF THE 

SIAM SOCIETY 

JANUARY-JULY 1983 

· volume 71 parts 1+2


1983 

Honorary Editor : Dr. Tej Bunnag 

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fllU l9JDD U lUJ'Utiltl1ftl'1Htn lll]~1lll 

tn~U~1Uli~ll1llllHIJillUJU l ViJJ 

Centenary of Prince Sithiporn Kridakara 

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Honorary Member 

of 

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JOURNAL OF THE SIAM SOCIETY 

Contents of Volnme 71 

1983 

A A ~ 

1.l111fLI.fi'IIUitl1 

(lam ~a1.l1t11.l - 'o n1n£J1fi3J mcfmcl) $ 

• 

Articles 

STANLEY J. O'CONNOR 

Notes 

PITSAMAI INTARACHAT 

ERIK COHEN 

MARJORIE A. MUECKE 

BAREND JAN TERWIEL 

E. PAUL DURRENBERGER 

OSKAR VON H!NUBER 

DAVID L. GOSLING 

RICHARD P. LANDO 

ANTHONY R. WALKER 

S. SIVARAKSA 

Some Early Siva Lingas 

in Nakhon Si Thammarat, 

Peninsular Thailand 1 

Southern Thai /khlok/ : an Etymological 

Speculation 

6 

The "Energy Transition" in a Market 

Township and its Environs on an 

Island in Southern Thailand 10 

Thai Conjugal Family Relationships and 

the Hsu Hypothesis 25 

Ahom and the Study of Early Thai 

Society 42 

The Shan Rocket Festival: Buddhist 

and Non-Buddhist Aspects of Shan 

Religion 

63 

Pali Manuscripts of Canonical Texts 

from North Thailand- A Preliminary 

Report· 

75 

Redefining-theSangha•s Role in Northern 

Thailand : An Investigation of 

Monastic Careers at Five Chiang 

Mai Wats 89 

"The Spirits Aren't So Powerful Any 

More" Spirit Belief and Irrigation 

Organization in North Thailand 121 

Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) Rites for 

Establishing a New Village 149 

Notes on Angkor Wat 208

Reviews 

BILL CADWALLADER 

JEFFREY SNG 

KUSUMA RAKSAMANI 

KARUNA KUSALASAYA 

BETTY GOSLING 

S. SIVARAKSA 

WILLIAM J. KLAUSNER 

PHRA PRACHA PASANNADHAMMO 

UTHAI DULYAKASEM 

WISIT WANGWINYOO 

DAVID L. GOSLING 

Asian Action Newsletter of the Asian 

Cultural Forum on Development 

(ACFOD) 210 

Douglas R. Webster, ed. The Southeast 

Asian Environment 

Satya Vrat Shastri, Thaidesavil'iisam 

fl.,.. A vAl~ ., ... 

ftaJ~fi$JL$J1'W1n'nJ'W1:::D1"U1fi11'U1flfl1~fl m~uwnn 

A .. , • 

.. . 

L'i£l.:lfl'l1:U1fl1.1 '1111:::'fi1'U'W1:::D1£l'Uai1'U11'!13i'U 

212 

215 

(Notes on Miscellaneous Knowledge 

Written by H.R.H. Prince Narisranuvadtiwongse 

to Phya Anuman 

Rajdbon) 217 

M.C. Subhadradis Diskul,- ed., The Art 

of Srivijaya 

Carol Stratton and Miriam McNair Scott, 

The Art of Sukhothai: Thailand's 

Golden Age 220 

'W$JOU1"Un1&~ lil.Utl11'1fuman9lournou -w.fl. mrllacf 

• 

(Thai Dictionary, The Royal 

Institute 1982) 

Ruth Inge-Heinze, Tham Khwan 

1l1'W'W'f11i1.h:::11J 1t~na.:~OU'Wflm 

(Painted Sculp 

• • 

ture on the Life of. the Buddha - 

Folk Art at Wat Thongnopakun) 

224 

227 

229 

Phra Rajavaramuni (Prayudh), Social 

Dimension of Buddhism in Contemporary 

Thailand 231 

Bantorn Ondam and Stephen Teo, 

eds., Organizing Experience from 

Thailand 234 

Sulak Sivaraksa, A Buddhist Vision 

for Renewing Society: Collected 

Articles by a Concerned Thai 

Intellectual 236

JULIENNE WILLIAMS 

MICHAEL SMITHIES 

NICHOLAS TAPP 

RUTH K.CADWALLADER 

VIRGINIA M. DI CROCCO 




SERI PHONGPHIT 

Obituary 

BRUNO BARON-RENAULT 

Vichitvongs N. Pombhejra, Pridi 

Banomyong And the Making of 

Thailand Modern History 240 

Joe . Cummings, Thailand, a Travel 

Survival Kit 241 

· Martin Stuart-Fox, ed., Contemporary 

Laos: Studies in the Politics and 

Society of the Lao People's 

Democratic Republic 243 

Phia Sing, Traditional Ret;ipes of Laos 245 

U Bo Kay, Pagan Thuteithana Lanhyunt 

(The Pagan Research Guide) 246 

Mohammad Hatta, Ind~nesian Patriot, 

Memoirs 248 

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth 

of Mankind 251 

I Made Bandem and Frederik Eugene 

deBoer, Kaja and Kelod: Balinese 

Dance in Transition 

Koson Srisang, ed., Perspectives on 

Political Ethics, an Ecumenical 

Inquiry 

Hommage a l'inspirateur de la Thailande 

255 

258 

moderne, Pridi Banomyong 262 

Annual Reports 

·• 

The Honorary Auditor's Financial Report December 31, 1982 and 1981 264 

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting, 25 March 1982 267 

Annual Reports 270 

List of Paid-up Members, 1983 288 

List of Institutional Subscribers 305 

Institutions Exchanging Publications with the Siam Society, 1983 308

The microfilming of rare books, Journals of the Siam Society 

and Bangkok Time Newspaper is a contlnuing project of the Library 

of the Siam Society .. The following volumes of JSS and Bangkok 

Time have been microfilmed and copies are available for sale : 

Journal of the Siam Society Vol. 1-68. 

Bangkok Time Newspaper. 

We~kly Mail . 

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Vol. 1938-1939 

Vol. 1896-1902 

Please send enquiries to the Librarian, 

The Siam Society, G.P.O. Box 65, 

Bangkok, Thailand

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SOME EARLY SIVA LING AS IN NAKHON SI THAMMARAT, 

PENINSULAR THAILAND 

STANLEY J. O'CONNOR* 

The linga is the aniconic representation of the Hindu God Siva. It is the most 

frequently encountered symbol of Siva. It seems to have drawn its form from the 

phallus since, initially at least, the lihga was rather faithfully modelled on its natural 

prototype. Its meanil;tg, however, is polyvalent, the radiant sign of divine presence. 

In Saiva temples, the lihga is the central focus of devotion, the primal and undifferentiated 

representation of the God and even those images of Siva in anthropomorphic 

form are frequently relegated to a position in the temple that is subsidiary to the linga.l 

Despite its centrality to Saivite cult practice, art historians writing about 

ancient Hindu sculpture have tended to focus on anthropomorphic representations of 

that deity. The reasons are obvious given the difficulty of drawing stylistic, or even 

typological, inference from such a relatively undifferentiated column of stone. It 

might be expected that the monolithic character of the lihga would, combined with the 

conservatism of religious sy_mbols, make it especially resistant to developmental change 

with the result that assigning dates to lingas is scarcely an exact science. 

One of the immediate consequences of relegating lingas to a kind of cult 

furniture at the margins of art historical attention is that the worship of Vi~~u and 

other Hindu gods tends to assume disproportionate attention in· discussions of ancient 

sculpture. If, for example, the actual number of extant lihgas found in Peninsular 

Thailand were totaled, it would be seen that devotion to Siva was a powerful force in 

the early city-states that flourished in the first millenium A.D. Not only would this 

rectify an imbalance in the religious history of the region, but it would also tend to 

enrich our mental image of its cultural and economic vitality. This is because almost 

all the lihgas available for study are monumental in scale and were not intended for 

domestic altars but were usually housed in a temple. Thus the presence of a linga 

almost necessarily entails an architectural enframement with all that is implied in the 

way of resource allocation, specialized craft skill, and the general level of economic 

development. 

* Professor of Art History and Asian Studies, Cornell University. This article is dedicated to 

Alexander B. Griswold as a tribute to his important contributions to knowledge and in gratitude 

for his friendship. 

1. Frederick Asher, "Paiicayatana Siva Litigas: Sources and Meanings" in Joanna Williams, 

Kaladarsana (New Delhi, 1981), p. 3. 

1

2 Stanley J. O'Connor 

Radiating from a linga, when set in the field of its dynamic relationships, were 

the religious specialists who presided over the daily and seasonal calendar of religious 

practices, and the villagers whose duty it was to maintain and support the temple. 

We should see too the intricate web of well-worn foot paths leading to the temple hub 

from remote hamlets, neighboring villages, and adjacent towns for the daily honoring 

of the linga. Each of the ancient carved stones was daily wreathed with incense and 

flowers. They were fitfully and mysteriously lit by light from oil lamps waved by 

priestly attendants. They were worn smooth by lavings of water and milk and the 

innumerable touches of loving hands. Add to this the flux, commotion and social 

contagion of crowded festival days with music, bells, entertainments and gorgeous 

costumes and we have some echo, however faint, of the vibrant religious enthusiasm 

which a linga once focussed.2 

An example of the relative neglect of the linga as an important resource for 

study is the fact that there are severallingas in the Ho Pra Narai in Nakhon Si Thammarat 

that have not been made available for study in adequate photographs in the 

eighty years since they were first described by M.L. de Lajonquiere in 1912.3 When 

he visited the shrine there were five lingas. One, described as standing outside the 

remains of an ancient brick shrine sheltered by the new hall, was in three sections 

carved of rough granite and standing 0.75 meter in height. This is almost certainly 

our figure # 1 which fits the description quite easily since it is granite and its measurements 

are roughly similar. 

The other lingas, as Lajonquiere found them, were inside the shrine. Three 

of them were of the same form as the previously described linga. One (fig. 2) was 

made of granite, the other (fig. 3) was carved from a schistose stone. The third linga 

was broken. There are presently two broken lihgas in the shrine, but since the clear 

implication of Lajonquiere's text is that it was similar in form to the previously 

described emblems, that is with a cubic base, an octagonal mid-section and a rounded 

top, it must be the linga illustrated in (fig. 4). Although badly damaged, it retains 

indications of an octagonal mid-section as well as a cylindrical top with gland and 

frenum clearly outlined as in all of the preceding lingas. The other broken linga now 

in the shrine (fig. 5) is too crude to be considered similar in form to the lihgas illustrated 

in figs. 1-4. 

2. For a discussion of Hindu devotional practice see Diana L. Eck, Darsan: Seeing the Divine 

Image (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, 1981). 

3. M.L. de Lajonquiere, "Essai d'inventaire archeologique du Siam", Bulletin de Ia Commission 

Archeologique de I' Indo-Chine (1912-1913). pp. 159-161, figs. 37 and 38. Illustrations of 

one of the /ingas has already been published, see: A. Lamb, "Kedah and Takuapa", 

Federation Museums Journal, Vol. VI (1961) pp. 113, and S.J. O'Connor, Hindu Gods of 

Peninsular Siam, (Ascona, 1972), fig. 5.

SOME EARLY SIVA LINGAS IN NAKHON SI THAMMARAT 3 

Finally, Lajonquiere gave a sketch in his text (fig. 38) of a linga which he 

described as a simple cylinder with a rounded head carved from the same block as its 

square basin. This is, of course, our fig. 6. 

Lajonquiere apparently had no information on the provenance of these lingas. 

Some eighty years later there seems little likelihood that their find-sites will be recovered. 

One has had the impression that such objects tended to stay close to the places where 

they once embedded in local life. For example, in 1966 there were five lingas at Na 

Khom Village, Amphoe Si Chon, som.e 38 miles north of Nakhon Sri Thammarat.4 

There apparently was no disposition locally to transfer them to Nakhon Si Thammarat. 

However, the force of this argument is diminislled by the fact that one of the Wat 

Nakhom lingas has recently been transported to Pak Pahnang, near Nakhon Si Thammarat 

where its cylindrical top and frenum have been painted a vivid red.S 

Dating the lihgas is obviously fraught with difficulty, but Professor Piriya 

Krairiksh has recently provided an advance in our knowledge that will prove helpful 

here. He restudied the linga with a single face which was found at Nongwai station, 

Chaiya district, Surat Thani Province (fig. 7). It had previously been recognized that 

it was clearly related to Indian mukhalingas of the Gupta period.6 He was able, 

however, to draw precise analogies with an Indian linga of the 6th century and he 

makes a convincing case for dating the Chaiya emblem to that century instead of the 

7th or 8th as I had proposed in an earlier study. 7 I think he is probably right and, if 

he is, it should lead to some greater precision in dating lingas. Previously, dating was 

based on analogy with Cambodian and Cham examples and, or, relative degrees of 

naturalism or abstraction, the presumption being that those phallic emblems closest in 

anatomical fidelity to the natural prototype were earliest. In the earliest lihgas the 

rounded head section is given especial emphasis, its proportions being greater than 

those of the shaft and the base, or, in some cases, one of the lower sections may be 

suppressed entirely. A number of lingas of this type have been found in the Transbassac 

region of what is now southern Vietnam where the early state of Funan is 

thought to have been centered. These realistic lingas have been dated by L. Malleret 

to the last period of Funanese art from the end of the fifth to the beginning of the 

sixth centuries. 7 

4. S.J. O"Connor, "Si Chon: An Early Settlement in Peninsular Thailand," Journal of the Siam 

Society, Vol. LVI, Pt. 1 (January 1968), pp. 12-14 and figs. 6 and 7. I understand that the 

small glass linga illustrated in fig. 8 is no longer in Si Chon and its present location is unknown. 

S. Piriya Kririksh, Art in Peninsular Thailand Prior to the Fourteenth Century A.D. (Fine Arts 

Department, Bangkok, 1981), p. 30 and Plate IV. 

6. Ibid. p. 29 and Plate 14. 

7. L. Malleret, L'Archeologie du delta du Mekong, Vol. 1 (Paris, 1959), pp. 379-80. For examples 

of the earliest type see plates 80a and d. Also H. Parmentier, "Releve Archeologique 

de la Province de Tay Ninh (Cochin-china), Bulletin de Ia Commission Archeo/ogique de 

/'Indo-Chine, 1910-11 p. 71, fig. 2L.

4 Stanley J. O'Connor 

In the same general area there are several l;hgas whose realism, although still 

quite marked, is somewhat attenuated. There is a general proportional similarity 

between the base, shaft and head. In Malleret's phrase these are "conventional 

emblems." Several of them are ekamukhalingas. One is from Oc-Eo.a The other is 

from Vat Sak Sampou,9 They are notable for the fact that the faces are very small in 

proportion to the overall scale of the linga. In this they differ both from the Chaiya 

emblem and those examples of Indian lingas of the Gupta period with which I am 

familiar. In fact the presentation is at striking odds with the search for a formal unity 

that characterizes classical Gupta art. In the case of the ekamukhalihga, this led to a 

reconciliation of the form of the face with the overall form of the linga.lO 

The examples from Vietnam are also considerably more realistic than the 

Chaiya example because they exhibit an accentuated gland and frenum on a swelling, 

distended ovoid top. They are in general configuration quite similar, however, to our 

Nakhon Si ~hammarat example (fig. 1). Both the Oc-Eo and the Vat Sak Sampou 

lingas were thought to date to the end of Funanese art or the beginning of the art of 

Chen-la in the late sixth or early seventh century but this date would appear too late 

if we accept a sixth . century date for the Chaiya ekamukhalinga. Perhaps a date in 

. the Sth century or earlier wo~ld now be in order. It follows that our (fig. 1) would 

date also from the Sth century or earlier, while the [;;zgas illustrated in (figs., 2 and 3) 

could, because of their diminished degree of realism, be assigned dates in the late Sth 

or early 6th centuries. 

The Unga with the traces of an octagonal section below the cylindrical tops 

(fig. 4) is so fragmentary that it resists dating. Its frenum is presented in high relief 

so it might very well be an early example. Similarly (fig. 5) is too damaged to allow 

8. Illustrated in Malleret, op. cit. p. 383, no. 107, pl. 81. 

9. Illustr~ted in H. Parmentier, "L'Art presume du Fou-nan, Bulletin de /'Ecole Francaise d' 

Extreme-Orient, Vol. 32, Pt. 1 (1932) plate 14A. 

10. See, for example. the linga from Khoh dated ca. 500 A.D. for a mature Gupta example. It 

is plate 171 in J G. Williams, The Art of Gupta India, (Princeton, 1982). Note especially her 

remarks, pp. ·114-115 on the differences between this example and an earlier linga from 

Udayagiri Cave 4. The latter is illustrated as plate 113. 

Another ekamukhaliilga that is closely similar to the Udayagiri example is in the 

Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. It is illustrated in plate 6 

in P. Pal. The Ideal Image: The Gupta Sculptural Tradition and Its Influence (New :York, 

1978). Note the proportional dissimilarity between the cylindrical top and the two lower 

sections. 

For another ekamukhalinga that would appear to be an early Gupta example see P. 

Pal, The Divine Presence (Los Angeles, 1978), plate 8.

Fig. 1 Linga. Granite. 23" high. Ho Pra Narai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.

Fig. 2 Linga. Granite. 37" high. Ho Pra Narai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.

Fig. 3 Linga. Schistose Stone. 

21" high. Ho Pra Narai, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand.

'Tj 

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t--o 

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Fig. 5 Linga. Stone. Broken. Remaining portion, 18" high. Ho Pra Narai, 

Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand. 

.:

Fig. 7 

Lihga. Ekamukhali!iga. Stone. Discovered at Chaiya. Entire 

Linga 42" high. National Museum, Bangkok.

SOME EARLY SIVA LINGAS IN NAI{HON SI THAMMARAT 5 

for dating. Finally. (fig. 6) is clearly so conventionalized, so far removed from the 

realism of the other lingas, that it must be a considerably later type but I am not able 

to assign a date to it. 

What this canvass of these neglected objects may usefully add to our knowledge 

of the past is scarcely an unshakeable conviction that we have got the dates 

fixed precisely right but simply that Siva woisJVp played a prominent role in the 

cultural life of the isthmus at what appears now to be a very early date. There is 

nothing in this that would sit uncomfortably with intelligence gathered by Chinese 

envoys and travellers in the accounts of isthmian states like P'an-p'an and Tan-tan 

that leave their press in records of the early centuries A.D.ll But the present town of 

Nakhon Si Thammarat does not itself apparently date from that period. In fact it 

may have been established only in the lltb century so the lingas must have been 

brought there from more ancient sites presumably in the vicinity.l2 The /ingas thus 

add the weight of their testimony to the very early Hindu sculptures of Vi~~u found in 

the vicinity of Nakhon Si Thammarat to suggest that an important early site remains 

to be discovered. 

11. Chinese accounts of the historical geography of the isthmus in the early centuries of the 

Christian era are reviewed and analyzed in Paul Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese (Kuala 

Lumpur, 1961), especially Chapter V. 

12. H.G. Quaritch Wales, The Malay Peninsula in Hindu Times (London, 1976), p. 154 and 

Nikhom Suthiragsa, .. The Archaeological Story of Phra Wieng City," Silpakon Vol. 15, No. 

4 (1971). See also, David Wyatt, The Crystal Sands, The Chronicles of Nagara Sri Dharrmaraja, 

Data Paper: No. 98. Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University (Ithaca, 1975).

SOUTHERN THAI /KHLOK/ : AN ETYMOLOGICAL SPECULATION 

PITSAMAI INTARACHAT"' 

Introduction 

In Southern Thai dialects, there is a word which iS alternatively pronounced as 

[khlok]I or [khl~k]. Its meaning d given in a Southern Thai Dialect Dictionary2 is 

'a type of weapon which has a sheath.' A Malay Dictionary (Kamus Dewan) reveals a 

similar word whose meaning is given as 'a type of) short sword with a curving blade'. 

Another citation given in the same dictionary indicates that the word is also found in 

Jakarta, having the meaning 'a type of short sword.'3 A Thai article written by a 

Buddhist monk in Southern Thailand 4 states that a short sword known as /khlok/s, 

although difficult to find (in Thailand) nowadays, still exists in a museum in Pathalung 

Province, at Wat Phuphaphimuk. The sword was described as having a crescent shape. 

Thus it is speculated in this paper that this short sword is the same item; i.e. the 

weapon mentioned in the Southern Thai Dictionary for the meaning of the word 

/khlok/, and that this word and the Malay word go/ok refer to the same thing. This 

word /khlok/ does not occur in Standard Thai and is not in the Royal Thai Academy 

Dictionary. It is believed in this paper that this word is borrowed from the Malay 

word go/ok; i.e./golo?f in Standard Malay, with /g/ transformed into a Thai /kh/6, and 

combined with the /1/ of the second syllable of /golo?f to form an initial consonant 

* Assistant Professor, Institute of Language and Culture, Mahidol University. 

1. See Intarachat, Pitsamai. 'Unsur-Unsur Bahasa Melayu dalam Bahasa Thai Selatan,' in 

Dewan Bahasa, jilid 24, Ogos, 1980, for the earlier appearances of this word. 

2. Potchanaanukrom Paasaa Thin Tai, Withayalai Khruu Songkhlaa, 1971. 

3. Kamus Umum Bahasa Indonesia has the same word with the same explanation given for the 

second meaning in Kamus Dewan, thus revealing the existence of this item in Indonesia also. 

4. Thaan Chaokhun Phra Thep Sarn Suthi, Thephasarn Ban Haa, Wat Phuphaphimuk, 1970. 

S. For convenience, the phonemic representation /khlok/ is used to represent the two possible 

phonetic realizations: [khlok] and [khlok]. The vowel/of is chosen as the base due to the 

Thai conventional writing, where the vowel sound of this word in Thai writing (fll:lfl) corresponds 

to /o/ rather than fof. 

6. The voiced velar stop /g/ is not one of the phonemes in Thai, although for some Southern 

Thai (normally Malay-Thai bilinguals in Southern Thailand), [g] does occur in words 

borrowed from Malay. The reader might note that a district on the Thailand side of the 

Malaysia-Thailand border in Narathiwat Province in Southern Thailand named /SUIJai koJok/ 

(from Malay sungai golok), retains its Malay name. However, the Malay golok is written 

in standard Thai as lfll:lfl /kolok/, since to Thai ears the /g/ corresponds rougly to the voiceless 

unaspirated velar stop /k/ of their language. · 

.6

SOUTHERN THAI /KHLOK/ : AN ETYMOLOGICAL SPECULATION 7 

cluster /khl-/, and the Malay final glottal stop f?f is replaced by a Thai /kf1. 

the Malay golok becomes a monosyllabic Southern Thai word /khlok/. 

Thus 

The Different Meanings of /kblok/ 

/khlok/ has three different meanings in Southern Thai: a sword, cashew nut, 

and the male sexual organ. The development of the meanings is speculated to be as 

follows: 

1. The primary meaning, from which other meanings are derived, is a type of 

sword, formerly used in Southern Thailand, This type of sword is called /miit khlok/, 

where /miit/ = knife. 7a 

There is some evidence to suggest that this type of sword can be traced as far 

back as the Srivichai Dynasty in Thailand8, following archaeological findings which 

reveal a type of cabalistic design (usually written on a piece of cloth)9• This type of 

cabalistic design is written in ancient Khom scripts, and it has a finished design resembling 

a /khlok/ sword and, accordingly, is known as /jan na?mo daam khlok/ (=a 

/khlok/ cabalistic design). Thus, it is believed that this kind of sword had already 

existed in the Srivichai period, since the scripts used were the Khom scripts,lO already 

in popular use at a time when Srivichai was at its height. 

2. A further extended meaning of the word /khlok/ is for the cashew fruit 

which is plentiful in Southern Thailand, India and elsewhere. The top of the cashew 

fruit has a /khlok/ shaped pod which contains a nut inside. It is found that there are 

at least three different names for this kind of fruit in Southern Thai dialects, namely : 

a) /hiia khlok/, where /hua/ =head; /khlok/ is the word whose original 

meaning is a type of sword-like weapon. 

b) /jaa ruag/, where fjaa/ is a shortened form for the word /phra?jaa/ = an 

honourable title; and /ruar:J/ = the former name of King Ramkhamhaeng. 

c) ;ma'>muag hfmma?phaan/, where ;ma?muar:J/ = mango;ll ;hfmma?pbflan/ = 

another name for the Himalaya Mountains. 

7. This is probably due to being an archaic loan; that is. the final /k/ in archaic Malay becomes 

f?f in modern Malay (cf. Dempwolff 1937: 17 whose idea is restated in Collins, James T. 

1981). I would like to thank Dr. David Thomas for reminding me of this possibility. 

7a. Unless specified, all the pronunciations given are Southern Thai. 

8. Srivichai was formerly believed to have had its spheres of influence in Palembang in Sumatra 

and Central Java. Later archeological and historical evidence indicate that its influence 

spread also to where it is now known as Chaiya, in Surat Thani Province in Thailand. It 

was believed that here was a centre of Buddhist studies, a place of artistic and cultural 

heritage (Musikakhama, 1972). 

9. Thaan Chaokhun Phra Thep Sam Suthi, 1970: 4. 

10. Ibid. 

11. Notice that the top of this fruit also has the shape of a mango.

8 Pitsamai Intarachat 

It should be noted that the first and the second names for the cashew fruit are 

used exclusively in Southern Thai dialects; the third name is also used in standard 

language.l 2 So it is speculated that the adoption of the names for this fruit has come 

in three stages. The term /hua khlok/ gained its name first as an exte~ded use of the 

original meaning of /khlok/. The second name, JjaaruarJ/, is presumed to have gained 

its use later in the time of King Ramkhamhaeng. Tradition has it that during the 

years 1273-1293 when King Ramkhamhaeng was spreading his influence from the 

north of his territory to the South, he stopped his military troops at what is now known 

as Pathalung Province during the season when the cashew fruit ripened. The king 

enquired from his southern subjects about the name of this fruit, which was not found 

in Sukhothai, the capital of Thailand in those days. His southern subjects, with the 

intention of pleasing the King, answered that the name of the fruit was Jjaarua'CJJ.1 3 

The third name is not ·considered a dialectical term, since it is a common term from 

Standard Thai, a word of Sanskrit origin. The reason for the adoption of this name is 

not clear, since cashew trees are also grown in Southern Thailand, therefore, the name 

for the cashew need not have any connection with the Himalaya Mountains. However, 

it is stated in Thepsarn Ban Haa that this name is believed to have come about at a 

time when Indian epics were being popularized in Thailand,14 and that the introduction 

of this word was designed to avoid the association with the existing vernacular use of 

the word /khlok/ for the male sexual organ {see further discussion on the third meaning 

of /khlok/). This opinion is still disputable since the name JjaariiarJ/ should have 

already been in existence before the name Jhfmma?phaan/ came about. However, it 

should be noted that this phenomenon is common in Thai where there are certain 

names of fruits and vegetables that may have suggestive vulgar meanings in the vernacular 

terminologies, which are later replaced by acceptable names, mostly sacred names, 

or names from Hindu epics, to counter the alleged offensive connotations of the former 

terms. 

On the Malay side, a finding from my Malay room cleaner in the University of 

MaJaya,ts Kuala Lumpur, and a few Malay fruit sellers in Kuala Lumpur reveals that 

the fruit is known asjanggus.16 An entry from Kamus Dewan on the wordjanggus 

indicates that the fruit is also known as jambu go/ok, jambu monyet, kajus, and also 

12. The word is pronounced /ma?mlla'J himmi?phaan/ in Standard Thai. 

13. My speculation is that Jjaarual)/,probably gained its use after the spread of the story. 

14. And this was after King Ramkhamhaeng's reign. 

15. I was doing my Malay Linguistics doctorate degree in Malaysia under an ASEAN fellowship 

at the time. 

16. In fact, the answers obtained ranged from /jagus/, /jakus/, to JjaiJgus/, and some gave 

/kajus/ and /gajus/, the last two of which are believed to have been influenced by the 

English 'cashew'.

gajus.11 

SOUTHERN THAI /KHLOK/ : AN ETYMOLOGICAL SPECULATION 9 

From this, it can be deduced that the name /hiia khlok/, used to refer to a 

type of fruit, is also loaned from the extended use of the Malay word golok (i.e. jambu 

golok). It also supports the earlier speculation that the Southern Thai name /hOa 

khlok/ for the fruit existed prior to the other two names : JjaarOaiJ/ and thus also 

/ma?muaiJ hfmma?phaan/. 

3. The Southern Thai /khlok/ is also used dialectically and jocularly for the 

male sexual organ. It is interesting to note that in Southern Thailand there is a character 

in the shadow plays featured as a man carrying the /khlok/ weapon.1 8 His 

appearance always provokes laughter from the audience, who probably grasp the 

double meaning automatically. And this double meaning is also found in the Malay 

word golok. 

Summary 

The etymological speculation of the Southern Thai /khlok/ can be summarized 

as follows: fkhlok/ is a loan-word from Malay, having the basic meaning 'a type of 

sword'. Two extended uses of the word follow: for a type of fruit and as a vernacular 

term for the male sexual organ. The finding from the Malay side on the usages 

of golok indicates that the two extended meanings of /khlok/ in Southern Thai are also 

loans. 

REFERENCES 

Collins, James T., 'Kajian Dialek Daerah dan Rekonstruksi Bahasa Purba', Simposium Dialek, 

Bangi, UKM, December, 1981. 

Intarachat, Pitsamai, 'Unsur-Unsur Melayu dalam Bahasa Thai Selatan' in Dewan Bahasa, Jilid 

24, Ogos, 1980. 

Kamus Dewan, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Kuala Lumpur, 1970. 

Musikakhama, Nikhom, Paendin Thai Nai Adeet, Prae Pithaya, Bangkok, 1972. 

Potchanaanukrom Paasaa Thin Tal, Withayalai Khruu Songkhla, 1971. 

Thaan Chaokhun Phra Thep Sarn Suthi, Thephasarn Ban Haa, Wat Phuphaphimuk, Phathalung, 

1970. 

17. Kamus Dewan does not give these equivalents in the entry for the word 'golok'. 

18. This character also occurs in the Indonesian and Malay shadow plays or Wayang Kulit.

THE "ENERGY TRANSITION" IN A MARKET 

TOWNSHIP AND ITS ENVIRONS ON AN ISLAND IN 

SOUTHERN THAILAND 1 

ERIK COHEN* 

Introduction 

The broad outline of the evolution of the sources and uses of energy in human 

society is by now well documented: it could be characterised by five basic traits: 

1) From a low to a high per capita use of energy (Brown, 1976 : 1-5, Cook, 

1976 : 165-7)- or, what Cottrell (1955) in his pioneering work called a transition 

from low-energy to high-energy societies. 

2) From ethno-energetic to extra-somatic auxiliary sources of energy (Ruyle, 

1977), i.e. from the use of human muscle-power to the use of sources of energy external 

to the human organism. 

3) Within the category of auxiliary energy systems-from low-intensity to highintensity 

sources of energy, e.g. from wood, charcoal and water or wind power, to coal, 

gas, oil and electricity, and eventually atomic power (Schurr & Netschert, 1968: 45). 

4) From renewable energy sources, such as wood and other vegetable materials, 

water and wind power, to non-renewable, sources, such as coal, gas and oil. 

5) From local energy sources to sources which originate from outside the local 

economic system-in the national, regional and eventually even global energy system 

(Haefele & Sassin, 1979). 

This evolutionary process is a universal one, repeated in its general outline 

everywhere on the globe; it is presently most intense in the so-called developing countries. 

However, the process is not everywhere exactly the same. Bennett's (1976 : 

123) words concerning human ecological evolution are equally valid when applied to 

the evolution of human energy systems : 

* Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 

1. This paper summarises part of the findings of a longitudinal study of an island community in 

southern Thailand, the first stages of which were conducted in the summers of 1981 and 1982; 

it is to be continued. Thanks are due to Mr. Damrong Danayadol, for his assistance in the 

field, and to the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace, at the 

Hebrew University of Jerusalem for financial support. 

10

"ENERGY TRANSITION" ON AN ISLAND IN SOUTHERN THAILAND 

11 

"The process is characterised by both broad unidirectional 

evolutionary trends and by evolutions or histories of specific human 

populations that may or may not exemplify the sequences demonstrated 

by the evolutionary pattern" (Bennett, 1976: 123) 

Following Bennett, I suggest to term the general evolutionary trend "energy 

transition". But contrary to the tendency in the literature, I suggest to focus, rather 

than on the general trend, on its specific variations found, under different circumstances, 

in concrete local situations. Such an approach will not only yield information 

on specific forces accelerating or impeding the general trend, but also make it possible 

to distinguish specific types of processes within this general trend. 

A search of the literature revealed few studies of the energy system of local 

communities in Third World countries; only a handful of these deal explicitly with the 

energy transition or with specific aspects of it. It was this scarcity of studies which 

induced me to write this paper, even though I am not an expert in energetics and lacked 

the facilities and technical knowledge to collect data on energy flows and caloric inputs 

and outputs while in the field. 

Detailed studies of local energy systems were undertaken primarily in communities 

not yet seriously affected by the penetration of modem energy sources. The best 

known among these is probably Rappaport's (1971) work on the Tsembaga of New 

Guinea. Revelle's (1976: 969) statement, relating to rural India summarises well the 

nature of the energy system of such communities : 

From an energy standpoint, rural India can be thought of as a 

partially closed ecosystem in which energy derived by people and 

animals from the photosynthetic products of plants is used to grow 

and prepare human food, which in turn provides an essential energy 

input to grow more food, and so on in an endless cycle." (Revelle, 

1976 : 969) 

The opening up of local energy systems has been discussed from two essentially 

complementary perspectives: pressures put upon 'traditional' energy sources, in 

particular firewood and other organic material (Fleuret & Fleuret, 1972; Briscoe, 1979); 

and the local impact of the introduction of new sources of energy, such as fuel and 

conserved foods (Kemp, 1971) or electricity (Hayes and Bello, 1979, Mihalyi, 1977); 

another variant of such studies focusses on the consequences of infrastructural innovations, 

such as the construction of new roads, which facilitate the penetration or dissemination 

of new energy sources in the community (e.g. Hong and Lee, 1977, Chatty, 

1980).

12 Erik Cohen 

Whatever their specific contribution, however, none of these studies puts the 

problem of the energy transition into a broad comparative and theoretical framework. 

Rather, they limit themselves to a careful analysis of the changes occurring under 

particular circumstances. With a view to create such a framework, I formulated four 

general problems concerning the "energy transition" on the local level : 

1) The pattern of introduction of new energy sources and of phasing out of the 

old ones : what is the time span of the transition, which ecological and socio-economic 

groups are first affected by it and which last, what accelerates or impedes the 

process, to what extent do new and old resources co-exist, creating an "energy 

dualism"? 

2) In which order and in what intensity do the new sources penetrate the 

major sectors of the local economic system-production, transport, household, consumption, 

etc.? 

3) what are the principal mechanisms through which the new sources of energy 

are introduced and disseminated in the community : are they introduced spontaneously 

by local inhabitants or is their introduction and dissemination sponsored from the 

outside? To what extent is the introduction of new sources a reaction to the depletion 

of old ones, or the consequence of initiatives to improve and modernize the local 

economy or life style? 

4) What are the actual-vs. the expected-ecological, economic, social and 

cultural consequences of the introduction of new sources of energy in the community? 

How did it affect the local opportunity structure of the various groups in the community 

(Cohen, 1977, and forthcoming), and how did they respond to the changes? 

These problems will be examined on the basis of data collected in the course 

of an anthropological survey of social change in a single community-the market 

township of Talat Maphrao and its environs in southern Thailand.2) 

Talat Maphrao and its Environs 

Talat Maphrao is located on Ko Lek, an island of 247 km2 and a population of 

about 32,500 (1977). Its economy is based on small-holder coconut plantations, a few 

other branches of agriculture and, in recent years, tourism (Cohen, 1982, 1983). 

Coconuts are the major, and were until recently the only, cash-crop of the island. The 

Island's traditional economy is in the grip of a crisis, owing to the physical and 

economic decline of its coconut production (Cohen, forthcoming). At the same time, 

however, the national government is taking steps to develop the island's infrastructure : 

it constructed a modern round-island road in 1980/81, and is presently expanding the 

2. For a fuller description of the community and its environs, see Cohen (forthcoming). All the 

names of localities are pseudonyms.

"ENERGY TRANSITION" ON AN ISLAND IN SOUTHERN THAILAND 13 

central electric power supply network on the island. Concomitantly, rapid ferry 

transportation, introduced in 1982, accelerated and improved communications with the 

mainland. A local air-field, intended to provide a link with the mainland, is planned. 

Talat Maphrao, essentially a marketing township, is located close to the shore 

on the southwestern region of the island, about 17 km from Golden Bowl Town, the 

small island capit~l. Talat Maphrao encompasses less than a hundred households, but 

it is essentially an urban, rather than rural settlement; it is surrounded by nine Thai 

coconut growing villages and Ban Malayu, a Malay fishing settlement. The total 

population of the township and its environs is about 3,000, living in 440 households 

(1981). 

The township served for most of this century as the market and service center 

of the southern region of the island. The local inhabitants were primarily Chinese 

traders, but as many of these gradually migrated to the mainland, Thai villagers 

moved into it; the township is at present a mixed Chinese-Thai community. With the 

recent decline of the coconut trade, much of its traditional regional importance has 

been lost, but it still features a few dozen stores, and various services such as coffeeshops, 

restaurants, clinics, an elementary school and a cinema. Save for two small 

wood-mills there is no local-industry. Most inhabitants own coconut and other plantations 

in addition to their urban occupations and a minority lives exclusively off 

agriculture. A recently developed tourist beach, with about a dozen locally-owned 

and operated small bungalow resorts (Cohen, 1982, 1983) is located nearby. 

The surrounding Thai villages are pure agricultural settlements, and except an 

occasional small store, possess no local services. Ban Malayu has three small stores 

and one or two coffee-shops, but virtually all the population lives of fishing. 

The local population, Chinese, Thai and Malay, is permeated by a sense of 

decline, owing to the crisis in the coconut market, the gradual destruction of other 

branches of agriculture, such as chicken-growing and fishing (Johnson, 1981, Bangkok 

Post, 1982), and the worsening of the terms-of-trade of local products in comparison to 

the goods imported to the island. The steps taken by the authorities to develop the 

local infrastructure did not brighten the outlook of most inhabitants. 

The Energy Transition in Talat Maphrao-A Historical Review 

The traditional life style of the inhabitants of Talat Maphrao and its environs 

was energy extensive and based primarily on renewable local energy sources. If we 

take as our point of departure the energy system of the island at the beginning of this 

century, we find that it was based primarily on human and animal muscle, organic 

fuels and wind power.

14 Erik Cohen 

The coconut plantations were worked by human labor and their product transported 

to Talat Maphrao either on the backs of the laborers or on buffalo-drawn carts. 

Buffaloes were also employed for work in the rice fields. Coconut-shell charcoaP) 

served as the principal cooking fuel. Until World War I, sailing ships transported 

coconuts and other goods to the mainland or Singapore and brought in products 

consumed by the local population. Sailing boats also served for fishing. Only the 

illumination of dwellings was based on an imported mineral fuel, kerosene, but the 

quantities used were miniscule. 

This traditional energy system began changing after the First World War. The 

energy transition started in the transport sector, and particularly in the field of maritime 

transportation. The first to go were the sailing ships and sailing boats which before 

the First World War plied the routes to the island and frequented Talat Maphrao's 

small harbor. After the War, they were gradually substituted for by steamers. This 

change took maritime transport completely out of the hands of the locals : while some 

local merchants owned sailing ships or sailing boats, all the steamers were owned by 

outsiders to the locality and probably also, to ~e island. Steamers, in turn, lost their 

place to combustion-engine ships after the Second World War. As the size of ships 

grew, the small harbor of Talat Maphrao proved insufficient to service them. With 

the construction of a new, long pier in the harbor of Golden Bowl Town in 1970, the 

local harbor of Talat Maphrao fell into disuse. The township ceased to be a link 

between overland and maritime transport. All mainland-bound traffic was now 

deflected to the harbor in Golden Bow Town, which thereby became the undisputed 

apex of the island's settlement hierarchy. 

With the 1980's, the island's communications with the mainland were again 

revolutionized by the construction of a n~w harbor, outside Golden Bowl Town. The 

harbor serves the new rapid ferry line to the mainland, which not only cuts the time of 

the trip by half, but also transports cars and lorries and thus has a major, indirect 

impact on land-transport on the island. Communications with the ·mainland will be 

further revolutionized once the long envisaged airstrip, intended to connect the island 

with the airport in the provincial capital on the mainland, is completed. 

The sphere of land-transportation began to experience the energy transition 

soon after maritime transportation. The first motorcar reached the island about forty 

years ago, beginning a slow revolution in land-transportation, which is only now, with 

the cOnstruction of the new concrete road, coming to its conclusion. 

3. Coconut shell charcoal is produced from the inner, thin and hard, shell of the coconut; the 

thick, fibrous outer shell cannot be made into -charcoal.


The first car on the island seems to have been a luxurious private motorcar, 

brought in as an item of conspicuous consumption by one of the leading families in the 

island capital. The first cars to arrive in Talat Maphrao and its environs, however, 

about thirty years ago, were small but heavy lorries, used for the collection and trans- 

. port of coconuts from the plantations to the traders' stores in the township. These 

trucks gradually took over from the buffalo-drawn carts, so that for about 15 years 

now buffaloes are not used any more in coconut prod~ction, though they are still the 

main source of power in rice cultivation. No substantial changes occurred in the 

transportation of coconuts from plantation to storage since those early days of 

motorization: vintage Second World War trucks are still found on many farms. 

While in the past, however, the coconut or copra were further dispatched by ship from 

Talat Maphrao's little harbor, they are now transported by pickup vehicles to Golden 

Bowl Town, whence they are shipped to the mainland. 

The pickups ( silors), introduced to the island after the trucks, are sturdy 

iapanese vehicles which for years served as the only means of public transportation, as 

well as the primary means of transport for goods on the island's rugged roads. They 

provided a frequent but, until recently, slow connection to Golden Bowl Town. 

new road significantly reduced the time of travel to the island capital, and apparently 

increased the volume of traffic. However, the road is too recent an infrastructural 

innovation for its impact on transportation to be as yet fully unfolded~ But it already 

much facilitated the movement around the island of heavy trucks, which began to arrive 

with the recent introduction of the ferry service, and which will in all probability 

eventually take over from the local pickups part of the transport ofgoods on the island. 

Buses, as yet virtually absent on the island, may soon begin to take over public 

transportation. 

The principal means of private transportation on Ko Lek are still bicycles and 

motorcycles. For some time in the past, the latter were taking over from the former, 

but in the 1970's the bicycle experienced a slight comeback with the steep rise in 

gasoline prices. Recently, however, as the new road neared completion there was 

again a sharp increase in the use of motorcycles, whose number rose from several 

hundred to several thousand in a few years. While motorcycles are still selling briskly, 

the major recent innovations are private pick-up trucks : in Talat Maphrao several 

such trucks were recently acquired by the inhabitants for personal or business use. 

Private cars are also encouraged by the new road, and while none are yet owned by the 

inhabitants of Talat Maphrao, they can be sighted on its main street, coming either 

from Golden Bowl Town or, by ferry, from the mainland. 

The

16 Erik Cohen 

The second main sector in which the energy transition made a significant 

impact was household consump~ion, even though here the impact came later and was 

less pervasive than in the transport sector. 

The traditional cooking fuel in Talat Maphrao and its environs was coconutshell 

charcoal, for which raw material was plentiful since the shells of the coconut are 

discarded in the production of copra. Most Thai and Chinese households used to 

prepare their own charcoal in simple ovens in their backyards and some still do. It is 

also available in the local stores, but is presently relatively expensive-one kilogram 

costs 5 Baht (US $ 0.25), a price which compares unfavorably with that of the newly 

introduced sources of household energy-gas or even electricity. 

The main transition in the field of cooking fuels was to cooking gas it started 

about ten years ago. Gas was quickly adopted as a more convenient and--if one does 

not prepare charcoal oneself--cheaper fuel for cooking. In the last 2-3 years, gas 

spread rapidly into most households in Talat Maphrao itself, and is presently beginning 

to penetrate the surrounding Thai villages; only the Malay fishermen in Ban Malayu. 

are unable to afford it. 

The introduction of electricity to the island went through several steps, which 

can be well illustrated on the example of Talat Maphrao. About 25 years ago, a 

wealthy Chinese merchant was impressed by the use of electricity in Bangkok, and 

brought to the township a small llOV generator for his personal use. Like the 

introduction of the private car, it was an act of conspicuous consumption. However. 

the merchant was soon approached by his neighbors and asked to sell them electric 

power; he expanded his generating capacity and eventually supplied 130 households 

with electricity--virtually all the houses in Talat Maphrao. Electricity was primarily 

used for illumination, but also for a few electric appliances such as irons and fans. 

The supply was apparently feeble and not very reliable, and limited to only a few 

hours a day, so people were reluctant to acquire more sophisticated appliances. 

Ten years ago, the central government electricity agency took over the supply 

of power, installing three 210V generators. Five years later, the network was extended 

to Ban Malayu, where it eventually reached all households, but was used exclusively 

for illumination. The surrounding villages however are still . without electricity. 

Supply of power remained limited to evening (18.00 to 23.00) and early morning 

(4.00-6.00) hours (during the latter period it is used for the cooking of rice). During 

the day there is virtually no demand for electricity since there exists no power driven 

machinery or water pumping equipment in the township. 

With a stronger and more reliable source of power, more electric household 

appliances were introduced in Talat Maphrao, particularly electric rice cookers (which 

are quite wide-spread), refrigerators (of which there were about 10 in 1981) and


televisions sets (only 3 or 4 sets in the whole settlement). The number and variety of 

appliances increased significantly during the last year, in anticipation of the pending 

connection of the town and the surrounding villages to the island-wide electric network, 

which will supply reliable power round-the-clock. 

The township of Talat Maphrao and, to an increasing extent, its rural environs 

are thus in the grip of an intensified energy transition. The locals relate to this 

process of transition with mixed feelings; while some see in the construction of the road 

and the future arrival of centrally distributed electricity a sign of progress and the 

coming of civilization, many reject the innovations and are suspicious of the motives of 

the developers. These people deny that the road is of much benefit to the locals, and 

claim that it was built mainly to further tourism, from which most inhabitants do not 

much benefit. One person argued that the principal local impact of the road consists 

of a drastic increase in traffic accidents (cf. Hong and Lee, 1977: 227). Even the 

imminent arrival of electricity is not greeted with much enthusiasm by the villagers, 

even though, unlike the inhabitants of Talat Maphrao, they have at present no 

electricity at all. While such lukewarm or hostile attitudes may well be a result of the 

incongruence between rapid infrastructural developments and a generally stagnating 

situation, they are also a symptom of the general suspicion and animosity of the 

islanders to the interference of outsiders in their lives, which has also been observed in· 

other areas, and, especially, tourism (Cohen, 1982, 1983). 

The Energy Transition in Talat Maphrao-A Topical Analysis 

above: 

I shall analyse the data in terms of the four major problem areas outlined 

(I) The Pattern of Introduction of New Energy Sources into the Community 

and the Phasing Out of Old Ones In general terms, Talat Maphrao and its environs 

experienced the general pattern of evolution of energy sources described in the introduction 

: from local, renewable sources of low intensity to external, non-renewable sources 

of high intensity. The time span of the transition was about 60 years, but it is not yet 

completed. The transition is most advanced in the market township, from which most 

of the old sources of energy almost disappeared- with the exception of coconut charcoal 

which is still produced and used by a few households. It is least advanced in the Thai 

villages, where, except in the field of land-transport, no significant changes in energy 

sources have yet taken place-coconut charcoal still serves as the principal cooking fuel 

and there is as yet no electricity and no gas. Both these new sources are, however, in 

the process of introduction, and a rapid energy transition in village household consumption 

should be expected in the near future.

18 Erik Cohen 

Unlike in rural areas on the Indian sub-continent (Revelle, 1976: 972; Briscoe, 

1979; 633}, or Africa (Fleuret & Fleuret, 1972, Briscoe, 1979 : 633}, in Talat Maphrao 

and its environs there is no real "firewood crisis" : though the forests on the mountains 

in the interior are, like in the rest of rural Thailand, (Vanishing Forest, 1981) being 

rapidly exterminated, they are cut to free land for plantations, rather than for wood. 

Other organic material, such as the outer shells of the coconuts, which is discarded and 

left to rot, is easily available- indeed, the Malays of Ban Malayu, the poorest element 

in the population (Cohen, forthcoming) use them for fuel, as coconut charcoal becomes 

expensive. The rise in the price of the latter, indeed, indicates that this specific traditional 

fuel is becoming scarce; however, whether the recent rise in its price announces 

a future trend, or is merely a reflection of the acute decline in coconut production in 

the last few years, due to repeated draughts, cannot yet be established. 

A crisis in "traditional" fuels cannot, thus, be seen as a major factor accelerating 

the energy transition in Talat Maphrao. Rather, two factors were primarily 

responsible for the recent acceleration: the government's efforts to develop the infrastructure- 

the road and the electric network-for reasons which had less to do with the 

inhabitants and more, apparently, with the demands of the army and the plans for the 

future development of tourism; and the demonstration effect produced in the past by 

the introduction of new energy sources and uses by local individuals and more recently, 

by the intensified contact with the mainland, through improved communications and 

migration (Cohen, forthcoming). There exist, however, some important impediments 

to the rapid diffusion of the new energy sources, particularly in the villages: the crisis 

in local agriculture (ibid.) reduced significantly the current income of the inhabitants, 

putting serious constraints on their ability to pay for new implements and installations. 

Moreover, neither the road, nor electricity serve directly the productive sector of the 

_ village economy; there is hence little "felt need" for these innovations in the villagesfor 

example, villagers expressed very little interest and desire to have electricity 

installed in their houses, once the central power-network reaches their settlements. 

Co-existence of old and new sources of energy can be found primarily in one 

sector of the local economy- household consumption. This occasionally exists within 

. households. Some households use both old and new sources of cooking fuel-i.e. 

coconut shell charcoal and gas or electricity. The principal form of dualism, however, is 

between households of different ecological groups: the households in the township of 

Talat Maphrao, in the main, have already made the transition to new energy sources; 

those in the villages still use predominantly the old sources of energy. 

(2) The Order of Penetration of New Energy Sources into the Main Economic 

·Sectors. The sector which was first, and most intensely penetrated by the new sources 

of energy was transport - first at sea and then on land; here the transition was also most


thorough, eventuating in the virtual disappearance of the traditional local means of 

transport. Household consumption was the next to be penetrated, but has not yet been 

completed : it ts the only sector showing marked internal dualism. The most important 

finding, however, is that no energy transition has taken place in the productive sector, 

which remains energy-extensive and based primarily on human muscle power and 

animal strength-bufalloes for ploughing the fields and monkeys for plucking the 

coconuts from the taller trees. There is no mechanization of production, there are no 

motor-driven water-pumps for irrigation and only a very limited use of chemical 

fertilizers; no industrial enterprises or mechanical workshops, save one or two small 

wood-mills, were established in the community. This difference between the sectors 

reflects the general imbalance in local development discussed elsewhere (Cohen, 

forthcoming) and highlights the difficulties which local inhabitants experience as 

they modernize their consumption and transportation, while their production stagnates 

and even declines. 

(3) Mechanisms of Introduction and Dissemination of New Energy Sources 

While the concrete mechanisms by which different kinds of energy sources were 

introduced for particular purposes varied from case to case, a broad dynamic pattern 

can be discerned : the transition was frequently initiated spontaneously by an individual, 

who either for reasons of efficiency or conspicuous consumption introduced the new 

use, even in the complete absence of a suitable infrastructure; he was then copied by 

other individuals, and the new source was disseminated on a small scale. The authorities 

enter the picture only at a much later stage, sponsoring the large-scale dissemination of 

the energy source by significant infrastructural developments. This process is most 

clearly observable in the sphere of electricity: the introduction of electric power was 

pioneered by a private individual for personal use, without any encouragement or 

control on the part of the authorities; only some time after he had begun selling power 

to other households in the community did.the authorities take control, but the scale of 

production increased only moderately; only with the future introduction of centrally 

distributed power will sponsored, large-scale dissemination of electricity, particularly 

into the villages, take place. A similar process occurred in the sphere of motorised 

vehicles: local individuals introduced such vehicles for personal use, without, or with 

only a minimal infrastructure: petrol had to be brought in in containers, since there 

was no gas station; roads were few and in bad repair; only with the completion of the 

concrete round-island road have conditions for a rapid growth in motorised traffic been 

created. It thus appears that while the locals spontaneously initiated and controlled 

the early stages of the introduction of a new energy source, its use was limited to a: 

small scale; its large scale dissemination had to be sponsored by the authorities, since

20 Erik Cohen 

it necessitated considerable infrastructural investments; once this stage is reached, 

however, the locals lost effective control over both the timing and the direction of 

further dissemination- e.g. when and where electricity will be introduced or when and 

where new roads will be constructed- which now passed into the hands of the central 

authorities. · 

(4) The Consequences of the Energy Transition. Since the community is still 

in the grip of the intensive phase of the energy transition-the new road has just been 

completed, and round-the-clock, centrally distributed electricity is only pending-no 

fast conclusions concerning its consequences can yet be drawn. 

This question indeed 

will be one of the principal foci of future stages of the study. Some emergent consequences, 

however, can already be discerned. 

Before turning to these, however, a word should be said about the effects of the 

very process of the introduction of new sources of energy on the consciousness of the 

inhabitants, The island has until recently had little direct acquaintance with powerful 

modem technologies. The construction of the road was by far the biggest project ever 

undertaken on the island: dozens of bulldozers, heavy trucks and other machinery 

ceaselessly rumbled through Talat Maphrao and other settlements; a special landing 

quay for ships bringing in equipment and raw materials was constructed on Sawadee 

Beach. 

Sand and gravel were quarried on the island. Hundreds of workers, many of 

whom had heed specially brought in from the mainland, were employed in construction 

work. 

All this must have had a considerable demonstration effect on the local population, 

showing them vividly both the constructive and the destructive powers of modem 

technology. 

drastic effects. 

The pending electrification process will probably have similar, though less 

On the whole, the consequences of the energy transition on Talat Maphrao and 

its environs were largely paradoxical, owing to the uneven development of the various 

sectors of the local economy. The motorization of both sea and land transport has 

progressively marginalized Talat Maphrao as its harbor fell into disuse, while improved 

land-communications radically improved the connections and shortened travelling time 

to the island capital. The once important regional market township lost most of its 

traditional functions. Improved communications, in a context of an agricultural crisis 

and a growing taste for "modern" life styles induced by the mass media and the 

demonstration effect of innovations, encouraged accelerated out-migration; this 

syphoned off most of the younger generation of the Chinese and has a growing impact


on the younger generation of the Thais. 

These phenomena have been extensively 

discussed elsewhere (Cohen, forthcoming) and will not be elaborated upon here. 

The introduction of new sources of energy held forth an opportunity to the 

locals to increase the energy intensity of the different sectors of their economy. This 

opportunity has, as yet, not been exploited in the productive sector by any local group; 

some groups among the locals, however, grasped the opportunity to modernise, at least 

partially, their life styles. The Chinese, who were traditionally the wealthiest elements 

in the population, and to some extent the Thais in the township, made use of the 

innovations, acquiring motor vehicles and switching gradually to "modem" household 

appliances and cooking facilities run on gas or electricity. However, they were not 

under pressure to do so, since most of them had continued access to the main traditional 

source of household energy, coconut shell charcoal. The Malays, however, found 

themselves in an energy squeeze, similar to that described for other weak populations 

elsewhere (e.g. Briscoe, 1979: 633) : with no access to raw coconut shells, and the 

rising price of coconut shell charcoal .they might have been induced to acquire 

"modern" cooking facilities, run on gas or electricity; however, they lack the means 

for such household capital investments, owing to the serious crisis in fishing, which 

affected them as it did other fishermen in southern Thailand (Johnson, 1981), and 

which is aggravated by the high costs of fuel for their motorised boats, under circumstances 

of small and uncertain catches. 

Hence they are largely reduced to the use of 

the fibrous outer coconut shell for fuel, which is highly inconvenient and unhealthy 

owing to the dense smoke produced by its burning, which forces its users to cook their 

food on open outdoor fires. 

electric household appliances. 

No Malay household has as yet introduced gas or any 

Though Ban Malayu is connected to the local power 

network, the use of electricity is minimal and consists mostly of a single light bulb 

hung in the middle of the habitation. It is important to emphasise, however, that, 

while no such blatant squeeze is observable among the Chinese and the Thais in the 

township, the squeeze there is a more subtle one : energy "modernization" of consumption 

and transport, without any significant change in production, puts an additional 

burden on the household budget, and indirectly contributes to the worsening of their 

economic situation, particularly under conditions of rapidly rising costs of modern 

energy sources; it thus reinforces the push to out-migration. The rural Thais, however, 

have not yet experienced the full brunt of the energy transition, except in the transport 

sector; this will only be felt with the electrification of the villages and the dissemiaation 

of cooking gas.

22 Erik Cohen 

The new sources of energy and the provision of the infrastructure for their 

dissemination, creates the conditions for a future large scale development of tourism. 

This could conceivably lead to a retention of part of the labor force which would 

otherwise leave the island. However, as my earlier study showed (Cohen, 1982, 1983), 

tourism, at least in its present small-scale form, had an only infinitessimal impact on 

employment in the area of Talat Maphrao. If and when large-scale tourism enterprises 

establish themselves, they might provide some additional employment- but at the price 

of new social and cultural problems. 

Conclusions ,, 

What can be learned from our admittedly limited data on the energy transition 

in Talat Maphrao and its environs, on the comparative problem of variations within 

the general evolutionary trend in the field of energy, presented in the introduction? 

The evolutionary trend has been ful:y replicated, in its general outline; but an important 

point should be noted: in the core industrial countries, such as Britain and the U.S., 

the energy transition impinged first and foremost in the production sector, with the 

other sectors following suit (Cook, 1976: 185-6); in, Talat Maphrao, which is by all 

accounts an extremely peripheral community, the productive sector was the least 

affected by the transition. 

While this may be a consequence of specific local factors, 

it still raises an interesting hypothesis, well worth of further examination: namely, 

that, as the energy transition spreads out from core to peripheral areas of the 

contemporary world, its primary impact is deflected from production to transport and 

household consumption. The rationale for such a hypothesis is that the original energy 

transition in the core areas has been self-generated or auto-centric. In peripheral 

areas, however, it is normally exo-centric-i.e. sponsored from the outside, and in 

particular by the regional and national authorities. The locals do not have to pay for 

the infrastructure for the new sources of energy, and their introduction thus does not 

presuppose a revolutionary growth in local production. Moreover, the locals find it 

easy to adopt the "modern" life styles, the dissemination of which is made possible by 

the new sources of energy; but they find it much more difficult- owing to the absence of 

capital resources, know-how or initiative-to adopt new methods or new branches of 

production. 

Paradoxically, then, they voluntarily take on an additional economic 

burden, which puts a squeeze on their resources and increases their dependence upon 

external factors, without much improvement in the structure of their local economic 

opportunities. This at least partly explains the often ambivalent, and sometimes 

hostile, attitude of the inhabitants to the infrastructural innovations.


The consequences of the energy transition in Talat Maphrao and its environment 

put into question the benefit and indeed, the reasonableness of the rapid; 

sponsored introduction of modern, external sources of energy into marginal communities 

and point to the necessity for Third World countries to pay more attention to 

alternative, small-scale, locally available sources of energy to supply their rural energy 

needs. In this study, at least, not the slightest cue has been discovered that anybody 

pays any attention to these sources or proposes alternative policies to resolve the 

emergent energy problems of Ko Lek or other marginal areas in Thailand. 

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Briscoe, Y., 1979 : Energy Use and Social Structure in a Bangladesh Village, Population and 

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24 Erik Cohen 

Johnson, P., 1981 : Small Fishermen Feel the Pinch, Bangkok Post, 23.8.1981; 6. 

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THAI CONJUGAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS AND 

THE HSU HYPOTHESIS 

MARJORIE A. MUECKE* 

Introduction 

The Problem : Does the Hsu Hypothesis Fit the Thai Case ? 

Based upon his study of four societies, Francis L.K. Hsu hypothesized in 1971 

that the structure of a "dominant" kin tie in a society shapes the structure of social 

relations in that society.l The hypothesis is interesting for its apparent simplicity, 

and for its promise for advance in crosscultural comparative work. It reads: 

The dominant attributes of the dominant dyad in a given kinship 

system tend to determine the attitudes and action patterns that the 

individual in such a system develops toward other dyads in this system 

as well as towards his relationships outside of the system. (1971a: 10) 

Here, "dyad" refers to any of the eight pairs of persons linked together in the 

elementary conjugal family, covering two generations, viz., husband : wife, father : son, 

father: daughter, monher: son, mother: daughter, brother: brother, brother: sister, 

and sister : sister. 

Noting that everyone is born into a kinship web, Hsu argued that kin relationships 

extend to and provide models for the larger social system, and that the dyadic kin 

relationship that does so more than any other is the "dominant" kin pair (197la: 6-7). 

Some critics have noted a lack of empirical fit in Hsu's hypothesis (Bohannan, 

Fernandez, Levy 1971). This paper treats an empirical problem posed by patterns of 

social relationship in Buddhist Thai society. Among these patterns, the older : younger 

sibling relationship (phil: n~qng)2 is intensively and extensively reiterated, yet the Hsu 

* R.N., Ph.D., M.A., Department of Community Health Care Systems, University of Washington 

1. By utilizing the notion of "dominance," Hsu elaborated upon Radcliffe-Brown's assertion of 

the primacy of kin ties over non-kin ties. Hsu attributed his formulation of the hypothesis 

to his study of Chinese, Hindu, and Alllerican life-ways in his 1963 work Clan, Caste and Club. 

He found the father : son dyad "dominant" among the Chinese, the mother: son dyad 

"dominant" among the Hindu, and the husband : wife dyad "dominant" among Americans. 

He reasoned that the brother : brother dyad is "dominant" among patrilocal African societies 

(1971 a). 

2. Andrew Turton writes "The fundamental categorical distinction between people in Northern 

Thai culture is between older and younger, with the distinction between older and younger 

members of the same generation as important as that between senior and junior generations" 

(1972: 238). Transliterations in the text are for Standard Thai unless otherwise stated. 

25

26 Marjorie A. Muecke 

hypothesis does not allow for it. Could the older : younger dyad be appended to Hsu's 

hypothesis? Or, is the Thai case incompatible with Hsu's hypothesis? What then does 

the older : younger relationship mean in Thai society ? 

Critique of Hso's Hypothesis 

Preliminary attempts to fit the Thai example to Hsu's hypothesis uncovered 

several difficulties in the hypothesis itself. First, Hsu's assertion that kinship is primary, 

modelling non-kin relationships in society, appears teleological. Sometimes, at very 

least, non-kin relationships are primary, as in peer group socialization. Thus, borrowing 

Geertzian phraseology, kinship may be either a model of key non-kin social 

relationships, or a model for such relationships. . 

Second, the meaning of Hsu's term "dominance" is unclear. Hsu leaves the 

problem of definition essentially unresolved with the broad assertion that a dominant 

dyad carries social values or maintains the sociocultural system or socializes the young 

more than any other dyad in a given society (197lb: 490). Levy argues cogently that 

when the sociopolitical domain is at issue, dominance resides almost everywhere in the 

father: son dyad (1971 : 37-39). Accepting Levy's argument, however, precludes 

cultural variation--and cultural variation is the very phenomenon which Hsu attempts 

to explain by his hypothesis. Fernandez proposes a functional definition of a dominant 

dyad that is attractive because it can be operationalized, viz., 

That axial relationship is most dominant which is most difficult 

to break in circumstances in which a choice has to be made between 

various axes (1971 : 357). 

That is, given forced choices in various situations, the answers to the question, 

"Which dyad partner (s) do informants of different ages and sexes most readily, 

consistently or frequently select?" would identify certain dyads as "dominant." 

Third, Hsu's insistence that only one kin dyad is "dominant" in a given society 

seems unrealistic. Given the complexity of human living, it is likely that different 

dyads come into focus as more influential at different stages and in different contexts 

of a person's or domestic unit's life. Fourth, Hsu does not offer a systematic way of 

determining just which "attributes" (typical modes of behavior and attitude) are 

dominant. Thus, although his identification of dominant dyads in the cases he cites 

seems to reflect sensitivity and keen insight, his method is too subjective for systematic 

generalization. 

Nevertheless, Hsu's hypothesis can contribute to the interpretation of Thai 

kinship. In this paper, the hypothesis is used as a heuristic tool for delineating prototypic 

dyadic kin relationships among Buddhist Thai, in order to help explicate kinship 

in lowland Thai society.

THAI CONJUGAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 27 

Purpose and Method 

The search for cultural meaning involves making the implicit system explicit. 

It assumes that the implicit is so fundamental that it might easily be overlooked or 

denied by members of the culture themselves. This is also the sense in which Bohannan 

views dominance : 

It is part of what Durkheim and Freud, each in his own way, 

called the collective unconscious. The principles are more compelling 

for being unstated and the sanctions more powerful for being collective 

(1971 : 61). 

The explicit and implicit might reinforce or conflict with each other. For 

example, little girls in urban North Thailand (Chiang Mai) 3 knew and reported the 

social behaviors prescribed for them at marriage : 

Every girl must get married. After marriage, in order to be a 

good woman, you have to indulge your husband and not be unfaithful 

to him, always be pure and honest to him, smile cheerfully and brightly 

all the time (11 year old informant}, ... even when he is drunk (13 year 

old). 

But this explicit social role sometimes opposes personal preferences. The 

tension between social and personal attitudes toward marriage seems to have been 

resolved in a cultural way by Chiang Mai females, as in the following statement by an 

11 year old: 

Every female loves her parents more than anyone else. You have 

to love your grandparents and all of your relatives, and, if you're 

married, you should love your husband, too. 

That is, we'll marry our men, but our parents (and children) are more important 

to us. These attitudes were also expressed by married female informants, 

suggesting that this aspect of female socialization starts young and is sustained in 

adulthood. 

In the remainder of the paper, some implicit aspects of conjugal family dyadic 

relationships among Buddhist Thai are made explicit by examining them in terms of 

four aspects of bonding between dyadic partners, 4 viz., social distance and spatial 

distance between the dyad partners, durability of the dyadic relationship, and degree of 

diffusion in social space to non-kin relationships. The first two aspects were derived 

3. The ethnographic material was obtained in Chiang Mai city. The data are more representative 

of the majority population sector than of the cosmopolitan elite, and are not generalizable 

to minority ethnic groups. 

4. My purposes, thus, are both more limited and more operational than those of Dr. Hsu.


inductively from field observation and ethongraphies of Thai society : durability was 

suggested by F~rnandez (1971); and diffusion, by Hsu himself (1971a). The older: 

younger relationship is considered first because it describes social relationships among 

both kin and non-kin in Thai society, and because it was not dealt with in Hsu's work. 

Analysis of Kin Dyads in Lowland Thai Society 

The Older : Younger Relationship Between Siblings and Between Spouses 

The standard Thai term for older: younger, phil : n9f?ng, is a term of reference 

denoting classificatory siblingship. It is used without sex specifications as a collective 

for siblings, and for individual or group members of ego's generation to denote a 

vertical, superior versus inferior social relationship. For purposes of direct address and 

self-reference, the collective is separated into older versus younger. By using the 

sibling term older (ph{i) for husbands and younger (n~t;ng) for wife6 the Thai terminologically 

stress male dominance in the conjugal relationship and deemphasize sexual 

relationship as a raison d'etre for marriage. 

The chief characteristics of the older : younger relationship are asymmetry and 

reciprocity between two partners of either sex. To this extent, the older : younger 

relationship is a form of Foster's "dyadic contract" between patron and client (Hanks 

1962: 1258; Phillips 1965: 93-4). Benefits accruing to older are the respect, obedience 

and services of younger; in return, younger gains protection and privileges fron older. 

The strength of bond in the older : younger relationship is often short-lived and 

its termination appears to be more readily sanctioned than that of other dyads. 

Although there is the expected "sense of love, obligation and respect that is derived 

from the simple fact of kinship" among Thai siblings, Phillips found that, in contrast 

to parent : child relationships, "maintenance of the older : younger relationship is 

always dependent upon what the participants can gain from it, i.e., from the other 

person" (1965: 32, 86). For kin-group compounds, this explains Wijeyewardene's 

finding that : 

5. The rural North Thai husband refers to himself and is addressed by his wife as aay, "older 

brother," instead of the Standard Thai phil or its unaspirated Northern form, pit. which is 

used by urban couples. This difference refitcts the current demise of the Northern Thai 

dialect in urban areas, brought about by ever-increasing contact between the Northern and 

Central Regions. 

6. Turton identifies a marriage rule implicitly observed among the Northern Thai that "for a man 

no woman who can be assimilated to the category of phU (older) is marriageable" (1972 : 239). 

However, there is a rule for breaking this rule, which is, if female is older, she establishes her 

marriageability by addressing her suitor as phii, " whereupon she becomes n~f!ng (younger) 

to him.

THAI CONJUGAL FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 

29 

Once the households are linked by sibling ties rather than by 

parent : child ties, economic and cooperative obligations lose much 

of their force, both emotional and jural-economic. Cooperation 

between siblings is much more voluntary in character ... (1966: 17). 

Other evidence for easy termination of the older : younger bond is the ease of 

practicing both child fosterage (whicn changes siblingship; Kaufman 1960: 23; Keyes 

1977) and early serial monogamy (which changes spouses; Wijeyewardene n.d.: 41-45). 

Although the older : younger sibling relationship is explicitly institutionalized with 

linguistic differentiation and precedence rules, 7 it is relatively weak in its durability. 

While the older : younger relationship can be terminated, it is also easily 

estabilished. It may occur diffusely in social space wherever one partner has age 

seniority or status superiority over the other.. Every individual has both olders and 

youngers in his or her social space, and is simultaneously older to certain younger 

persons and younger to certain older persons--even twins are explicitly differentiated 

in social status on the basis of birth order. The vertical, inter-generation axis 

permeates the horizontal, intra-generation axis, classifying each generation into two 

parts, older versus younger, or superior versus inferior. Thus, an inter-generation 

relationship seems structurally a more appropriate prototype for Thai social relationships 

than any same-generation relationship. 

The Father : Child Relationship, as Distinct from the Mother : Child Relationship 

Of the four basic parent : child dyads, the ones headed by father seem dominant 

because fathers (married men with children) hold general jura-political power in 

low land Thai society. They are identified as the legal and customary head of household 

(although of course this is not always demographically possible), and (along with 

widowed, postmenopausal mothers) as the candidates for village and district headmanship 

or high Government positions-- ''A childless person is not elected as head man : 

his sterility might infect the whole community" (Pederson 1968 : 129). 

Men also appear superior to women in the religious domain of Buddhism. Only 

adult men are eligible for the supreme social status acquired by taking the yellow robe 

of monkb.ood.s While fatherhood is set aside during monkhood because a monk must 

1. For example, the collectives for "grandparents" and "aunts and uncles" rank the relatives by 

sequential order higher to lower age and social status, with the order FaFa-FaMo-MoFa-MoMo 

(puu-ya"a-taa-yaay) for grandparents, and PaOBr-PaOSi-MoYSib-FaYSib (lung-paa-mia-'aa) 

for aunts and uncles. 

8. Women may enter monastic life as mae chii, but they are not ordained, and function chiefly in 

monastery housekeeping, cleaning and cooking, with little time for study and meditation. See 

Thitsa 1980 : 16-18.


be celibate and unencumbered with worldly affairs, previous experience as a monk is 

the Thai ideal of male preparation for marriage and fatherhood.. Although when a 

married man is ordained, he carries no responsibilities as husband or father, his 

"former'' wife must continue to comport herself as a married woman, and is not free 

to marry anyone else; she thus maintains the bond between the monk and his children. 

Fatherhood is a widespread symbol of highly respected social power. Monkhood, 

as expressed in fatherhood is wise, protective, and quasi-sacred. From the lay 

viewpoint, a good monk counsels well, behaves as a model of virtue, .and fearlessly 

dispels evil; the older he is, the more likely he is to be revered with the honorific 

luang phoo, ,, or "great one who is like a father." The term . phoo, ,, "father," is also 

used to indicate great success--and respect for the power and knowledge that go with 

success. Examples include the above term luang phqq for a venerated older monk, and 

the term pht/'9 liang, literally "father who nourishes or feeds," for an employer or for 

a man of wealth or worldly success who is expected to act as a patron (Wijeyewardene 

1971). Teachers, be they male or female, are accorded the loyalty and respect of an 

ideal father; and the student : teacher bond is commonly life-long, with pupils of the 

same teacher often expressing a sibling-like association with each other. Child informants 

in urban Chiang Mai viewed fathers in the ideal, at least, as strong and protective: 

Father's kindness in raising us children can be compared to a bodi 

tree that gives ample shade to all those under it (12 year old male 

informant). 

Even after a great man has died, people still respect and bow to 

him (13 year old male informant). 

The manarchy symbolizes the supreme secular power of the father, with the 

King being in relation to country as father is to family.9 

The corresponding term mae, for mother, is also extended in meaning, but 

rarely to the juro-political sphere or to convey the power of moral virtue. Common 

extensions of the term mae associate "mother" with the domestic sphere or earthly 

places: for example they signify 1) female gender, as in maekhrua for "female cook," 

or maekai for "hen"; 2) fertile source, as in mcfenaam for "major river"; 3) a tool for 

support or security, as in ma"eraeng for "jack" and ma"ekunjae for "padlock"; 4) a 

place by name, as in rnaesariang and maehongs~'9n provinces; 5) earthly (lowly) 

goddesses as in md'ekhongkhaa for water goddess or maethooranii for earth goddess. 

~ ·' , 

The use of fatherhood as a linguistic metaphor for supportive power is so 

common among the Thai that we may ask why it is. The father role is diffuse in 

social space--i.e., there are many models of fatherhood, including genitor and pater, 

9. See Turton (1972: 252-5) for an insightful analysis of the father figure in Northern Thai myth, 

legend, spirit cults and the explicit socio-political order.


patron, king, even the unmarried monk who has forsaken family obligations. This is 

in sharp contrast to the mother role which is rarely extended beyond the models of 

genetrix and mater. Furthermore, whereas the father role is vague in definition, being 

essentially benign protection and support, the mother role is defined with explicit 

duties and obligations. The vagueness of father-role performance possibilities in the 

family is paralleled by socially diffuse father-role models. This vagueness of definition 

allows flexible application of the father metaphor beyond the domestic sphere. In 

contrast, the specificity of the mother role may prevent its broad extension to larger 

society. 

The social power that is culturally vested in Thai fatherhood implies a power 

differential between father and child. This power differential is generally greater than 

the social distance between mother and child. Children are . expected to fear and 

respect both parents, but usually fear their fathers more than their mothers, even 

though fathers punish less often than do mothers. Disobedient urban teenagers run 

away from home for days or weeks after committing an infraction in order to escape a 

father's potential wrath, whereas they say they feel sad and disappointed with themselves 

for having pained their mothers by being absent from home. 

The potential power of father over child exists until child has a house of his or 

her own, which is often after marriage and childbirth. The social distance between 

father and child may be supported by the widespread assumption that the women in 

the family will never forsake the children, allowing fathers the option of voluntary and 

intermittent, rather than necessary and sustained, responsibility for the children, A 

father (and older sons) may be absent from the home at night for what are perceived 

as legitimate reasons--pleasure-seeking (pai th1aw; pai 'ew, Northern Thai) or work- 

whereas a mother is almost never absent overnight, and by evening would be so only 

if her children were with her and they were all near home, for example, at a local 

monastery fair. The greater spatio-temporal distance between father and children 

than between mother and children is also evident in common sleeping patterns wherein 

(except in the first month after childbirth), when the parents do not sleep together, 

mother sleeps with children and father sleeps alone or with older sons. 

The father : child bond may be as durable as the mother : child bond, but is 

less consistently so. A father's temporary, intermittent or permanent absence from 

home is sanctioned through the institutions of the military and of the Buddhist Sangha 

or monkhood, whereas a mother has no similarly sanctioned absence from home. 

Contemporary social change, with the increasing need for wage-earning, might cause 

temporary or even long-lasting absence of the father from home as a migrant worker 

or permanent urban employee. But the father : child bond can also be permanent, as


when a daughter raises her children in her parents' home. There are also non-kin lifelasting 

bonds that structurally and culturally parallel the father : child bond, such as the 

esteemed teacher : loyal student bond. 

To summarixe, bonding in father : child relationships generally has the following 

characteristics : 

1. social distance is maintained by father's superiority over child in the 

domestic, political and Buddhist domains (as also found in the social superiority of 

older over younger person); 

2. spatial distance between father and child may be nil for the coresident 

married daughter, or large for the father who is in the military or monkhood; 

3. durability of the bond may be temporary, as for the young son who leaves 

. home to establish another family, or permanent, as for the daughter who stays nt home 

and will inherit her parents' house; and, 

4. diffusion in social space of the fatherhood metaphor to non-kin relationships 

is broad, for example to teacher : pupil and monk : lay person relationships, but it is 

not as diffuse as that of the older: younger relationship. 

Of course the values of all four aspects vary depending at least on the sex of 

the children, the respective stages in the life cycle of the dyad partners, the ages and 

birth orders of the relationship partners, and their socio-economic statuses. For example, 

the characteristics of the father: son and father: daughter relationships are similar 

until late adolescence, whereupon the values of social distance, spatial distance and. 

durability may change radically because son moves away from home or daughter 

brings a husband home. For another example, low birth-order daughters probably do 

not experience relationships with their mothers that are as durable or spatially close as 

those of last-order daughters or younger sons with no sisters, both of whom tend to live 

with parents after marriage and . inherit their house. And, durability and spatial 

closeness of bond would be less for the landless poor, whose children usually must set 

up neolocal residence at marriage. 

The Mother : Child Relationship and its Interaction with the Husband : Wife 

Relationship 

Elementary school boys and girls in Chiang Mai were unequivocal in their 

assertions that the person they loved the most was mother, citing the self-sacrifice a 

Thai mother puts herself through for the sake of her children, and asserting that mother 

will support child through thick and thin more than any other person. 

In Thai society, neither marriage nor death need terminate the mother: child 

bond. It is thus extremely durable. Even after their own marriage, children continue

THAI CONJUGAL FAMILY RELATIONSffiPS 33 

to pay respect to their mothers' ancestral spirits (phli puu ytla),l 0 maintaining the 

mother : child bond. When a mother dies, her young children are usually raised by her 

sister, who provides the closest substitute mother: child bond possible. If she dies in 

childbed, nothing is done to save the infant (except when modern medical doctors are 

in attendance), thereby precluding a potential breaking of the mother: child dyad 

dyad because both die at once. If a child dies but the mother lives, the bereaved 

parents usually expect the child's spirit to reappear in their next-born child; this expectation 

can be interpreted as an attempt to maintain the mother : child bond. A mother's 

remarriage is the greatest threat to the mother : child bond : when living virilocally, 

the second husband's mother may exercise the power of her greater age to prevent her 

son's new wife from bringing her children of a former marriage into the family. But 

here a mother : child bond in the subordinate junior generation is sacrificed to the 

maintenance of a mother : son dyad in the senior generations. 

Although the head of a Thai household is generally said to be male, this is true 

in name more than fact (Kaufman 1968: 22). The housewife-mother operates behind 

the scenes in implicit control of the household and of the kin relationships within it, 

and in direct control of the household economy and spirits. She makes the Thai 

family "matrifocal" in Raymond Smith's sense of the term that kin relationships focus 

upon the mother (1973: 124-125). In reviewing the literature, Smith labels as matrifocal 

just those societies which, like the Thai, combine 

an expectation of strong male dominance in the marital relationship 

and as head of the household ... with a reality in which mother : child 

relations are strongly solidary ... (1973: 129) 

Crucial to Smith's matrifocal family is a conjugal relationship that is relatively 

weak in solidarity and affectual intensity, ranking below other primary kinship ties, as 

found above for Thailand (1973: 5-6). Marriage has many forms in Thailand but is 

memorable only if a child is born of the union. The rural and lower-class ceremony 

is secular and private, with only a simple presentation of offerings to parents and house 

spirits being required. Childlessness is both a legal cause (Adul 1968) and the most 

common cause of divorce. For some it implies that the woman has accumulated bad 

karma, or "fate," in her previous lives. Thus, childbearing, much more than marriage, 

has traditionally conferred .social status, extended kinship, and proven morality. These 

facts favor solidarity of the mother : child bond over the husband : wife bond. 

10. The phil puu ya"a cult is dying out in urban areas. Upon or after marriage in the North, a man 

may purchase membership in his wife's family's phU puu ya''a, but often does not, rather 

continuing to identify himself with those of his own mother. It is unheard of for a woman to 

change her phil puu yd'a because of marriage. See Davis 1973 : 61 footnote and Turton 

1972: 221.


Local definitions of marriage are very flexible in the North, but the event of 

live childbirth is taken retrospectively as proof of a marriage. In the author's 1973 

study of low economic status of families in Chiang Mai city, three-quarters of the 

adults had not registered their first marriages (11.4% of 259 females, and 72.1% of 204 

males), and about one-fifth reported having had no religious ceremony in observance 

of their first marriage (17.7% of 288 females, 24.8%of250 males). However, all of the 

informants said they had been married and had had at least one live child. The social 

importance of childbearing for women is again demonstrated in the tendency of women 

to figure out their ages at first marriage by the age or birth of their first live-bam child. 

Men, in contrast, usually first reported the approximate age of their current marriages, 

and had difficulty recalling their age at first marriage (Muecke 1976: 109-113). 

Fertility surveys in modern Thailand have consistently found comparatively 

small proportions of childless couples. For 1960, only five and a half percent of all 

married women were estimated to be childless (Ohara 1968). The 1964 Potharam Study 

in rural Central Thailand found only one percent of 1,017 couples with wife aged 20 to 

45 childless (Chulalongkorn University 1971: 18). A 1969 survey in the rural North 

found only four and one-half percent of married women ages 15 to 50 childless (Jones 

and Rachapaetayakom 1970 : 17). In comparison, Whelpton et a/. report a much 

higher prevalence--twelve percent--of childlessness among married women of the 

United States (Whelpton 1966 : 164-165). These percentages again suggest that 

marriage is very important to the Thai as a means of childbearing, as well as a goal in 

itself. 

Most of the women interviewed accepted a husband's "need" to seek out 

prostitutes as likely. They generally tolerated his sexual interests in and outside the 

home in order to provide an attractive atmosphere for him to come home to. However, 

the women were keenly aware and anxious that by tolerating their husbands' sexual 

independence outside the home, they were allowing their husbands opportunity to find 

other wives. This ever-present possibility posed a great threat to the women, as desertion 

would make the economics of their everyday lives more difficult, and lower their 

and their children's social status as well. 

The Mother : Daughter Relationship and Child Socialization 

Hsu excluded the mother : daughter dyad from possible dominance on the basis 

that there are no matriarchal societies. Nevertheless, certain lowland Thai behavioral 

patterns suggest special importance of the mother : daughter relationship in that society. 

Briefly the salient evidence for a strong mot~er : daughter bond is as follows : 

1. Daughters are raised to be mother role-substitutes, being kept at mother's 

side longer after birth than sons, and closer to home (at least until marriage) in order


to share child-rearing and household maintenance responsibilities with mother, and to 

protect daughter's morality from outside influences. 

2. Daughters much more often than sons share annual propitiative offerings to 

family and clan spirits with their mothers. They also inherit from their mothers the 

responsibility to nourish family spirits,l 0, 11 

Furthermore, in space and time, a daughter is generally much more closely 

bound to her parents than is a son: at marriage, uxorilocal residence is generally 

preferred to virilocal residence; and, although land is generally inherited in equal parts 

by all siblings, in the ideal case the youngest daughter and her spouse inherit her 

parents' house. 

The mother : daughter bond, far more than the father : son bond, is analagous 

to a mirror image, reflecting parallel, identical and mutually dependent figures. The 

mother : daughter bond is made of a repetition of likenesses, with each partner being 

in a different stage of the same life cycle pattern. Thus, mother depends upon daughter 

for help in raising daughter's younger siblings, and, by role reversal in mother's old age, 

for daughter to care for her when she can no longer care for herself. Daughter depends 

upon mother for instruction in the mother-role, for help in carrying out postpartal 

practices, and sometimes for rearing daughter's own children. These interdependencies 

and role exchanges between mother and daughter sometimes make a mother of a grandmother, 

or of a sister. Because. of the preference for uxorilocal residence at marriage, 

the closest male parallel to this role replication and interdependence is the father : 

daughter's husband dyad rather than the father : son dyad. 

Outside the family context, gender interchangeability of roles has been the 

traditional pattern of rural and peasant labor; today it is reflected in unskilled and 

semi-skilled occupations, as well as in professional and managerial positions. That is, 

whereas there is little sex role differentiation in the economic subsistence sphere, there 

is sex role differentiation in the domestic, religious and political domains. 

The mother : daughter relationship, as characterized by high interchangeability 

of roles, is more durable than any other relationship thus far examined, even though it 

is limited behaviorally to the domestic and economic domains. 

11. See Turton (1972) and Davis (1973) for indepth analyses of domestic spirit cults in Northern 

Thailand. Davis finds "a complementarity between male and female powers, one [male] 

deriving from the arcane knowledge of ritual texts and the other [female] from the tutelage 

of domestic spirits." Jane Hanks has astutely observed that "since a man's power is threatened 

by female-associated objects, female power is ultimately ascendent over male." 

(1963; 79).


The Mother : Son Relationship and Sex-Role Modelling 

A husband diffuses his energies in all directions, not only toward his wife, but 

also toward his mother, other women, and his sundry patrons and clients. A wife, in 

contrast, focuses her energies primarily on her children. This sex-based difference in 

character of social bonds made by adults is paralleled by sex-linked childhood experiences. 

A North Thai woman is bound close to home by social dictates that began at 

her birth. Her mother decided how long to observe the postpartal ritual kaan yuu yen 

("to stay cool") on the basis of her sex : the ritual is observed several days longer for 

daughters than for sons on the belief that this practice will make the daughter always 

stay close to home, and make the son more adventuresome outside the home (Muecke 

19768). Daughters, as noted above, are raised to substitute for mothers. Sons, in 

contrast, are raised to complement their mothers. This sex differential in childrearing . 

goals creates higher tension in the mother : son relationship than in the mother: daughter 

relationship. A son can make religious merit for his mother, by being ordained as a 

novice or monk, that she is in no way capable of making for herself. A son passes on 

the family name, providing mother with a means to social immortality that she cannot 

achieve without him. Thus, a son can provide his mother with moral and social status 

that neither she nor her husband can. On the other hand, a son learns a key behavior 

from his mother that is prerequisite.for his success in adult society: her protection of 

him vis-a-vis wider society models for him the role of mediator that he will have to play 

as an adult in juggling his patron-client relationships. Thus, while Thai Buddhist 

society appears explicitly paternalistic at the socio-political level, implicitly it appears 

that the prototype for both males and females is set by the mother. Whereas a girl is 

reared to be like mother in her adulthood, a boy is reared to be like a mother's son in 

his adulthood. In other words, girls are raised to be self-dependent and nurturing, and 

boys are raised to be diffusely dependent.l2 

12. After formulating the above interpretation, I had the honor of meeting Ms. Sumalee Viravaidya, 

while she was a foremost Bangkok journalist, and discovered that she had arrived at 

an interpretation of Thai family relationships as essentially domJDated by the mother : son 

bond. She has written: While fidelity, obedience, and loyalty to husband is [sic] emphasized 

in the upbringing of girls, those virtues in boys are directed toward their mother. Very little 

is said about how they should treat their wives . . • The wife is expected to give all and the 

husband to take all • • • Why ? I would like to suggest that it is because the mother is 

jealous of her son. She cannot bear the thought of his loving another woman. In order to 

keep his love, she indulges her son and keeps him a child as long as she possibly can. He 

remains tied emotionally to his mother all his life. Marriage is a physical and biological 

necessity, not an emotional one. The Thai man must put his mother before his wife ••• What 

can the mother do to keep her son loyal and devoted to her but at the same time not destroy 

her daughter? The answer is to mould her daughter to be so strong and self-sufficient that 

she will not break. The girl is taught never to expect her husband to give her the emotional 

warmth and security that "rightly'' belongs to his mother. But everyone needs emotional 

warmth and security and since a wife cannot expect it from her husband she proceeds to breed 

it in her son •.•" (Sumalee 1973 : 13).


Early in the paper it was suggested that the religious domain of Buddhism 

contains behavior like that of the father : child relationship (page 30). Having since 

looked at other conjugal family dyads, the similarity between monk : layperson and 

father : child bonds can now be examined in relation to the other dyad pairs. Of the 

two types of father: child dyad, father: son and father: daughter, the father: daughter 

seems the ~ore similar to the monk : layperson relationship because daughter nurtures 

father in his incapacities of old age, just as the Buddhist female nurtures the male monk 

in his earthly passivity, providing him his daily sustenance. Furthermore. the ideal 

comportment of the proper Thai unmarried girl matches that expected of the ideal male 

qua monk in many striking ways : both images demand quiet inobtrusiveness, sexual 

avoidance, complete modesty and an affect of contentment-- a role model of perfection 

--from the person in the role. But nurturing is probably universally a behavior and 

responsibility carried out more by mother than by daughter, and receiving nurturance 

is more characteristic of the son than, the father. Therefore, it appears that a mother: 

son metaphor parallels the father : daughter analogy at a more implicit, cultural level 

of analysis. 

Thai boys are expected to be naughty and intrusive, and laymen, to "follow 

their instincts"; but while ordained, both are expected to behave like the ideal female 

described above. Resembling the female are the quiet, well-behaved elementary school 

age boys who are readily referred to as kathoey, "transvestites." Despite the social 

non-acceptance of adult transvestites by many individuals, their existence is well-known 

(through city street comer hangouts, restaurants, annual kathoey beauty contests in 

Bangkok, etc.). Female transvestites, even "tom boys," are, by comparison, very rare: 

this suggests that female socialization follows a female model almost exclusively, 

whereas male socialization ambiguously follows both male and female models. 

When possessed by spirits, however, women do adopt what are locally viewed 

as "male" behavioral patterns, such as male dress, drinking whiskey, seductive dancing, 

and exercise of moral authority. 

Spirit mediums are traditionally female and are 

usually possessed by spirits of ~enerated religious or political male figures from legend 

or history. This conforms to ou~ previous finding of explicit male superiority in Tpai 

politics and Buddhism : i.e., the only acceptable way for a female to enter these domains 

is to present herself as a male, and as a male of high social status, as a monk or nobleman 

who was a predecessor to the current politico-religious order.


SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 

Conjugal family relationships among the lowland North Thai have been 

examined with the heuristic of the' "Hsu hypothesis." At the outset it was posited that 

the extension of kinship to non-kin domains is a misleading hypothesis, at least for 

complex societies, because the direction of influence can also be the reverse, as in peer 

group socialization. 

After suggesting that Hsu's concept for "dyadic dominance" is 

too simplistic for describing the intricacies of living out social relationships, an inductive 

approach to the concept of dominance was adopted to look for characteristics that 

distinguish conjugal family dyads among the urban North Thai low socio-economic 

status research informants. 

Taking the lead from the pattern of Thai terminological usage, the "older : 

younger" relationship was examined first. 

This dyadic type includes four of Hsu's 

"basic dyads," viz., the husband :wife, brother: brother, brother : sister and sister: 

sister pairs. All four pairs are same-generation relationships in which the partners· are 

distinguished on the basis of birth order and social status. 

It was concluded that 

intergenerational relationships are structurally primary to intragenerational relationships 

in Thai society. 

Therefore the remainder of the discussion focused upon the intergenerational 

parent : child relationships. 

What has emerged from this analysis is a complex process of variation, rather 

than a neat proxy variable, "dominance." Brief description of the most obvious 

complexities will show that "dyad dominance" in Hsu's sense of the term is exceedingly 

difficult to operationalize; and also will help make explicit certain implicit aspects of 

Thai conjugal family relationships. 

Analysis of the social space in which the different conjugal family dyads are 

particularly active suggests a boundary between the domestic and nqn-domestic social 

spheres. For example, the mother : daughter relationship is concentrated in the domestic 

sphere; the father : son relationship operates throughout the non-domestic sphere, 

but only in part of the domestic sphere; and the oldt:r : younger relationship is very 

active in both the domestic and the non-domestic spheres. However, the degree to 

which a dyad is active in either sphere depends upon the type of social life being 

observed. For instance, in the non-domestic sphere religious roles refer primarily to 

Buddhism and to men as monks, but in the domestic sphere, they refer more to spirit 

cults and to women. The range of kin dyad activity in social space can be graphically 

summarized as follows :


DIFFUSION OF THAI FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS IN SOCIAL SPACE 

SOCIAL SPACE 

RELATIONSHIP NON-DOMESTIC DOMESTIC 

Older : Younger 

Husband : Wife ~-································································~ 

Brother : Brother 

Brother : Sister 

Sister : Sister 

~-······················································-········: .......................... 4 

Father : Son ~---------------------------~ 

Father : Daughter 

Mother : Son 

Mother : Daughter 

~--------------------------~ 

~-------------------------~ 

~--------------------------~ 

Within the ranges of action specified in the diagram, the dyadic relationships 

vary at least in the three dimensions,--social distance, spatial distance and durability- 

that were defined in the text (page 27). And, the variation is dependent at least upon 

• the sex, age, birth order, life-cycle stage and socio-economic status of each relationship 

partner. Therefore, these characteristics may be defined as independent variables. 

That is, within the range of activity in social space depicted above for each relationship, 

the following variables can be defined : 

Independent Variables 

(characteristics of 

relationship partner) 

age 

birth order 

sex 

life cycle stage 

socio-economic status 

Dependent Variables 

(characteristics of 

·dyadic relationship) 

social distance 

spatial distance 

durability


The above analysis suggests that Thai girls are raised with the intention of 

becoming mothers and staying in the domestic sphere, and boys, with the expectation 

of becoming political or religious power figures. Were sons and daughters socialized 

primarily for conjugal family roles in adulthood, the mother : child bonds could be 

expected to involve greater social distance, and the husband : wife bond, less social 

distance than has been found. That is, husband : wife roles would gain in cultural 

significance what co-parent roles would lose. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

I am grateful no the National Research Council of Thailand, Fulbright-Hays, 

and the National Institute of Mental Health for supporting the field research 1972- 

1974 which generated the perceptions presented in this paper. The paper was 

originally presented at the 73rd Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological 

Association, Mexico City, November 1974, under a difierent title. It has since been 

revised. 

REFERENCES CITED 

ADUL Wichiencharoen and Luang Chamroon Netisastra, 1968 "Some Main Features of Modernization 

of Ancient Family Law in Thailand." IN David C. Buxbaum, ed., Family Law 

and Customary Law in Asia. The Hague: Martinus Nijhofl', 89-106. 

BOHANNAN, Paul J., 1971 "Dyad Dominance and Household Maintenance," IN Francis L.K. 

Hsu. ed., Kinship and Culture. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 42-65. 

CHULALONGKORN University, 1971 "The Potharam Study." Bangkok : Institute of Population 

Studies, Research Report No. 4. 

DAVIS. Richard, 1973 "Muang Matrifocality." Journal of the Siam Society 61: 2: 53-62, July. 

DHARA, Sudhawachana, 1968 "Infertility in Thailand." IN Proceedings of the Third Population 

Seminar in Thailand. Bangkok: The National Research Council, 241-254 (Thai, with 

English summary). 

FERNANDEZ, James W., 1971 "Bantu Brotherhood : Symmetry, Socialization, and Ultimate 

Choice in Two Bantu Cultures." IN Francis L.K. Hsu, ed., Kinship and Culture. Chicago : 

Aldine Publishing Co., 339-366. 

HANKS, Jane R., 1963 MaternitY_ and Its Rituals in BangChan. Data Paper No. 51, Southeast 

Asia Program. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University. 

HANKS, Lucien M., Jr., 1962 "Merit and Power in the Thai Social Order." American Anthropologist 

64 .: 6 : 1247-1261, December. 

HSU, Francis L.K., 1971 a "A Hypothesis on Kinship and Culture." Kinship and Culture. Chicago : 

Aldine Publishing Co., 3-29. 

_____ 1971b "Kinship, Society, and Culture." Kinship and Culture. Chicago : Aldine 

Publishing Co., 479-491.

THAI CONJUGAL FAMITY RELATIONSHIPS 41 

1972 "Kinship and Ways of Life: An Exploration." Psychological Anthropology. 

Cambridge Mass. : Schenkman Publishing Co., 509-567. 

JONES, Gavin and Jawalaksana Rachapaetayakom, 1970 "Fertility and Contraception in the 

Rural North of Thailand." Bangkok : National Economic Development Board. 

KAUFMAN, Howard K., 1960 Bangkuad: A Community Study in Thailand. Locust Valley, New 

York: J.J. Augustin, Inc. 

EEYES, Charles F., 1977 "Kin Groups in a Thai-Lao Community." IN The Anthropology of East 

Asia and the Pacific : Essays in Honor of Lauriston Sharp. G.W. Skinner and A.T. 

Kirsch, eds. New York : Cornell University Press. 

LEVY, Marion J., Jr., 1971 "Notes on the Hsu Hypothesis." IN Francis L.K. Hsu, ed. Kinship 

and Culture. Chicago: Aldine Publishing Co., 33-41. 

MUECKE, Marjorie A., 1976A "Reproductive Success" Among the Urban Poor: A Micro-level Study 

of Infant Survival and Child Growth in Northern Thailand. Ph.D. dissertation, University 

of Washington, Seattle. 

_____ 1976B "Health Care Systems as Socializing Agents: Childbearing the North Thai and 

Western Ways." Social Science and Madicine 10: 377-383. 

PEDERSON, Lise Rishoj, 1968 "Aspects of Woman's Life in Rural Thailand." Folk (Copenhagen) 

Volume 10. 

PmLLIPS, Herbert P., 1965 Thai Peasant Personality. Los Angeles: University of California 

Press. 

SMITH, Raymond T., 1973 "The Matrifocal Family." IN Jack Goody, ed. The Character of Kinship. 

New York: Cambridge University Press, 121-144. 

SUMALEE, Viravaidya, 1973 "It's a Man's World," Bangkok Post Sunday Magazine. 13 May, 

p. 13. 

THITSA, Khin, 1980 Providence and Prostitution: Image and Reality for Women in Buddhist Thailand. 

London : Change. 

TURTON, Andrew, 1972 "Matrilineal Descent Groups and Spirit Cults of the Thai-Yuan in 

Northern Thailand." The Journal of the Siam Society 60 : 2 : 217-256. 

WHELPTON, Pascal K., Arthur J. Campbell and John E. Patterson, 1966 Fertility and Family 

Planning in the United States. Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press. 

WIJEYEWARNENE, Gehan, 1966 A Preliminary Report on Kinship and Land Tenure in a North Thai 

Village. Presented to the National Research Council of Thailand. Unpublished mass. 

_____ In Press "South Village : No So Much a Village, More a Way of Life." IN Clark E. 

Cunningham, ed., Villages of Thailand. 

1971 "A Note on Patrons and Paw Liang." The Journal of the Siam Society 59: 2: 

229-233. '

AHOM AND THE STUDY OF EARLY TAl SOCIETY* 

BARBND JAN TERWIBL** 

Tai-speaking peoples are widely distributed in southern China, mainland Southeast 

Asia and the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. For ethnographic and linguistic 

purposes many subdivisions are recognized, the most important of which are the Chuang 

in southern China, the Tho, Red Tai, Black Tai and White Tai of northern Vietnam, 

the Lao, the Siamese or Thai, the Shan of northern Burma, and the Ahom of Assam. 

The latter are somewhat exceptional in that their Tai speech is virtually extinct. 

The Tai-:-speakers are relative newcomers. in most of the regions they presently 

occupy; it is generally assumed that they spread between the tenth and the thirteenth 

century from a homeland in what is now southeastern China and northern Vietnam 

over the region now covered by Laos, northern Burma, Thailand and the Brahmaputra 

Valley. The Tai peoples were characteristically valley-dwellers and as they conquered 

new regions they imposed their language and much of their culture upon the local 

peoples they encountered, such as the Khmu, Mon and Lawa, at the same time themselves 

gradually absorbing features of these old-established cultures. Some Tai groups 

had to cross difficult, mountainous terrain in order to reach new fertile lands. In doing 

so they sometimes lost contact with Tai peoples to whom they were originally related. 

Thus, broadly speaking, the Tai of northern Vietnam could not maintain regular contact 

with the Siamese, whilst the Siamese were not even aware of Tai-speakers in Assam. 

The spreading of Tai peoples over and beyond· mainland Southeast Asia in a region 

which was heavily interspersed with mountain ridges contributed to the diversification 

of Tai groups. 

The comparison of one Tai group with another, especially when they may be 

assumed to have been separated for at least seven or eight centuries, has therefore 

attracted many scholars. In the field of linguistics especially, the variations in Tai 

forms of speech have triggered off a lively debate. The comparative study of various 

Tai groups has also received attention from some ethnologists and historians, but 

generally speaking, up until now many of these studies have been conducted somewhat 

haphazardly and the results have not been as impressive as could be hoped. With the 

* Paper submitted to the Second Thai-European Research Seminar, June 14-18, 1982, Saarbruecken, 

Federal Republic of Germany. 

*" Faculty of Asian Studies, the Australian National University, Canberra. 

42

AHOM AND THE STUDY OF EARLY TAl SOCffiTY 43 

forthcoming studies of legendary and historical accounts of various eastern and central 

Tai groups, undertaken largely by French researchers, a new stimulus may· be given to 

. the study of Tai culture in its various forms. 

In this paper attention is drawn to the fact that the westernmost Tai, the Ahom, 

may also prove to have valuable sources and ought to be included in future comparative 

studies. I intend to demonstrate that Ahom sources are much more closely linked to 

Tai traditions than the best-known literature would lead us believe. In order to show the 

value of Ahom studies, by way of example, some Ahom terms related to rank and social 

class will be isolated and commented upon in a comparative framework. 

The Ahom occupy a rather exceptional position amongst the Tai peoples. In 

the first place, they have remained relatively isolated from other Tai speakers, their 

contact with Shan and Khamti groups of northwestern Burma being via long, difficult 

and hazardous trails, and apparently interrupted for centuries at a time. Secondly, 

when the Ahom conquered a small corner of the Brahmaputra Valley at the beginning 

of the thirteenth century, they probably brought with them their own script, apparently 

based upon a Mon example.' They maintained historical records throughout the 

centuries, various versions of which have been preserved until today. Thirdly, although 

it is possible that the Ahom may have taken note of the Buddhist traditions which were 

adhered to in some of the regions they must have crossed on their way to Assam, there 

is little or no evidence that they had been influenced by Buddhism when they entered 

Assam. Recent research suggests instead that they brought with them their own ~digenous 

sacrificial religion, traces of which can still be found in the modern Hindu Ahom 

culture of today (Terwiel, 1981). 

Fourthly, and for this paper most interestingly, the Ahom people found themselves 

in a different situation from most Tai in that they had discovered a valley of 

immense size, further to the west of which were mighty kingdoms and elaborate political 

organizations. Gradually, step by step, the Ahom extended their grip over the easternmost 

part of the Brahmaputra Valley, especially at the beginning of the sixteenth 

century when they conquered the Kachari and Chutiya. Later in that century, and 

during the seventeenth century, the Ahom kings further extended their influence and 

gradually became masters over the whole of the Assamese valley. This was the time 

when the gradual Hinduization of the Ahom upper classes accelerated. The unified 

country under Ahom rule was soundly defeated by Muslim invaders in 1662, but a few 

years later the foreign yoke was thrown off and a new, invigorated Ahom rule was 

1. Although it is possible that the script was introduced at some time between the thirteenth and 

fifteenth century, the available evidence suggests that the Ahom adopted their script just prior 

to the thirteenth century.

44 Barelid Jan Terwiel 

established, ready to try new methods of administration, with the intellectual elite 

taking Bengal culture as the ideal model. From this time onward the Ahom were 

firmly set on the path towards full assimilation of Assamese Hindu culture, and the 

Ahom tongue became obsolete. Assamese script took over from the old Ahom 

characters. Only in a few isolated pockets were the old traditions still remembered; 

amongst the traditional Ahom priestly families the ability to read the old books and 

the observance of Tai religious ceremonies were perpetuated. 

This sketch of the Ahom intrusion into the Brahmaputra Valley suffices to 

establish the point that historical Ahom documents may be of great value for the study 

of Tai peoples in general. For centuries the Ahom extended and elaborated upon a 

basically Tai substratum in order to cope with a kingdom which grew to a great size. 

The Ahom developed sophisticated communication systems and organizational hierarchies; 

they maintained a large army and secured a state income. Generally they 

succeeded in keeping a tight hold over a large populace of great diversity. 

The only other case of Tai-speaking peoples having to deal with such a complex 

large-scale society was that of the Siamese, whose power spread rapidly during the 

thirteenth century over much of the Chaophraya Delta and southwards in the Malay 

Peninsula, much faster than the Ahom had spread in Assam. The extraordinary speed 

of Tai dominance can be partly attributed to a temporary weakness amongst the 

Cambodians who traditionally had played the dominant political role in the region. 

The Siamese seem to have coped with their rapid expansion of influence basically by 

extending and repeating their valley-political system, whereby a Tai family would rule 

an important town and place friends and relatives in minor towns and settlements. 

Loose alliances were kept which were activated in case of outside threat. The Sukho- 1 

thai kingdom may appear to some to be a magnified version of the traditional system 

whereby various sQtTounding towns were subject to a chief one, with others, often 

further away, tied to it by alliance. It was only later, during Ayutthayan times, that 

the Siamese developed a more complex and effective administration system suitable for 

governing such a large territory. 

The Ahom and Siamese societies therefore seem eminently comparable. They 

share a similar substratum of small-scale Tai administration; they used closely related 

languages; they have preserved written sources which provide historical data as far 

back as the thirteenth contury and further back into legendary periods. They formed 

the two cases who had to face the most extreme challenge of expansion of territory and 

manpower, and in both cases they emerged politically successful from many dangers 

and traumatic situations. It would seem that a comparison of Ahom and Siamese 

sources should lead to a deeper insight into early Tai history. It should be of value to

AHOM AND THE STUDY OF EARLY TAl SOCIETY 45 

determine for each of these two societies just what may have constituted a Tai feature, 

and what was adopted from local peoples who were absorbed over time. The fact that 

each of these two developed without knowledge of the other is of great assistance in 

determining early Tai features. 

In this paper there will be an attempt to juxtapose Siamese and Ahom titles, 

ranks and names indicative of social classes. It was decided to select for both Siamese 

and Ahom the very early period before the administrative systems had evolved to any 

great extent. 

The Siamese evidence, 13th-14th century 

The basis for the compilation of words and expressions in Table 1 has been the 

corpus of early inscriptions dating from the late-thirteenth to the end of the fourteenth 

century. Although the official texts as issued in Prachum Silar;haru'k have been 

consulted, the more recent studies by Griswold and Prasert na Nagara, under the general 

title Epigraphic and Historical Studies (hereafter EHS), have been studied more closely. 

It was decided, however, not to follow EHS's transcription system, which appears wellsuited 

for Sanskrit and Pali words, but which does little justice to words of apparent 

Tai origin. The transliteration system chosen here is basically that of the American 

Library of Congress, applied to a reconstruction of the words in modern Thai spelling; 

Most of the words in Table 1 have thus been taken from inscriptions, but a few 

concepts from old written material were added. Care has been taken to include only 

evidence from accounts which deal with pre-fifteenth-century Tai culture, evidence 

which contains no apparent anachronisms, and for which some reinforcement exists in 

inscriptions. Therefore the oldest parts of the Mangraisat (EHS, No. 17) were included. 

Table 1 contains by no means all references to titles, ranks and classes. Many 

terms were omitted simply for the reason that they were undoubtedly of Sanskrit or 

Piili origin and could not possibly have formed part of the old Tai substratum. Other 

words easily found in Cambodian pre-thirteenth-century inscriptions were also left out 

as obvious borrowings. A few cases where some doubt as to the origin of a term. may 

exist, such as phra and phraya, were included in Table 1 in the hope that the Ahom 

evidence might provide a new angle on the possible origin of these words. In general 

the search was kept fairly wide, taking care to include terms of Tai origin which applied 

to more than one person and involved some type of inherent classification of people. 

The results are a list of fifty expressions, tabulated below. 

Table 1 : Terms indicating rank, title or class from early Siamese sources 

khun : ruler of a fortified town and its surrounding villages, together called a mu' ang. 

In older sources the prefix ph'9 ("father") is sometimes used as well. 

•

46 Barend Jan Terwiel 

~hao : "chief, master". This term is used by itself for independent rulers, but also 

in compounds, such as ~hao phaen din ("lord of the earth", "king"), ~hao 

mu'ang ("chief of a town"), ~hao ban ("village chief") and ~hao kha ("master 

over servants or slaves"). 

phraya : exalted title, used both for independent and allied rulers. The combination 

~hao phraya seems an honorary elaboration of the same term. 

thaw: "lord", often used where phraya would also apply. Its synonymous position is 

clear in expressions such as thaw phraya and pen thaw pen phraya. 

phraya phang : a term only occurring in Inscription XXXVIII, when Sukhothai was 

coming under Ayutthayan sway. Probably it means "vassal ruler" (EHS, No. 

4, p. 120 and p. 129, fn. 15). 

phra : a general title indicating value and importance, also used to indicate the 

honourable status of names of mountains and rivers. 

khun yi: probably a descriptive term used for "nobles" (EHS, No. 10, p. 91 and p. 

109). 

khun nang : a general term for the class of nobles. 

/Uk ~hao : literally "the offspring of chiefs", a term used to indicate the noble class in 

general, often in combination with the term luk khun. 

liik khun: a term indicating officials in general. It has been suggested (EHS, No. 9, 

p. 206, fn. 26) that there may have been a distinction between liik ~hao and 

luk khun. As I read the evidence, such a distinction might have been relevant 

during Ayutthayan times, but in Sukhothai times the terms appear to be 

equivalent. 

~hao saen : literally "lord of a hundred thousand", apparently a very high official, 

probably with military duties. The title is part of a system including the class 

of lam officials and using various numerals. Reference to this system is made 

in EHS, No. 3, but the more complete list occurs in the early part of EHS, 

No. 17. 

~hao mu'n : "lord of ten thousand", a class of officers directly below ~hao saen. 

lam : "intermediary", title of an official. Often a numeral was attached to indicate 

the level of lam, see below. 

lam mu'n: officer attached to a ~hao mu'n. 

~hao phan : "lord of a thousand"' officer below ~hao mu'n and probably also below 

lam mu'n. 

lam phan : official assisting the ~hao phan. 

lam phan n7ji : "smaller, lesser lam phan", apparently a rank just below lam phan. 

nai: "master", term also used in various compounds such as nai mu'ang, "town's 

master"; see also entries below.


mun nar : officials appointed to supervise territorial units. From the system described 

in EHS, No. 17, it appears that the mun nai were all below the rank of lam 

phan nqi (See also EHS, No. 20, p. 67, fn. 4). 

mun tawan : This expression occurs only once, and Griswold and Prasert surmise it to 

be a synonym of mun nai, whilst speculating that the word is a Malay loan 

word from tuan, "master". It is worth considering, however, that tawan might 

have been a Mon loan, from the word twan, "village" (Shorto, 1971, p. 178). 

Mon loan words are more likely than Malay ones, given the political situation 

in Sukhothai times. 

nai rqi: "master over a hundred", an officer apparently just below the rank of lam 

phan n"9i. 

lam bao: by inference this officer was below a nai r"9i (of articles 1, 2 and 3 of EHS, 

No. 17). 

nai ha sip: "master of fifty", probably a rank below lam bao. 

nai sip : "master of ten". 

khom kwan : probably "village elder", literally "weight upon house, village", or 

"village elder" (EHS, No. 17, p. 147, fn. 12). 

r;ha : 

probably a fairly minor official; it occurs only once in the compound r;ha kha 

in inscription XXXVIII. 

r;ha kha : officer supervising slaves. 

phu yai: literally "big man", an official. 

phii ram : an expression occurring in inscription XL in combination with phu yai. At 

that point the text is damaged and it is by no means certain whether ram is the 

complete word, or whether some expanded expression was intended. 

pua : a word designating a male; possibly in Sukhothai times it had connotations of 

rank and ~ay have meant something like "Mister" (EHS, No. 9, p. 205, fn. 19). 

nang : "lady"; it seems that originally the term indicated a lady of high rank, but that 

with the passage of time the term was used to include women of a less exalted 

class. 

r;hao ban : "village chief". 

chao : "people", "tribe", "inhabitant", apparently a word of Chinese derivation 

(McFarland, 1954, p. 294). 

chao mae chao r;hao: an expression translated in EHS, No. 21, as "princesses and 

princes". However, the word chao does not usually carry any connotation of 

high rank. In the context it comes at the end of an enumeration which may 

have been meant to indicate a descending hierarchy. Therefore I would prefer 

to read this term as "people, both men and women".


khon : neutral word, designating a person, see compounds below; it is often synonymous 

with phu. 

phu : "person'•. 

khon taeng hung : "cooks" (EHS, No. 8, p. 199). 

khon thai : a legal category; when used in contrast with kha ("slave") it means "free 

person". 

r;hao kha : used as a legal term, "slaves' master", or "servants' master". 

r;hao thai: used in a legal document in the sense of "slave-master" or "free person". 

chang : "craftsman, skilled worker" 

phrai: "subject", "member of the general populace". 

phrt,~i thai : "the populace••, "free people", presumably identical to phrai fo. 

phraifa: "commoners", all people lower than nobles and above kha. The use of the 

word fa {"sky") is probably derived from the expressions below. 

phrai fa na sai : literally "commoner-sky-face-open". which has been translated 

sometimes as "bright-face commoners" (as opposed to the "covered-face 

commoners" mentioned below). See EHS, No.9, and Ishii, 1972, p. 131. This 

translation is purely speculative, there is nothing to suggest that some people 

in Sukhothai had their faces covered or uncovered. It appears more likely 

that the word for "sky" was used in that period in expressions related to the 

weather. Thus fa is used in the sense of "rain" in the later inscriptiOn dealt 

with in EHS, No. 14, and similar expressions are found in the Mailgr'iisat. 

Taking this into account, the category phrai fa na sai could mean "commonersweather-uncovered", 

and when na is read not in its meaning of "face" but in 

its meaning of "season", the two categories seem to indicate phrai of the opensky 

(dry) season, and phrai of the covered-sky (wet) season. Taking. this 

alternative translation a step further, it would appear that there might have 

been some system of corvee in Sukhothai times, and that the populace was 

divided for that purpose into two groups. 

phrai fii na pok : see the entry under phrai fa na sai. 

phrai fa kha thai : apparently a category encompassing freemen and servants or slaves. 

kha :· "servant", or "slave?•, used both as a legal category and as a descriptive term 

to indicate the lowest class of people. 

The Ahom evideo,ce 

The compilation of a list of concepts related to rank, title and class for early 

Ahom times comparable to that of Table 1 above, is not an easy matter. Unfortunately 

there are no early Ahom inscriptions equivalent to the ones scrutinized for the thirteenth

AHOM AND THE STUDY OF EARLY TAl SOCI)l:TY 49 

and fourteenth-century Sukhothai period. The oldest stone pillar inscription using 

Ahom characters dates at the earliest from the sixteenth century, and even that one is 

not very informative for our purposes (Dikshit, 1927). 

There are a number of historical studies which mention the development of 

Ahom administration and aspects of social class. The best-known amongst these are 

Bhuyan (1963), Robinson (1975), Gait (1963) and Acharyya (1966), whilst less-easily 

accessible works on the topic are Puri (1968), Basu (1970), Deka (1977) and Baruah 

(1977; 1978). All these sources agree in broad outline in their description of the 

hierarchical system. Under the king were the great gohains, in some important outer 

provinces were subordinate gohains, while rajkhowas ruled other outer provinces. 

Officers of medium rank were various phukans, assisted by baruas. In descriptions of 

the military organization all authors agree that there were hazarikas commanding 

1,000 men, saikias commanding 100 men and boras commanding 20 men. Ordinary 

men were called paiks, w~ile there were a multitude of names for slaves and bondsmen. 

Many of these titles and ranks have been described in further detail and dozens of 

names and professions are scattered about in the works mentioned above. 

All this information is of ~ttle value to the student wishing to compare early 

Siamese and Ahom material. In the first place, these descriptions reflect largely the 

time when the Ahom administrative system had already expanded over the whole valley 

and developed into its most complex phase. When these sources are checked specifically 

for pre-fifteenth-century material, little more emerges than the fact that originally there 

were only two great gohains, the bar gohain and the burha gohain, who assisted the 

Ahom kings, and one of them would sometimes rule during an interregnum. In the 

second place, the great majority of these names and ranks are given in Assamese, the 

language which only in relatively recent times overtook the Tai speech. Assamese is 

basically a language quite unrelated to Tai; its grammar and vocabulary rank it, 

together with Bengali and Oriya, amongst the Eastern lndic languages. 

For our purpose it is essential to find out which of the ranks, titles and words 

indicating social class were used in relatively early times, and what were the Ahom 

names for them. The first Assamese scholars to look behind the Assamese terms and 

to draw attention to. the Tai substratum were Gogoi (1968) and Phukan (1970/1) and 

their publications have paved the way for a more meaningful comparison. However, 

much of the information they provide is obviously late-Ahom. 

It was decided to make an independent search through the collection of Ahomscript 

historical sources which were published under the title Ahom Buranji (Barua, 

1930, hereafter AB). The sections apparently referring to pre-fifteenth-century material 

were picked out with the aim of noting all terms which might throw some light upon


the early hierarchy and social classes. The AB collection appeared all the more 

attractive since it provides the text in Ahom script as well as a parallel translation in 

English. However, what appeared at first to be a simple and straightforward task 

proved to be quite difficult and time-consuming. For the benefit of those who want to 

use this unique publication or similar sources for comparative purposes, some of the 

difficulties and their solutions are as follows. 

In the first place, the Ahom printed text contains a large number of puzzling 

features : many words appear to be spelt in various forms, many suspected printing 

errors mar the text, wrong consonants have been printed, and the reader meets combinations 

of vowels wholly outside the Ahom repertoire. Secondly, the translator has found 

it necessary to introduce paragraphing, a practice not usually found in old Ahom 

manuscripts. The choice of where to break off the text and begin a new paragraph 

seems rather arbitrary and occasionally rather infelicitous. Thirdly, and more seriously, 

the parallel English text advertised on the title page as a "translation", may not be 

regarded as such. Whilst there are clear correspondences between the Ahom and the 

English, the English text contains many sentences which appear to be the result of 

intelligent guess-work, intermingled with doubtful readings and many obvious mistakes. 

With respect to the study of ranks and titles, the "translation" fails altogether in that 

often titles are not recognised and in the few places where they are, an Assamese 

equivalent is given. 

It was therefore decided largely to ignore the English parallel text and analyze 

the relevant Ahom sections of the book, these being the chief primary source. In 

addition, fragments of early portions of hitherto unpublished Abom manuscripts were 

used, together with the Assamese translation by Shri Damboru Phukan Deodbai, one of 

the few people alive truly at ease reading Ahom texts. 

The next problem arising was that of identifying the appropriate words and 

meaning in the texts. The standard dictionary available, Ahom Lexicons (1964) proved 

another obstacle. It is based upon a late-eighteenth-century Ahom-Assamese word list, 

compiled at a time when Ahom was probably still a spoken language for much of the 

Ahom population (Grierson, 1966, p. 63, fn. 1), the original purpose of which seems to 

have been to give Assamese-speakers an idea of how to pronounce certain Ahom words 

and of what meanings to assign to each of these. Since Ahom script does not distinguish 

between different tones, sometimes a great variety of different meanings would be given 

for one Ahom rendering. Students of Tai languages can easily determine the fact that 

tonal distinctions must have formed an integral part of Ahom, just as they do in other 

Tai languages. This Ahom-Assamese word list grew into the first Ahom-Assamese 

English dictionary simply by the translation of all the Assamese entries into English.


This dictionary was the basis for Ahom Lexicons. The chief drawback of Ahom 

Lexicons is the fact that all Ahom information first passes through Assamese before it 

reaches English, causing considerable distortion both in the attempt to indicate how · 

Ahom may have sounded as well as in the manner in which certain consonants are spelt. 

A single example ought to suffice to indicate the extent of the possible distortion. 

The Ahom word -w.~ which means amongst other things "elbow", is given 

in Assamese as ~ and in the neighbouring column this is transliterated as ''chak". 

Anybody familiar with Assamese will note, however, that the "ch" in this case is always 

pronounced "s", and that the vowel comes close to that in the English word "fall", so 

that a less misleading transliteration of the Ahom word for most English-speakers who 

are not familiar with Assamese would have been something like "s~k". When it is 

considered that, for example, the Siamese word for "elbow" is flan, pronounced sok, . it 

becomes clear that all comparative-linguistic studies which rely upon Ahom Lexicons 

or its fore-runner, the Ahom-Assamese-English dictionary, have allowed a factor to 

creep in which may have obscured possible similarities between Ahom and other Tai 

languages. 

For our purposes it was therefore necessary to. adjust the transliteration of 

Ahom words, so as to eliminate the Assamese "colouring". It proved insufficient simply 

to transpose the "a" and "rom" and the "ch" and "s". Upon close examination it became 

clear that many Ahom vowels, and especially diphthongs which are clearly distinguished 

in Ahom script, had been rendered into various Assamese approximations, and often 

several distinct Ahom vowels were glossed under one Assamese sound. 

Two different types of sources were used to set up a more satisfactory scheme 

of transliteration. The first was the taped rendering of Ahom by Shri Damboru Phukan 

Deodhai, who is possibly the chief custodian of what remains of the Ahom religion. 

Since his mother-tongue is Assamese, his pronunciation may well be at variance with 

Ahom as it was once spoken, but at the same time it is unlikely that any person still 

alive will come closer to what Ahom may have sounded like. Apart from this informant's 

vocal rendition, several early non-Assamese studies of Ahom have been taken 

into account (Jenkins, 1835; Brown, 1837; Grierson, 1904 and 1966). The present 

author has made a conscious attempt not to be influenced by his previous knowledge of 

Siamese, and has not imposed a preconceived Tai stamp upon the Ahom material. The 

results of comparing tapes and early studies are enumerated in Table 2. 

The Ahom signs in Table 2 differ in some instances from the printed version in 

AB, notably in the presentation of the vowels "u" and "ii", and the consonants "t" and 

"r". In all these cases I have been guided by the Ahom as it was actually written in 

old manuscripts and tree-bark books.


Part I. Vowels and diphthongs 

Table 2: A system of transliterating Ahom 

Sign Syllable Vowel Approximate pronunciation 

~< ka a as in French "ami" 

m'\. ka a as in English "father" 

w.. ki i as in English "bit" 

~ ki i as in English "meet" 

'WI. 

ku u as in English "bull" 

ku -u 

as in English Hblue" 

""'l 

I"W\\. kr;l 9 as in English "spot" 

k9 

- 

~ 9 as in English "spot",but longer held 

~ ku' u' as in French "tu" 

'V\"\'\ ku' u' as in Ge·rman "!lber" 

.fvv! kae ae as in English "fat" 

IVY\ ke -e 

as in English "late" 

"""' 

keu eli not unlike Dutch "trui~ 

~ kai āi as in English "high" 

·:.rr;. kr;li 9i as in English "boy" 

~-: kaw - aw not unlike English "how" 

kaw -ow 

not unlike English 

4 

~~ kyu yu - as in English "fume" 

'Yf'\lo ku'w u'w as in Dutch "duw" 

"mow" or "sew"·


Part"2. Consonants 

Sign Transcript Sign Transcript Sign Transcript 

'In k 

w 

dh w s 

"Q kh ~ n w y 

"" 

g 

" 

p 1.61 jh 

Y) gh w ph ~ ny 

"(, ng 1? b ,;; r 

t 

11' 

~ bh w 1 

'tO th 'ti' m Yl h 

'13 d vt? ch 

Note : When a word is written as two consonants without vowel sign, the vowel "a" may be 

presumed between the two. The consonant "ny" at the end of a word is often pronounced 

"i". Various exceptional signs and pronunciations are mentioned in Grierson (1966). 

This system of transliteration is but a tentative reconstruction of what Ahom may 

have sounded like; I have refrained from the use of the symbols used in linguistic circles in 

order to avoid the impression that my transliteration could be regarded as an authoritative 

guide to the sounds of the Ahom language. 

After these necessary preliminary steps, the evidence from the Ahom buranjis 

can now be presented. Just as with the evidence from Sukhothai inscriptions, ranks, 

titles and all words which may be indicative of class or social grouping are enumerated. 

Again, just as in Table 1, the expressions are broadly ordered according to hierarchy, 

beginning with appellations for the king and ending with those for the least privileged 

members of society. Altogether thirty-six terms were chosen and these are enumerated 

in Table 3. 

Table 3 : Expressions indicative of rank, title and class in early Ahom Buranjis 

khun : the most common title of an independent ruler. It is also used for the great 

legendary ancestors, such as khun Lung and khun Lai. A common Ahom 

expression for succeeding to a throne is hit khun, "to become khun", which in 

historical times appears to be synonymous with hit chaw (AB, pp. 49-50). 

Khun is used in the early portions of the texts in combination with other 

distinguishing words, see entries below.


khunp"ii: "the lord grandfather", a title sometimes used for rulers in legendary times. 

khun thow: an exalted title, see thow. 

khun kl'9ng : title of a subordinate chief, first used in combination with the rank of 

ph"ii kin m"ii'ng (AB, p. 24), but later on also with the prefix chaw (p. 29), or as 

the title kl~ng by itself. 

chaw : throughout the early sections the term is used as "master, chief". Occasionally 

it is also found as the title of a legendary king. 

chaw lung : "great chaw" is a term used for the first time as a designation for the 

first Ahom ruler to reach' Assam, King Sii'wkapha. 

chaw pha : only used as the title of a king, in some accounts as early as the period of 

Su'wkapha (AB, p. 34). 

kl~ng: "subordinate chief". In Ahom Lexicons (p. 104) it is translated simply as 

"title of dignity". However, in the enumeration of Sii'wkapha's retinue, the 

klijng titles all come between khun and thow, which seems to indicate a relative 

high position for a kl9ng, at least in the early days. 

chaw phr'9ng mu'ng: probably literally "chief-adviser-country". This is the title of 

the most important dignitary to advise early Ahom kings, known in Assamese 

as the burha gohain. Gait (1963, p. 245) spells phrong as two syllables : 

• 

"phurang", apparently taking the Assamese transcription for "a". 

phu kin mu'ng: literally "person-eats mu'ng". Mii'ng is here taken as a subordinate 

town and its surroundings. Phu kin mu'ng was probably a vassal ruler. In 

the retinue of the legendary khun Lung and khun Liii there was a person of 

kl'9ng rank, named Khii'wmii'ng, who was the phu kin mu'ng of Yiinang, as 

well as the klqng Ng9n, the phu kin mu'ng of LL In later times the term is 

used as the equivalent of the Assamese rajkhowa, governor of a region. 

thow: an exalted title, indicating that a person belongs to the ruling classes. 

yeu : suffix after the name of the legendary King chaw Chang, most probably meaning 

"the Great''. 

thow mu'ng: "city lord", a title used for nobles accompanying Sii'wkapha and for 

high dignitaries thereafter. 

thow mu'ng lung: or "great thow mu,ng", the title of the second-highest adviser to 

the Ahom kings, known in Assamese as the bar gohain. 

Ink khun: "people of noble descent", "nobles". 

ru pak: literally "head of a hundred", used as a suffix· to the name of one of the 

persons in King Sii'wkapha's retinue (AB, p. 25). 

phii kip sui rai: tax-collector, literally "person-taking-tribute-farmland" (AB, p. 38). 

tun: also spelt tun, literally "tree", used in the early Buranjis as "lineage". 

ru'n : literally "house", used in the sense of "family".

AHOM AND THE STUDY OF EARLY TAl SOCIETY 

55 

kun : also kun, "person", also used as a classifier for single people. 

phu : a general word denoting "person". 

phu tang mo: , Barua (1930, p. 35) translates this as "potters", apparently relying upon 

the word mf1, which probably means "pot". However, the word tang remains a 

problem. It is possible that in the process of copying the vowel ~ was omitted 

and that originally it was phil t(/ng mf?, "people casting iron pots". 

phu tak nam : "drawers of water". 

phu tat ya chang : literally "person-cut-grass-elephant", someone punished by being 

given this chore, apparently a lowly status below kun tai (AB, p. 35). 

chaw kai: "fowl-keepers". 

chaw yi : "store-keepers" according to Barua (p. 35), an odd and surprising group to 

accompany the Tai into Assam. Probably a meaning of "granary" is taken as a 

guide (Grierson, 1904, p. 209), so that food-store keepers may be indicated. 

chang sa ri : a type of skilled person. Barua translates this as "physician", even 

though the Ahom for "doctor" is usually taken as oja (Baruah, 1978, p. 18), 

possibly a corruption of mil ya. It is more likely that a priestly function is 

indicated, since ri means "temple" (Grierson, 1904, p. 226). 

/uk tai : a general word describing the Ahom people. From the fact that a miscreant 

luk khun once hid amongst luk tai (AB, p. 36) it may be inferred that the two 

categories were mutually exclusive, at least in that specific context. 

lik chaw: "a chief's man", "servant', (AB, p. 50). 

ba : apparently a term indicating an inferior person, used in enumeration with 

luk kha. 

kha: also spelt kha, "subject", "servant", "slave". In the early texts the term is also 

used as a prefix for certain foreign people, indicating descent from non-Tai 

tribal people. 

kha khun, probably "khun's servant", "people belonging to a khun". 

/uk kha : "servant", in early texts usually mentioned in the compound luk kha khun. 

luk kha khun : probably a general term indicating people of lowly descent. In one 

place (AB, p. 34) it is recorded how luk kha khun conspired with kun (people) 

to stage an insurrection. 

Comparison 

Naturally, neither Table 1 nor Table 3 represents all the possible vocabulary 

in use during Sukhothai and early Ahom times for titles and classes. Also it cannot be 

expected that the range of words in Table 1 would be wholly the same as that in Table 

3, because the sources used to compile the tables were not wholly identical. The 

material which found its way into inscriptions is likely to be somewhat different from


that which was written down in the Buranjis. The Sukhothai inscriptions reflect to a 

large extent matters related to Buddhism as well as legal matters, whilst the Ahom 

Buranjis are much more a chronicle of the ruling families. 

Yet, Tables I and 3 make for interesting comparison. The Sukhothai words 

khun, t;hao, thaw, khon and kha all have Ahom equivalents in khun, chaw, thow, kun 

and kha, respectively, while the Sukhothai expression luk khun has its parallel in the 

Ahom luk khun. Apart from these six instances of equivalent pairs, there are a number 

of cases where the same word occurs alone in one list and in a compound in the other, 

or in different compounds in each list. Thus phu for "person" in general is repeatedly 

used in Ahom. A further check of inscription material shows that in Sukhothai times 

it was used not only in the expression phu yai, which found its way into Table 1, but 

also in phu kae and phu tao, meaning "old people" (Ishii, 1972, p. I 12). The word 

chang (Sukhothai : "craftsman") has the same meaning in Ahom chang. The Ahom 

suffix yeu (the Great) is the same as the Siamese yai (big). 

Furthermore, there are instances where features of Ahom titles can be found 

back in Sukhothai inscriptions, albeit not specifically as terms indicating class or rank. 

Thus the Ahom suffix lung (great) is found in early Siamese inscriptions as luang, 

meaning "royal, official, big" (Ishii, 1972, p. 208). Tun, the Ahom "lineage", has its 

parallel in Sukhothai ton, "beginning, source; tree, trunk" (ibid., pp. 55-6); and Ahom 

ru'n, "family", corresponds to Sukhothai ru'an, "house" (ibid., p. 160). The Ahom 

word mu'ng, "town "or" country", is the same as Sukhothai mu'ang, "country, land, 

nation" (ibid., p. 145); whilst the Ahom expression kin mu'ng is used in Sukhothai in 

the form kin mu'ang also meaning "to govern, to rule". The latter expression is 

apparently used for the first time in EHS, No. 11, p. 93. 

A few terms which at first sight might appear to be related, may actually have 

separate backgrounds. Thus it would be attractive to equate the Ahom kl~ng, 

"subordinate chief", with the title khlong found as part of a name in Sukhothai 

Inscription No. II. However, the spelling of the final consonant in the latter word 

indicates a Cambodian influence, and indeed in early Cambodian administrative terms 

the word is frequently used for "chief" (Sahai, 1970). In this instance it would appear 

more likely that. the Ahom klqng was related to the Sukhothai k"9ng, "a heap, a multitude, 

military forces" (Ishii, 1972, p. 5). Although k(jng does not appear in the early 

inscriptions as a specific title, it does emerge in Ayutthayan times as part of military 

titles. 

The use of the term chaw pha in early Ahom texts as a title of the king is of 

great interest. The first sign of the use of the Siamese equivalent, trhao fa, dates from 

the reign of King Naresuan (r. 1590-1605). It is just possible that the term was first 

coined amongst the Ahom people, and that various Shan groups of northern Burma


subsequently adopted the term, eventually to pass it on to the Siamese. However, whilst 

contact between Ahom and Shan cannot be ruled out, this is more likely to have been 

through the Shan moving to the Brahmaputra Valley, rather than any movement in the 

opposite direction. It seems more probable, therefore, that the title chao fa belongs to 

the Tai tradition of pre-Sukhothai times, as has been suggested by Vickery (1974, p. 

162). The early use in Ahom texts strengthens that hypothesis. 

The rare and as yet unexplained term khun yi of Sukhothai times does not seem 

to be equivalent to Ahom chaw yi. From the respective contexts it appears that 

different words are used. If the Sukhothai yi is a Tai word with an Ahom equivalent 

it could be speculated that Ahom nyi, in the meaning of "to plan, to consult", might 

indicate a parallel which would at lease fit the Sukhothai context (Grierson, 1904, p. 

220). 

. . 

For the Ahom phrong in the compound chaw phrong mu'ng, no obvious Siamese 

equivalent was found. By way of speculation it could be put forward that phrqng is a 

contracted form of phu iqng, as indeed is suggested by Gait's transcription (1963, p. 

245). To a Siamese-speaker, phii rqngwould mean "supportive person" or "second-incommand". 

At this stage of my research this possible connection is only put forward 

tentatively, the Ahom combination of chaw with phil seems unlikely unless the 

contracted form had come to be used as a word by itself. 

The Sukhothai term pua does not occur in the sections of the Ahom texts 

studied, and neither does an examination of word lists assist in giving a possible parallel. 

The existing Ahom word lists are not, however, suited for detailed and authoritative 

searches of this kind. 

Bao, in the Sukhothai term tam bao, may have meant "young", "little" or 

"junior", for it seems to have been the lowest of the Sukhothai lam ranks. The word 

baw occurs in Ahom in the meaning of "young man", or "young unmarried man" 

(Grierson, 1904, p. 204).2 

The Ahom term ru pak, "chief over a hundred" (ru literally means "head"), 

is one of the most intriguing entries in Table 3. As far as I have been able to ascertain, 

this rank is only mentioned once in the early parts of the Ahom Buranjis. If it is not 

an anachronism which has slipped in during one of the periods of copying, it would 

indicate that the system of appointing a ru ring (Assamese hazarika), chief over a 

thousand, ru pak (Assamese saikia) chief over a hundred and ru seu (Assamese bora), 

2. Upon reading an earlier draft, Dr. A. Diller of the Australian National University added that 

in present-day Southern Thai bao means "young man, generally before Buddhist ordination". 

It is also a common word to call boys one does not know.


chief over twenty, goes back to the beginning of the thirteenth century. This, taken 

together with the fact that in late-Sukhothai times there is evidence of a system which 

distinguishes chiefs over 100,000, 10,000, 1,000, 100, 50 and 10, opens the possibility 

that here we are dealing with a type of system shared amongst early Ahom and 

Sukhothai peoples which may go back to pre-Sukhotbai #mes. This hypothesis is 

strengthened by the fact that I have not yet been able to find any trace of such a 

system based on decimal divisions in early Moo or Khmer administrative terminology. 

At this stage it is not clear whether the Tai evolved the system, based upon 

factors of ten, by themselves, or whether they adopted it from one of the neighbouring 

cultures at an early stage of development. It has been suggested (Wood, 1933, chapter 

2) that exactly the same system was used in the kingdom of Nan-Chao, but, like many 

other supposed links between Nan-Chao and Tai peoples, upon closer examination the 

similarities prove less impressive. The Nan-Chao administration distinguished leaders 

over 100, 1,000 and 10,000, but this was apparently calculated in numbers of households, 

and used particularly in the non-military context (Stott, 1963, p. 210). The Tai early 

system, on the other hand, has individual persons· as the basic unit, and seems to have 

been developed primarily as a feature of. military organization. 

The preoccupation with numbers apparent in early Ahom and Sukhothai data, 

is even more apparent in post-fourteenth-century descriptions of Ahom and Siamese 

society. Amongst the Ahom there was the so-called paik system, whilst the Tai of 

Ayutthaya are well-known for their elaborate sakti nii hierarchy. It is as yet not 

known when the patk system .was first used, but there is evidence that the sakit na 

system was already part of Ayutthaya's legal system near the end of the fourteenth 

century (EHS, No.4, pp. 111-2). Here is not the place to juxtapose both systems, 

which at first sight have much in common; it suffices to state that a careful reading of 

Hamilton's account (Bhuyan, 1963, pp. 22-4), upon which many later summaries are 

based, reveals that the dissimilarities probably outweigh any common features. Thus, 

in the Ahom system, the king granted many officers the right to direct the work of one 

man out of every twenty on their private concerns, leaving the remaining nineteen to 

toil for the monarch. In the Ahom system, four paiks formed ~ unit of corvee, each 

working three months per year for the state. These rather basic principles of the fullyfledged 

paik system have not been encountered in the complex systems of administration 

of the Siamese. Paik and sakti na systems developed only after Ahom and Siamese 

bad been effectively separated and it may well be unrealistic to expect a large number 

of comparable features. 

A further Ahom category deserving comment is that of the Ahom phu kip siii 

rai. The term siii in sound and meaning seems to correspond with the Siamese 

suai, "levy", which occurs in the Ayutthayan categories of phrai suai and lek suai,


"levied commoners". The translation of rai as "farmland" is conjectural; none of the 

available word lists provide a meaning which suits the context. I have taken the 

Sukhothai use of the word ra~ as providing a logical solution of what the term may 

have meant. 

The word phrai, which features so largely in Sukhothai inscriptions, and which 

forms the basis for various important sub-categories, could not be found in the early 

Buranjis. The Ahom Lexicons (p. 76) and Grierson (1904, p. 222) give a word phai 

meaning "a strong person". Shan has phai in the sense of "a subject or servant of a 

prince" (Cushing, 1914, p. 458), and in White Tai, pay is given as "the people, citizens, 

as opposed to nobility, officials, etc." (Dieu Chinh Nhim and Donaldson, 1970, p. 280), 

so that there seems reason to take it as part of the shared-Tai tradition from which 

both Ahom and Sukhothai-Tai developed. The A hom evidence checked thus far does 

not help determine whether or not my tentative translation of phrai fa na sai and 

phrai fo na pok in Table 1 was correct. 

The Ahom word lik chaw as a term for "servant" is of some comparative 

interest, because the word lik as a designation for the lower classes corresponds to the 

Siamese lek, the use of which goes back at least to Ayutthayan times. In Siamese there 

occur the words lek, "commoners", lek that, "slaves", and lek suai, "commoners levied 

instead of working corvee". From the Ahom evidence it seems that a word related to 

both lik and lek in the meaning of "ordinary people", or "lower-class people", goes 

back to pre-Sukhothai times.3 In Siam, the adoption of a term lek for "scribe" from 

the Sanskritic traditions, has resulted in some confusion in spelling and meaning. The 

Ahom evidence ought to assist in separating the different origins of Lfln and L\'1'21. 

The category phu tat ya chang, "persons cutting grass for the elephants", was 

apparently used by the Ahom for a category of people being punished for some misdeed. 

This corresponds neatly to the Siamese term phu tat yii chang for a class of people 

punished in the same manner. This could be taken as an indication that the logistic 

problem of providing captive elephants with fodder goes back to pre-Sukhothai times 

and was solved by employing criminals. 

Both the Ahom and the Sukhothai Tables contain entries with the prefix luk 

and liik respectively. The Sukhothai inscriptions use liik r;hao and liik khun, for highborn 

people, whilst the Ahom have luk khun, luk tai, luk kha and luk kha khun, 

ranging from nobles to the class of slaves. The literal translation "child of ... " in the 

sense of someone younger than the category to which the word is attached, does not fit 

the context in which these compounds are used. Often it is quite clear that the category 

of people indicated are all adult. The combined evidence from both Tai groups 

3. Dr. Diller's comment: "The Ahom form is probably cogqate with the Ancient Chinese *liek, 

"number, item, unit".


supports the idea that the word luk or liik as prefix for a class of people has the specific 

connotation of "class" or "type of person". It may be a reflection of low social 

mobility that the meaning of "child" or "descended from" has disappeared, or is at 

least taken for granted when reference is made to types of people. 

One of the most interesting observations which can be made from a comparison 

of the two tables is that almost all entries in Table 3 are immediately recognizable as 

Tai words by speakers of Tai languages, and that the meanings of these are self-evident, 

using the vocabulary of Sukhothai inscriptions. The same cannot be said for the list 

collected in Table 1, even though it omits various titles such ail kamraten, which had 

long been used at the Cambodian court. From the Ahom perspective, and using the 

existing Ahoni vocabularies, many of the words in Sukhothai htscriptions for class and 

rank appear rather alien. With our existing knowledge of Ahom it is difficult to grasp 

the meaning of phraya, phraya phang, phra, khun nang, lam, noi, mun nai, mun tawan, 

pua, nang and khom kwan. Some of these words, such as lam, pua and nang, could form 

part of a typically Tai vocabulary, and the failure of our Ahom word lists to provide 

equivalent terms may simply be a reflection of the incomplete knowledge embedded in 

such lists. With respect to other terms in Sukhothai inscriptions, however, it appears 

that various local words for titles, ranks and classes of people have found their way into 

the vocabulary. A case could be made for the notion that phraya (or phaya) was used 

by peoples in what is now northern Thailand before the Tai peoples entered that region 

(Vickery, 1974, p. 169), though the evidence from Mon inscriptions appears rather late 

and may not be taken as firm proof (see Shorto, 1971, p. 258). The term phra has 

been accounted for in early Cambodia (Sahai, 1970), and the lack of an Ahom equivalent 

fits in with the idea of a Cambodian borrowing. Nai seems to be ultimately 

derived from the Pili nayaka, and appears to have been used in both Mon and Khmer 

traditions before Sukhothai times. Mun tawan, as was already argued in Table 1, may 

have been a Mon borrowing, and the same appears to be the case with kwan (Shorto, 

1981, p. 178). 

Whilst the Ahom list contains no apparent recent foreign borrowings, the 

Sukhothai evidence indicates the considerable ·influence of non-Tai cultures. This 

divergence shows that the Tai of Sukhothai had already by the end of the fourteenth 

century absorbed many features which were basically Mon and Khmer, whilst the Ahom 

had remained relatively isolated. The Assamese influences upon Ahom culture o~curred 

during a later period. It could be argued, therefore, that the Ahom evidence reflects 

early Tai culture in a slightly more "pure" form than that of Sukhothai. 4 Ahom 

sources must be seen as a valuable tool for students of early Tai history. 

4. The position of the Mangriisit has not been taken iu,to account in this estimate of "relative 

purity" of sources.


What has been presented in this paper is only a demonstration of the usefulness 

of comparing Ahom and Sukhothai data. It does not represent a full and complete 

study of Tai terms of rank and class, which would be a massive undertaking, involving 

full descriptions of the complex later Ahom and Ayutthayan systems, as well as of those 

of the whole range of Tai peoples. This limited attempt to juxtapose thirteenth and 

fourteenth-century material was intended to prove that in the Ahom Buranjis there is a 

collection of data which has remained largely unexplored. It has been pointed out that 

access to these Buranjis has been made difficult, and that no authoritative compilation 

of relevant Ahom texts is available. The translation hitherto published is inadequate, 

and the transcription of Ahom commonly used is deceptive. It has been shown that 

with the assistance of a less Assamese-influenced system of transcription, Ahom proves 

to fall much more within the family of Tai languages than has often been assumed. If 

the material collated in this paper stimulates more researchers to take note of Ahom, 

it has served its purpose. If it results in a concerted effort to compile more Ahom texts 

and work towards more reliable translations, so much the better. 

LITERATURE CITED 

Acharyya, N.N., 1966. The History of Medieval Assam (From the Thirteenth to the Seventeenth 

Century). Dutta Baruah, Gauhati. 

Ahom-Buranji (with parallel English translation), From the Earliest Time to the End of Ahom Rule, 

1930. Translated and edited by Rai Sahib Golap Chandra Barua. Baptist Mission Press, 

Calcutta. 

Ahom Lexicons (Based on original Tai Manuscripts), 1964. Edited by B. Barua and N.N .. Deodhai 

Phukan. Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies in Assam, Gauhati. 

Baruah, S.L., 1977. "Slavery in Assam", Journal of Historical Research, Department of History, 

Dibrugarh University, Volume II, No. 1, March 1977. pp. 73-82. 

Baruah, S.L., 1978. "Agriculture in Assam in the Ahom Age", Paper presented at the 66th 

Annual Conference of the Assam Research Society, 23-24 September 1978. 

Basu, N K 1970. Assam in the Ahom ·Age, 1228-1826, Sansknt Pustak Bhandar, Calcutta. 

Bhuyan, S.K. 1963 (editor). An Account of Assam, First Compiled in 1807-1814 by Francis Hamilton. 

Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Gauhati. 

Brown, N., 1837. "Alphabets of the Tai Language", Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 

Volume VI, Part I, January-June, pp. 17-21. 

Cushing, J.N., 1914. A Shan and English Dictionary. American Baptist Mission Press. Rangoon. 

Deka, K., 1977. "Revenue Administration of Assam under the East India Company", Journal of 

Historical Research, Department of History, Dibrugarh University, Volume II, No.1, March 

1977, pp. 69-72.


Dieu Chinh Nhim and J. Donaldson, 1970. Pap San Khham Pak Tay-keo-eng,· Tal-Vietnamese 

English Vocabulary. Bo Giao-duc Xuat Ban, Saigon. 

Dikshit, K.N., 1927. "Note on an Ahom Stone Pillar Inscription", Annual Report of the Archaeological 

Survey of India, 1924-25. Government of India Central Publication Branch, 

Calcutta, pp. 157-8. 

Gait, E., 1963. A History of Assam. Revised and enlarged by B.K. Barua and H.V.S. Murthy. 

Thacker Spink, Calcutta. 

Gogoi, P., 1968. The Tai and the Tai Kingdoms: With a Fuller Treatment of the Tai-Ahom Kingdom 

in the Brahmaputra Valley. Department of Publication, Gauhati University, Gauhati. 

Grierson, G.A., 1904. "An A hom Cosmogony, With a Translation and A Vocabulary of the Ahom 

Language", Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, pp. 181-232. 

Grierson, G.A., 1966. Linguistic Survey of India, Volume II, Mon-Khmer and Siamese-Chinese 

Families (including Khassi & Tai). Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi (reprint). 

Griswold A.B. and Prasert na Nagara, 1968-1979. "Ep graphic and Historical Studies" Nos 1-22. 

Journal of the Siam Society, various issues between the dates mentioned. 

Ishii, Yoneo, Osamu Akagi and Noriko Endo, 1972. A Glossarial Index of the Sukhothai Inscriptions. 

Discussion Paper No. 53, The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 

Kyoto. 

Jenkins, F., 1837. "Specimen of the Ahom, or Assam, Character" and "Interpretation of the 

Ahom Extract", Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Volume VI, Part I, Plate IV, 

and Part II, pp. 980-4. 

Phukan, J.N., 1970/1. "A study in the Titles of Ahom Kings, Ministers and Other Functionaries 

of the State", Journal of the University ofGauhati, Volume XXI-XXII: Arts, pp. 168-77. 

Prachum Silat;haru'k, 1978. Edited by the Khanakammakiin ghatphim ekasiin thang prawatisiit 

samnak Niiyok Rathamontri, in six parts. Prime Minister's Department, Bangkok. 

Puri, B.N., 1968. Studies in Early History and Administration in Assam. Banikanta Kakati 

Memorial Lectures 1967. Depatment of Publication, Gauhati University, Gauhati. 

Sahai, S., 1970. Les institutions politiques e_t /'organisation administrative du Cambodge ancien, 

Publications de I'Ecole Frangaise d'Extreme-Orient, Volume LXXV, Ecole Frangaise 

d'Extreme-Orient, Paris. 

Shorto, H.L., 1971. A Dictionary of the Mon Inscriptions from the Sixth to the Sixteenth Centuries, 

London Oriental Series, Volume 24. Oxford University Press, London. 

Stott, W., 1963, "The Expansion of the Nan-Chao Kingdom", T'oung Pao, Volume 50, pp. 

190-220. 

Terwiel, B.J., 1981, The Tai of Assam and Ancient Tai Ritual, Volume II, Sacrifices and Timereckoning. 

Centre for South East Asian Studies, Gaya. 

Vickery, M., 1974. Review article in the Journal of the Siam Society, Volume 62, Part 1, pp. 

158-73. 

Wood, W.A.R., 1933. A History of Siam. Siam Barnakich, Bangkok.

THE SHAN ROCKET FESTIVAL : BUDDHIST AND 

NON-BUDDHIST ASPECTS OF SHAN RELIGION 

E. PAUL DURRENBERGER* 

Anthropologists have repeatedly commented on the apparent contradictions 

between B!Jddhist and non-Buddhist aspects of lowland southeast Asian religions (e.g. 

Spiro, 1967, 1970; Condominas, 1975; Tambiah, 1968, 1970; Brohm, 1952; Piker, 1968; 

Nash, 1965). They differ in their interpretations. Some argue there are two religions 

which fulfill different functions (e.g. Spiro, 1967) while others argue there is only one 

religion which encompasses both aspects (e.g. Tambiah, 1970). I shall address this 

larger question with reference to a particular Shan festival. 

Along the sides of the rivers of Thailand~s northwestern province of Maehongsom, 

Shan or Tai Long peasants have leveled and terraced areas of irrigated rice fields. 

Some villagers own insufficient land to meet their needs or own no irrigated land; they 

cultivate swiddens on the nearby hillsides. The villages are spaced along valleys 

where there is sufficient irrigable land and range in size from twenty-five to well over a 

hundred households. The Thai administrative level above the village is called a tamboon. 

The tamboon center of the area I studied was the village of Huai Pha. Nearby villages 

were Thongmakhsan, where I lived, Mawk Som Pae, Bang Mu, Napachat, Nam Kat, 

and Mae Sunya. Huai Pha, Napachat, Nam Kat, and Mae Sunya are in tamboon Huai 

Pha, but all of the villages invited villagers from the others to their festivals pqi. 

One of these is the festival some know as pf?i nu phai (nu=rat, mouse; phai= 

fire; nu phai=rocket (Cushing: 369)), the rocket festival. Others know it as p(Ji sa ti 

(sa li=pagoda, cedi) or the sand pagoda festival. It occurs sometime near the first half 

of May, at the end of the dry season, just before the rains begin. In 1976 the villages 

of Napachat and Bang Mu sponsored such festivals and invited villagers from Thongmakhsan 

to attend. I went to each with a party from Thongmakhsan. 

Before we arrived, the people of the host village had prepared a sand pagoda in 

the temple (kyf?ng) compound and put offerings of small packets of food, small paper 

umbrellas, and paper flags on it. They had put similar offerings on the offering places 

for the spirits inside the temple compound. 

* Professor of Anthropology at the University of Iowa. Prof. Durrenburger bas done research 

among Lisu and Tai Long (Shan) under the sponsorship of the Tribal Research Centre, 

Chiangmai. 

63

64 B. Paul Durrenberger 

In Napachat, the festival was on the seventeenth of May, on a wan hsin, holy 

day. The sand pagoda had been constructed in the southeast corner of the temple 

compound, though informants said it could be located anywhere. The pagoda consisted 

of nine square terraces, each supported by a plank on each side. Each terrace was 

smaller than the one below. The whole was surrounded by a losely woven bamboo 

fence with a space between the base of the pagoda and the fence. There was a gap at 

the northwest corner for an entrance. At each comer of the fence, the center of each 

side of the fence, and the center of the pagoda were tall shafts capped with woven 

cylinders of b~mboo and a paper umbrella. A string from which short paper streamers 

hung connected the corner posts on the perimeter of the pagoda ~bove the fence on all 

but the western side. The pagoda was festooned with paper :flags and umbrellas. 

People had also placed small banana leaf boxes filled with rice and other food offerings 

on the pagoda. 

Just to the north of the northeast corner of the sand pagoda was an offering 

place for the spirits who guard the temple, the village, the houses. It was a stake 

driven into the ground with a square shelf on top. About a foot below the top shelf 

were two crossed members, each with a small shelf at its end. People had placed 

banana leaf packets of food offerings and joss sticks on the shelves of this structure. 

A similar offering place surrounded by a fence was located at the northeast 

corner of the temple compound. On this people had placed similar offerings for the 

guardian of the temple. People place food offerings on the spirit offering places on 

other occasions, not only for the sand pagoda/rocket festival. 

In Napachat, when I inquired about the meaning of the rocket festival, I heard 

various responses. One was that this was not actually a rocket festival, but a sand 

pagoda festival. 

In the Buddha's time a poor man wanted to sponsor a festival like 

the rich people in town but had no money. But he wanted to offer. 

Crossing a river, he saw sand on the river bank ~d built a sand pagoda. 

Wnen he finished he used the rice and curry from his lunch to offer. He 

offered one part for the Buddha and one part for the spirits, to dance and 

be happy. He had pure generosity (tseitana), the tseitana of festivals. 

After he died, he got to nirvana. So people now offer packets of rice when 

people make the sand pagoda festival, they like to be happy. In the old 

times, people did this and now we do it to be happy. 

At an offering festival in the village of Huai Pha, which included the construction 

of a sand pagoda, a monk from Maehongsom Town (the provincial capital) 

·delivered the teaching (tara). Part of the teaching included the following story:

THE SHAN ROCKET FESTIVAL 

65 

In past times, in the country of Pa Ran Na Hsi, there was a poor 

man. He saw a rich man sponsor a festival. "Oh, this is a very good 

festival in Pa Ran Na Hsi," he said. He thought: "Oh, I will go to the 

rich man's house and eat something there." After he went to the festival, 

the other people said: "Help carry water, help carry firewood, help wash 

the dishes." He did everything the others told him to do; After he finished 

the work, he came to eat. After he ate, people gave him sweets. After 

he was full and happy he thought : "The festival of the rich man is very 

good. It is good that he is a rich man. Whatever they want, they can do. 

But I did not make merit (kuhso) in the past. This is the merit of the past. 

The rich man has merit from the past so he receives all good things, all 

cool things, all happiness. One thing is making good works (offerings) in 

the past; second is making not good things in the past, demerit (akuhso). 

It is because I did not make merit. in the past that I am like this now. 

I am poor; it is an ugly life. Poverty of money, poverty of relatives, 

poverty of money, very poor." He thought: "Oh, I have no merit from 

the past, so my life now is very bad. I want to sponsor a festival like the 

rich man (Here the audience laughed); like the people of Huai Pha make 

the festival now." 

He went home and all the way home he thought about this. He 

remembered that the Buddha taught, the Buddha himself taught : if we have 

things to offer, we have one power (tan kho). If we have offered the light, 

it gives akyo (merit, advantage) of bright knowledge. If we have offered 

food, flowers, and the four kinds of things for monks to use, it gives the 

advantage (akyo) of belongings and money, precious stones, so much that 

we cannot use it all. He remembered this teaching of the Buddha and he 

felt sorry for himself, was regretful. "Why have I become very poor like 

this?" he said. He thought and considered the whole way home. When 

he reached his palm leaf hut, he went to bed. After he got up, he took 

his knife and his back basket and his hat and went to the forest to cut 

:firewood. He cut firewood and went to town and sold it for three pence. 

One day when he went to cut :firewood in the forest there was heavy 

rain and the wind was very strong and he could not do anything. He 

thought: "I can do nothing, it is very difficult. I canot eat because I cannot 

sell this firewood in town." He said: "I will take flowers and leaves to sell 

in town instead of firewood. He peddled them in the town of PaRan NaHsi. 

He could not sell them anywhere he went. Whatever house he went 

to, the people said: "Tomorrow is not wan hsin so we do not need to buy 

flowers and leaves. 'We cannot keep them. Sell them somewhere else." 

"Older brother does not need them; uncle does not need them. Grandmother

66 B. Paul Durrenberger 

brings flowers from the garden.'' He could do nothing, He continued on 

his way trying to sell them. He arrived at one rich man's bouse. He said 

to the rich man: "I can do nothing, I have no rice to eat today, I have no 

firewood to sell. I have only these leaves and flowers. Kindly, please buy 

them. Give me whatever you like." The rich man said: "Your leaves 

and flowers are very scarce, so I will give you a measure of rice." 

The poor man was very happy and went back home. When be 

reached home he thought : "If I cook this rice for supper, I will have 

nothing to eat tomorrow morning. It is not enough for two meals. If I cut 

firewood, I wi11 not be able to work well. If I eat no rice in the morning. 

I cannot carry the firewood. It does not matter. I will not eat tonight. 

It is better to go to bed. So be put the rice in the corner of the bouse and 

went to bed. 

When the sun came up early in the morning be got up and cooked 

his rice. He thought : ·•If I eat this morning, I will have no rice to eat in 

the afternoon. What can I do in the afternoon ? It does not matter. I will 

not eat now. When I go into the forest and cut firewood and have finished 

all my work, I will eat the rice." He thought this: "If I have no rice to 

eat in the afternoon, I will not have strength enough to carry the firewood 

home." 

He put the rice in his basket and went into the forest with his hat 

and knife and bag. That day, because of his previous intentions to sponsor 

a festival even though he had no money, his akyo was very great. Because 

of his intentions (tseitana) a khun phi (superior spirit) made everything 

around him white sand. He thought: "I come this way. every day, but I 

have never seen this white sand. Perhaps there was a flood last night and 

today the sand is spread about." He bad good intentions (tseitana) and 

gathered the white sand and piled it up to make a sand pagoda (sa ti). He 

had no time to cut his firewood. He ·made the sand pagoda. After he 

finished making the sand pagoda, he brought flowers to put on it. And he 

remembered : I went to the rich man's bouse and heard the teaching (tara): 

If we offer a pagoda to the Buddha, the power (tan kho) is very great." He 

was a man of great power and knowledge and he remembered that if one 

offers a sand pagoda one gets much power and wisdom. He thought : "It 

does not matter for my present life." He divided the rice from the bouse 

into three parts. One part to offer to the Buddha; one part to offer to the 

teaching (tara) of the Buddha :one part to offer to the monks of the Buddha. 

Then be presented it to the sand pagoda and offered it. 

He prayed like this: "This is for the Buddha," and he put it on the 

sand pagoda. One part of the rice he offered for the teaching at the base 

of the sand pagoda. He thought: "I need some monks; there are no monks


67 

to whom to offer the third part. Where can I offer it? There are no monks 

in this forest." He looked for a tree to use as a monk. He used that tree 

for a monk. On the tree were two crows who said: "Argh, argh." The 

man said, "Very good, these crows will be my monks," and he presented 

the offering and offered it as to a monk. He prayed. 

After that he went on to look for his firewood. Then he went 

home. When he arrived home, he went around Pa Ran Na Hsi to sell 

firewood. He asked not more than two or three houses and the people 

bought his firewood immediately. He thought: "Today my merit is very 

great. I did not have to ask at many houses. I got kuhso immediately. 

It was not like this two or three days ago." He sold the wood immediately 

and got three pence. He said: ·'Last night I had no food and did not eat. 

This morning and this afternoon I had no food. So I will buy noodles with 

this three pence." He bought noodles with all three pence and took it home 

and ate too much. Because he was very hungry and had not eaten in a 

long time, he ate it all. When he finished, his stomach was full and he 

could not get up. He slept in the same place. At midnight he felt a 

stomach ache. There was no medicine for this, he said, and it got worse 

and. worse. 

So,· if we have the three kinds of tseitana whatever we do becomes 

excellent. We can succeed in whatever we attempt. Then there is no 

misery. So we offer things depending on our tseitana. Tseitaria is very great. 

Then the poqr man changed his life (died). His kuhso, his tseitana 

was very great, so his spirit went to a royal palace and he was born the 

child of a king's wife. He was born as a prince, son of a king. 

The story goes on to describe the life of the man as a prince and then as a king. 

The story illustrates the immediate and long range benefits of making sand pagodas and 

in general of making offerings to acquire merit. 

A lay reader in Huai Pha said that people make sand pagoda festivals at the 

end of the new year festival. The body is composed of the elements: fire, earth, air, 

water. The sand pagoda represents the earth element, and is to respect the Buddha 

and request the Buddha to let the rain fall and let the land be green so all people can 

plant crops. :'This is the Buddha's teaching." 

People can make sand pagodas at other times during the year if they are not 

well and want to "support" the element earth. Informants said the sand pagoda for 

the festival could be located anywhere, the location is not significant. 

When groups of guests arrived at Napachat, the hosts gave them banana leaf 

bundles of rice and curry. The guests then dispersed to visit friends and relatives. At 

ten-thirty, the Napachat monk used the temple's battery operated loud speaker system

68 E. Paul Durrenberger 

to call the villagers to come quickly to the temple. People served food to the monks. 

There were six monks at the temple. They had come from Huai pha, Mawak Sam 

Pae, and Maehongsoran Town. The temple gong was sounded. 

A procession of Napachat villagers danced through the village and into the 

temple compound with four rockets and offering trees. A rocket is made of a bamboo 

tube filled with gunpowder. The tube is lashed onto a bamboo from fifteen to thirty 

feet long. People say the tapering bamboo looks like a rat's tail, hence the name for 

the rockets, nu phai. The powder packed bamboo cylinder is surrounded by smaller 

empty bamboo lengths which whistle as the rocket descends. The young men who 

carried the rockets held them over their shoulders with the powder cylinder cradled 

against the shoulder so the bamboo shaft would spring about in the air as they danc-ed. 

The offering trees were bamboo splints inserted into banana tree segments, each with 

a piece of Thai currency wedged into a slot at the end. A band composed of a long 

drum, cymbals, and gongs, accompanied the dancing procession through the village 

and into the temple compound. 

At eleven o'clock the monks had finished eating and the men served food to 

the visitors in the temple. A rocket was lashed to the -rafters of the temple. This 

rocket was sponsored by the monks. A group of people or an individual may make a 

rocket, or a person or group may pay others to _construct a rocket. The Napachat 

monks had paid for the materials in the rocket and others had built it. 

In Napachat, when I inquired about the meaning of the rockets, one elder said 

the tak ka tqn did it in the past. Cushing translates tak ka tqn as "heretic" (262). It 

usually refers to those who, in the time of the Buddha knew of him and his teaching but 

did not follow Buddhism. 

The lay reader from Huai Pha said the rocket festival, "is the wisdom (pingnya) 

of the tak ka tqn." 

In the time of the Buddha, they competed with his power. The 

Buddha had the power to fly in the sky so the tak ka t~n made rockets 

with bamboo and gunpowder and shot them to the sky. They thought if 

the Buddha could fly to the sky, they could also, they could make rockets 

to fly to the sky. 

I inquired what the meaning of rockets is now. He answered : 

Rockets existed. in the Buddha's time, now when people do it, it is to 

make them happy. If the rockets go high, people feel happy, that they 

have power and good akpo (merit) and people cheer and feel happy. It is 

following the old way since there were rockets in the Buddha's time. It is 

only for happiness. People do not get kuhso or akyo from sh~oting rockets. 

The akyo is as small a.s an ant's foot. It is only for amusement, even though


69 

they cost about fifty baht (U.S. $ 2.50) or more to make. There is no akyo 

in this. Only the offerings have akyo; the rockets have no akyo at all. In 

the past this was in competition with Buddhism for power: the unbelievers 

competed with the Buddha, so the rockets have no kuhso. If a rocket 

explodes and falls, the Buddha wins; but if the rocket goes up, it means the 

people win over the Buddha, so the thing is reversed. When people win 

over the Buddha, they are happy and should not be. When the Buddha 

wins, people are unhappy. 

While others ate in the temple, the young men of Thongmakhsan ate and 

drank in a house nearby. At twelve-thirty more people entered the temple with 

offerings, flowers, and offering trees, which they put on a table in front of the Buddha 

image. At one-thirty a troupe of eleven dancing girls began dancing Thai dances to 

the accompaniment of recorded music from the loud speaker system. A Thai teacher 

in the village had organized the troupe and taught them Thai style dances. At two 

o'clock the. lay reader from Huai Pha announced over the speakers: "Time is not 

waiting for us, please come immediately and make offerings; bring your offering trees; 

and then we will fire the rockets." The temple gong was sounded. In all there were 

about two-hundred offering trees, each with about fifty baht. 

One of the guests in the temple was a Kayah "tribesman" from a nearby village. 

The headman of Napachat instructed him how to present offerings, and he offered 

flowers. 

At half past two another procession with ten rockets wound its way through 

the village and into the temple compound. The rockets were also from Napachat. 

The people circumambulated the temple twice shouting, dancing, and playing the 

drums, gongs, and cymbals. 

At the request of the lay reader from Huai Pha, the monk from Napachat 

recited the Buddhist duties and the headman of Napachat asked for him to teach, asked 

for a tara. The monk said the headman and villagers had prepared the pfli sa ti, that 

there was much akyo. He said that sa ti is the same in Thai, Pali, and Burmese, that 

it has much akyo. He taught of the virtues of cooperation and working together, that 

to build a temple and other big work, sponsoring a festival, requires cooperation. If 

the headman must be coercive and fine people who do not cooperate, it is not good; 

all people should cooperate. The Buddha taught people should cooperate. He ended 

with a blessing that all the people have good appetites, enjoy good health, and good 

fortune. 

The elders then presented the offerings to the monks and the monks chanted. 

They chanted a second time and people poured water through the floorboards of the 

temple. The chanting finished at half past three. During the teaching people had 

begun to fire rockets.


People fired the rockets from trees behind the temple. They positioned each 

rocket with the powder cylinder uppermost, the narrow end of the bamboo tail toward 

the ground, and climbed in the tree to ignite the fuse. The bands kept playing the 

drums, gongs, and cymbals. Some people were very drunk. At half past four guests 

began to depart for their villages. 

The teaching, the chanting, and pouring water to share the merit acquired 

from the offerings with others is common to all offerings, not unique to this festival. 

The festival in Pang Mu was similar but there were more rockets. The rockets 

were launched in rice fields near the village rather than from the temple. A group of 

monks went to watch the rockets being fired~ 

On neither occasion were the rockets presented to the guardian spirits, tsau 

mong of the village, or the spirit offering places inside the temple compounds. Nor 

was there any mud throwing when rockets were unsuccessful as Tambiah (1970) reports. 

Many other aspects of the Shan rocket festival are different from Tambiah's (1970) 

description for Northeast Thailand and Condominas' for Laos (1975). Not only does 

it not entail the guardian spirits or involve ritual license, it is not associated with 

ordination, but with the offering of sand pagodas and it is the sand pagodas that are 

instrumental in bringing rain, a Buddhist, not a spirit oriented ritual. 

Tambiah's analysis of the rocket festival draws heavily on particular local 

associations and mythologies. Since his analysis is couched in such local terms, it 

provides no guide to rocket festivals in other areas, but only an account of the rocket 

festival in that place. To answer the general question Tambiah poses of the relation 

between Buddhist and spirit oriented activities and ideologies, one must attend to the 

general features of both and not make the analysis depend on particular local features 

of either as Tambiah does. Because of the differences between Shan and Northeastern 

Thai ethnography, Tambiah's analysis of the rocket festival sheds no light on the Shan 

situation. An adequate theory to account for the relations between spirit and Buddhist 

aspects of ideology and ritual should be capable of illuminating these relations 

wherever they occur. I do not reject Tambiah's analysis; it is simply irrelevant to the 

Shan case. I object to his approach because it causes his analysis to be irrelevant. 

The uninhibited dancing procession accompanied by the band and drinking is 

not unique to the rocket festival. When villages hold offering festivals, individual 

households sponsor offering trees. Other households in the vicinity contribute to the 

offering tree. The young men carry the trees, mounted on palanquins, through the 

village with the accompanying band, singing and dancing. The young men tend to be 

riotous. At one such festival in Thongmakhsan, many of the young men and some of 

-the older men were quite drunk. Groups of youths from Thongmakhsan and Huai Pha

THE SHAN ROCKET FESTIVAL 71 

confronted each other and there was a brief fight. The elders broke up the fight and 

advised people to return the offering trees to their houses. The next day, the processions 

went to the temple in a more orderly fashion, presented the offerings, and heard 

the teaching. 

Preuss (1979) suggests such behavior is an expression of disorder within the 

greater order of Buddhist merit making at the beginning of the new year. The disorder 

within the context of the Buddhist order indicates that, "unpredictable forces and their 

effects may be neutralized through the ritual of Theravada Buddhist merit-making and 

its consequences" (271). If entry into a new period of time were a significant aspect 

of such events, they would occur only at the end of the old year and not be distributed 

into the new year. The pattern seems general whether it is associated with the rocket 

festival, presentation of offering trees, or support posts as Preuss describes .. 

What seems puzzling is the juxtaposition of the riotous behavior of the presentation 

of the offerings or rockets or posts to the village with the solemn taking of the 

five vows not to drink, take life, engage in illicit sexuality, lie, and steal only moments 

later. Villagers recognize the dangers of such riotous behavior from past experiences 

such as the disrupted festival in Thongmakhsan, and say that one of the functions of 

the village guardian spirit, tsau mong, is to prevent such outbreaks of violence. 

Spiro (1967), in line with his "two religions" thesis, suggests that this pattern 

is the juxtaposition of a dionysian spirit component with an otherworldly· Buddhist 

component, each meeting different psychological needs of the Burmese character. The 

dionysian component acts as an escape valve for the expression of impulses prohibited 

by the more austere Buddhism. 

From the point of view of Shan villagers there are two separate spheres : a 

spirit component and a Buddhist one. The first provides ways to achieve particular 

concrete goals; the second, a means to increase one's individual innate power by incrementing 

his or her merit by making offerings. The source of innate power is merit 

from offerings. The application of the power is irrelevant to its source. To gain 

power, and the protection it insures, one makes merit; to achieve particular concrete 

goals, one propitiates spirits or exercises power. Hanks (1965 : 89) suggests power is 

simply the lack of inhibitions on one's wishes or behavior. In this sense, the riotous 

presentation of rockets or offering trees or support posts is an expression of power, the 

lack of inhibitions, having fun, being happy, as villagers usually style such behavior. 

Power is power. The way it is used or expressed does not diminish it. 

" For Shan, the rockets are not related to any spirit offerings, nor to any 

Buddhist merit making; they are clearly secular in any sense. They offer a way to 

express and test one's power; a secular field for the exercise of innate power.


In offering this interpretation I am following the native exegesis provided by 

the lay reader of Huai Pha, that the firing of rockets is a test of merit and a competition 

among the launchers, a test of their power against each other and in a more 

absolute sense, against the Buddha himself. This interpretation receives some 

confirmation from Keyes' account (1975) of the cremation of a senior monk. Keyes 

argues that the corpse of the monk was itself a powerful object and that offerings to it 

were productive of merit; it was a, "channel of merit" (47). After a tug of war for 

the corpse, which conferred merit to the participants, the corpse was taken to a funeral 

pyre which was ignited by an elaborate system of fireworks in which rockets were fired 

at the pyre. From the photographs of figures six and seven, the rockets appear similar 

to those used at the rocket/sand pagoda festival. My conjecture is that the rockets 

may be more than a convenient way to ignite a funeral pyre, not an especially effective 

one, but rather be indicataive of power. The first rockets did not ignite the pyre. The 

rockets might be interpreted as competing with the power of the corpse, though Keyes 

does not develop such an interpretation. 

The firing of rockets is an exercise of power derived from merit, a test of 

power, a special case, the more general form of which is the dancing and dionysian 

behavior of the processions which accompany several kinds of Buddhish events. Why, 

then, is it the young men as a category who participate in these displays, as Pruess 

asks? The ideology of merit and power assigns less power to women than men, so 

women would neither need to demonstrate nor test their power. Older men and household 

heads have already established their positions or are operating in more meaningful 

and less symbolic spheres of actual political, social, and economic relations. It is the 

young men who have not yet established bases from which to demonstrate their power 

or compete for power in these areas who have aspirations to power, but no field for its 

exercise. Hence, they form the only social category for whom it is meaningful to 

compete for or exhibit power in symbolic terms of processions and rockets. 

Although dionsyian processions and firing rockets may be non-Buddhist, even 

anti-Buddhist as many observers and participants have noted, these events are of a piece 

with the Buddhist merit making with which they are linked. They provide the arena 

for displays and tests of power, especially for a: social category, young men, with no 

other arena for the exercise of their power, and are concatinated with events, merit 

making offerings, which confer power. The critical point is that the field of the 

exercise of power need have no relation with the origin of the power. Power acquired 

by virtuous acts may be used to unvirtuous ends. 

In Northeastern Thailand and Laos, the cases Tambiah (1970) and Condominas. 

(1975) describe, there is another element, a guardian spirit as an audience for supplica 

-tion. In Northeast Thailand the rockets are offered to the spirit on behalf of the village

THE SHAN ROCKET FESTIVAL 73 

and supplications made on behalf of the whole village. The most powerful of the 

villagers, the elders, rather than the youth, present the rockets to the spirit with the 

aid of the mediums. Otherwise, the pattern is similar, especially with regard to what 

Tambiah calls ritual license. If rockets fail, people throw mud at their launchers, 

whether they be monks, elders, or others. This falls in line with the notion of power 

displays and power competition. The major difference is in t~e procession addressed 

to a guardian spirit. Introducing this spirit as an audience for offering provides a 

different context for the operation of the logic of power so that elders and mediums 

must present the offerings to the spirit. 

The interpretation I offer here in terms of the logic of power has the advantage 

of integrating the separate interpretations of different events in different regions into a 

coherent pattern rather than relying on specifically local features or mythologies for the 

development of dispirate ad hoc theories for each local event. It suggests how two 

apparently contradictory religious themes (Condominas, 1975: 271) are complementary . 

. REFERENCES CITED 

Brohm J. 

1952 Buddhism and animism in a Burmese village. Journal of Asian Studies 22: 155-168. 

Condominas, G. 

1975 Pai ban cults in a Thai-Lao community. IN Change and Persistence in Thai Society. 

W. Skinner and T. Kirsch, eds. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 

Cushing, J.N. 

1914 A Shan and English Dictionary. Rangcon; American Baptist Mission Press (Republished 

1971 by Gregg International Publishers). 

Hanks,L.M. 

1965 Two views of freedom : Thai and American. Felicitation Volumes of Southeast 

Asian Studies, 1. Bangkok: The Siam Society. 

Keyes, C.F. 

1975 Tug-of-war for merit: cremation of a senior monk. Journal of the Siam Society 

63:44-62. 

Nash, M. 

1965 The Golden Road to Modernity. New York: John Wiley and Sons. 

Piker, S. 

1968 The relationship of belief systems to behavior in rural Thai society. Asian Survey 

8:384-399. 

Preuss, J.D. 

1979 Merit and misconduct : venerating the bo tree at a Buddhist shrine. American 

Ethnologist 6: 261-273.


Spiro, M.E. 

I 967 Burmese Supernaturalism. Englewood Cliffs : Prentiec Hall. 

1970 Buddhism and Society. New York: Harper and Row. 

Tambiah, S.J. 

1968 The ideology of merit and the social correlates of Buddhism in a Thai village. In 

Dialectic in Pratical Religion. E.R. Leach, ed. Cambridge : Cambridge University 

Press. 

1970 Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge : Cambridge 

University Press. 

Note: The Fieldwork upon which this paper is based was funded by a Ford Foundation 

Southeast Asia Fellowship and a fellowship from the University of Iowa 

and was conducted from June, 1976 to August, 1977.

PALl MANUSCRIPTS OF CANONICAL TEXTS 

FROM NORTH THAILAND-A PRELIMINARY REPORT 

OSKAR VON HINUBER * 

The arrival of Pali in the area that is now Thailand dates back to a remote 

past even before the Thai peoples started to move into this territorry. As it seems, 

Theravada Buddhism, the vehicle of which is the language now called Pali, was embraced 

first by the Mon [P. Dupont: La version mane du Narada-Jataka. PEFEO 

XXXVI. Saigon 1954. p. 9 ff.]. Although very little, rather next to nothing, is known 

about the early history of the Mon canon in Pili, its origin appears to have been South 

Indian rather than Ceylonese, which would account for the canonical quotations cited 

by Aggavarpsa in his Saddaniti composed 1154 in a wording deviating sometimes considerably 

from the text as transmitted in Ceylon [O.v. Hiniiber : Notes on the Pili 

Tradition in Burma, Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen. I. Philologisch-Historische 

Klasse. Jahrgang 1983, Nr. 3. Gottingen 1983]. 

When Theravada finally took firm roots among the Thai people, they also 

became engaged in the transmission of canonical Pali writings. Besides they translated 

the canon into Thai or composed text in Pili [G. Coedes: Note sur les ouvrages palis 

composes en pays thai. BEFEO 15. 1915. 39-46], about which very little is known 

yet, at least as long as the eagerly awaited thesis on Pali literature in Thailand by Dr. 

Likhit Likhitanand (University of Chiang Mai), a complement since a long time overdue 

to M. Bode: The Pali Literature of Burma. London 1909 [repr. London 1966, cf. 

J. W. Bollee, IIJ 11. 1969. 311-318] and G .P. Malalasekera : The Pali Literature of 

Ceylon. London .1928 [repr. Colombo 1958] remains unpublished. 

As is well known, the broad stream of literary activities in Thai as well as in 

Pali suffered a most unfortunate setback by the devastation of Ayudhya in 1767, when 

an unknown but very high number of manuscripts perished and many texts were lost 

once for all. Shortly before this disaster, in about 1750, many Pali texts had been 

sent to Ceylon at the request of king Kirtisiddhi [Dupont as above, p. 14]. Afterwards 

it took nearly a century to reassemble and reestablish the Pali canon in Thailand by the 

help of the Sinhalese and the Burmese traditions, and it was only during the Fifth Reign 

in 2436 [1893] that the first printed edition of the canon could appear, which has been 

reset and completed for the second print in 2470 (1927), and which was reprinted 

recently as "syamara(!hassa tepi(akam" in 2523 [1980). 

* Prof. Dr. Oskar von Hiniiber, Orientalisches Seminar-Indologie, Universitat Freiburg, West 

Germany. 

75

76 Oskar von Hiniiber 

As far as the text is concerned, it holds an intermediate position somewhere 

between the Sinhalese and the Burmese text traditions [A. Taylor: Pa~isambhidamagga.· 

Vol. I London 1905 (repr. 1979). Preface p. VII and P.R. Hamm: Zu einigen neueren 

Ausgaben des Pali-Tipi~aka. ZDMG 112. 1962, 353-378]. Being used by European 

scholars working in the field of Pali at the beginning of this century, it has been superseded 

gradually either by the critical editions of the Pili Texts Society, and, as far as 

oriental editions are concerned, which are still being used to control the not always 

reliable PTS editions, the Simon Hewavitarne Bequest Series, Colombo 1917 ff. among 

other prints prints represents the Sinhalese, and the excellent Cha~~hasa~gayana Edition, 

Rangoon 1957 ff. the Burmese branch of the Pali tradition. Both series also 

include the a(thakatha and the !ika texts. Here this Burmese edition marked as Be 

following the system of abbreviations as laid down by Helmer Smith in the Epilegomena 

to Vol. I of V. Trenckner: A Critical Piili Dictionary (CPD). Copenhagen. I (1924- 

1948); II. 1-12 (1960-1982) has been used besides the print of SN by the Harp.savati 

Press, Rangoon 1939 referred to as Be 1939. B is used for the Burmese manuscript used 

by L. Peer in his edition of the Satpyuttanikaya (SN), London 1884 (repr. 1960), SS 

for his Sinhalese manuscripts, and finally BB marks those instances where the whole 

Burmese tradition agrees. As far as further printed editions are concerned, Se stands 

for the Siamese, and Ee for the English, i.e. PTS editions, respectively. 

As the Thai edition (Se) printed under King Chulalongkorn is mostly but by no 

means entirely dependent upon the Ceylonese and Burmese traditions, it was frequently, 

and not altogether without justification, regarded as secondary to those local traditions, 

and consequently rarely made use of when establishing a critical text, for the superimposed 

imported readings from Ceylon and Burma did not allow the formation of a clear 

and distinct picture of the truely indigenous Thai Pali tradition. Manuscripts, on the 

other hand, which would have allowed a better insight into Pali as preserved in Thailand, 

were not readily accessible. Moreover, in Central Thailand, not many Pali manuscripts 

older than 1767 seem to have survived, as far as one can estimate, if the palm 

leaf books kept in the National Library, Bangkok, are any standard. Only about a 

dozen manuscripts predating the destruction of Ayudhya are found in the Library today 

as far as Pali is concerned. This figure, which is as impressive as it is depressing, shows 

the enormous loss of material given the number and size of monasteries in the old capital. 

Most fortunately, this rather gloomy picture, showing a situation very much 

uninviting to the Pali scholar, brightens considerably when turning towards North 

Thailand. First hints to a surprisingly good and evidently old tradition of Pali from 

this region can be gathered from the Critical Piili Dictionary. The manuscript Lk not

PALl MANUSCRIPTS OF CANONICAL TEXTS FROM NORTH THAILAND 77 

found in G. Coedes : Catalogue des manuscrits en Pili, Laotien et Siamois provenant 

de Thailand, Copenhagen 1966 (Catalogue of of Oriental Manuscripts, Xylographs etc. 

in Danish Collections. Vol. II. 2), and therefore probably acquired in Laos, has been 

used when referring to the Jataka by the CPO and by Helmer Smith in his edition : 

Saddaniti. La grammaire Pali d'Aggava111sa. Lund 1928-1966 (Sadd). For instance, 

the manuscript Lk reads a correct slokapada in : tatth' assaf!Z mahesi piya, Ja VI 483, 

6* against tattha assaf!l mahesiya found in all manuscripts used by Ee and quoted in 

this wording in the Saddaniti. Although mahesiya seems to be a correct reading at a 

first glance at least, it actually destroys the cadence of the verse, for, as L. Alsdorf: 

Les etudes jaina. Paris 1965. p. 59, has shown, mahesi scans-in old Pali. Further 

instances, at which the Thai tradition may have preserved a text better than other local 

traditions are listed in the CPD s.vv. ajjha (at the end) and atha under "Rem." from 

Lk. Under appabhita quoted from Se Majjhimanikaya (MN), Majjhimapat]-q.iisa Vol. 

13, 77, 2* corresponding to Ee appahina, MN I 326, 25•, the the CPO suspects a Siamese 

conjecture. However, the Sanskrit parallel edited recently by E. Waldschmidt from 

Central Asian fragments found at Turfan has aprabhita, which proves Se to be correct 

against the rest of the tradition [0. v. Hiniiber: Upiili's verses in the Majjhimanikaya 

and in the Madhyamagama. In: Indological and Buddhist Studies. Volume in Honour 

of Prof. J.W. de Jong. Canberra 1982. 243-251]. Long ago, W. Stede, JRAS 1927. 

p. 886 pointed out the superiority of pa{ipuccha, vinanta MN III 19, 20 in Se against 

pa{icca vinita found in Ee (cf. SN III 104, 1). A further example from Se, upakkita, 

may be found in the CPO s.v. 1apacinati, These instances collected more or less at 

random draw the attention to the possibility of finding valuable text material in 

Thailand. The manuscript Lk may rather point to the north because of its Laotian 

origin, as the whole historical situation does: this area suffered much less during the' 

political upheaval in the second half of the 18th century. Moreover, there has been a 

council held at Chiang Mai under King Tilaka during 1475-1477 [Ratanapaiifia Thera: 

Jinakalamalipakarat]-a, trsl. by N.A. Jayawickrama. London 1968 p. 164 note 5] with 

the explicit purpose to establish and edit the text of the canon. Thus the presupposition 

to detect traces of an old tradition in the Chiang Mai area does not seem to be 

altogether unfounded. 

To confirm this idea, it is not possible to start with any text casually selected 

from the Tipitaka, To find out on which side of the tradition, either Sinhalese or 

Burmese, a Thai manuscript stands, it is necessary to choose a text transmitted with 

local traditions clearly distinct from each other. At the present state of our knowledge, 

not many texts are found to fulfil this condition. Only rarely we can find a pure Sinhalese 

tradition. In many cases, the basis of the text is rather Burmese and mostly both 

traditions are contaminated to a degree that does not allow any conclusions as to which


local tradition a text or manuscript can be assigned with any confidence [O.v. Hiniiber: 

Notes on the Pali tradition in Burma, note 4j. A rare exception and consequently 

a highly suitable text is the Sa(\lyuttanikaya, in which the readings of the Sinhalese and 

Burmese manuscripts are wide apart from each other as stated by L. Peer (1884) in the 

introduction to the PTS edition [see also: O.v. Hiniiber: On the Tradition of Pali 

Texts in India, Ceylon and Burma. In: Buddhism in Ceylon and Studies on Religious 

Syncretism in Buddhist Countries ed. by H. Bechert. Goettingen 1978. 48-57, esp. 

55f.j. 

At the beginning, the search for a certain text, in this particular case the Sarpyuttanikiya, 

in monastery libraries in North Thailand seemed to pose a serious and rather 

complicated problem. A series of unforeseeable lucky coincidences, however, greatly 

facilitated this task. First of all, quite a few scholars and colleagues in Chiang Mai 

took the trouble upon themselves to extend every help to me whenever necessary and 

possible. In the first place, I have the pleasure to thank Dr. Hans Penth, Chiang 

Mai, who not only introduced me to the Institute of Social Research, University of 

Chiang Mai, but who also drew my attention to the unpublished mimeographed survey 

of manuscripts : A Catalogue of Palm Leaf Texts in Wat Libraries in Chiang Mai 

(Thailand). Part I-IV. 1974-1975 by Sommai Premchit in collaboration with Puangkam 

Tuikeo, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiengmai 

University. This important list proved to be a highly useful tool when trying 

to get a first impression about the texts available and where to find them, for, although 

this catalogue had been planned primarily as a guide for collecting Lanna literature to 

preserve it by microfilming, the authors most fortunately made the highly reasonable 

decision also to include Pili texts whenever they came across old and rare manuscripts. 

Fortunately, a Sarpyuttanikiya manuscript preserved in Wat Phra Singh (Chiang Mai) 

has beeen listed as no. 3/93 in Vol. I. The date given on the cover leaf of this manuscript, 

Ciilasakaraj 964 corresponding to AD 1602 is quite considerable for a Pali 

manuscript, if one bears in mind the fact that most of the surviving manuscript material 

is hardly older than the late 18th century. As far as the Sarpyuttanikiya is concerned, 

the Catalogue of Palm Leaf Manuscripts in the Library of the Colombo Museum by 

W.A. de Silva, Volume I, Colombo, 1938, registers as no. 70 an extremely old manuscript 

dated as early as AD 1412. If this date is correct, this would be the oldest dated 

Pali manuscript known so far. The manuscript found in Wat Phra Singh marked here 

as C was examined by myself in October 1981 thanks to the extraordinary liberality of 

the Venerable Abbot of the monastery n1'1m"'1mln'i1l:11'1l'ftrlli1'il11!h-mh, who readily 

• 

granted access to the treasures of his library, and due to the help of Mr. Puangkam 

(1hni1 ti'rJLiu1) in tracing the manuscript in that library . 

•

PAL! MANUSCRIPTS OF CANONICAL TEXTS FROM NORTH THAILAND 79 

Although the catalogue by Sommai and Puangkam lists eight fasciculi of the 

SalJlyuttanikaya, Sagathavagga, only five have been found so far in the library, viz. 

nos. l, 5, 6, 8a, 8b (the number 8 occurs twice). Again out of these five only three actually 

belong to the old Sarpyutta-nikaya manuscript C copied in Chiang Saen, viz. nos. 

l, 5, 8a. No. 8b comprising 38 leaves with five lines of writing and measuring 5,1 by 

53 em, also belongs to the Sagathavagga corresponding to SN I 198, 12-240, 25. Written 

fairly carelessly in a band clearly different and more modern than C and showing quite 

a lot of mistakes, it is consequently of rather limited value. Here it will be referred 

to as C 0 • Fasciculus no. 6 contains passages from the Vinayapitaka, Bhesajja- and 

Ka!hina-Vaggas of the Mahivagga corresponding to Vinaya I 244, 35-259, 5. It comprises 

18 leaves measuring 5,1 by 56,5 em with 5 lines of writing. 

Thus unfortunately only fasciculi nos. 1, 5. 8 (a) measuring 5 by 52,5 em of 

this highly valuable manuscript are available. Fasc. no. 1 comprises 25 leaves corresponding 

to SN I 1, 1-43, 12; fasc. no. 8 (!) bas 20 leaves corresponding to SN I 73, 

33-96, 5; fasc. 5 (!) has 24leaves corresponding to SN I 98, 12-124, 12. If this manuscript 

is compared to the printed edition it becomes clear at once that the numbering 

of fasciculi is wrong probably because the front leaves have been misplaced. The gap 

of 30 printed pages between fasc. nos. 1 and 8 shows that no. 8 should be corrected to 

3, fasc. no. 2 is lost and no. 5 should be no. 4. On the other band there are no indications 

that these three fasciculi should be attributed to three different manuscripts. 

A first examination of C on the spot at once revealed its high value not only 

because of its age, but also on account of its quality. Carefully written and sometimes 

corrected by the same and then again by a later band, it offers quite a few new and 

interesting variants as will be shown below. However, the time at my disposal in 

Chiang Mai was not sufficient for the time-consuming thorough collation of the whole 

manuscript. Therefore I gladly accepted an offer by Acharn Balee Buddharak~a of the 

Social Research Institute to provide a microfilm, which proved to be of excellent quality. 

At the invitation forwarded by Professor Kasem Burakasikorn, Head of the Social 

Research Institute, I got the opportunity to work at the Institute and to go through the 

index cards of the microfilms prepared formerly under the supervision of Acharn Sommai 

Premcbit, now under Acharn Balee. It is a most agreeable duty to thank all these 

gentlemen for their kind cooperation. 

When checking the index cards, a second old manuscript of the Saf!1yuttanikaya 

was traced dated Ciilasakarij 911 corresponding to AD 1549 written at Wat Lai Hin 

(l1111iit~) near Lampang. This manuscript, however, was not altogether unknown to 

me at that time by the kind help of Dr. Harald Hundius, University of Kiel/West 

Germany, who bad microfilmed Lanna manuscripts some years ago in collaboration 

with the lamented late ~cbarn Sinkba Wannasai. While concentrating on Lanna


literature, Dr. Hundius also included rare and old Pili manuscripts in his collection. 

Luckily, the fasciculi of this manuscript marked here as L filmed by Acham Balee and 

by Dr. Hundius respectively supplement each other so that the whole Sagathavagga is 

available. There are fasc. nos. 3, 4 in the Hundius collection and nos. 1, 6, 8, 10 plus 

two fasc. without number marked as A and B in the Social Research Institute. The 

somewhat confused sequence of leaves and fasciculi has to be rearranged as follows: 

Fasc. no. 8 : 7 leaves=SN I 1, 1-9, 19; fasc. no. 1: leave 7-25 = SN I 9, 20-33, 20; fasc. 

no. 2: 25 leaves=SN I 33, 20-63, 28; fasc. no. 3 (Hundius collection) : 24 leaves=SN I 

63, 28-87, 13; fasc. 1: leaves 1-6=SN I 87, 13-92, 26; fasc. no. 4 (Hundius collection): 

18 leaves=SN I 92, 26-113, 2; fasc. A (corresponding to fasc. no 5) : 24 leaves=SN I 

113, 3-141, 16; fasc. no 8 (correctly no. 6): 25leaves=SN I 141, 16-170, 25; fasc. no. 

10 (correctly no. 7): 25 leaves=SN I 170, 25-200, 3; fasc. B (corresponding to fasc. no. 

8): 34leaves=SN I 200, 3-240, 5. Evidently, the cover leaf of fasc. no 8 should be 

placed on fasc. B, and the seven leaves of fasc. no. 8 should be united with fasc. no. 1. 

The first six leaves of fasc. no. 1 should be placed at the beginning of fasc. no. 4 

(Hundius collection) thus adding up to 24 leaves, the standard number of leaves in 

.. 

one fasciculus (Nn). Why and how fasc. no. 8 (correctly no. 6) and no. 10 (correctly 

no. 7) got their wrong numbers is difficult to guess. Anyway, the total amount of 

leaves filmed covers the complete Sagathavagga corresponding to the first volume of the 

PTS edition. This is particularly fortunate as L written 1549 is still older by half a 

century than C copied in 1602. 

Both manuscripts, C and L, are akin to each other though C is not dependent 

on L directly. As they are near in time but written at a considerable distance from 

each other, L in Lampang and C in Chiang Saen respectively, they can be used to form 

an idea about the Pali tradition covering a relatively large area. Thus any results 

reached at may be used with much more confidence than those deducted from manuscripts 

coming from a single town or worse from a single Wat only. 

Before using C and L to establish a new critical text of the Sagathavagga, it is 

essential to determine the exact relation of these manuscripts to the Sinhalese and the 

Burmese traditions, and, as far as possible, to investigate their mutual interrelation. 

This can be achieved with the help of the methods of classical textual criticism looking 

for common omissions and commissions as well as for additions [0. v. Hiniiber: 

Remarks on the problems of textual criticism in editing anonymous Sanskrit literature. 

In: Proceedings of the first symposium of Nepali and German Sanskritists 1978. 

Kathmandu 1980. 28-40]. Here, a few passages selected as examples will be sufficient 

to clarify the position of C and L. A more detailed study of text-critical problems in the 

Sarpyuttanikiya making full use of C and L is planned for the future.


To assess the value of C and L it is of first and foremost importance to prove, 

if possible, that neither of these manuscripts is directly dependent on the Burmese 

tradition, for that would mean that no new information could be gathered from them 

beyond what is known already from Burmese manuscripts or printed editions. Although 

the well known connections between Burma and North Thailand and the geographical 

vicinity as well as the frequent cultural exchange between both countries, rather more in 

Lampang where L was writtten than in far off Chiang Saen, at once raises the suspicion 

to find just another copy of the Burmese branch of the Pali tradition. Even at a 

first glance, however, it is evident that C and L belong to a tradition separate from the 

Burmese one and that they have much in common in spite of occasional differences. 

Of all known manuscripts, only C and L insert the following verses after: 

..•. uparujjhatiti, SN I 15, 18*: 

ghara nanihamanassa ghara nabhaTJato musa 

ghara nadinnadarvJassa paresaf!Z anikrubbato 

evafl'l chiddaf!l durabhibhavaf!Z to gharaf[l patipajjati 

Thus L; C writes by mistake : nahinihamanassa, padesanJ, ahinikrubbato, bho 

corrected to ko (?), -dif!!Ja-. This verse, the translation of which is not entirely 

certain, occurs again once only in the Vacchanakhajiitaka, Ja II 233, I *-3*: "There 

are no houses for one, who does not exert himself, . there are no houses for one, who 

does not lie, there are no houses for one, who does not punish (na adinna-, ct. : na 

adinnadaf!!fassapi agahitadaf!rfassa, thus Ee following ms. BP, but read with cks na 

adinnna-), who does not deceive others. Who (read : ko)would enter a house so difficult 

to rule and full of defects?" No trace of this verse is found elsewhere in BB, Be, Se, 

neither in Spk nor Spk-h nor in the uddana referring to this passage. At the same 

time the uddana shows that these verses can be linked to the preceding ones only, if 

one checks the catch words given there always referring to the first word of a verse. 

This again does not make much sense, whereas a connection with the following verses 

might be possible, if only by a rather forced interpretation. As an obvious reason for 

inserting these verses here seems to be lacking, they unite C any L so much more so. 

The verse: 

dukkaraf!l duttitikkhan ca avyattena ca samannf!l, SN I 7, 13* is printed 

with this wording in Ee, Be 1939, Be, Se with some minor variants. From Lon the 

other hand an older and evidently better reading emerges : aviyattena siimaiiiiaf!l 

"difficult and hard to endure is ascetism for the untrained". The second ca is uncalled 

for and consequently replaced by hi in Be following B (Be 1939, Be have ca). Moreover 

aviyatta is a form expected within the phonetic pattern of Piili, where clusters such as 

-vy- or -by- seem to be due to a resanskritisation of Pili, as I have tried to show


elsewhere. Although avyatla is by no means a rare word in Pili, the only metrical 

passage, where it occurs according to the CPD and the Pili Tipitaka Concordance 

(PTC), is this verse from the Saqtyuttanik&ya. Therefore, the reading of L is of 

special interest as the only instance where the historical Pali form has been preserved 

due to metrics. At the same time L seems to be older-or at least preserving a tradition 

older than the redaction eliminating aviyatta. The date of this redaction or its 

influence on the North Thai tradition of Pili might have. been the late 16th century. 

For C has avibyattena, a blending of the old and the modern forms. 

Similarly: kilfl sabbaf!Z adanvabhavi, SN I 39, 2* (slokapada a) is transmitted 

thus in L only, while C agrees with Be: ki1[1SU sabba1[1 addhabhavi. For the obscure 

word addhabhavi, discussed in the CPD s.v. addhabhavoti, anvabhavi is a young though 

widely spread Sinhalese variant (cf. Spk I 95 note 3, 4 and the note in Be on SN·I 39, 

2*), which, however, does not seem to occur in the Sinhalese manuscripts used by L. 

Peer, from which he quotes a{thabhavi. This may rather be a misread addha- due to 

the similarity of the ligatures !{ha and ddha in Sinhalese script (?). Thus adanvabhavi 

found in L looks like a blending of two different forms again. 

The details of the interchange of -ndh-, -nv- and -ddh- in Pili are far from 

transparent. The CPD explains the form -nandha- for -naddha- under the headings 

apifayhati and upanandhati linguistically as analogous to different forms of derivatives 

from the root badh, which sounds rather convincing at first. However, taking into 

account further material collected in the CPD under addh~bhavati and andhabhuta, 

further nandi, naddhi, nandhi developed from Sanskrit naddhri [Saddaniti, Index s.v. 

-nandhati; J. Brough: The Gindhiri Dharmapada. London 1962 on verse 42], and 

finally addhagu for anvagu, SN I 39, 3* etc. in Be 1939, it does not seem altogether 

improbable that additional confusion was created by scribes copying Sinhalese manuscripts 

and mixing up -:-ddh- and -ndh-, whereas in South Bast Asian scripts such as 

Burmese or Lanna va and dha change easily by mistake [K.R. Norman : Four etymologies 

from the Sabhiyasutta. In: Budhhist Studies in Honour of WaJpola Rahula. 

London 1980. p. 175 note 11 and: The Elders' Verses II. London 1971 p. 57 on verse 

7; further : varika/dharika, Ja V 302 note 3, 303 note 6J. 

The word addhagu just mentioned above occurs as anvagu, SN I 39, 3*, 5*. 8*. 

10*. 13*. 15* without any varians noted in Be. Be also has anvagu, but refers to 

addhagu in 'ka' here evidently signifying older prints such as Be 1939. The Thai 

manuscripts C and L both have annagu throughout. This is indeed the form to be 

expected in Pili, where -nva- regularly develops into -nna-, cf. samanniigata < 

samanvagata. The preservation of the historical correct reading annagu once again 

proves the high value of the manuscripts united in this passage against the rest of the


published tradition. It is all the more remarkable that C and L retain annagu in spite 

of the fact that the Saddaniti already in the 12th century accepts anvagaf!t in a passage 

where the excellent Sinhalese .Tataka manuscript ck has annagii (CPD s.v. anugacchati), 

In the same way as Ck, C and L have also not been affected by modernisation. Similarly 

Be 1939, Be and B have duranvayo, SN I 19, 4* against durannayo inC, Land 

Be following SS here. 

The valuation of a further passage, where C and L seem to have preserved an 

old reading, is rather complicated because the interpretation of the following verse is 

not without problems: 

thite majjhantike kale sannisinnesu pakkhisu 

saT}at' eva maharaiiiiaf!t, SN I 7, 2*-3*=203, 28*-29*=JaVI 507, 15*-16* 

"even at midday when the birds are settled down together, the great jungle is full of 

noise" (Cone). The rather numerous variants of this verse need not concern us here: 

majjhanhike by conjecture in Be (approved the CPO s.v. antika ?) for the strange 

majjhantike; braharaiiiia'!" in Ja and in SS ofSN; sannisivesu in BB supported by Sadd 

385, 1; 623, 25 and by the quotation of this verse Sadd 858, 17* is also found in L at 

SN I 7, 2*, but not at SN I 203, 28* nor in C, Cn in either passage. The more 

interesting word in this verse is Sal]ate (or Sal]ati) explained as sal]ati viya, Spk I 34, 

25. This rare word reoccurs in canonical Pali only twice at Sn 720, 721 said of the 

noise of a small but quickly flowing river. At Sn 720 the Burmese manuscript Bm has 

SUJ]anta concurring with SUI]ate, SN I 7, 6* in L (this line is omitted in C). The 

reading SUI]ate reoccurs SN I 203, 29* in en, where C is not extant and L has sal]ate. 

In the Sa~yuttaoikaya Suf!ate/sa!]ate has been replaced by palate in Se, while this 

edition has su!]ate without variant in the Jataka, a reading noted neither in Be nor Be 

here. However, it seems to be firmly rooted in the Thai Jataka tradition. For the 

Mahiivessantaravivara~a, a commentary on the Vessantara-Jataka written in Ciilasakaraja 

1107 =AD 1745 in Khmer script, which I was able to inspect due to the kind 

permission given by the National Library, Bangkok, where it is kept today, confirms 

SUlfate: bhoti maddi pakkhisu sannisinne [su] rukkhasakhanam antare sannipatitesu 

kale divakale majjhantike suriyassa majjha ['!"] tike (hite braharaiiiia1f1 mahanta1f1 

araiiiiaf!t SU'f!ate vinadasadda'flJ karoti viya tva'!' ki1f1 icchasi gantu ['!'] tattha tamhi 

evariipe bhyanake (!) araiine. The text of the verse itself is not quoted in full in this 

commentary. Thus su'!ate is of a fairly frequent occurrence, by far too frequent to be 

diregarded as a simple writing mistake. This statement at once provokes the question 

as to the origin of SUI]ate besides salJ.ate or saf}ati which is accepted by Sadd 358, 21. 

If one starts from Sanskrit svanati/svanate the form SUT]ate could well be expected in 

Pali. For, as H. Berger : Zwei Probleme der mittelindischen Lautlehre. Miinchen


1955 p. 61 points out, -va- after consonant develops into -u- in an open syllable, e.g. 

tvarita > turita. This development also allows exceptions : svara > sara (no *sura 

noted). Thus sunate may be old, and -n- > -1]-, if not purely orthographic [J. de 

Lanerolle: The uses of n, I} and I,! in Sinhalese orthography. Colombo 1934) could 

be influenced by SUTJati (?). As the new Indo-Aryan languages and also Prakrit have 

san as e.g. Hindi [R.L. Turner: A comparative dictionary of the Indo-Aryan languages. 

London 1966 no. 13 901 svana-], which, however, as Turner suggests, may be onomatopoetic 

and might have favoured the disappearance of sal}ate in Ceylon. In South 

Bast Asia, on the other hand, and in South India (?), no such pressure from living 

languages surrounding Pili could be exercised. In any case, C and L have saved the 

testimony of an old tradition. 

In the sentences : ahaf!Z avuso navo acirapabbajito adhunagato ima'!' dhammavinayaf!Z. 

na khvahaf!Z sakkomi vittharena acikkhituf!Z, SN I 9, 19-21, C and L have na 

vo'ham and Be 1939, Be, B na t'aham for na khvaham. In the repetition SN I 11, 5 L 

joins BB : na t'aham, while C reads naham. The form khvaham, which contradicts the 

phonetic pattern of Pali again owes its existence to the Sanskritising redaction of Pili. 

The starting point of all variants should be na khaham, na vo' ham, na t'ahaf!l or even 

nahaf!Z. Without any means to explain these variations palaeographically, it should 

therefore have arisen from a change in the shape of the text introduced consciously by 

scribes or redactors. As it is possible to imagine different developments, it is not easy 

to infer the original wording. The combination na kho corresponding to Vedic na kha/u 

is currently used in Pali. Therefore an underlying text na vahaf!Z could be changed 

easily into the more common na khaham, while the way from na khahaf!Z to na vahaf!Z 

seems to be less obvious, though by no means impossible. This na vahaf!l was interpreted 

in South East Asia as na vo (i.e. va~)'ham, 

perhaps even correctly, if vahaf!Z is not to 

be derived from na ve ahaf!Z, in case na ve < na vai should exist. If so, vo would have 

emerged from the not uncommon confusion between vai > ve and va~ > vo, Eastern 

Prakrit ve, which is attested frequently, e.g. in kalaf!Z vo'haf!Z, SN I 9, 1*, where vo is 

considered correctly as a particle: vo nipatamattam, Spk-p~ Be 1961 I 83, 19 [cf. H. 

Lueders: Beobachtungen iiber die Sprache des buddhistischen Urkanons. Berlin 1954, 

22-24]. The Burmese tradition on the other hand replacing v- by t- made it clear 

that a personal pronoun was understood : na te ahaf!Z. Thus the South East Asian 

traditition is united as far as the opinion about the pronoun in this passage is concerned, 

but it is not uniform. It is remarkable that L knows both na vo 'haf!Z and na t'aha'f'l in 

the same way as it has sannisinna and sannisiva as pointed out above. Traces of 

Burmese influence in L are found in other passages too. It is rather tempting to ascribe 

this influence felt in a manuscript written near Lanipang to the geographical vicinity of 

Burma.

PALl MANUSCRIPTS OF CANONICAL TEXT!) FROM NORTH THAILAND 85 

Although a closer and more extensive examination of C and L will bring to 

light almost certainly more evidence of this kind, the passages discussed above may 

suffice for the time being to demonstrate the independence of these two manuscripts 

from other local traditions. 

There are, however, instances where both C an L or at least one of them share 

the Sinhalese tradition: bhagavantaf!l garhaya ajjhabhasi, S I 3, 13f. in SS, C against: 

bhagavaro santike gatham abhasi in BB with L in the middle between both traditions : 

bhagavato santi (!) gathaya ajjhabhasi. This is the first occurrence of this formula 

having gathaya etc. Therefore L simply perseveres the accusative used earlier as the 

Burmese manuscripts do. 

The text -sangatigo, SN I 3, 16*. 18* of BB and Lis confirmed by the prat1ka 

in Spk I 24, 12, where the pa{ha -sangatiko (misprinted in Be as -sankatigo) is 

referred to, which is the actual text found in SS and C. This somewhat strange situation 

can only be explained by a long separate tradition of text and commentary [0. v. 

Hiniiber: On the tradition ...., as above p. 56]. 

The Sinhalese reading: sambuddha sammad-aiiiiaya, SN I 4, 14* shared by C 

and L is confirmed by the commentary (Spk I 25, 33) in Ee, whereas Be has sammadaiiiia, 

v. 1. -aya in 'si, sya' in accordance with the text: te sambuddha_ sammad-aiiiia 

in BB. Further there are two gaps shared by the Sinhalese manuscripts with C and L. 

In the verse: 

deva manussa idha va hura'!' va 

saggesu va sabbanivesanesu, SN I 12, 14* = 23, 9° f. the manuscripts SS, C, L 

omit saggesu vain both passages, which is found in BB and Se too. Similarly: yena 

na'!' vajja na tassa atthi, SN I 11, 25*, Where na tassa atthi is lacking in SS, C, L, but 

again these words are attested in BB and Se. In both places the commentaries do not 

support BB and Se. SS, C, L, and Se are united in reading najjhagamu'!' against BB 

na ca ajjhagamuf!1, SN 12, 13*, aqd C, Land Se have the correct aga (SS aja is faulty), 

SN I 12. 10* against ajjhaga in BB [on this verse : 0. v. Hiniiber: Zum Perfekt im Pili. 

Zeitschrift fiir Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft (KZ) 96.198213.30-32,]. Further 

instances attaching C and L to the Sinhalese tradition are : mahesakkhahi, SN I 9, 26 = 

11, 12, which is repeated inC and S 1 • 2 while BB, Land Se write this word only once. 

The correct wording puccha bhikkhu ayam aha'!' anupatra, SN I 11, 18 "ask, monk, 

here I (a devata) am" is preserved inC and L; SS have the correct ayaf!l (cf. ayam 

aham asmi, SN IV 203, 20) besides the faulty anupatto. The Burmese tradition and Se 

read yam for ayam. 

One of the most distinctive features of the Sinhalese and the Burmese traditions 

is the use of jhatva or chetva respectively. This has been observed long ago by L. Peer, 

who unfortunately preferred the Burmese chetva in his text to replace jhatva in the 

following verses:


kif!ZSU jhatva sukhaf!l seti kif!Zsu jhatva na socati 

kodhal[l jhatva sukhaf!Z seti kodhaf!Z jhatva na socati, SN I 41, 16* ff. [jhatva 

ti vadhitva, Spk I 97, 2; vadhitva ti hantva vinasetva, Spk-pt Be 1961 I 135, 14]=47, 8* 

ff. = 161, 3* ff. = 237, 9* ff.; quoted Nett 145, 19* ff., and: 

dadanti eke visame nivi{!ha jhatva vadhitva atha socayitva, SN I 19, 23* f. 

[ chetva ti pothetva, Spk I 60, 9; chetva ti pi{etva. ta'!' pana pi{ana'fl pothanan ti dassento 

pothetva ti aha, Spk-pt Be 1961 I 103, 16f.] = Ja IV 67 6* [ct.: kilametva], and: 

tan ca jhatvana gacchati, Ja IV 57, 8* [ct.: hatva] 

Everywhere chetva eliminates jhatva in the Burmese tradition, as has been 

discussed in the PTS Pili English Dictionary and again by J. Brough: Gindhiri 

Dharmapada p. 265 on the verses 288, 289. As the GDhp has ]atva in the verses 

corresponding to kirrzsu jhatva .• ., there cannot be any sensible doubt about jhatva 

as original, although its etymological explanation poses some difficulties. In Pali, 

a connection with jhayari "to burn" seems to probable [cf. H. Smith: Saddaniti 

Index, s.v. jhattaJ. In the North West of India there may have been a different 

though homonymous word ]atva by coincidence especially in the light of ]atva, 

GDhp 12 corresponding to hantva, Dhp 294, which would be equivalent to hatva 

etymologically in the Niiristin languages [Turner: Comparative Dictihnary, as above 

no. 13 969 and G. Buddruss: Nochmals zur Stellung der Niiristin Sprachen des afghanischen 

Hindukusch. Muenchner Studien zur Sprachwissenschaft 36. 1977. 23], 

However, this etymological question has no relevance for the discussion of the 

interrelationship of the manuscripts. Manuscript L covering the whole of the Sagatha-: 

vagga always has jjhatva. C, on the hand, originally had iiiiatva, SN I 41 corrected into 

jhatva by a different probably more modern hand as some kind of ink has been used, 

and as the shape of the aksara jha differs from the one found otherwise in C. In SN I 

237, the manuscript en is extant and has iiiiatva throughout without and correction. 

Therefore en might have been copied from C before this manuscript was corrected(?). 

A possible origin of iinatva is not easy to imagine unless one thinks of the confusion of 

the somewhat similar Sinhalese ligatures iiiia and jjha at least in handwriting in a rare 

word. At SN I 19, C probably has kharitva, where the interpretation as kha is not 

quite certain, although the aks,ara is legible without difficulty. 

Anyway neither C nor L ever has chetva as in the Burmese tradition where it 

seemed to be rooted since quite some time even before C and L were written, for the 

Saddanlti quotes: kif!lSU chetva sukhaf!l seti, Sadd 280, 26 illustrating the use of ki'flSU. 

This means that chetva is not explicitly supported by the context, although there does 

not seem to be any trace of the manuscript tradition influencing the Saddaniti. Many 

examples rather point to the opposite direction.


Thus iiizatv'ii and jjhazv'ii found in C and L respectively are a particular strong 

proof for an old non-Burmese tradition prevailing in North Thailand. This is also felt 

in Se, which for the better part replaces jhatvli by ghatva following the Burmese chetv'ii 

only occasionally. The wqrd ghatv'ii evidently points to an underlying jhatva. Whenever 

chetva is found, this indicates a certain degree of contamination of the Thai and 

the Burmese traditions in Se. 

Even if these examples show that the Pili manuscript tradition in North 

Thailand is rather independent of Burma, the situation is not that simple that C and L 

are some kind of a doublet to the Sinhalese manuscripts. Besides the passages quoted 

above where C and L prove to be close to SS or even nearer to the original wording 

\ 

than SS, they also join Burmese readings in some places. This seems to be the case 

mostly in those passages where the text has been reshaped in Ceylon, while the unaltered 

old wording is preserved in Burma. The most evident case is sukkhapayamano, SN I 8, 

20. 101 6, where C and L have pubbapayamano also found in the commentary: pubba· 

payamano ti gattani pubbasadis(mi vodakani kurumano, Spk I 39, 11 ± Ps II 167, 27 on 

MN I 161, 10, where sukkhapayamano occurs in one Burmese manuscript only. The 

situation is the same again at AN V 196, 6, where one Burmese and one Sinhalese manuscript 

out of five manuscripts and Se used by the editor have sukkhapayam'iino, of which 

there is no trace in the commentary, Mp V 65, 20; similarly AN III 345, 12 with Mp III 

368, 16. One commentary explains pubbapayamano as: sukkapayamano ti attho, Ps 

II 167, 27, which makes sense only, if pubbapayamano correctly preferred by most 

editors and H. Smith, Saddanlti, Index p. 1619 s. v. really is the original reading. 

Therefore pubbapayamano at SN I 8, 20 = 10, 6 cannot be considered as typically 

Burmese and as such shared by C and L. It is the original text preserved in South East 

Asia but changed into a lectio facilior sukkhapayamano in Ceylon. Correspondingly 

nivaraye, SN I 7, 15* u-u- in the cadence of a Sloka preserved in Sl, printed in Be 

1939, Be and in the pratika Spk I 36, 20 and shared by C and L against Be nivareyya 

(metre!) is an original old reading and not typical for the Burmese tradition. 

One peculiar feature of C and L separates these manuscripts from the Sinhalese 

tradition, that is the widely spread use of and predilection for krubbati, SN I 19, 3*. 4* 

and elsewhere, here against Be 1939, Be, Se, Be all reading kubbati. The form krubbati, 

the possible origin of which is discussed in my article "Notes on the Pili Tradition 

in Burma", seemed to be found in Burmese manuscripts only, and that much more 

frequently than this can be deduced from the PTS editions. The manuscripts C and 

L now show that krubbati is not confined to Burma, but that it spread over a much 

wider area in South East Asia than one could assume earlier. Whether or not SN I 19 

shows that krubbati once was used much more often, but was pushed back in course of


time under Sinhalese influence is difficult to ascertain for the moment. For a full 

evaluation of the difference between BB on one and C and Lon the other hand at SN I 

19, a more detailed and comprehensive study of C and L seems to be necessary. 

Lastly, there are some minor points of agreement between C, Land the Burmese 

tradition such as: dadanti heke, SN I 19, 23* against Sl, 2 dadanti eke, S3 dadanti ceke; 

or; hitva agaral'fl pabbaji1a, SN I 15, 25* against SS pabbajitva, which almost certainly 

is a mistake. There are, however, no decisive readings common to C, L and BB, as far 

as this can be inferred from about the first twenty pages of the printed edition. If 

Burmese influence is absent, C and L have many features in common with SS or show 

characteristics of their own pointing to an old and good tradition. Thus it might not 

be too far fetched to think that we really can find traces of the Chiang Mai Council in 

the Thai tradition, even if it is too early to consider this as proved after inspecting only 

two manuscripts and these in part only as done in this preliminary study. However, 

the hope is growing and seems to be well-founded now that more material still hidden 

in Wat libraries in North Thailand, when brought to light, will help to re-establish an 

old and truly Thai Pili tradition, the value of which for establishing better critical text 

editions and for the history of Pili can hardly be rated too high. 

Abbreviations : 

AN 

BBFEO 

IIJ 

JRAS 

MN 

Mp 

Nett 

PEFEO 

Ps 

Sn 

Spk 

Spk-~ 

ZDMG 

Anguttaranikiya, 

Bulletin de l'Bcole FranQaise d'Bxtreme-Orient 

Indo-Iranian Journal 

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 

Majjhimanikiya 

Manorathapiira~I (commentary on AN) 

Nettippakara~a 

Publications de l'Ecole FranQaise d'Bxtreme-Orient 

Papaiicasiidanl (commentary on MN) 

Suttanipita 

Siratthappakisinl (commentary on SN) 

(subcommentary on Spk) 

Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlii.ndischen Gesellschaft

REDEFINING THE SANGHA'S ROLE IN NORTHERN 

THAILAND : AN INVESTIGATION OF .MONASTIC 

CAREERS AT FIVE CHIANG MAl W ATS 

DAVID L. GOSLING* 

During the period July 1980 to April1981 an investigation was conducted into 

the involvement of Thai monks in the Chiang Mai area of northern Thailand in rural 

development. It .was concluded that the monks' role is undergoing significant transformations 

along the lines indicated in previous work and by other researchers, and 

that there are important educatio~al factors which undergird the manner in which they 

are attempting to redefine their role. In particular, many monks are increasingly 

opting for Adult Education courses in preference to the traditional pariyattitham studies. 

These courses cover a wide range of secular subjects which enable the monks to f!llfil a 

more development-orientated role than would otherwise be possible. They also equip 

them with the kind of skills which will increase their prospects of finding gainful secular 

employment if and when they disrobe. . 

Previous work on development-orientated programmes by Thai monks has been 

conducted by Tambiah, Suksamran, Klausner, and others.(l) Research by this author 

has been carried out at the two Buddhist Universities in Bangkok, where much of the 

monks' training takes place, and a descriptive account of the main features of.some of 

the development projects mentioned in this article has recently been published in the 

Southeast Asian Journal. of Social Science.(2) Financial support for these investigations 

has been provided. by the British Academy and the Nuffield Foundation, whose 

generosity and confidence in the face of increasing political opposition to the social 

sciences by the U.K. Government, is much appreciated. 

I Chiang Mai's "Secular" Buddhism 

Chiang Mai Province, occupying an area of just under 23, 000 sq. km., had a 

population of 1,100,000 in 1976.(3) Its capital, the city of Chiang Mai, serves as a 

* Department of Theology and Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Hull. 

1. S.J. Tambiah, World Conqueror and World Renouncer, Cambridge University Press, 1976; 

Somboon Suksatnran, Political Buddhism in Southeast Asia, St. Martin's Press, 1976; W.J. 

Klausner, Reflections in a Log Pond, Suksit Siam, 1972. See also articles in Visakha Puja and 

elsewhere by Sulak Sivaraksa, Charles F. Keyes, P.rawase Wasi, and Ruth-lnge Heinze. 

2. D.L. GoSling, "Thai Monks in·Rural Development" in the Southeast Asian Journal of Social 

Science, Vol. 9, Nos. 1-2. 

3. The Official C~nsus figures for the popuiation of Chiang Mai Province in 1960, 1970, and 

1976 were 800,000; 1,000,000 and 1,100,000 respectively. Chiang Mai is the largest of the 

. ~ixteen provinces of northern Th.ailand. .

90 David L. Gosling 

market and financial center for a wide range of light industry ( eg. furniture and bricks), 

commercial agricultural products (tobacco and tea), and handicrafts (silk, woodcar,ving, 

and silver work). The city is also the fo~al pohit of contact between Thai economic 

and political officialdom and the chao khao or hill tribes· (to use a term which effectively 

challenges the conventional notion of distinct ethnic tribal groups.< 4)) 

According to the 1970 Census 94% ofthe 84, 000 inhabitants of Chiang Mai 

municipality declare themselves to be Buddhist. There are approximately 70 wats within 

the municipality, of which about 35 are located inside the walls of the old city. According 

to a survey conducted by Charles Keyes between 1972 arid 1974 an average wat 

in the Chiang Mai municipality (thetsaban) contains five monks and 12 novices. Average 

congregation sizes vary from about 50 at the weekly wan phra (Sunday) services 

during Lent to 70 at major holy day festivals (eg., Songkran, Og Phansa, Khao Phansa). 

Keyes maintains that "not more than ten per cent of the "Buddhist" population ·or 

Chiang Mai city are members of the "supporting congregation" of any wat", and that 

"secular influences have strongly challenged the role which the wat traditionally filled".

REDEFINING THE SANGHA'S. ROtE ·tN NORTHERN THAILAND 

91 

become eligible .for ordination as full-fledged monks. They duly ordain 

and continue with their education, the most important factor in accounting 

for the larger proportion of (young) monks to novices in the 

capital. The provincial centers recruit and perform the early academic 

training of able young novices; Bangkok and Thonburi complete their 

higher education as monks in their early twenties and early thirties.< 6> 

Thus although the provincial urban wats such as the ones which formed 

part of the present investigation are not necessarily smaller than the Bangkok ones, 

their functions are different in that they often perform an intermediate educational 

stage between small village wats and those in the Capital. Wats such as the Wat 

Mahathat and the Wat Bovornives in Bangkok together with the two Buddhist Universities, 

Mahamakut and Mahachulalongkorn, represent the apex of an educational 

system whereby novices in their early teens from poor families in the provinces migrate 

via the provincial capitals or via intricate "patronage" networks to the Capital. This 

motivation is reflected in many of the responses to a questionnaire requesting reasons 

for ordination (See Section II). 

In recent years the attraction of the Capital as an educational centre has been 

further enhanced by the introduction of secular subjects into the syllabi of the Buddhist 

Universities, and by development programmes centred on the Universities which enable 

monks originally from poor homes in the provinces to-improve the standards of living 

of their kinfolk. 

The predilection of these young scholar monks for "science, technology, 

and social service" has been described in an earlier article.m The educational 

shift towards the study of more secular subjects at the Buddhist Universities and its 

practical concomitant in terms ofenthusiastic involvement in Dhammatuta, Dhammajarik 

and other development-orientated programnies finds a provincial echo in a marked 

. tendency to attend Adult Education classes rather than the traditional pariyattitham 

courses-a tendency whichwill be quantified in the ensuing sections. 

A further distinction between residents of Bangkok and Chiang Mai wats is 

that there are proportionally fewer navaga or temporary monks in the latter. This is 

because the temporary monks who ordain for periods ranging from a few days to the 

duration ofPhansa (ie. the rainy season) are drawn primarily from the professional and 

administrative urban classes of which there is naturally a preponderance in the ¢a pi tal. 

However several such respondents were identified, plus a number who stated that they. 

6. S.J. Tambiah, Op. cit. (1), p. 283. 

7· D.L. Gosling, "New Directions in Thai Buddhism" in Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 14, No.3, 

1980, p. 424. See also, same author, "Perspectives in Thai Bqddhist Involvement in Science 

and SociAl Development;' ui VisiikhriPuja; BE 2522 (1979); p. 3( ··

92 . .bl\vicl.l .. Go!!iipg ... · 

ordained initially as navaga (in their own minds.:.. no such official distinction exists), and 

then decided to stay on; 

Buddhism in Chiang Mai possesses a distinctive "ethos" derived in part from a 

rich history which reached its zenith in t:he fifteenth century. In 1423 Chiang Mai was 

the scene of a great council of mo~s, many of whom were Khmer and Sinhalese, which 

attempted to revise. the Pali scriptures. Although the political independence of the 

Royal House of Chiang Mai was drastically diminished at the endofthe nineteenth 

century,. many distinctive religio-cultural featur~s have persisted until the prese~t day. 

Charles Keyes has described the strl,lggles which occurred at the beginning of the present 

century between the nation~! Sangha and the Chiang Mai ecclesiastical authorities 

· as follows : 

Beginning in the first decade of the twentieth century, the 

senior authorities of the Thai Sangha, or Buddhist Order, began 

h1_stituting reforms which were designed to eliminate regional and 

local autonomy within the clergy. Two of the reforms instituted were 

of particular importance to the clergy of Chiang Mai and of other · 

parts of northern Thailand: first, the role of "precep~or," that is the 

role of the monk with the authority to preside at the ordination of 

other monks, was no longer to be determined by seniority alone. 

Rather, "preceptors" were to be only those ·who.had been confirmed 

by the authorities within the national hierarchy. Secondly, religious 

education was to be made to conform to a national curriculum, one 

which had been constructed by the Patriarch, Prince Wachirayan 

himself. The northern Thai clergy did not accept. these reforms passively, 

as did, apparently, the clergy in northeastern Thailand for whom 

the reforms were equally threatening. In northern Thailand, ·the 

famous monk, Khru BaSivichai, led what I call the last stand of 

northern Thai conservatism. Followinga series of moves which included 

the v~tuai imi)risonment of Khru Ba Siwichai and the threat of open 

revolt on the part of the northern Thai clergy and their lay followers, 

something of a compromise was ·achieved. The northern Thai clergy 

accepted the authority of the national hierarchy in the matter of who 

shou~d have the right to be· a "preceptor" while the national Sangha 

authorities tacitly recognized the right of the northern clergy to per- . 

petuate their own tradition of religious education, albeit only for local 

purposes; At the same time, the national Sangha officials succeeded 

hi appointing several non-northern monks as. religious teachers and as . 

holders of other important functions in a number of the most important. 

temples in northern Thailand. In Chiang Mai, the p~incely family 

assisted it~ the effort to convert the important wat of Cedi Luang into 

a temple affiliated with the strict. Thammayut order. which w~s intr.o.-,_ ...

REDEFINING THE SANGHA'S ROLEiN NORTHERN THA1LAN:b 

. 93 

duced into Chiang Mai by a ranking monk sent by Prince Patriarch 

. , Wachirayan. .To this day its. abbot is not a northern Thai. A 

non~northern monk was also sent as religious instructor to Wat Pbra 

Sing, the other most important wat of the city. This QlOnk subse~ 

quently became the ecclesiastical bead of the district of Com Thong, in 

Chiarig Mai province, and has recently been chosen as the abbot of Wat 

PhraSing itself. 

The Wat Chedi Luang and the Wat Phra Singh. which played :such a seminal 

role in the ecclesiastical struggles between Bangkok and Chiang Mai,. ~ere included in 

this investiga~ion. . The former is the centre of Dhammayut development activities in 

the province, and its Deputy Abbot continues the tradition indicated by Keyes in that 

he maintains strong links with the Capital. But whereas ~eyes, writing in the early 

seventies, describes a: historical context whereby the Bangkok ecclesiastical authorities 

maintained tight control over the northern provincial wats, the relationship now appears 

to have undergone a significant shift in that Chao Khun Rajavinayaporn, who is Deputy· 

Abbot of both the Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai and the prestigious Wat Bovornives 

in Bangkok, far from representing the cold dead hand of national ecclesiastical confor~ 

mity, is one of the most charismatic and radically innovative members of the Sangha!(!l) 

At the time of the questionnaire and interview investigation there were eight 

monks and 15 novices in residence at the Wat Cbedi Luang, plus appro;ximately 50 

luksits, many of whom were from the hill tribes. Reference has been made in an 

earlier article to the work of Phra Maha Tawin and Phra Thanajun Guttadhammo, 

both Dhammayut monks at the Wat Cbedi Luang, among the Meo and Karen, and the 

role of the Wat itself as a springboard for development activities in remote parts of the 

north. 0 °> . 

Maha Nikai wats are much more . numerous, and it is not so easy to identify 

.apy particular -one as a -focal point for development work. Klausner and others, 

writing in the early seventies, ascribe a major developmental role to the Wat Phra 

Singh, and Keyes offers historical reasons why this should be the case. But although 

this Wat was included in the survey, it was not felt to be particularly active in the field 

of development, and . only 12 of· its residents (five monks and seven novices) could be 

persuaded· by the Abbot to complete questionnaires! Discussions with lay workers and 

academics at Chiang Mai University confirmed the view that there was not much deve~ 

lopment work going on there. . · . · ' .• · ' . 

_8. Charles F. Keyes, Op. cit. (5), p. 63. 

9. A more detailed account of this remarkable monk is given in an earlier and more descriptive 

...... article .. Se.e :d.L •. Gosling,_O.p, cit. m..... . .. .. ---.. - ..... ~ ___ .. . _ . . . .. . .. 

10. D.L. Gosling, Op. cit. (2),

94 David t. Gosling 

By contrast the Wat Bupparam, situated in the centre of Chiang Mai town, 

was a hive of activity. This was largely due to the dynamism and imagination of its 

Abbot, Phra Khru Mongkol Silawongs, who is also Chao Kana Am pur (District Sangha 

Governor) of the 82 ¥aha N:ikai wats in the Doi Saket sub-district of Chiang Mai 

Province. Ninetet?n monks and 17 novices at the Wat Bupparam answered questionnaires. 

Phra Khru Mongkol's charismatic impact on Maha Nikai wats in the Chiang 

Mai area is sufficiently significant to merit a more detailed account of his views, which 

inevitably influenced the attitudes of Maha Nikai questionnaire respondents. He 

believes that whereas the monk in Thai society has traditionally fulfilled the roleof 

thura vipassana (practitioner of meditation) and thura kanta (practitioner of learning), 

he must increasingly become a thura patana (practitioner of development). His 

development programmes in Doi Saket include weaving, sewing, flower and toy making, 

fruit growing, and a wide range of agricultural skills~ Electricians are trained, and in 

the hill areas people are taught oy the monks to dig wells and· roads. Unlike the 

officials of the Government-sponsored Dhammajarik Programme based on the Wat Si 

Soda, Phru Khru Mongkol does not se~ development work as an adjunct to conversion 

to Buddhism-with all the political overtones that some writers see in thisUl l He feeis 

that development work must be done for its own sake and because it was enjoined by 

the Buddha on his followers. But he works in close cooperation with local Government 

Departments and their trained perso~el, many of whom are extremely willing to assist 

in the training of the monks. The same local Gover~ment employees together with 

teachers and academics at colleges and the University of Chiang Mai, are responsible 

for the Adult Education classes which are proving increasingly popular with the monks 

and which are frequently held in wat compounds. 

One of the most striking features of Phra Khru Mongkol's work is his mettanaree 

schemes which enable young women to learn sewing, weaving, and similar skills .. 

These programmes are proving extremely popular and· take place within the compounds 

of various wats. The goods are marketed in Chiang Mai. Chao Khun Rajavinayaporn 

·also supervises similar schemes a.t rural wats under his jurisdiction. (In addition to 

being Deputy Abbot of the Wat Chedi Luang he is also Chao Kana Changwat (Provincial 

S~ngha Governor) of all Dhammayut wats north of Nakorn Sawan). · The sight of 

brightly dressed metta-naree trainees cheerfully operating Singer sewing machines in 

the forefront of wats . administered by these two exceptionally talented monks is 

extremely refreshing, and represents a radically innovative aspect of the monks' role as 

11. S. Suksamran, Op cit. (1).

REDEFINING THE SANGHA'S ROLE IN NORTHERN THAILAND 95 

thura pat ana. The last two questions of the. Thai questionnaire, a translation of which 

is included as an Annex, were framed with the programmes of Phra Khru Mongkol and 

Chao Khun Rajavinayaporn in mind. 

As has already been indicated, the Wat Si Soda is the centre of the Government-sponsored 

Dhammajarik Programme. The Wat recruits boys in their early teens 

from the hill tribes in the region, and after a very short period of training sends them 

to be ordained to the noviciate at a spectacular ceremony at the Wat Benjamabopitr in 

Bangkok. Ten monks, 35 novices, and one luksit answered the questionnaire. The 

luksit was having his head shaved prior to ordination at the time of the visit and may 

therefore be regarded as an honorary novice ! 

The questionnaire did not ask respondents to specify their original tribal group. 

This would have been impolite and "inappropriate". Some monks objected even to 

having to specify whether they were Dhammayut of Maha Nikai on the grounds that 

such a question was divisive. But insofar as all members of the same wat are necessarily 

members of the same "sect", there was never any fundamental problem in obtaining 

this information. According to the Abbot's secretary at the Wat Si Soda the questionnaire 

respondents included monks and novices from the Meo, Yao, Lahu, Lisu, Karen, 

Akha, Lauo, Tin, Huo and Tai Yai groups. The largest proportion were Karen. . Some 

had a fairly limited command of Thai and were consequently rather dilatory about 

returning their questionnaires. They also tended to specify their year of birth according 

to the Chulasakarat system (year of rabbit, dog etc.).02> 

The Wat Chetupon was included in the investigation because it seems to be a 

typi~al Chiang Mai wat possessing none of the distinctive features of the ones that have 

been mentioned so far, and also because there is an Adult Education school attended by 

the monks in the wat compound. Its Abbot, Phra Khru Wickron Kanapirakhsa, is Chao 

Kana Ampur of Chiengdow District. He is much respected as a meditation teacher 

and is renowned for his kindness. There are ten monks and 74 novices normally in 

residence at the Wat, but many of them were away at the time of the visit. Seventeen 

novices ~nd two monks completed questionnaires.. Both monks and all but four of the 

novices were attending Adult Education classes. 

II General Characteristics of the Respondents 

A translation of the Thai questionnaire is appended as an ·Annex. It was 

designed basically to p_robe respondents' social and educational backgrounds, the extent 

12. According to the Chulasakarat System there is a cycle of twelve years, each bearing the name 

of an animal, beginning with the rat followed by the ox. tiger,rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, 

· goat, monkey, cock, dog and pig. King Prasattong. caused some confusion in the Thai 

calendar by changing the order. The modern Thai calend!!.r W@S intro4~ce~ o~ 111nuarr 1st, 

J941 (~uddhist.Bra ~4?4 1 o~ ~~e rear of t~e snake), .


of their involvement in development work, a0:d their ·attitudes to speci;fic developmentorientated 

roles some of which might be regarded as controversial from the point of 

view of th~ Vinaya or Patimokkha. The rationale behind different parts of the questionnaire 

will be discussed together with th~ responses. 

Attention wiil be directed primarily to respondents at the five wats which were 

described in the previous section. But questionnaires were also completed by sample 

· groups of students at Chiang Mai and Ramkhamba~ng Universities, by monks, novices 

and luksits at the Wat Bovornives in Bangkok, and by a small group of monks at 

Mabachulalongkorn Buddhist University. . · 

Two hundred ~d eighty seven completed questionu.aires were ·obtained in the 

course !lf the investigation, ancl many of the respondents were interviewed. The 

responses were transl~ted into E~glish,' coded, and analysed using a standard SPSS 

programme on the _University of Hull's I.C.L.-19048 Computer. Values of Chi Square 

were obtained, and it may be assumed that figures given in Tables I and II are statistically 

significant. . 

{i) Social Background . 

Thirty two_per ce~t of the Chiang Mai respondents were monks, the remainder 

novices, Eighty-six per cent had been born in the northern region; of the remainder 

10% came from the northeast. Fifty-five per cent had been born in Chiang Mai 

province. 

The 45% of the respondents not born in Chiang Mai province specified birthplaces 

primarily ip. the northern and northeastern regions, with less than· 3% from other 

parts of the country (mostly from the south). From an inspection of die questionnaires 

it was apparent that respondents had moved according to well-established· patterns 

· · which co~ected particular h~me p:rovinces with ,particular ·Chiang Mai wats. These 

'aetworks were closely related to the type of wat, ie. whether Dhammayut or Maha 

Nikai. (Seventeen per cent of the respondents were Dhammayut, the remainder Maha 

Nikai). 

Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son provinces in northern Thailand_. were the major 

suppliers of residents at the fo1,1r Maha Nikai wats (after Chiang M;ai province itself), 

whereas a large proportion of Dhammayut. monks at the Wat Chedi Luang were 

originally from Lampang. Maha Nikai respondents also came froin Kamphaeng Phet, 

Lampang, Lamphun, Nan, Petchabun, Phrae and Tak in the north, and Maha Sarakham, 

Nakhon Ratcliasima, and Surin in the northeast. Dhammayut respondents not born in 

either Chiang Mai or Lampailg came from Chiang Rai, Lamphun, N'akhon Sawan, 

Petch~bpn, and Tak in the north, and Loei, Roi Et,. Sakon N!ikhon· ~ T,JdQn Th!lui


in the northeast. There were no respondents belonging to either Nikai from Pichit, 

Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Uthai Thani or Uttaradit in the north or approximately half 

the provinces in the northeast. 

The fath~rs of 86% of the Chiang Mai monks and novices were farmers and 

none were involved in Government service. The remaining 14% were predominantly 

hired labourers or small traders. By contrast 30% of the Chiang Mai University students 

who completed questionnnaires had fathers in Government service; and none were 

farmers. A respondent at the Wat Bovomives wrote "My father belongs to the rotten 

backbone of the country that profits landowners and civil servants". Parental occupations 

at the Wat Bovornives were distributed fairly evenly between Governmental, 

agricultural and "other" (es. 'trade, commerce) responses. But the Wat Bovornives 

sample included /uksits and quite a number of navaga or temporary monks, who tend 

to be drawn from the cQmmercial and professional segments of Thai society.03) A few 

navaga were resident at the five wats which constituted the main focus of the 

investigation. 

Fifty-seven per cent of the Chiang Mai monks and novices had not had an 

occupation prior to ordination, which meant that they had been too young to have· one. 

Thirty-eight per cent had been farmers. This contrasted sharply with the Wat 

Bovornives, where 67% stated that they had been in some form of Government service 

prior to ordination. 

The majority of the Chiang Mai respondents had· between two and seven 

·brothers and sisters:...characteristically specified as older or younger. The average 

number of brothers and sisters was 4.6 + 0.2, making an average family ·size of 6.6. 

This is somewh.at larger than any of the regional averages quoted 'in the 1970 census. 

According to the 1970 national popul_ation census the average household size for the 

whole country is 5. 79; for the northern region itis 5.46 and for the northeast it rises to 

a regional maximum o£'6.12. The most obvious explanation is that the families of 

monks.really are larger than average, and that this is a factor which induces parents to 

encourage one or more sons to ordain. 

(ii) Monastic Careers 

The role of wats in provincial capitals such as Chiang Mai in relation to the 

movements 9f rural youths from their native villages to the Capital has already been 

referred to, and is-described in detail by Tambiah.


·-The northern pattern is •... different from that prevailing in the· 

rest of the country, in that the custom is to ordain novices in large 

numbers and for most of them to leave after a period of time. Some, 

more commit~ed educationally and vocationally, stay on to become 

ordained monks. The custom of ordaining · young men of 20-21 as 

t-emporary monk~ which is usual elsewhere in Thailand, is not traditional 

in the north, though in recent times it is taking bold especially 

in the towns as central Thai standards becom~ the norm.cm 

No evidence was found for the existence of a distinctive northern pattern along 

the lines indicated, and one is therefore inclined to agree with Tambiab~s concluding 

caveat. 

Ninety per cent of the residents at the five· Chiang Mai wats bad been luksits 

prior to. ordination, the majority for a period of approximately one year. All of them 

had been luksits in the northern region (which means that those . born in the northeast . 

4ad ~ov~d via an establish:ed network at least a year prior to ·ordination and at an age 

of between 10 al;ld 15), but ·only a quarter bad been luksits in Chiang Mai province. 

At first sight the cm;responding percentages for ordination to the noviciate are 

obs~ure. ·· Sixty-:six per cent of the respondents were ordained to the noviciate in the 

northern region and only 46% were ordained in Chiang Mai province. The reason for 

this apparent discrepancy is that the WatSi Soda sends its members to the Wat Benjamabopitr 

for ordination. This distorts the classification of responses to place of 

ordination according to region (ie. central, north, northeast, south, Bangkok/Thonburi, 

or •·other") and wh~ther ordained in Chiang Mai province or not. If the Wat Si Soda 

ordinations are regarded as having taken place in Chiang Mai, then the figures become 

'more intelligible. 

Forty-eight per cent of the respondents appeared to have only ever resided at 

one wat (ie. the one where the investigation took place). Forty three per cent had 

been to iwo, and the remaining 9% had resi~ed at more;: than two wats in the course of 

theiJ: monastic careers .. Once again. the_ ~at Si Soda, and to a lesser extent the Wat. 

Chedi Luang; tended to distort the more general J>attern in that they both recruit 

luksits and novices direct from the hill tribes, thus bypassing what for the majority is 

an intermediate stage at a rural wat in Chiang Mai province but often: outside the 

municipality. · · 

. Thus~ . to. revert to Tainbiah's ge~erai thesis, it appears that wats in the. provinciai"'c~pita1 

of Chiang Mai occupy an intermediate position between the rural wats 

which admit yo~ng .men ~s luksits or novi~es_ ap.d the w~ts in Bangkok/Thonburi. It 

is· ~ignificant (tbou~h the actual numbers involved are small) that the 10% or so of the 

15. S.J. Tambiah, Ibid., p. 281,

1UtDEFIN1NG tHE SANGHA 1 S ROtE iN NORTHERN 1'HA1tAND 

respondents born outside the northern region moved . first into the "radial" orbit of 

Chiang Mai municipality from ·which some might ultimately migrate into the ~galactic" 

orbit of the metropolis. It is also significant that none of the respondents at any of the 

five Chiang Mai wats had been born in central Thailand 'where presumably the majority 

·of.monastic· careers fall within the "radial" sphere of Sukhothai. , 

. . . 

There was no evidence of a distinctive northern pattern of temporary ordination 

to the noviciate. The use of the Yuan script in the education of luksits and novices 

at the wats was noted, though it was not 1 possible to forrn an estimate of the ext~nt of 

its use. According to Charles Keyes the Yuan script, which is traditional in the north 

of Thailand, has been relegated to.a strictly religious f'-!nctioh since World War II and 

is declining in importance.(l6> Luksits and' novices originally froin hill tribes at the 

Wats Chedi Luang and.Si Soda were much mor.e concerned with improving their Thai. 

. . . 

Respondents at the five Chiang Mai wats were invited to state their reasons 

for ordination. The following fairly typical reasons were given by two monks and 

two novices at .the Wat Bupparam: 

I ordained as a debt of gratitude to my parents, to study Dhamma, 

and to keep Buddhism alive. 

I became a monk out of faith in Buddhism, to propagate the . 

Noble Truths, and to advance myself in the secular world. 

I ordained to study. My family's economic background is not 

good. As a monk time is more readily available (for study), and the 

cost is less. · 

i ordained· to study Dhamma and to keep Buddhism alive. 

My formal education was very minimal and this is also why I ordained. 

Several respondents ordained partly at least in order to helP disadvantaged 

sections of society. According to a monk at the Wat Chedi-Luang·:· . 

l·ordained to study-Buddhism in depth, to·please the family, 

and to contribute something to the community. 

According to two monks at the Wat Bupparam : 

I became a monk to be educated so as to help the poor. They. 

ca.nnot help themseives; so I will t.ell them how to do so . 

.· I ordained to study the Lord Buddha's teaching so that it . 

could . reach people iti rembte ~reas ~nabling 

. 

them to understand Bud- 

; . . 

dhism and cul.ture for their own benefit. 

Two novices and. a. monk at the Wat Si Soda gave reasons. for ordination 

consistent wit~ their tribal backgrounds : · 

16. Charles F. Keyes, Op. cit. (S), p. 62.

100 David L Gosllng 

I got ordained through faith in Buddhism a·nd to study both 

religion and .secular subjects including every single part of the Thai 

language. · 

I became a monk to spread Buddhism to far away places. · 

I ordained to understand Buddhism and to learn the Thai 

language because I come from a hill tribe. 

A monk at the Wat Phra Singh, who had tended buffaloes prior to his ordin!ltion, 

painted a gl!)omy picture of educational standards in his home area (Mae Jam) : 

Ordination was the intention of my parents for me to have a 

better education because the family is poor. In our countryside there are 

many children who even after obtaining Grade 4 of primary education 

cannot read at all . 

. A novice at the Wat Chetupon from a mercl!.ant family in Chiang Rai ordained 

as a npvaga, but decided to remain in orders·~' . 

My aunt passed away and I wanted to extend merit to her . 

. After studying the Dhamma and attending classes I felt very good· so I 

decided to stay on. 

A monk in his mid-twenties at the Wat Chedi Luang was extremely articulate 

about his reasons for ordaining·: 

I ordained because I was.convinced by the Lord.Buddha's 

teaching which is rational and up-to-date. The Buddha does not force 

anyone to believe, but leaves people to believe for themselves. His 

teaching is of the highest philosophical quality and is very scientific. 

(iii) Education 

Since the time of the Ayutthaya era and possibly prior to it, education has 

been an integral part of the Thai monastic system.. It is therefore incorrect to view 

those who advance themselves educationally via the Sangha as ~ving an ulterior 

motive in relation to their Buddhist beliefs. Nation, monarchy and religion are so 

closely ·entwined that it is virtually impossible to analyse any one in isolation from the 

others. To be Thai is to be a Buddhist and·a.toyal subject of the King. To be an 

educated Thai is to be· a more mature and effective member of society, and it is tliere.: 

fore· both natural· and appropriate for the Sangh~ to play a major -ro~e in the education 

of the Nation's youth. And it is equally natural-as happene,d in the latter part of 

the last century and the 'early part of the present-for the Monarchy to attempt to 

mobilize the Sangha in order to promote more effective educational programmes. 

But the ensuing educational matrix with its parallel avenues of religious and 

secular social mobility is extremely complex. Before describing it in detail a number 

of general points will be made. ·

REDEFINi NG T!{E SANGHA'S ROtE 1N NORTHERN THAitANb 101 

Historically the Thai Sangha has always laid a high premium on education 

which was traditionally centred on the local wat. Wat education was primarily based 

on Pali studies and essential Buddhist teaching, but ~lso included instruction in medicine, 

law, astrology, and even construction and the art of self defence !Cl 7 > Furthermore 

Thai custom has always recognised the right of individual monks and novices to 

disrobe and resume lay status without loss of respect or merit. Consequently there 

is a long and venerable tradition of monks who have attained great scholastic eminence 

within the Sangha and who then disrobe and take up civil positions of considerable 

power and influence. King Mongkut, who ruled from 1851-1868, did precisely this 

himself, but seems to have had subsequent misgivings about the impetus he had thereby 

given to the secular ambitions of some members of the Sangha. At any rate he appears 

to have been the first monarch to recognise the possible dangers of such openended 

avenues for social advancement. In passing several royal decrees to stem the 

tide, he seems to have started a competitive dialogue between secular and ecclesiastical 

educational systems which continues to this day !· 

In 1892 King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) established a Ministry of Education 

and thus initiated a secular counterpart to the ecclesiastical institutions which had 

traditionally assumed responsibility for all levels of education. But it was not until 

1921 that Rama VI promulgated a Primary Education Act requiring all children between 

seven and 14 to attend school. In 1933 these age limits were changed from eight to 15. 

The first four years of pr i m~ry education were originally geared to four prathom 

grades followed by six secondary matayom grades. In the early 1960s primary educawas 

extended until eventually seven prathom grades were in existence. In the mid-1970s 

children aged between seven and 14 would attempt primary prathom 1-7 followed by 

secondary matayom 1-5, which took them from 14 to 18, when they would be eligible 

to go to University. 

In 1978!79 the prathom grades were reduced to six, starting at the age of six 

and finishing at 12, and the secondary maw saw grades were divided into two groups, 

maw 1-3 and maw 4-6. These were designed for the 12 to 18 age group, so that maw 

6 is now the recognised entry qualification for a secular university (eg. Chulalongkorn · 

or Ramkhamhaeng-not to be confused with Mahachulalongkorn or Mahamakut Buddhist 

Universities, which are for monks only). Not only have the secular primary and 

secondary systems changed twice in the last decade, but there are regional variations, 

17. S. Chongkol, "An Historical Sketch of Thai Education Administration. Evolution _of the 

Administrative Organization" . in Education in Thailand, a Century of Experience. A Revised 

Version of the Third Academic Conference, 1969, Bangkok. The references to "traditional 

medicin e, construction·, astrology, magic and the art of self defence" relate specifically to 

northern wats.

. . 

102 .David. L. GosliDg._ 

and many people in Chian~ -Mar did. not seem to know that maw saw 5 had been renamed 

and changed. 

Ecclesiastical grades are no less complex. Tlie lowest naktizam ("student of 

dhanima") grade. is naktham thri, followed by naktham tho and ek. This elementary 

religious instruction is fairly basic and does. not require any knowledge of Pali. 

.The Pali pariyattitham. studies are ·designed to offer detailed analysis of the 

Pali. langUage and Tripitaka texts. The parian examinations, as they are known, 

enable ~he monks and novices who sit them to obtain prayog grades ranging from one. 

to nine. Prayog 9 is extremely· difficult, and very few monks. attain it. In practice, 

and for reasons often to do with the establishment of alternative routes to advancement 

such as Adult .Education ~nd the Buddhist Universities, few· monks now go beyond · 

prayog 4. A monk or novice who has obtained naktham ek and prayog 4 is eligible for 

admission to either of the two Buddhist Universities in Bangkok and may move there 

without proceeding further with the parian examinations. Traditional Pali studies in 

I 

the provincial capitals such as Chiang Mai have suffered as a result, and Adult Education 

courses ate now having an even more deleterious . effect on them. 

An account of the education offered ·by the Buddhist Universities has been 

given elsewhere. OS) The syllabi have recently been changed so as· to include more 

secular subjects and instruction in practical skills which enable tbe scholar-monks to 

part in develO"pment programmes. The overall effect of the Buddhist Universities. is to 

take more able ·monks from the "radial" ambit of the provincial capitals into 

the "galactic" sphere of influence of the Metropolis-to use Tambiah's expressive 

phraseology~ 

Adult Education courses, like those at the Bangkok-based Universities,· also 

include a large amount of instruction in practical subjects, and are proving increasingly 

popular with monks a~d novices in the provincial capitals. Although designed primarily 

for laymen who wish to enhanee their j'?b prospeets, they are very often h~ld in wat 

compounds at times of the day when it is convenient and "appropriate" for monks to 

be present. It is not appropriate, of course, for members of the Sangha to attend local 

. secon~ary schools because this would be. incompatible with their monastic dut~es and 

would .bring them into an inappropriate amount of contact with 'members of the opposite 

. sex. But they are usually allowed to sit examinations in th~ same buildings as 

local children. Hence some novices and monks have·used Adult Education classes at 

their wats to learn enough to enable them .to pass maw saw examinations. 

. . 

18. D.L. Gosling, "O'p. cit. (7), p. 413.


From the time of King Mongkut until the present day both civil and ecclesias 

authorities have viewed the secular aspirations of monks with a 

tical adm~nistrative 

certain amount of suspicion. This has led them to progressively downgrade the religious 

naktham and parian grades in relation to secondary standards. At one time a monk 

who had passed prayog 3 was eligible to enrol for a degree in law or economics at 

Thammasat University. In the mid-1940s the qualifying level was raised to prayog 6. 

Today none of the parian grades is recognised by any secular Thai university, though 

many universities in the UK and in the USA regard them as more than adequate 

entrance qualifications. 

In the early 1960s naktham ek was considered equivalent to lower secondary 

matayom 3, and prayog 5 was ranked equal to upper secondary matayom 6. · Matayom 

6 was then effectively renamed ~awsaw 3, and .the level of entry to a secular univers~ty 

was raised to maw saw 5 (ie. the secondary system was upgraded without reference to 

the parian grades). Prayog 5 thus became equal to maw saw 3, and higher levels of 

equivalence were abolished. This meant that a monk had no easy route from maw saw 

3 to pre-university maw saw 5 (which has. now _been changed to maw 6-as it is known 

colloquially in the few schools who seem to have heard of it!) 

The Buddhist University degrees and. Adult Education courses are effectively 

enabling scholar-monks to overcome the educational obstacles with which they have 

been confronted by successive civil and ecclesiastical bureaucracies (often working hand 

in hand-the Maha Thera Sama Khom or Supreme. Sangha Assembly does not encourage 

the educational aspirations of younger members of the Sangha !) A monk or novice who 

has obtained naktham ek and prayog 4 is eligible to enter either Mahachulalongkorn or. 

Mahamakut University in Bangkok, and. hence has no reason to pursue Pali studies 

beyond a certain level. 

Adult Education grade 4 is tecognised as equivalent to maw saw 3, so that a 

monk who does Adult Education courses hardiy needs to pursue any parian grades~ Not 

surprisingly the level of attainment in Pali studies of the Chiang Mai inonks and novices 

who formed the basis of this investigation was not very impressive. It was not possible 

to establish an inverse correlation between low Pali grades (or their complete a~sence) 

and participation in Adult Education classes. But the results of both the questionnaire 

analysis and interviews with~respondents and their· abbots suggested that Pali studies 

are being seriously undermined by Adult Education .and similar local educational 

programmes. 

Details of the religious and secular levels ~f attainment of the Chiang Mai 

monk~;~ and novices are $1WW.P.- ill Table I. The responses were analysed accc:>rdin8 to


wat, and it may be presumed that the distribution was fairly even unless stated to the 

contrary. 

The primary prathom grades were evenly distributed except for a concentration 

·of prathom 4 responses at the Wats Bupparam and Si Soda. Several of those with no 

apparent prathom grade had simply ~mitted to complete that part of the questionnaire. 

But they were much more meticulous about specifying secondarY and· Pali grades. 

Responses were not always -very precise : thus "studying for prayog 4" (in Thai) would 

be coded as prayog 3 irrespective of whether or not they had actually obtained such a 

grade. 

Naktham grades at the Wats Bupparam, Chedi Luang and Chetupon ranged 

from 17% to 36% (tho) and 10% to 20% (ek}. They were slightly lower at the Wat Phra 

Singh, and at the Wat_Si Soda the majority of respondents had not progressed beyond 

the lowest grade or naktham tnri; the pe~centages were 55% (thri), 14% (tho) and 6% (ek). 

Only 14% of the respondents had obtained any Pali grades. None of these 

were at the Wat Si Soda, and only the Deputy Abbot .of the Wat Phra Singh had a 

pari an qualification (prayog 4). Only three additional respondents at the five wats had 

obtainea prayog 4 or a higher grade. By· contrast, 16 monks at Mahachulalongkom 

University (90% of the sample) had at least prayog 4. 

Secondary matayom (or maw saw) grades were comparatively impressive. 

Thirty-two respondents had maw saw 3 or less, and seven had maw saw 5. 

These maw 

saw grades were distributed fairly evenly among the five wats, with the exception of the 

Wat Si Soda, which was .under-represented. By contrast, when taking into account the 

wider sample, every respondent at Mahachulalongkorn University could boast maw 

saw 5! 

· Forty-nine per cent of the Chiang Mai respondents had Adult Education. · 

qualifications. Most were at the Wat Bupparam, Chetupon and Si Soda. Only four 

respondents at the Wat Phra Singh had an Adult Education grade, and there were none 

.. at the Wat Chedi Luang. However the Wat Chedi Luang, which it must be rememberecl 

is the only Dhanunayut wat in the sample group, has an independent school which is 

administered by Chao Khun Rajavinayaporn. Tambiah comments rather disparagingly 

on the scholastic attainments of the Wat Phra Singh, which runs its own distinctive 

educational programmes for monks an.d laymen.09l In 1971 it had only 12 monks with 

the title Phra Maha (ie. who had prayog 3 or 4 at least). 

.


Table I : Religious and Secular Educational Qualifications 

Prathom Naktham Matayom Pali Adult Education 

Grade* % % % % % 

0 17 15 71 86 64 

1 0 16 5 2. 9 

2 1 41 5 7 0 

3 2 28 14 2 14 

4 42 0 2 12 

5 0 5 0 0 

6 18 0 0 

7 20 1 1 

* Not all numbers necessarily correspond to actual grades. A response such as "soon to take 

Adult Education 4" is classified as Adult Education 3. 

It is extremely difficult to make across the board comparisons between the levels 

of attainment in Pali studies of monks and novices in Chiang Mai and elsewhere. Jane 

Bunnag's seminal research in Ayutthaya was conducted iq the middle and late sixties 

and suggests that Pali standards were not very high even then·,. Tambiah's more 

recent studies give much the same impression and indicate sound reasons why the more 

able scho~ar monks migrate from the provincial capitals to the Metropolis. What seems 

to emerge from this present investigation is that enhanced opportunities to pursue 

secular studies in the provincial capitals are further devaluing the premium placed on 

traditional Pali studies. 

Before concluding this section two monastic careers will be ·traced. Both are 

based on concrete data obtained from interviews and questionnaire responses,.,but each 

conftates information obtained from more than one individual. 

Phra Maha L was born in a small village in Doi Saket in uthe 

year of the rat ... (1948). He went to the local primary school and 

passed prathom 4 at the age of ll. · ·He wished to pursue his studies 

further, but .his family did not have sufficient money to support him. 

His sister, however, was working as a metta-naree trainee at the Wat 

Pah Pai Si Khong, a small Mala Nikai wat a few miles away from L's 

home. She prevailed upon the Abbot, Phra Sing Toh, to find L a place 

as a luksit (or dekwat) with a view to ordination as a novice. L's 

ordination to the noviciate was sponsored by Phra Sing Toh who also 

became his luang phi or moral tutor (approximately). From PhraSing 

Toh he learned Dhamma and Vinai (monastic discipline, ie. Vinaya), 

20. J. Bunnag, Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman, A study of Urban Monastic Organization in 

Central Thailand, Cambridge University Press, 1973.

106' David L. Gosling 

and at the age of 15 passed the highest naktham ek grade. The Wat 

was a small one and the only local village school was a primary school 

similar to tlte one in L's home village, so it was not possible for him to 

proceed beyond prathom 4 and naktham ek without moving~ 

One of the monks residing at the Wat Chetupon had been born in 

the same village as L, and was therefore a yaad or kinsman. L's 

mother prevailed upon this monk to ask the Abbot of the Wat Chetupon, 

Phra Khru Wickrom Kanapirakhsa, if he. could find a place for L at the 

Wat. Since the monk in question was the head of a residential section 

of the Wat, Phra Khru Wickrom readily agreed, and L transferred to 

the larger wat within C!nang Mai municipality. The kinsman-monk 

provided L with sufficient pocket money to purchase books needed to 

study for the parian grades which were taught at the Wat. L also 

learned meditation from Phra Khru Wickrom and attended Adult 

Education classes held in the Wat compound. Somehow, and periodically 

at cost to his health, L combined parian with the more secular 

Adult Education studies and greatly impressed the Abbot with his 

tenacity at vipassana (meditation). 

By the age of 20 L had obtained prayog 3 and Adult Education 

grade 4 (whice is equivalent to maw saw 3), and was thinking of 

progressing further. But in order to gain admission to Mahachulalongkorn 

Buddhist University he needed to pass prayog 4, and the Wat 

Chetupon did not teach. beyond the third Pali level. With naktham ek 

and prayog 3, he could, in fact, have easily enrolled ·in one of the 

Mahachulal9ngkorn pre-undergraduate schools for a year in order to 

obtain pray'og 4, but Phra Khru Wickrom, whom L now regarded as 

his achan, wantedbim to ordain to the monkhood in Chiang Mai. L 

·therefore went to the Wat Bupparam in the centre of town in order to 

study for his next parian examination, which he passed the following 

year. 

Phra Khru Wickrom, the gentle Abbot of the Wat Chetupon, was 

L's upachaya at his ordination to the monkhood. In encouraging him 

to complete his Pali studies at the Wat Bupparam he had an ulterior 

motive (of the kindest possible variety) in that he wished L's training 

to be as perfectly "rounded" as possible prior to his inevitable departure 

to Bangkok. L's stay at his first and second wats had established 

him in Phra Khru Wickrom's eyes as thura kanta (a practitioner of 

learning) and thura vipassana (a practitioner of meditation). He now 

wanted him to become thura patana (a practitioner of development), 

and who better to teach him this than his good friend Phra Khru 

Mongkol Silawongs, Abbot of the Wat Bupparam and Chao Kana 

Ampur (District Sangha Governor) of Doi Saket District?

REDEFINING THE SANGHA'S ROLE IN NORTHERN THAILAND 

107 

Phra Khru Mongkol would take a p~t;rticular interest in L's training 

in development activities because L hailed from the area under his 

jurisdiction, and his sister had by this time become a leading organiser 

of the metta-naree groups which Phra Khru Mongkol had originally 

established. Furthermore Phra Khru Wickrom wanted his luksit (now 

using the term for the first time for an ordained person) to learn 

development from someone who \lnderstood it in a completely nonpolitical 

context-unlike the organisers of the Dhammajarik programme 

which L might meet in Bangkok. 

Phra Khru Wickrom was not an outstanding scholar and unknown 

as a teacher of meditation outside Chiang Mai. He was, on his own 

admission, hopeless at the practicalities of development work. But he 

was very kind. And also very shrewd. 

Phra K.hru Mongkol was delighted with his new monk, whom he 

took on regular visits to the various development projects in· his district. 

After two years he arranged for L to go to Bangkok where he resided 

at the Wat Mahathat and obtained his B.A. degree at Mahachulalong-. 

korn University. But he was unhappy and disillus~oned with life in 

the Big City, and quickly returned to Chiang Mai where he eventually 

became Abbot of the Wat Doi Saket. 

All the wats mentioned in this account have been Maha Nikai. . The following 

"case hiStory" is based on Dhammayut centres. 

M was born in a small Meo village on tlte Doi Inthanon mountain 

in 8 E 2500 (1957). His father died when he was nine years old, 

and his mother took him a year later to meet Phra Maha Tawin 

Dhammaraso, a senior monk from the Wat Chedi Luang living in the 

village. · 

Phra Maha Tawin arranged for M to move to Chiang Mai where 

he resided as a luksit at the Wat Chedi Luang. He quickly learned 

Thai and passed prathom 4 and, eventually, naktham ek. In the 

abse1;1ce of his original luang phi, Phra Maha Tawin, who had returned 

to his semi.-perma.nent residence on the Doi Inthanon, M began to attract 

the attention of Chao Khun Rajavinayaporn, who took him on some of 

his niany journeys among the hill tribes. When M. fii:st expressed an 

interest in ordination Chao Khun Rajavinayapom explained that it wa.S 

not essential for him to ordain in order to pursue his studies. But when 

M persisted, he was ordained first to the noviciate at the Wat Chedi 

Luang, and eventually to the monkhood at the Wat Bovornives in 

· Bangkok. He failed to gain admission to Mahamakut Buddhist 

University and returned to Chiang Mai where he disrobed and joined 

the Border Patrol Police.


III The Scope and Justification of Spcial Development 

The main thrust of this analysis has so far been to show how the interplay of 

monastic careers with recent educational opportunities is opening up new avenues of 

social mobility which enable monks and novices to pursue a more development-orientated 

role. It remains to chart the various kinds of development work which are open 

to the monks, their rationale for undertaking it, and the manner in which some of t):lem 

seek to justify their new roles in the light of tradhiomil Buddhism-.,in particular the 

strictures of the Parimokkha, which played such a major ~art in nineteenth century 

monastic reforms under Mongkut. 

Much has been written about the Government-sponsored develop~ent programmes 

which have been in progress for the best part of two decades.< 2 1> These are primarily 

the missionary-orientated Phra Dhammatuta scheme begun in 1964 under the auspices 

of the Department of Religious Affairs, the Phra Dhammajarik Programme started 

the following year under the joint auspices of the Sangha and the Department of Public 

Welfare, and various other schemes based on the two Buddhist Universities and major 

wats such as the Wat Phra Singh. - 

As has been in~icated, the Phra Dhammajarik Programme; though commun~tybased, 

is centred on the Wat Si Soda in Chian~ Mai, and exists primarily to recruit boys 

froni the hill tribes. After a short period as dekwats or luksits the boys are ordained 

. . 

in a grand ceremony at the Wat Benjamabopitr in Bangkok. Suksamran has drawn 

attention to the political overtones of both this and the Phra Dhammatuta scheme, a 

point of view echoed by certain members of the Sangha and some former monks on the 

teaching staff of Chiang Mai University. No attempt was made to gauge the politics 

of any of the respond~nts in this investigation, and it would have been inappropriate to 

have tried to do so. But both Phra Khru Mongkol Silawongs and Chao Khun Rajavinayaporn 

made ·it clear that they did not actively recommend the Government schemes 

and that they disagreed with the overtones of social work as a means of securing converts· 

to Buddhism. 

All respondents were asked whether or not they had participated in the national 

development scheme. Thirteen per cent had been involved in the Phra Dhammatuta 

Programme, 30% with .the Phra Dhammajarik, 7% listed Dhainmapatana, 19% Spiritual 

Development, and 14% "Other" (mainly Sunday School teaching). Two thirds of the 

Dha~majarik. respondents were predictably resident at the Wat Si Soda, which trains 

Dhammajarik novices and monks for community-based work in the hill areas. 

"Spiritual Development" was intended to elicit responses fro!? monks and 

novices who had worked at Phra Kittiwutto's controversial centre in Chon Buri (Chittapavan 

College). But no such identification could be made, and the four monks from 

21. See especially S. Suksamran, Op. cit. (1).

REDEFiNING THE SANGHA'S ROLE IN. NORTHERN THAILAND. · . 109 

the Wat Chedi Luang who opted for this questionnaire category could not conceivably 

have trained under Kittiwutto-if only because they belonged to a different Nikai I 

(Though Phra Khru Mongkol's training schemes increasingly involve both Maha Nikai 

and Phammayut monks). 

The majority of respondents who had taken part in development schemes had 

done so in or near their original home villages. The duration of their work varied 

from a ~ew weeks to more than a year. A period of three or four months in Chiang 

Mai Province was fairly typical. 

Attitudes to social service as an expression of Buddhist commitment were 

gauged in two ways. Respondents were asked to state which part or parts of the Bud-: 

dha's teaching suggest that a monk should do community service (Question 8). They 

were also requested to comment on the work of Khun Prateep Ungsongtham, whose 

spirited attempts to provide a rudimentary education for the slum children of Klong 

Tuey in Bangkok recently earned her the coveted Magsaysay Award. Respondents 

were asked whether or not they considered her work to be compatible with the Buddha's 

teaching, and if so, why? (Question 9). 

The following responses relate to Khun Prateep's work, though the answers to 

Question (8) were couched in very similar terms: 

.· Khun Prateep has shown kindness and compassion, having no 

craving (tanha). She helps the poor and educates them, sympathising 

with all human beings. · 

She shows kindness to the Thai people .... If all humans beha 

. ved like Khun.Prateep the world would be at peace. 

Khu.n Prateep is industrious and willing to suffer for others, 

not for herself. She has has been seeking what lives at the back of the 

Buddha's image (i.e. doing good deeds without telling other people) • 

. Because of her good deeds she was awatded the Magsaysay Award. 

The fact that Khun Prateep sets up a school says that she tries 

to help Qthers first. What she has done was not fo~ fame or for her 

own .self and not for her family. She did it for better lives for ~lum 

dwellers who she would like to see living in better conditions in society. 

She did it for the sake of Thai citizens and for humanity. 

She is teaching good Dhamma. . I hear from the radio what 

is being taught to Thai citizens so that they will be better citizens staying 

away from Communism. · 

Sacrificing for the public is praised by the Lord Buddha. Sacrifice 

is an act of giving (dana) which in this case is Dharmadana, that 

is making education available to the uneducated without any expectation 

of return.

110 David L. Gosling· . 

Her kindness extends to.the underprivileged in education and 

her deeds belp to maintain society .. This fits in with the four Brahmavihara. 

Quite a number of respondents justified both Khun Prateep's work and th~ir 

own developmental roles in ~erms of the four Brahmavihara ie. metta (loving kindness), 

karuna (compassion), upekkha (even mindnedness) and muditha (sympathetic joy). 

There were also frequent references to the Sarighahavatthu and t~e four Iddhipada, 

The Brahmavihara (or Sublime Abodes) and Sanghahavatthu have been discussed in 

·relation to social action in an earlier article base~ on the Buddhist Universities.f22) .But 

none of the monks. in the earlier samples referred to the Iddhipada, or recommended 

virtues .set out fora novice or newly ordained monk. These are chandtl, satisfaction 

or joy in one's work, viriya, diligent effort, citta, wholehearted concentration, and 

vi11Jamsa or careful and rational "thinking around" .the matter in hand. These and a 

range of additional virtues culled from a wide range of Pali scriptures (in this case the 

(Vibhanga) are set out in a recently published standard textbook for naktham ek · 

students by Somdet Phra Maha Samal}a Chao Krom Phrayi Vajirailil}avarorasa~(23) 

The book repays careful reading as an authorative account of an appropriate life-style 

for a novice or newly ordained monk. 

. 

It is interesting to note 

. 

that the respondents 

made no scriptural distinction in justifying their own role as thura patana and that of 

Khun Prateep, wh9, after all, is both a lay p~rson and a woman! 

IV Appropriate and Inappropriate Developmental Roles 

The foregoing discussion provides a useful background for a consideration of 

the manner in which certain developmental activities 01ay be appropriate or inappropriate 

from the standpoint of the Vinaya or Patimokkha (which is contained within 

it). Acc~rding to the Patimokkha a monk may not damage a plant or dig the earth. 

though there is nothing to stop him from chopping up, say, a tree, once someone else 

has cut it down.(24) But the 227 rules of the Patimokkha do not apply to a novice who 

is subject only to ten precepts. There are many· activities which are inappropriate 

for a monk or novice from a variety of Buddhist standpoints, such as owning luxurious 

items or indufging in activities which bring the Sangha into disrepute. Also there are 

some thiJ1gs.which, though not exactly inappropriate, are not really in accordance with 

the status of a monk-.changing a car wheel, for example. 

22. D L. Gosling, Op. cit., (7), p. 428. 

23. Navakovada (Standard Text for Naktham Ek), Mahamakut Buddhist University, 1971, p. 44. 

24. Ven. Ninamoli Thera, The Pii!imokkha, Makamakut Aeademy,l966, p. 48. For a more 

detailed account of the Vinaya see The Entrance to the Vlnaya, Vols. I and II, Mahaniakut 

Academy, 1969-73.


These issues have been discussed in more detail in an earlier article.

112 David'L. Gosling 

. TABLE ~I : Attitudes of Respondents to Speciii.c De:velopmental Activities 

DEVELOPMENTAL 

ACTIVITY 

APPROPRIATE 

Monk Novice 

% %' 

INAPPROPRIATE 

Monk Novice 

% % 

SOMETIMES. 

APPROPRIATE 

Monk · Novice 

% % 

a) Sawing 

Wood 

5.9 6.6 

47 47 

18 24 

b) ~elling 

Tree 

c) Driving 

Boat 

d) Reading 

Horoscope 

e) Healing 

Sickness 

f) Cholera 

Injection · 

g) Owning 

Television 

h) Driving 

Car 

i) 'Contraception 

Advice 

j) Cu~ing Drug 

Addicts 

k) Peace;ful 

Demonstration 

1) Helping 

Refugees· 

2.2 8.8 

2.2 2.9 

1.5 2.2 

33 40 

40 39 

5.1 66 

0.7 0.7 

7.4 5.9 

57- 68 

4.4 4.4 

29 34 

59 52 

60 64 

60 66 

16 13' 

.. 20 25 

57 . 68 

65 74 

56 62 ·. 

5.1 7.4 

62 72 

26 29 

9.6 17 

6.6 8.8 

10 8.1 

'27 26 

10 16 

5.1 4.4 

2.2 2.2 

4.4 9.6 

7.4 8.1 

0.7 0.7 

12 16 

Various cross-tabulations were made by dividing respondents a,cqording to status 

(ie. monk, novice, and layman), educational qualifications (eg. whether Adult Education 

or not), and sex. But in order to produce statistic~lly significant results it was · 

necessary to add the responses f:rom students at Chiang Mai and Ramkhamhaeng 

Universities and from monks, novices, and quite a number of luksits at the Wat 

Bovornives. When this is done the foregoing conclusions are· strengthened· ( eg. with 

regard to status factors), but the additional data requires more interpretation and 

discussion than is feasible here.

REDEFINING THE SANGHA'S. .ROLE' lN >NORTHERN THAILAND .113 

Iti addition to· being asked abOut the appropriateness ·or otherwise of -certain 

activities/i-~p~iidenti ii:t tb.~' fi:Y~ :clii~g· Maf\VaiS . were· requir~d to' specu:Vwmcb, if 

any," of a series of devel~pmental activities they had actually performed~ '· :Th6 functions, 

atid-tb~::percentages of thOse dlaiming to have unde~taken them, are as follows: sanitation, 

53%; inedical advice, :soro; agricultural techniques, SO%; electrical methods, 18%; 

weaving· or· ·using =cloth materials, 6%; well construction, 40%; ·road building," 43%; 

making toys, 4%; woodwork, 7%; building a sala, 61%; bus~ess advice, 13%; approaching 

Government officials, 41% •. Many of these skills Iiad been acquired via Adult Education 

courses. Clearly a large proportion ~f the respondents were accomplished· and useful 

members Qf t~ir loeal communities. 

· -.: · : Information CQncerniQg monks' involvement in speci~c activitiel such. as the 

ones just referred to was. obtained pri6r to the oompilation of the 'Ihai questionnaire (a 

translation of which is given as an Annex).. This is one of several examples illustrative 

of the methodological approach adopted in this investigation, and this section may. 

therefore appropriately co~dlude · wfth a brief· dlscussiQn of· the way' in which anthro- · 

polo~cat'and sociological concepts were seen to compiement ~a~h·other. . 

·· · · ·- T~e mB.mier in which ~nthropological ~:nd sociOlogical concepts and methodOlogies 

iii. field research in naiiand Illliy be related are. discussed in an important article 

by Milton ·Jacobs in The.Journ'al of the Siam.Society.U7) Jacobs argues .that whiie 

''intimate'; a1:1thropological methods such as· participation-information,. interviewing 

informants~ · obtaining life histories etc. are well suited t~ the study of small societies, · 

sociological techniques ~re· alsc{needed when dealing with the oomplex' problems of 

develoPing societies.. . 1 . . . 

'Utilizing Redfield~s''tolk-urban continuum based on anthropological research 

iri Central Ainerica, :Jacobs attempts to define the "traditional, transitiOnal and modern 

Thai,. on the basis of sociological characteristics- such as spatial mobility, social isolatioil 

'attd eommunica;tion behaviour. RecOgnising some'of the 6onfusion generated by 

R.e.4field•S:terininology, JaCQbs ~tains that his ·basic framework is a useful typology 

?ihich' can 1 setvC: with .Ome adjUstment m the· analysis ef Thai society = · 

'· · :.··. ; ~ •· .: · · · = · · 1 ·would argue that in the developing countries the small scale 

anthropological studies based on a number of villages, for example, 

:.c1 ,:, . .shoJlld occur first and should provide for the initial hypothesizing. 

Tho sociological concenHor quantification and sampling.should follow . 

to t.est ~ut the anthropological hypotheses. There· 'are a·number of' · 

' .. · ~"reasons why thii' seems preferable : · {1) it all~ws for'attore ·flexibility; 

• . ! ' 

27.- ' -M. Jacobs, "Th'e AJlialico :or Arithropologicalaricl. Sociological Concepts and MethOdoiogies 

j~ F~~!c;l ~e~~~~rcb inn~~ .. :fD Th;·;sfi,.riafoftb:$tqm $0ititr~ Vol; 62fPai!t'l?-1974'? P·· 3S,

114 David .L~ Ci.o!J!ins . 

(2) .it. ~lows for more depth researc~ ~tho1,1~ ~.dmittedly ~ a small 

scale,· (3) lastly, it is more practical, easily managed, and less 

costly.C2B) . · · ·· · · · · 

.Jacobs proceeds to demonstrate from his own fiel~ work studies that anthroi,X; 

logy and sociology are complementing disciplines. The demonstra~ion is convincing 

enough, though tl!.ere are places where the use of the concepts of ''merit" and "status" 

might profitably be replaced by the notion of "respectt 

Although much '!f ibis article . has been based o~ the results of questionnaire. 

responses, it must be pointed. out that th~ for~ of the questionnair~ ·and IlUUPler of 

interpretation. of the. results was largely shaped ~Y prevjoi.JS work,. ~e most relevant . 

parts of which in.relation to this investigation are summarised in an ·earlier article in 

. . . . . ,... . 

the Southeast Asian Jo~rnal of $ocif:!l Sci~n~e.< 3 ~). 

V Conclusions 

The basic thesis of. t~ investigation is that Ad~t Education courses· :are· 

playing a significant role in shaping the monastic careers of monks and novices at five 

w~ts in the Chiang Mai Municipality. In the introductory section (Section I) an outline 

'Yas given of the distinctive features of what Charles Key~s IW' described as Chiang 

Mai's "secular" :Bucic:ibism, and a brief summary was offered of the ·five: wats who8e 

residents formed the basis of much of the 'info~ation obtained. These w~ts were described 

parti~lly.from a J;J.istoricl'll perspecti~e in order for consideration to be given to what 

Tambiah has described as the "continuities and transfo~ations" between the past and · 

the present which are crucial to a. full understanding of the available anthropological 

and sociological data.(3U .Charles Keyes has described Tambiah's approach as "the 

. ' . . ... . 

most recent and perhaps the most sophi~ticat~.statement of a type of st~ucturalism · 

which has been developed by a number of British anthropologists" ,(32) 

An exa~ple of .a. "transfjjrmed" historical.role (in Tamblah's sense) may be. 

seen in the work of Chao Khun RajavinayaJt9m at'the Wat Chedi Luang. Traditionally, 

as indicated by Keyes, a senior. ranking mo~ representing tJt,e Bangkok ecclesiast.ical 

bureaucracy, resides at the Wat Chedi Luang in order~ guarantee the continuation of 

28. M. Jacobs., 'I hid., p. 37. 

29. Jacobs' overemphasis of "merit" is derived from Lucien Hanks. See L.M. Hanks, "Merit and 

Power in thct Thai Social ·ord~" in ~he American Anthr:opol(}glst, Vol. 64, No. 6, 1~62. 

30. D.L. Qosling~ Op. cit. (2). . · 

31. · S.J. Tambiah, Buddhi~mand the Spirit Cult~ In ·North-East Thailand, Cambridge University 

Press, 1970, Chapter 21. · · . · · · · 

32. Charles F. Keyes, "Structure and History in. the Study of the Relationship betw"Q l'll\'~V~ 

8\lddhisiQ ~4 1'9Jiti9al Or4.\'r" 1 iQ Nym~n, VoJ. ~~v, f-.JC; 2,.p:·ls~,

Rtt>EFINlNG THE SANGHA'S ROLE IN NORTHERN THAILAND 

llS 

. national· patterns·~~ religio~s education by northern Dhammayut cle~gy; Insofar as 

Chao KJ:lun Rajavinayaporn is a~ ~on-northern s~nior e~clesiastic at both the Wat 

BOvomives in Bangkok and at the Wat Chedi Luang~ he fulfils the traditional historical 

role. But he has also transfo~~ed it i.n a most charismatic manner . by 'promoting 

education& schemes which not only cater for' the needS 'of hill tribes in a remarkable 

manner, but by d~ing it. more_· effectively than the B~gkok~based D~ammatuta and 

Dhammajarik programmes. Far from imposing a centr~f pattern on Chiang Mai 

province; he is ch;allenging the moribund presuppositions of the central bureaucracy 

. . . 

by shaping monks' ·educational and de:velopmental programmes more effectively. 

. . 

Much the same may be said of Phra Khru Mongkol's work-at.the Wat Bupparam 

and surrounding Maha Nikai centres; ·· Unfortunately the Wat Phra Singh, 

which like the Wat Chedi Luang exerted a major historical influence at the beginning 

of this century, seems to have lost its progressiveness. 

The_ historical dimension is crucially important in understanding the transformationS 

which are currently taking place in the education and career structures of 

many members of the Sangha. . The traditional educational role of the Sangha both 

in relation to the laity and its owti members illuminates the_ manner in which novices 

niove from vill~ge wat to provincial town and ultimately to the famous monastic 

centres in the Capital. There have always been what Tambiah calls the "push" and 

"pull'' factors in relation 'to monastic mobility and .recruitment-the former representing 

the young novice's aspirations for educational . advancement, the latter reflecting the 

desire of senior monks · in famous wats to recruit the most able and intelligent young 

men in the land: 

Both· sides · in this encounter have complementary interests 

-and mutually benefit. each other, .. and the various patrons and inter 

. mediaries who assist young men along the monastic network make 

possible the realization, of the interests of both parties, while themselves 

gaining influence and prestige in the process.

· It is when one puts together the historical, B()cial, e4ucatio~l. econoro.jg ~11d 

va~ious other .fa~tors that the full sigQl:licarice.~f the -.. ~~tinulties a~d t~ansfoi:matio~s;~ · 

h~oome; · appar~nt ... what is ~e~ in. th~ . cont~~P9;aty situation -~~ -ii -a~p-ti~s. t.:;,··tli~ 

Sa~gh~ _is the~ growth of a speoia{kind ~f r~d~l p~lfty: . . - - .. . . - :· · ' ·· 

. . . - . . --.. " ' - ... .-• ... ;,_- :: ·.. . "-~ ·.. •, ' .. . . . ._:.1:.,- ~- 

It is our th~sis that the present. urban arrap,gement . of ~he-. · -· - 

·cotuiti'y is' partly a product' ·and 'pattly. -~ 'faithfufre.lie6rluii·i1f. the_:_:.;C . ..:h 

·••· center•initiated· · Poliey of' creating- a· hierarchy·~ ·of 'adtninistrati~e:cc:c ~:::,: 

Units -'.from circles. and pro\iinnes-tG--districts (atid:.smalb5r.: umt~)::·;,:·.- >-:~ 

with their. respective admi~istrative ...-gapitals. . Th_e. resj.Jlt ~ a P~:-· :.::-. .; ,,_, 

dominantly agricultural, industrially· und.erd,eveloped, country., is the · 

. gro~h of a ne~ kind of centet~~~iented, ·c~nter~dominated polity 'that '. ... ·,_ ,_ 

is radial in character, in that the various ·provincial capitals arid tirban 

constellations do not have so nt~ch inter1acking relationships,with one 

another,. but rather .are· dire~ly. oriented to . the .national :r:netr~polis ... ., .. 

that engages them in discrete .dyadic relations. • Within each province · .·· . 

the district administrativ~-~nd ~~rk~t'~~ntet~ whose hi~te~iand''iS the~ .- .' ' 

surrounding agricultural areas relate radially to: the· provin~ial capital; 

and all provincial' capitals in. turn relate radially to Bangkok :~·a~her .... 

than to·one another. .. 

Tambiah's general thesis is supported and amplified by the data:contained in 

Section II. of this study. . What. appears,:to. be .novel is the role Qt!fl'entlY::P.l.~y~dJ~y 

Adult Education courses in .enabling novices~.and .. monks to en.ha~c~_tb,e4' ~~reer~J?Y 

raising the .level of educational s.tandarcls . open to them~witb, all ..that ~hi!! ill1Pl¥~ _.~n 

terms :oLnew_ avenues for sQQ:i.lill ,.q1obUity :P1J9!'JO:()t ~\l:t?seq~~~t t~-~~~9,\>i1l~:'~ndJ~~ 

prqvldi,ng tb~n:t. WitP... tQ~. :g~~ry. skilJs J~ perfo.rw. .':llo.t;~- ~e.~el~l',~e.~t:o~~~~t8:~~4 -m~e~ 

in society. ~ .::: __ J (..:~: _:: i;:(:.,-;, 

TheBe .new: devek>_p1,11,ent-91'ie}ltat~ :.J:.QJ~s .nnts~;: iJ,J,-:t.w.:n{be::set within a somewhat 

different .and lengthier historical pe.rspective Which validat~:.o .. dn:vali4!!-tes them 

fr~m the point of view of religious (and particularly scr-iptural) orthodoxy, consideration 

or' which has been given in Sections III imd IV. 

I should like to express my gratitude to the Nuffield Foundation fcir a grant in 

support of this research arid to the Thai National Research Council fot l'ermission to 

carry it out. I am indebted to the foil9~lrig for tti~it advibe ~ttd·assiiitance:·

Annex : Translation of Thai Questionnaire··.· : ... 

.. · 

The purpose of ~his investigation is to study _the role of-the ~angha in ·~odern 

Thailand. It: is'beirig'co~aucted ~n behalf of th~ univeriity.ofHull (U.K:) in: c~ju~ction 

with the rh.ai NatJo~~tie~earch Council. Please mai-k answers ~ou ~~ee with 

... ~·. ·- ........·.- .. 

with a tick. 

. .. ~ .. . . ..· .. 

1. Status ·- ........- .. ~-- .... ··- 

: -~-~:::~~-:S'!'(. :· ~;,;\' .;.. 

0 Lay.Porson... • 

. ' •• . -~.,a . '•' - ~ 

OMonk 

U Novico 

. ...... -~ ....... ·..... . 

1i1 

2. Home Background 

Year of birth : 

Place of birth : 

Occupation of Father.: 

Nuniber of brothers and sisters : 

Havo you been a luksjt ?:_ 

Which year ? : 

For bow long ? : 

Name ofWat: 

··:'D_Yes 

........ · .. 

D~o 

~rovince ;. 

:. Provih®: 

3. Ordination as a Novice 

Year of Ordination 

Name and'l'lace ofWat ;. 

Reason :f~~Ordinati~·:: . · -·: ...__ 

. -~:.:~ ;· ;r;,":·· •. ~ 

....__··.·. ~ .. ..·~·- ...-.:....:__ _ 

~k:O...clination as a Monk· 

.. :~-.'y~ of Ordination:; "i' · 

· .N~~e and Place of W~t : · 

:~.~;: ::Q Dhammayut' _. :. : · ~ 0 Mahanikai 

• j w;~~s,.at ~~i

118 .. -.. · bavid t,:Gostilis--'- 

S. Educational Qualliieatlons · ... 

a) Secular E.daeatfon 

· · COmpulsory P.rimary. Education :. 

· 'Secondary Education. : 

Other·: 

b) ReUgious Education 

Naktham: 

Pali: 

Buddhist Uriiversity : 

Adult Edu~ti~n : 

Level obtained : 

Level ~b~ined : 

Level.obtained: 



· Level. obtained :. · 


6. Present Education 

Institution : 

Course: 

Year of course : 

Special options or choice of faculty : 

7. Meditation . 

Do you practise meditation? 0 Y~s 0 No 

I 

If yes, how many hours per wee~ do you meditate ? : 

Type of medi~tion : . 

Name any: meditation teacher who has particularly helped or 

infi11eneed you : 

8. Community Ser~ice 

Have you ever ·dorie community service ? 

If yes, please mention. the kind of activity ; 

Spiritual development programme 

Dhammatuta 

n Yes, I did· 

0 Yes, I do 

.·8 No 

No 

Province 

Province 

Duration 

Duration 

·D~majarik Province Duration· 

Dhammapatana' Province Duration 

Other Province Duration 

What part or parts of the Buddha's . teaching suggest that a modk should do 

community service ?

REDEFINING THE SANG!IA'S ROLE IN NORTHERN THAILAND 

119 

9. 

Do you know of Hiss Prateep llng!longt.ham' s work? [] Yes 

If yes, do you think that it is compatible with the teaching 

of the Buddha? []Yes 0 No Why? 

ONo. 

10. 

Which of the Following are appropriate for a monk or novice? 

a) Sawing a piece of wood 1) 14onk Yes No 

2) Novice Yes No 

·b) F-elling a tree 

1) Monk 

Yes No 


c) Driving a motor boat 1) l~onk 

Yes No 


d) Reading a horoscope 1) l·lonk 

Yes No 


e) Healing sickness 1) Monk 

Yes No 


f) Giving a cholera 

inject,ion 

g) Owning a television 

h) Driving a car 

i) Giving family planning 

· advice 

j) Curing·drug addicts 

k) Joining a peaceful ' 

political demonstration 

1) ~elping refugees 

1) Monk 

2) Novice 

1) Monk 

2) Novice 

1) Monk 

2) Novice 

1) f·lonk 

2) Novice 

1) Monk 

2) Novice 

1) Monk 

2) Novice 

1) Monk 

2)' Novice 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

Yen 

Yes 

8.No 

No 

. Yes No 

Yes No 

Yes 

~~ 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Q 

Sometimcn 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

Sometimes 

~ ~:::~~::: 

Sometimes 

Some~imes

120 David L. Gosling ... 

CF~r monks and novices only), While ordsine9 have you every 

·or advised lay people in any. of the fall . g? 

a) Sanitation 

b) Medical advice 

c) Agricultural methods 

d) Electrical methods 

e) Weaving or using cloth materials 

f) Constructing wells , 

g) Making roads 

h) Making children's toys 

i) Woodwork 

j) Constructing a sala 

k) Economic·or business advice 

1) Approaching Government officials 

m) Other 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

'Yes 

Yes 

Yes 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

No 

inst'ructed 

Where did you learn to do. these things? 

•. 

Please return the questionnaire tea the perspn who gave it· to you. 

Thank you for your· cooperation,

"THE SPIRITS AREN'T SO POWERFUL ANY MORE" 

SPIRIT BELIEF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION 

IN NORTH THAILAND 

RICHARD P. LANDO* 

Introduction 

. Theravada or Mahayana Buddhism is seldom the· exclusive ·religion of its lay 

devotees, and is usually accompanied by a belief in supernatural beings or spirits. The 

religious system encompassing this secondary belief system is usually called 'animism' 

(Spiro 1967: 3). Spirits of every kind in 'Thailand are propitiated aild venerated to 

gain their supernatural protection, the granting of favors, and i~ the past were invoked 

for national protection. Householders make offering to the spirit known as the 'lord 

.... 

of the place, (caw thii; LOJ1'r1) who resides in the small spirit house on their property to 

ward off evil influences in the household compound, and people will make offerings to 

the powerfullak ·myang ('VIim~a~). or city spirits, and other powerful supernaturals 

for protection on ajourney, protection from hariJI, while on military duty, or other 

favors. The great King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai proclaimed that he made 

offerings to a powerful spirit near the capitol city and that if offerings were made to 

this spirit in the proper way the kingdom would prosper (Griswold and Prasert na 

Nagara 1971 : 214). In this article I would like to describe and analyze the relationships 

between the cults of five 'lordly spirits' (caw phii; Li'1N) and traditional irrigation 

systems .(myang faaj; L'VIU£1-:Jt:hu) in the pr~vince of Phrae, North Thailand. 

There is a well-established, limited veneration of spirits in connection with the 

traditional irrigation systems of North Thailand. When the impermanent, wooden 

irrigation dam of the system is reconstructed each year by the farmers whose fields are 

irrigated by the system, offerings of pig heads and pther foods are made to the spirits 

that guard the dam (phii faaj; Nt:hu) to ask their protection of the dam in the coming 

year (see Potter 1976). The invocation of supernatural protectl.on in irrigation affairs 

has gone far beyond offerings to the spirits of the dam in the case of these irrigation 

systems in Phrae province. Five 'lordly spirits' i.D. the area have been constituted as a 

kind of supernatural irrigation committee. Each spirit has specific responsibilities for 

the protection of the watersht:d of the rivers that feed the irrigation systems, protection 

of the canals and dams, and communication with the higher Buddhist deities, the . 

thewadaa (L'r11fl1), concerning the provision of rain, especially in drought years. 

* Rockefeller Foundation, Bangkok. 

121

122 Richard P. Lando 

It is a usual custom in the. veneration of major spirits in the area of Phrae that 

they are honored at a yearly offering ceremony. Two years out of three they are given 

small offerings, typically chickens, rice, whiskey, flowers and other items. Every third 

year there must be a great offering (liang jaj ·= L:o~\~l!i) where the devotees of the 

spirit purchase a pig to slaughter, and a more elaborate offering meal is prepared. The 

irrigation committees that administer the irrigation systems in the area undertook the 

responsibility of financing and organizing the great offerings to two spirits in the 

hierarchy of five who are most important in tfie irrigation affairs of the systems in 

order to thank them for their protection and for the provision of rain. The water users 

of the irrigation system chief in the veneration of the spirits were each assessed a set 

amount of money per rai of land irrigated by the system to purchase a pig and young 

swamp buffalo and other foods and components of the .offerings. The irrigation 

committees of other systems close by sent contributions for the offerings and represeti. 

tatives to the·ceremonies. Anoth~r irrigation system nearby has another spirit in the 

hierarchy of five as its special protector. In great offering years, when the spirits of 

the dam of this system receiv~d a pig as their off~ring, a separate pig is purchased to 

offer especially to this spirit; The organization of these great offerings is complex. It 

requires the collection of money from more than 1000 member households in one irrigation 

system, and the cooperation of the irrigation administration and government 

officials. 

The grafting of institutional support onto the cults of the m~jor spirits in the 

Phrae region· is unusual in the anthropological literature concerning spirit belief in 

Thailand. It is impossible to discuss all aspects of the relationship of the spirits to the 

irrigation systems, and the role that the irrigation system leadership and government 

officials have played in the support of their veneration here. I shall document the 

relationships between irrigation administrators, loc~l leadership in the persons of the 

. village headmen of the villages in the area and the kamnan; or commune head, and the 

cults of tliese spirits which has made·possible the support of these .great offerings in the 

past. Within this context I shall also show the changes in power and leadership, as 

well as changes in the irrigation systems themselves, which have contributed to the 

erosion of support for the spirit cults. These changes will help illustrate· the reason 

that spirit belief has been applied to such an attenuated degree to irrigation organization 

in. Thailand. This explanation must, of necessity, be ·cast in the fotm of a 

functional argument. Melford Spiro (1967 :· 5) admits to being an "unregenerate 

functionalist", and uses functional arguments in his explanation of Burmese nat cults 

or Burm~se supernaturalism.

SPIRIT BELIEF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND 123 

At one level the spirits provided a guarantee of supernatural control over all 

aspects of irrigation, instead of only protecting the irrigation dam as iJ! other systems. 

The lordly spirits protected their assigned sections of the canal systems and rivers and 

directed the dam spirits in protecting the irrigation dam. Offerings were also made to 

mountain spirits at. the distant source of the rivers that fed the system to insure a :flow 

of water. The spirits provided supernatural circumscription of all aspects of the provision 

of water which is crucial to growing rice, including intercession with the higher 

Buddhist deities for the guarantee of rainfall. . On another level it is my contention 

that the system of spirit belief, to be presented here, in its connection with the irrigation 

systems enhanced cooperation between villages within the same irrigation system, and 

between irrigation systems on. the same rivers, in the abse11ce of State control of irrigation 

in the Yom Valley. Factionalis~, the breakdown of patterns of cooperative labor, 

and particular kinds of inter- and intra-system conflict which has been reported for 

other areas of North Thailand have been avoided ~n the Phrae region. There were 

numerous laws with supernatural sanctions involved ·with the spirits which were used by 

local leaders in the past to enforce proper behavior, although th~se are poorly remembered 

now. The use of spirit offerings for practical purposes is also not necessarily 

unconscious in the minds of the actors. Spirit ~ff~rings, as will be shown, are used to 

encourage cooperation between groups and to ask for the sharing of irrigation water in 

case of drought. Organizing the great offerings also brought irrigation offici~ls, local 

leaders, and the elders of the spirit cult~· together for a common purpose where they 

otherwise might not have met and cooperated. This was true at the time for the great 

offerings, when at least three irrigation systems sent representatives to plan the offerings 

~the past. 

The spirits involved here are a sort of guardian spirit or forest spirit identified 

by Rajathon (1954: 155) as "chao phi". Each spirit has a name and royal or noble 

title and a designated area of responsibilit}' in the irrigation systems. A chosen medium 

(thii nang; ~,f.:~) I whom the. spirit possesses at ceremonial occasions, is the voice through 

whom the spirit speaks. Each spirit also has his own group of devotees (luuk /aan; 

11n'VIfl1~) 2 who have been helped by him in the past, and an informal group of elders in 

" . 

1. Many Thai terms given in this work are transcriptions of the local Notthern Thai, or kham 

myang, whicli is spoken in the area. Another Northern Thai term for 'spirit medium' is 

maa khii (U',; ) or 'horse that is ridden'. This terin has been used .occ~ionally in interviews, 

but. that given.here is more common in local usage. 

2. The term luuk laan mea.ns literally 'children and grandchildren'. In the relationship between 

the.lordly spirit and his luuk /~an there is no implied kinship, as for example, between a lineage 

spirit and a lu11k latin. For this reason l have chosen to designate a luuk laan of the lordly 

. spirits as a 'devotee'.


the cult, called the kamlang in the Phrae region (ri1i,), who lead .invocations to the 

spirit and act .as ritual officiants at large ceremonies in the offering house (h:J:J; VIti) 

dedicated to the spirtt, or at curing ceremonies in private houses. With the proper 

offeripgs these spirits can supernaturally protect person and property, cure ailments, 

especially those caused by evil spirits, find lost objects, and ·perform other kinds of 

services. The cults of these spirits share elements of the villages regional, and royal 

spirit cults recorded for Laos (Condonimas 1975), Northeastern Thailand (Tambiah 

1970), Nan (Velder 1963), Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces in North Thailand 

(Kraisri 1967; Turton 1972), and in their conn~ction to irrigation, some aspects of the. 

nat cults of Burma (Spiro 1967). 

The offering cycle to spirits in the area is characterized by the phrase s:J:Jngpii 

~ ~t· 

haam, saam 

. 

pii khooj (W!lUJ'!113.1ft1:JJtJ. flU), for which no sati~factory translation from the 

Northern Thai has been obtained. It refers to the fact that for two years there are 

small offerings, but in the third year there must be great offerings to the spirits. This 

is true for the spirits of the dam, the mountain spirits, and other lordly spirits in the 

a,rea whose great offerings are not supported by irrigation systems. The mediums of 

the three lordly spirits in the hierarchy of five whose offerings are not paid for by the 

irrigation systems are invited to attend the great offering ceremonies of the other two 

spirits. In this way the three lesser spirits can enjoy the offerings pre.I?ared and receive 

the thanks of the irrigation system togethe~ -.yith the two honored spirits. The great 

offerings at their own yearly ceremonies must be paid for by their respective groups of 

devotees. The importance of the hierarchy of five spirits .and its unity is constantly 

emphasized during ceremonial occasions. One spirit is recognized .as the chief of the 

group and the other four as his subordinates in a strict descending order of seniority. 

The importance of the five spii:its as the heads of the supernatural order in irrigation 

affairs, and as senior spirits among the supernaturals in the area; _is reenforced by the 

fact that offerings must be made to them at any spirit ceremony. In offerings made at 

ceremonies for the dam spirits, the mountain spirits, or .at a ceremony in honor of any 

single spirit among the five in small offering years, five offering plates must be prepared 

and the lordly spirits invited to descend and enjoy the essence of their offerings before 

the ceremony progresses to honor the spirit or spirits to whom it is dedicated. 

The human structure which supports this supernatural system in connection 

with irrigation affairs is a necessarily fragile one. The water users of the irrigation · 

system must agree to the large levies expected fr~m them to finance the offerings. The 

village headmen, the kamnan~ and the irrigation · administrators must organize the 

collection of the money and the purchase of animals and other items for the offerings.


The elders of the spirit cults have a proprietary interest in maintaining the support of 

offerings to their spirits and promoting thC?ir importance, but the. practical support of 

the offerings requires the consensus that supernatural protection is necessary for the 

irrigation systems. The consensus is beginning to erode. Changes in leadership, and 

changes in the relationship between the government officials. on one hand and ~he 

officials of the irrigation systems ori the other ·in the administration of the systems bas 

begun to threaten the support of the great offerings by the irrigation systems. The 

water users have also begun to question the value of supporting the spirits and question 

~so their ability to protect the irrigation system and to provide rain. In some ca8es 

recently the water users have tried to avoid, or have withheld, their assessed contributions 

to the offerings. 

I shall present here in detail the history of a series of events involving one · 

irrigation system and the spirits which will illustrate the rela~ionships between the 

human organization which supports the great offerings and the spirits, and between the 

spirits themselves. It will also show the change in recent times which have threatened 

this special relationship between humans and supematurals. The scenario is relatively 

simple. A serious drought occurred in 1979. In desp~ration the leadership of a large 

irrigation system in the area consulted the spirits and promised them a speci~ offering 

of a pig if the much-heeded rain fell within a stipulated period or' time so that the 

farmers could begin transplanting rice. The desired rain fell but the pig was not 

provided in 1980, a small offering year, due to inattention and dragging of feet by the 

leadership that should have collected money and organized the offering. The matter 

came to a head in 1981 when the leaders again failed to collect the money by the day 

of the offering ceremony in honor of the spirit who should have received the pig the 

previous year--but the offering was finally provided at a· special deiayed ceremony. 

The problems involved and the acrimony which occurred in organizing this special 

ceremony sh~rply influenced events in· the great offering year of 1982. The events 

within this scenario, which stretch over three years, illustrate and make clear the 

relationships between the groups which support the spirits and their. role in irrigation 

affairs in the Phrae region. 

Geography and Setting 

The area covered by the spirit cults is difficult to describe as there is no firm 

cutoff as to where the devotees of one or another of· the spirits come from. An elder 

of one of the spirit cults commented that devotees of his spirit came from as far off as 

Bangkok. The focus of veneration of these spirits is a number· of villages whose fields


are watered by two irrigation systems involved in support of the great offerings. The 

vill~ges lie near the northeastern boundary of the city district (amphaa myang) of Phrae 

and ·in a neighboring amphaa. The villages are also split between two tambons, or 

sub-districts, which for convenience I have ·called Tambon 1 and Tambon 2, which is 

also in another amphaa. Three irrigation systems are prominent in the support of the 

great offerings but one is central in organizing and maintaining these ceremonies. 

The largest of these irrigation systems I have called Sugar Cane Dam (faaj :J:Jj; 

~huaau). It irrigates over 480 hectares of land and has more than 1,000 member 

households in the eight villages. It is fed by two rivers, the Tyk and the Thang, which 

:flow into the area from mountains to the northeast. There is an irrigation system 

upstream of Sugar Cane Dam on both of tpese. rivers. The administration of these · 

systems also contributed to the cost of the great offerings in the past. The rivers 

conjoin upstream· of the irrigation dam of Sugar Cane Dam and two lateral canals 

branch off below the dam which·provide water to the eight villages in the system. The 

drainage from the system and the overflow of the dam forms the Maa Laaj River, 

which is a tributary of the Yom River, for which the valley in which Phrae is located 

is named. 

The Spirits 

·The five lordly spirits cannot be described as combining in a single cult, except 

in their connection .to irrigation affairs. Each spirit has his own group of devotees, a 

medium, and kamlang elders; 

During the small offering years each spirit is the single 

object of veneration at his offering ceremony. Kamlang elders of one spirit do not act 

as officiants for another' of the five spirits and do not, characteristically, attend the 

ceremonies in honor of the other spirits, even as spectators, except when the mediums 

of all five spirits are present for a great offering. It is also not possible to make a 

distinction: between "village" and regional spirit cults as in the Northeast of Thailand 

(Tambiah 1970 : 280), except perhaps in the case of the spirit known. as Lord of the 

Golden House. The offering houses, residences of the important kamlang elders and 

mediums, and the houses where the spirits' ritual equippage is kept of four of the five 

spirits are all in or around Village C, but the devotees of these spirits are _spread · . 

throughout the area of Sugar Cane Dam and beyond. Nor is there a situation as 

described in the North of Thailand where local people venerated their lineage spirits 

and the Cult of Golden King and other spirits were offered to by a distant prince 

{Turton 1972: 251-252). There is no major difference in the conduct of ceremonies in 

honor of one or another of the lordly spirits.

SPIRIT BELIEF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND 

q1 

The spirits do constitute a single, acknowledged hierarchy. Each spirit has 

individual responsibilities in relation to the irrigation systems. The set order of 

seniority" is reflected in the order in which the mediums are seated at a great offering 

ceremony, the order in which offerings are presented, invocations delivered, etc. At a 

great offering ceremony where all five are present, each spirit reaffirms his place in the 

hierarchy. All four of the junior spirits make obeisance to the most senior spirit as 

they possess their mediums in turn and address this spirit as "father" (caw ph:J:J; 

Lil.Wa) when speaking to him. 

There is no single mythos which binds the five together and only sketchy 

details are remembered of the stories which account for how each spirit came to the 

area and came to be venerated by the inhabitants. Some stories have all five arriving 

at the same time, and others describe individual origins of the spiiits. The spirits will 

be introduced in order of seniority and their responsibilities to the irrigation systems 

described. 

Great Mountain Lord: Li1LOJJ1VItl1\l 

Great Mountain Lord is the acknowledged head of the hierarchy. Most 

accUnts agree that he came to Phrae from Myang Lii, a district in the province of Nan. 

It is uncertain if he came as a person or a spirit. One elder said that he built a city in 

the Yom Valley near Phrae. Another said that he was not well cared for by his 

devotees in Myang Lii and came across the mountains to the area of Sugar Cane Dam 

where people acknowledged him and offered to him as was his due. He was invited to 

become the chief protector of the irrigation systems in the area. The lesser status of 

the other four spirits is shown bY calling them his "sons" or "sons-in-law" (cf. Tambiah 

1970 :. 281). His importance is best expressed in the words of one of the elders : 

Of all of the spirits Great Mountain Lord is the most powerful. 

When the spirits possess their mediums if Great Mountain Lord says 

something, the other spirits must agree with him. If he thinks something 

is good, the people must think it is good too. If he doesn't agree 

with something then no one may do it. 

Great Mountain Lord and one of his subordinates are responsible for the rivers 

that feed Sugar Cane Dam. He is directly responsible for the Thang River and a 

tributary of the Tyk, as well as overseeing the activities of the other spirits in connection 

with irrigation affairs. 

One sign of his importance is the fact that . Great Mountain Lord has an 

attendant spirit who attends him in the spirit world, and possesses his medium before 

Great Mountain Lord himself comes down in order to make sure that all is in order in 

the ceremony and that the sacrificial animals have been properly prepared.


Victorious Warrior Lord--Lord of the Bloody Sword : t~1:r.niutmt113J Liit:mrqprm 

. . I 

Victorious Warrior Lord is an equivocal spirit. He is second in the hierarchy 

to Great Mountain Lord, and more than one elder has agreed that he is Great Mountain · 

Lprd'!! son-in-law· as well. His prestige is less than that of his younger brother, 

however. He is responsible for the Mee Khampong and Mee Khammii Rivers, which 

do not provide water to Sugar Cane Dam, and principle in his veneration is the 

Khampong irrigation system that irrigates fields in some of the villages included in 

Sugar Cane Dam. The water users of this system provide him with a special ol,iering 

of a pig in the great offering years at the ceremony to the dam spirits of their irrigation 

system. The great offe!ings at his offedng house are not financed by any irrigation 

system. Despite this separation he is honored at all offerings where the hierarchy of 

fiv.e spirits is invoked and his medium attends all great offering ceremonies where the 

offerings of the irrigation systems are sacrificed. 

The accounts state that Victorious Warrior Lord was a lord of Phrae, or a great 

warrior, and led his armies to victory and fought with them at the city walls until his 

sword was covered with blood. After he became a spirit he was associated with the 

temple of the reclining Buddha in the city of Phrae, but came to the area of the irr_igation 

systems north of the city to become a guardian of the rivers and canals. 

Lord of 100,000 Elephants : Li'1LLft'W;,, 

Lord of 100,000 Elephants is third .in the hierarchy but is qualitatively second 

in importance and prestige. His cult is the largest and most active· of all of the cults 

of the five lordly spirits. His offering house is on the edge of the property of a large 

tobacco curing plant in Village D which contributes generously to his offerings each 

year. He and Great Mountain Lord are the two spirits who receive the offerings of 

Sugar Cane Dam during the great offering year. 

There are many conflicting stories concerningLord of 100,000 Elephants' origins 

and associations with the irrigation systems in the area. One account says he came 

from Lopburi. Another states that he was an inhabitant of ~he local area. He floated 

in a golden boat from a point just below the irrigation dam of Sugar Cane Dam on the 

Mee Laaj River to Village D where his boat overturned and he drowned. His spirit 

lingered iri ~he area where his boat overturned and people gave him offerings and came 

to venerate him as a lordly spirit. His boat journey· delineates his irrigation responsibilities. 

He is responsible for the Mee Laaj River from the main irrigation dam of 

Sugar· cane Dam to the point where the river joins the Yom River, and for the main 

.canal system of Sugar Cane Dam. His offering house is located at the point on the 

river where his boat overturned and he drowned.


Another reason for the importance pf the cult of Lord of 100,090 Elephants is 

an attendant or client spirit of his that is able to possess his medium. His name· is 

Great Chariot Lord (caw mahaa rod; L'iliil'lll1~n) •. Although he is a subordinate of 

·Lord of 100,000 Elephants and technically less important than the hierarchy of .five 

spirits, his attributes and responsibilities in the spirit world make him singularly 

important to the irrigation systems. Great Chariot Lord is a spirit of the upper air, 

.solely responsible for commun~cating with the Buddhist deities, the thewadaa, concerning 

the provision of rain. When the administration ~f the irrigation system makes a 

·request for rain Great Mountain Lord must be consulted, but the request is usually 

directed to Lord of 100,000 Elephants and Great Chariot Lord. 

... . 

Lord of the Golden Honse : L'i11'11ltlfl1 

Lord of the Golden House is. the only spirit in the hierarchy_ of five. that can 

. properly. be called a village spirit (see Tambiah 1970; · Sripraphai 1980). He is the 

guardian· spirit of Village G and is responsible for the· houses and wat in the village, as 

well as for the irrigation dam of Sugar Cane Dam. He is fourth in seniority among the 

five spirits and is provided with offerings at all ceremonial occasions associated with the 

irrigation systems. Elders of his cult recall little of his origins but insist he was influential 

in getting people to settle in the area, and that his power was crucial in keeping the 

upright stakes of the first wooden irrigation dam of Sugar Cane Dam in place. When 

the wooden irrigation dam was rebuilt in the past the medium of Lord of the Golden 

House was taken to the site of the dam, the spirit invoked, and his blessing of the dam 

·was asked. 

.., .., 4 " 

Lord of the Iron Wrist : L'i11'iltliltJL'IIIt'ln 

Lord of the Iron Wrist is the most junior of the five .ordly spirits. He is said 

to come from AmphrJrJ Chiang Daw, north of Chiang Mai. Accounts state that he was 

strong enough to bend iron bars with his hadds, which is the source of his mime. In 

irrigation affairs he is a direct subordinate of Great Mountain Lord. He is responsible 

for the Tyk River; one of the rivers that provides water to Sugar Cane Dam. 

The Request for Rain and the Tardy Pig 

Before describing the problems between the spirits. and the irrigation syste~ in 

the last three years it is necessary to provide some background information~ Tbe 

lordly spirits of Phrae share a. trait common to other classes of spirits in :rhailand and 

elsewhere in Southeast Asia. A petitioner may make a specific request for assist~nce, 

protection from harm, cure for an ailment, or other servi_ces from the spirit and in tum


will promise a suitable offering if the request is granted. The vow (bon, uu) can be 

made in private or, in the case of the lordly spirits, when· they are possessing their 

mediums at the yearly offering ceremonies. Some sticks of incense, flowers, and a few 

baht coins are placed on an offering tray and presented to the spirit/medium. The 

petitioner then makes a request for the spirit's assistance ·and . promises a suitable 

offering. Repayment of the vow. (kff bon; u.nuu) is usually made at the yearly offering 

ceremony .. Such a request is quite business-like. If the request. is granted the petitioner 

must provide the promised offering, usually within one year, but if the spirit fails 

nothing is required. 

The year B.E. 2522 (1979 A.D.) was a serious drought-year in North Thailand. 

In the tenth lunar month (July) the village headmen of the villages that received water 

from Sugar Cane Dam, the kamnan of Tambon 1, the irrigation leadership, and the 

kamlang elders of the spirit cults held a small ceremony to which all five of the spirit 

mediums were invited. After the suitable offerings and ·invocations had been made 

Great Mountain Lord possessed his '!'edium. He3 listened to the request of the irrigation 

committee and informed them that the rain was there, but that the committee had ' 

to make a vow to the spirits and then repay the vow with a suitable offering when the 

rain had fallen. Great Mountain Lord suggested that the bon should be made to Lord 

of 100,000 Eiephants and his son, Great Chax:iot Lord, as they had the g~eatest influence 

over rainfall. Since Great Mountain Lord was present Lord of 100,000 Elephants was 

quickly invok~d and descended to possess his medium. The irrigation committee 

explained the problem. They promised Lord of 100,000. Elephants and "Great Chariot 

Lord a pig, to be offered as a krr bon in one year, if the rain would begin falling in 

seven days so that the farmers could transplant their rice. Lord of 100,000 Elephants 

left and Great Chariot Lord possessed his father's medium so the offering could be 

explained to him. The rain began falling within seven days as the spirits promised. 

Difficulties arose the next year when it came time for the irrigation committee to offer 

the promised pig. 

The yearly offering beremonies of the lordly spirits occur within a four day 

period on prescribed days in the ninth lu~ar month. The ceremony in honor of Great 

Mountain Lord is held on the third day of the waxing mOOJ;l, and the ceremony for 

Lord of 100,000 Elephants is on the fifth day of the waxing moon .. The ceremony in 

3. Throughout this narrative I shall refer to the spirits with the third person, male pronoun 

despite the fact that at present all of the mediums are women. When a spirit possesses. the 

medium it is; for all intents and purposes, Great Mountain Lord or another spirit speaking. 

The medium changes clothes, drinks whiskey and ingests pig's blood, acts aggressive, and 

speaks in a different voice. The medium, when possessed, also uses the masculine, first person 

pronoun when speaking.

Sl'IRIT BELIEF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND . 131 

honor of Lord of 100,000 Elephants in B.E. 2523 (1980 A.D.) is when the promised pig 

should have been offered. In the organization of Sugar. Cane Dam the kamnan and 

village headmen are responsible for setting a special levy for sucbpurposes, dispatching. 

the ditch runners of the system to collect the money from the water users, and purchasing 

the offering animal and other foods to provide at the ceremony. 

Despite the urging of the elders of the spirit cults and others the kamnan was . 

lax in organizing the collection of the special levy and villagers at the downstream end 

of the irrigation system were .recalcit~ant in providing their assessed share of the price 

?f the offering. The day. of the ceremony came and went with no pig as had been 

promised. In anger the spirits demanded that the irrigation committee should provide 

two pigs at the offering ceremony in B.E. 2524 (1981 A.D.) as a fine for failing to repay 

the bon at the proper time. The narration of events begins with the annual offering 

ceremony to Great Mountain Lord in B.E 2524. 

3rd Day of the Waxing Moon, 9th Lunar Month B.E. 2524 (Jnne 5, 1981) 

This year was a minor offering year and only the medium of Great Mountain 

Lord was in attendance. The ceremony began at noon and became the occasion of 

much consternation and apprehension. After repeated invocations neither the attendant 

spirit Very Brave Lord (caw sun haan; Li1LLftWVI1ty) nor Great Mountain Lord had 

descended to possess the medium. Finally Very Brave Lord possessed the medium. He 

told the devotees that his father was very angry and if the people did not support the 

old customs Great Mountain Lord would return to Myang Lii. This was in reference 

to the fact that the officials had not collected the money for the kEf bon offering to 

Lord of.lOO,OOO Elephants and Great Chariot Lord, and their ceremony was only two 

days away. The newly installed kamnan of Tambon 1, the village headmen of some of 

the villages in the irrigation system, the newly appointed irrigation headman (chairman) 

of Sugar Cane Dam, and other officials arrived led by a well-respected retired kamnan 

of Tambon 1, who is also a retired irrigation headman of Sugar Cane Dam, almost an 

hour after Very Brave Lord had possessed the medium and had been attending to 

personal problems of the devotees. 

The Retired Kamnan moved to a place near the spirit's seat and the rest of the 

group sat further away. Very Brave Lord complained that when he had come down 

there were no officials present. He commented that it was necessary to ·support the old 

cust'?ms, to which the Retired Kamnan agreed. Very Brave Lord announced that he 

would leave the medium as his "father" was coming down soon. 

Great Mountain Lord possessed his medium after the completion of the song of 

invocation by the musicians and prayerful invitations to descend from the kamlang


,elders. The Retired Kamnan prepared an offering tray of candles and flowers while 

Great Mountain Lord went through the series of ritual actions be performs immediately 

after possessing his medium. He accepted the tray and elevated it with reverence to 

the thewadaa askiQg for rain for Sugar Cane Dam. He then turned to speak to the 

Retired Kamnan. 

Great Mountain ·Lor~ complained that tlie kamnan and other '?fficiaJs bad not 

maintained the customs in regard to the spirits, as bad past officials. When the time 

had come to offeJ; the pig as a k££ bon offering in· the preceding year, there bad been 

no offering. The Retired Kamnan replied that the farmers felt that Great Mountain 

Lord should not be a,nnoyed about this. The Kamnan and the irrigation headman 

were both newly installed in their offices and did not know all of their responsibilities 

to the spirits, especially in relation to the spirits and concerning this particular offering. 

After all, he said, the kamnan who had made the vow had resigned from office before 

it was time to prepare the k££bon offering. Great Mountain Lord complained that 

ther~ had been no officials pr~sent when Very Brave.Lord had come down. The Retired. 

· Kamnan replied that the entire group of officials had been delayed by an official 

meeting in the city; He said he hoped. that the spirit would linderstand that the former 

kamnan had be~n lax in his responsibilities to the spirits. Besides, he {the Retired 

Kamnan) was only an old man with no official duties in this matter-there was nothing 

he could do. He had only come to introduce tb.~ new kamnan to the spirit. 

The new kamnan had shown little interest in the conversation but was duly . 

introduced to Great Mountain: Lord. He told the new kamnan that itl the past, when 

the established customs had been followed, people had to cover their heads with anything 

at hand by the time they left his offering house because it was raining heavily. 

To emphasize his point Great Mountain Lord threw a cloth on his bead. He added ·· 

that in the past the irrigation officials, kamnan and village headmen, and t.he kamlang 

elders convened a small ceremony before the day of his yearly offering ceremony to 

discuss the matter of rain for the coming agricultural year. 

The new kamnan replied that if Great Mountain Lord would cause the rain io 

fall regularly and not allow a drough.t to occur, then the people would continue to 

respect him and offer to him as in the past. The Retired Kamnan interrupted this 

impasse to enquire if the offering of two pigs would be made at Lord of 100,000 Elephants' 

ceremony in two days time. The new· kamnan replied that they were trying to get the 

money together and were·not sure if the total amount, could be collected or not, woul~. 

a delayed offering be acceptable ? Great Mountain Lord said definitely that according 

to custom the offering should be made on the proper day, in two days' time. A delayed 

offering would be unacceptable. The officials did not answer directiy to this but the

SPIRIT BELIEF A~D IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND 133 

new kamnan reiterated that if the spirits caused the rains to fall on time, then the 

farmers would support the old customs. The officials ended the interview and ieturned 

to town pleading· another official meeting. 

5th Day of the Waxing 1\foon, 9th Lunar Month,.B.E. 2524 (June 7, 1981) 

Preparations for the annual offering ceremony in ·honor of Lord of 100,000 

Elephants are made at the rong chaj (h.:~io), the private house of one of the elders of 

his cult where the ceremonial equippage and other property of the spiri~ are stored. At 

10 : 00 A.M. the leader of the kamlang elders was annoyed and worried. The ceremony 

was due to begin in two hours and they still had not had word as to whether the pigs 

would be offered or not. He complained that if the"pigs were to be offered he would 

have to call the ~ediums of all the other spirits and the ritual slaughterer for the ceremony, 

and time was short. In his opinion a delayed ceremony would be suitable. It 

could be held on the fifth day of the waxing moon, just so it was on a fifth day· in the 

ninth lunar month. If the officials waited till the tenth lunar month the spirit would 

110t accept the offering. No word came and the party of elders and the medium left 

for the offering house an hour before the ceremony. 

The ceremony began at noon and by 2:00P.M. the spirit had possessed his 

medium. When the spirit had· finished the ritual actions performed after p~ssession he 

indicated he was ready to hear the requests of his devotees. The ritual officiant said 

pointedly that since no kamnan, village headman, or other officials were present the 

devotees could approach the spirit. One of the kamlang elders noted privately that it 

seemed that only the Retired Kamnan was interested in prodding the official group to 

collect the money from the water users. The ceremony ended at 4: 15 P.M. and the 

new kamnan and other officials were observed· in a car on their way to the _spirit's 

offering house ten minutes after that. 

12th Day of the Waxing Moon, Ninth Lunar Month, B.E. 2524 (June 14, 1981) 

Compared to the annual offering ceremonies to the lordly spirits the ceremony 

in honor of the dam spirit~ of Sugar Cane Dam is a small affair"; At the large ceremonies 

as many as 100 devotees may attend, while only the village headman from each 

village in the irrigation system, sometimes accompanied by an elder from his village 

knowledgeable in spirit .offerings, the kamnan, and the irrigation headman are 

required to attend the dam spirit's ceremony. The village headmen are responsible for 

collecting and bringing their villages' share of chickens and other items for the offering. 

An elder of the cult 'of Lord of 100,000 Elep~ants acted as ritual officiant. The 

chickens were slaughtered, cooked, and the offerings placed on a small altar and pray-


ers of invocation said. While the small company waited for the spirits to aescend 

and enjoy the essence of their offerings the discussion centered on the ceremonies in 

honor of the spirits and the difficulties in maintaining them. 

An elder noted that for the third year in a row the village headman of Village 

A. had failed to attend the ceremony or send a representative, and he had not sent his 

village's share of chickens for the offerings. The only other absence was the official 

party from Village D who were in the mountains celebrating the offerings to the 

mountain spirits who look after the source of the rivers that feed Sugar Cane Dam. 

An older village headman commented it was discouraging to try and collect money 

for the offering, even the small amount required for the dam spirits' offering. Some 

villagers resented the extra expense as their surplus cash had been spent to make Buddhist 

~erit in supporting the building funds of the village wats. Other villagers claimed 

hereditary exemption from contributing because of duties their families performed at 

the offering ceremonies, which they no longer performed, and others said simply that 

the rain would continue to fall and the irrigation dam abide with, or without, the 

spirits. Another person present commented that when the spirits were invited to come 

down and enjoy their offerings, how could one be sure if they came down, or not. 

The big news of the afternoon, however, was the fact that the money for the 

kEEbon offering had been collected and the ceremony would take place on the fifth 

day of the waxing moon. The pigs and other n·ecessary items for the ceremony had 

cost Baht 10,000· and the final costs might be as high as Baht 15,000. The ritual 

officiant emphasized the need to continue these ceremonies as they obtained the blessing 

and attention of the spirits for the dam and the irrigation system for the good of 

all the water users .. 

5th Day of the Waxing Moon, 9th Lunar Month, B.E. 2525 (June 22, 1981) 

The morning of the special k33bon ceremony the chief elder of the kamlang 

of Lord of 100,000 Elephants commented that after the offering had been made no one 

could blame the problems of rainfall in the area on the spirits, or on the officials. Some 

people had blamed the late rains in B.E. 2523 (1980), which had seriously delayed 

iransplanting, on the fact that the bon to the spirits had not been repaid on time. 

The ceremony was delayed because the kamlang elders and medium of Victorious 

Warrior Lord had no.t shown up. Finally the group appeared after invocations 

had already begun. The offerings to the five spirits were prepared and all was in 

readiness. Lord of 100,000 Elephants possessed his medium first as the ceremony was 

in his honor, followed by _Great Mountain Lord. Great Mountain Lord was informed 

that there was a provincial training course in the city which required the presence of

SPIRIT BELIEF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND 135 . 

all of the government officials, thus only the irrigation headman of Sugar Cane Dam 

was present to pay homage to the spirits. As the last three spirits possessed their 

mediums in descending order of seniority the irrigation headman elevated their plates of 

. invocation (khan chaan; iuLoity), a tray with betel and other offering materials, and 

offered it to them with reverence. 

While the spirits were possessing their mediums and preparing themselves the 

ritual slaughterer had dispatched the pigs and begun the preparation of the various 

kinds of offering foods for the spirits. Great Mountain Lord ordered the Retired 

Kamnan to have the offering meals prepared from the two pigs brought separately. 

The first was to pay back the bon for the rain and the second was the 'fine' the spirits 

had imposed for the late ceremony. The meal was offered and Lord of 100,000 Elephants 

left his medium so Great Chariot Lord could come down and enjoy the offerings. 

At major ceremonies such as this the spirits, in the person of their mediums, eat the 

offering meals personally by spooning up parts of the meal with their swords, rather 

than enjoying only the essence of their offerings as in lesser ceremonies. ·After the 

offering meal the spirits circulated among the devotees offering some a spoonful of 

raw pig blood followed by a cup of whiskey. Great Mountain ·Lord offered some to 

the retired Kamnan. He said that he hoped the officials of the irrigation system and 

the government officials would not forget the offerings in the future, as they had in this 

case. The Retired Kamnan gratefully accepted a cup of whiskey after downing the 

pig blood and replied that the kamnan and village headmen did not really understand 

the ceremony nor the importance of the spirit offerings. Great Mountain Lord asked 

if the irrigation systems hadn't depended upon the spirits in the past, and the Retired 

Kamnan agreed. 

The second offering meal was given and the spirits consumed it in the same 

way. The musicians began a song asking for sufficient rainfall and asking the spirits 

to let no drought occur. Lord of the Iron Wrist called out that he had come down to 

have fun with his devotees, and said by way of blessing that water should enter the 

fields and fish should get into them in great number also. 

An offering tray was elevated 

to the thewadaa by Great Chariot Lord, who communes with· them directly 

concerning rainfall. The devotees ate some of the food, the spirits danced, and all. was 

packed up at the end of the ceremony. 

It is ititeresting to note that there had been only "sporadic rainfall in the area 

throughout June and the other ceremony days bad been ~lear. Immediately after the 

ceremony a torrential downpour ensued and rain continued into the night and throughout 

the next day ..


3rd Day of the Waxing Moon, Ninth Lunar Month, B.E. 2525 (May 25, 1982) 

2525 was to have been the year of the great offerings in honor of Great 

Mount~in Lord and Lord of 100,000 Elephants. The ceremony in honor of Great Mountain 

Lord began at noon. 

There was no evidence of the young swamp buffalo that was 

his expected offering--the ritual slaughterer was busy preparing an offering meal from 

a pig. 

An elder of the kamlang s~id that they had heard nothing from the irrigation 

committee concerning the great offerings, so the devotees had collected money among 

themselves at the last minute to purchase the pig so at least Great Mountain Lord would 

have a 'large animal' as his offering. 

Great Mountain Lord possessed his medium at 

2: 00 P.M. and began to. see to the personal requests of his devotees. No mention was 

made of the missing offerings. 

At 2: 25 P.M. the Retired Kamnan appeared with the kamnan of Tambon 1 

and the irrigation headman of Sugar Cane Dam. 

The Retired Kamnan prepared the 

offering plate of flowers and candles on behalf of Sugar Cane Dam which Great 

Mountain Lord accepted and elevated toward the rail of the offering house, calling. on 

the thewadaa to accept the offering and provide rain in the coming year. After the 

offering Great Mountain Lord complained to the Retired Kamnan that there was no 

buffalo as was his due this year. 

The Retired Kamnan repeated the excuse from the 

previous year, that the kamnan and irrigation headman were new to their offices 

and did not understand their responsibilities to the spirits. He motioned to the new 

kamnan to approach the spirit, which the kamnan refused to do. 

Great Mountain Lord said that the great offerings were an old custom which 

should be continued and supported by the officials. When you first made the dam, he 

said to the karfdang and others around him, you knew who protected it and took care 

of it. Now, he said, no one asks for my protection. The Retired Kamnan began to 

repeat the explanation that the officials were new to their offices but Great Mountain 

Lord cut him off. 

He observed that the "new" kamnan had been in office more than 

two years and the irrigation headman more than a year--shouldn't they know their 

duties and responsibilities by now, he asked? The Retired Kamnan had meanwhile 

prepared a second offering plate which Great Mountain Lord duly elevated to the 

thewadaa asking for rain and fish in the fields. He said in a loud voice to his devotees 

that· they knew about the old customs, that these customs should be kept and followed. 

The Retired Kamnan said, somewhat defensively, that he was at the ceremony every 

year. Great Mountain Lord replied that Lord of 100,000 Elephants should not be 

forgotten; he pointed at the Retired Kamnan and said that he had retired as kamnan 

but he should not retire as a devotee who offered to Lord of 100,000 Elephants. The 

kamlang elders nearby defended the Retired Kamnan as a faithful devotee of the


'. 

spmts, to which the spirit agreed. 

The Retired Kamnan commented that the 

spirits had always protected Sugar Cane Dam in the past. Great Mountain Lord turned 

to the irrigation headman of Sugar Cane Dam and said that this year he should have 

gotten a young buffalo from the water users and Lord of 100,000 Elephants should 

have gotten a pig. He dismissed the irrigation headman by saying that if the rains 

were poor this year they shouldn't blaine him and the other spirits, and' turned to 

attend to his devotees' requests. The irrigation headman muttered that he had just 

been a village headman before this position and didn't know about such things. The 

Retired K~mnan wrote out the offering schedule and suggested that perhaps the buffalo 

.and pig could be offered next year, instead of this year. 

At the ceremony in honor of Lord of 100,000 Elephants two days later an 80 

kg pig was provided for the spirit by the owners of the tobacco curing plant near his 

offering house and another pig was being sacrificed as a kEEbon offering from a devotee. 

Great Mountain Lord alone of the other lordly spirits was invited to "share the respect" 

of the owner's family--a departure from the usual conduct of the ceremony in great 

offering years. A kamlang elder commented that no one from the irrigation system 

had "run around t.o collect the money" to purchase the pig that should have been Lord 

of 100,000 Elephants' offering. This was their responsibility, he said, not his and 

dismissed the matter: Neither the Retired Kamnan nor any of the officials of the 

irrigation system attended the ceremony and no public mention was made of the 

missing offering, 

Spirits, Irrigation, Officialdom, and Change , 

As this narration has shown the staging of a major offering, in this case the 

. kEEbon ceremony, requires the cooperation of three groups--the _spirits, their devotees, 

and kamlang elders, the irrigation officials and water users, and the village headmen 

and kamnan. The maintenance of the offering system involving the irrigation systems 

requires the continuance of this cooperation, and as events in 1982 have shown it is at 

the point of collapse. The human and supernatural systems can probably function 

independently of each other. The lordly spirits will continue to fulfill those services 

they have always performed for their devotees and receive their offerings in turn. Most 

of the mediums and kamlang are middle-aged or elderly, but the devotees of the spirits 

include younger people and the spirits will, no doubt, continue to be venerated. Victorious 

Warripr Lord and a lesser lordly spirit in the area both chose new mediums in 

1980-1 981. All of the lordly spirits,. except Great Mountain Lord and Lord of 100,000 

Elephants, have received their great offerings for generations without the benefit of 

support from the irrigation systems. The irrigation systems are also viable social 

concerns which have existed in their present form, more or less, for over 200 years.

138 Richard P. Lando · 

They have weathered changes in form, administration, and shifts of power between 

the irrigation officials and the government officials involved in their administration, 

but continue to deliver water to the fields each year. 

It is this special relationship between the irrigation systems and the cults of 

the lordly spirits, and especially support of the great offerings that is threatened. In 

the past the ceremony and preparation of the offerings 

. 

described here would have been 

. 

a matter of course. The kamnan and the village headmen would have directed the 

collection of the money and purchased the offering animals and other required items 

as a normal part of their duties to the irrigation systems. The water users would Iiave 

contributed willingly for the demonstrated protection of the dam and the provision of 

rain by the spirits, and the spirits would have demonstrated their unerring control over 

the natural elements. During his tenure as kamnan the Retired Kamnan felt it a 

· matter of good administration to call a yearly. conference in the dry season of the 

village headmen, irrigation officials, arid elders knowledgeable about the spirits to 

arrange all of the practical matters concerning the irrigation system and the spirits 

for the coming year--support for the dam spirits' ceremony and special levies in great 

offering years, and the organization of the offerings. Times, the elements, and 

people have changed and the entire structure is threatened. 

The description of the kEEhon ceremony presented here has shown how ·some 

facets of the system work, and the present instabilities. It is necessary to examine the. 

social organization of .these traditional Northern Thai irrigation ·systems, and the role 

played' by local government officials in their administration, to understand the role of 

humans in support of the spirits in this special relationship, and the instabilities modem 

times have brought. The role of the spirits, in the supeJ."natural realm as well as in the 

more mundane concerns of human affairs, becomes clearer as a result. 

The Irrigation Systems 

The traditional irrigation systems of the intermontane valleys of North Thailand 

have_ a long history, but their true antiquity is unknown. A set of laws was promulgated 

in the reign of the Lanna Thai King Mengrai concerning the governance of. various 

aspects of irrigation in the Chiang Mai Valley in 1292 (Potter 1976: 81). A large 

trunk canal which brought an area of several thousands of hectare of rice land under 

irrigation was constructed under the patronage of the same king during his reign (Ishii 

1978: 21). The systems operate the same but vary in size and complexity. A diversion 

weir or dam (faaj; ~ho) is built of bamboo stakes, filling, and ballast across a river or 

stream. The dam backs water up into the system of canals (myang; L'tii~D~) which

SPIRIT BELffiF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND 139 

:finps its way into the rice fields through the secondary and tertiary canals of the system. 

These systems range in size from small ones which irrigate a few hectare· to one in the 

Chiang Mai region which irrigates 2250 hectare (Kaida 1978: 209). 

The social organization of irrigation is also relatively simple. The water users 

of the system are expected to partigipate in a yearly dredging out and cleaning of the 

irrigation canals and to provide cut stakes and other raw materials for the yearly 

rebuilding of the irrigation dam, which is. usually destroyed when the river is at flood 

stage, and to work on the rebuilding effort. The amount of labor and goods the 

water user owes to the system is usually directly proportional to the amount of land he 

farms that is irrigated by the system. 

This is only one part of the "stable human organization" (Kaida 1978: 209) 

that is required for the operation and maintenance of an irrigation system. There must 

be an official body which has decision-making authority in the allocation of water, 

power to resolve conflict' over water, and authority to enforce participation in cooperative 

labor on the. system, as well as effective sanctions to back up their decisions. The size 

of this o:~:ficial body and the variety of their duties varies with the size of t~e system. 

Sugar Cane Dan has an irrigation headman, who is head of the entire system, an assistant 

irrigation headman in .each of the villages, and a messenger or ditch runner 

who transmits the decisions conc~rning labor and·water allocation to the households iD. 

the villages. The much smaller Khampong irrigation system has only an irrigation 

headman and two assistants. 

The governing body, or irrigation committee, usually has a set offines and 

other punishments it can impose on water users for water theft, shirking cooperative 

labor, and other offences. The authority behind these sanctions has varied in North 

Thailand, especially in the degree of inclusion of government officials in irrigation 

affairs and administration. This. has ranged from systems reported to be under community 

control to those where the kamnan· and village headmen had a ,voice in choosing 

the irrigation headman (see Wijeyewardene 1965: 88; Moerman 1968: 154; Potter 

1976: ~9). 

T.he administration of Sugar Cane Dam has undergone a radic~l shift in the 

past 15 years. Until about ten years ago the water users of Sugar Can~ Dam elected 

the irrigation headman at a public meeting: He then appointed the pther irrigatio~ 

officials with public approval. The village headmen of the villages in the system, and 

the kamnan . of Tambon 1 have been included as members of the irrigation committee 

at least since the'reign of Rama V. In the normal operation ofthe ir~gation system 

they had no direct role in the past--they provided official power·to the sanctions at the 

command of the irrigation ·committee. Their only official duty was to organize and


collect the contributions from the wat~r users for the yearly offerings to the dam and 

mountain spirits, and the great offerings to the lordly spirits every three years. The 

kamnan supervised the village headmen in keeping records and setting the amount t? 

be collected from each household in their villages, and the m~ssengers of the system 

did the actual collecting of money. · 

Changes in the officials and authority within the irrigation system, and in the 

system itself have caused shifts of power between the irrigation committee and ·the 

government officials. This has resulted in greater power over irrigation affairs for the 

kamnan and village headmen. because of their connections to the amphaa administration. 

. In 1965 the' irrigation committee of Sugar Cane Dam proposed the construction 

of a concrete dam to the water users. The farmers were levied to provide some 

of the capital for the project and cooperative labor Wfi.S organized for the construction. 

The resources of the system were insufficient to purchase enough cement and other 

buiiding materials. The kamnan and village head.men applied to the amphaa government 

for financial assistance for the project and received it. After this their importance 

as the liaison between the irrigation system and the government in obtaining·financial 

assistance increased their. importance in the irrigation committee. The concrete dam 

was damaged by floods in 1971 and again the officials obtained government assistance 

for the rebuilding. 

As the importance of the government officials in the irrigation committee. 

increased, the prestige and power of the office of irrigation headman has decreased. 

Incumbents in the office· have. remained in office· for many years, until the last 10 years~ 

The Retired Kamnan, who figured prominently in the description of the kubon ceremony 

was irrigation headman for 20 years before becoming kamnan of Tambon 1. His 

successor lasted eight years in office and the next incumbent only 18 months. Irregularities 

in his election and criticism of his conduct in office forced him 'to resign. The 

office remilined vacant until the kamnan appointed a replacement in 1980. 

The problem in this increased importance of the role of the kamnan ·and village 

headman in irrigation affairs is the fact that holders of' these offices do not usually 

remain in office 20 yel!,rs, as did the irrigation headman in the past. . Moerman' (1976: 

255) notes that the office of headman in Northern Thailand villages is not eagerly 

sought after, and the opposite is true. In his Chiang Kham village qualified candidates 

~or the office lobbied with their. kinsmen not to vote for them. At a recent village 

headman election in Village F the first three candidates who were nominated fled the 

polling place and the fourth was unanimously elected before he could flee also. Most 

of. the six village headmen in Tambon 1 also refused to become kamnan, and the 

present incumbent,. who does not support the offerings to the spirits, became kamnan 

almost by default.


The kamnan and village headmen have thus assumed increased importance in 

the. irrigation committee, but they de:» not tend to remain in their offices for as long as 

established irrigation officials did in the past. Every few years a new incumbent 

has come to the irrigation committee not knowing the total range of responsibilities the 

control of the system entails, including the old customs concerned with the spirits~ The 

present kamnan ·inherited the problem of the late offering from his predecessor's bon, 

and the statements of the present irrigation headman at the 1982 offerings illustrate the 

problem. 

Building the concrete dam removed one of the most onerous tasks required of 

. the water users, gathering wood and bamboo and rebuilding the irrigation dam each 

year. Organizing this task and supervising the effort was one of the major responsibilities 

of the irrigation headman. During the year that there w~s no irrigation headman 

of Sugar .Cane Dam the kamnan took the· unprecedented step of using tambon 

assistance funds to pay people to dredge and dig out the canal system--a task usually 

acco~plished with cooperative labor. Such funds were again used in 1981 to pay labor. 

to effect minor repairs to the dam and to dredge the canals. For two years the water 

users of the system did not have to participate in any of the coooperative tasks which, 

in the past, have brought "together the inhabitants of eight villages. Potter (1967: 97) 

sees such tasks that bring kinsmen and owners of adjacent field together as reenforcing 

feelings of solidarity. · 

It is interesting to note that being paid for tasks that bad been accomplished 

by cooperative labor in the past for two years did not~ing to diminish the strength of 

the cooperative labor syste~, In May of 1981 heavy rains and :floods undermined the 

ten year old concrete dam and caused cracks in the face. A call went out for the 

water users ~o report for work and to bring stakes and wood filler as in·the old days 

of building the wooden dam. People reported for work in such numbers and with such 

a large amount of raw· materials it was possible to build a temporary_ wooden dam 

across the face of the concrete one to improve its ability to hold water until repairs 

could be carried out in the dry season of 1982. The cleaning and dredging of the canaJ 

system also proceeded smoothly using cooperative labor in 1982. 

The Spirits and Irrigation 

In light of these changes in the administration of Sugar· cane Dam, it is necessary 

tO assess the role the spirits took in the system in the past. The veneration of the 

spirits did not serve to bring large numbers of people together at public ceremonies. Two 

years out of three only . the individual devotees of the lordly spirits a~tend their ceremonies. 

Attendance at the special kGEbon ceremony, similar to a great offer~ng cere-


mony, was even lighter than at the minor offering ceremonies in 1981. An elder 

complained that too often in the past when a large animal was sacrificed a large number 

of people showed up at the ceremony only at the time the offering food was distributed 

to those attending, and they mostly came with empty bowls. The main participation 

the individual water user had in supernatural affairs concerning irrigation was. the 

financing ofthe offerings, 

In one sense the lordly spirits provided a unity to the supernatural protection 

invoked for the irrigation systems under their protection. The distant forest and 

mountain spirits that protected the river soun;e, the spirits of the dam, and the four 

junior lordly spirits· were all under the direct control of Great Mountain Lord. He 

was something like the irrigation headman of the supernatural irrigation committee. 

He was metaphoricaily referred to in exactly this way by an assistant irrigation headman 

explairrlng his job in relation to that of. the irrigation headman, and the position of 

Victoriol1s Warrior Lord in reiation to Great Mountain Lord. ·The supernatural order 

mirrors the hu~a1;1 one in the control of irrigation. 

One important consequence of the veneration of the lordly spirits was that it 

kept' the administrators of several irrigation systems in contact with each other for a 

common purpose. Irrigation administrators and officials in the Phrae area have reported 

no inter-village cooftict over water allocation within the same system, inter•system 

conftict, nor the breakdown . of patterns of cooperative labor within the system that 

are found in reports on traditional irrigation systems in other parts of North Thailand. 

Michael Moerman (1968 :54-55) reported that the cooperation between villages in the 

irrigation system in which his village participated, and the patterns of cooperative labor 

were breaking down at the time of his research in 1959-196.0. 

The arguments of Jack Potter (1976) concerning the role of the State in irrigation 

affairs, and the conftict he reports in the irrigation system he studied in Sara phi 

district; Chiang Mai, are interesting in light of the present work. The irrigation system 

had two maximal canals which split off below the irrigation dam and irrigated fields in 

two separate tambons. . There were also two irrigation dam spirits. One was offered 

to by the villagers of the tambon on one side of the dam and the other was propitiated 

by the villagers of the.second tambon on the other side of the dam. Potter (1976: 101) 

noted "There is no one deity which symbolizes the unity of the entire system". He 

reports frequent inter-village conflict over water allocation within the system he.studied, 

and also between that system and an upstream system that planned to build .a concrete 

dam. The people of Potter's system feared a concrete dam would inhibit flow of water 

to their system during times of water scarcity and threatened to destroy any but a 

traditional dam~ The district officer and government irrigation officer had to mediate 

the disagreement. Potter (1976 : 101) concludes :

SPIRIT BELIEF AND IRRIGATION ORGANIZATION IN NORTH THAILAND 

143 

Irrigation systems like X and Y would inevitably ·come into 

open conflict in times of water scarcity if the traditional Chiang Mai 

state had not existed to organize and govern the irrigation systems on 

a valley-wide scale. Since the downfall of the Chiangmai kingdom, 

the Thai goveniment has had to furnish this necessary central authority. 

The parallels and differences between Sugar Cane Dam and the Saraph.i district 

system are interesting considering Potter's statements. The Chiang Mai system irrigates 

fields in 14 separate administrative villages. Sugar Cane Dam is similarly a large 

irrigation system that irrigates fields in eight villages situated in two separate tambons, 

which are also located in two different amphaa. Unlike the Chiang Mai system Sugar 

Cane Dam has an organized supernatural hierarchy to symbolize the entire system .. 

Such conflict as Potter reports, and terms "inevitable", appears to have been avoided by 

the irrigation systems on the Tyk-Thang river drainage. It is not certain to what 

degree, if any, the petty state of Phrae involved itself in irrigation affairs in the Yom 

Valley, but it is unlikely that there was anything like the irrigation laws of the Chiang 

Mai state. In the absence of the state to mitigate conflict a~d control matters, the 

spirits may have acted as supernatural policemen to promote cooperation, and proper 

conduct towards the irrigation system by the water users. 

Customs relating to law and punishment in connection with the lordly spirits 

are poorly remembered. It is certain that various classes of spirits in Thailand exercise 

supernatural control over certain kinds of behavior, ranging from proper courting 

behavior to private encroachment of common village lands, through supernatural 

sanctions (cf. Velder 1963; ·Turton 1972; Sriphaporn 1980). Turton (1972: 218) 

quotes an informant as saying that before the existence of officials and the law, the 

lineage spirits of the area had been the law. The lordly spirits did· have similar roles 

in the past. A kam/ang elder of Lord of 100,000 Elephants said that in the past if a 

girl were discovered to be pregnant and could not name the father she had to pay a fine 

and admit her guilt at the offering house of the spirit in order to expiate her sin. The 

spirits also had control in agricultural matters. In the past farmers woqld not put out 

seedbeds until after the annual offering cycle to the spirits, concluding with that to the 

. dam spirits. Offenders incurred tbe wrath of the spirits and had to pay a fine to the 

irrigation system. 

Through the influence of the spirits, or not, the irrigation systems in the area 

have avoided problems which are reported for other irrigation systems in the North, 

and show a higher degree of cooperation. Water allocation within the system, especially· 

in times of water scarcity, proceeds in a strict village-by-village order agreed upon by 

the irrigation committee. Conflict over water allocation is usually . between· farmers


with nearby fields feuding over personal water theft. All of the irrigation systems .in 

the area have changed to concrete dams without the problems reported by Potter (1976: 

101). The irrigation system upstream of Sugar Cane Dam on the Thang River voluntarily 

built a bypass gate into their dam to let more water down to Sugar Cane Dam i~ 

drought years, . In 1979 the irrigation committee of Sugar Cane Dam went to confer 

with that of the upstream system concerning the serious drought. The irrigation 

headman at that time said that there was hardly enough water for their fields and it 

·would have been pointless to insist on letting more water thrQugh the bypass gate of 

the dam down to Sugar Cane Dam. This consensus was reached without the intervention 

of the kamnan or ~ther government officials. Also, when the construction of 

• concrete dams was proposed to the water users of both Sugar Cane Dam and the 

Khampong irrigation system they readily agreed and contributed money and labor to 

the project. Moerman (1968 : "55) reported the people in his village could not agree on 

imposing a levy to. gather money for a concrete dam proposed by the government, 

while cooperation for constructing the wooden dam was difficult to maintain. The 

social institutions necessary for the maintenance of a traditional irrigation system remain 

strong in the Phrae region, despite changes ~n both systems. 

The practical value of some of the spiritual injunctions is recognized by the 

people and used for pragmatic ends. One of the most often mentioned laws concerning 

the spirits is the ban on cutting down trees. near the offering houses of the lordly 

spirits, and near irrigation tanks which have their own complement of resident spirits. 

It was necessary to ask the permission of Lord of 100,000 Elephants during his ceremony 

before people would venture to trim branches from trees around his offering house that· 

threatened to fall and destroy the roof. In the area of the irrigation systems under 

discussion the. only remaining stands of large trees are in the riverbottom, near the 

lateral canals, and around the spirits' offering houses, irrigation tanks, and village 

cremation grounds. One elder commented that if it hadn't been for the spirits every. 

large tree in the area would liave been cut for timber or to fuel the curing ovens of the 

local tobacco curing plant years ago. 

One direct way in which the spirit offerings are used to promote cpoperation. 

in irrigation was shown in the dam spirits offering of 1981. There is a large spring-fed 

tank'irrigation system in Village G near the head of Sugar Cane Dam's canal system. 

Most of the fields in Village G are too high to receive water from Sugar Cane Dam and 

those that are irrigated by it can use water from this tank system also. During the 

ceremony in honor of the dam spirits of Sugar Cane Dam in 1981 some of the chickens, 

rice, and whiskey offered t? the lordly spirits and the d~m spirits were set aside after 

the offering. The reserved offerings were taken to the tank irrigation system where the


committee that took care of it were concluding their own spirit offering ceremony. The 

elders of Sugar Cane Dam re-offered the chickens and rice to the spirits of the tank 

system and in the invocation to the spirits the ·ritual officiant said pointedly that he 

hoped that the spirits _would allow the water users of Sugar Cane Dam to take some 

water from their system for the fields in case of drought. The men of both systems 

then made a small meal of the chickens and rice and drank whiskey together while 

discussing the problems of administering irrigation systems .. 

Conclusion 

Within this context the tensions shown in the description of the kubon ceremony 

and the great offerings become clearer. In the past the irrigation headman 

organized such ceremonies. He dealt with the kamlang elders of the spirit cults and 

organized the details. The kamnan and village headmen were only obligated to collect 

the money from the water users and to purchase the animals and offering materials. 

The shifts in control and responsibility of the administration of Sugar Cane 

Dam have put both the decision-making power and the responsibility for the collection 

of money for the spirit offerings in the hands of the gove~nment officials. The irrigation 

headman is now. dependant upon the kamnan for his tenure in office, rather than 

being independently· elected by the water users. The incumbents in the offices of 

kamnan and village headman have changed frequently in recent years and the younger 

men occupying these offices seem less willing to treat the offerings to the spirits as. a 

matter of course in irrigation affairs. Some village headmen commeQted privately 

that they felt such ceremonies were a waste of resources-- they were only "old customs" 

to be maintained to please the generation of elders who believe in and support the spirit 

cults. The frequent turnover of incumbents in the official positions in recent years has 

also meant that they are frequently ignorant of the traditions of the spirits and the 

responsibilities of the irrigation system to the spirits. The Retired Kamnan's defense 

of the kamnan to Great Mountain Lord, that· he was new in office and ignorant of the 

responsibilities of the irrigation system was probably accurate, the first time. At the 

dam spirit ceremony described here only the ritual officiant, aO:d the anthropologist, 

could naml' the spirits and indicate their locations in the irrigatiqn dam. 

A more serious problem is the seeming growing inability of the spirits to control 

the natural elements and protect the irrigation systems. The sanctions .of the spirits 

protect the trees arowid their offering houses and the irrigatio~ tanks, but deforestation 

in the mountains, largely from illegal logging, has increased runoff and erosion near the 

rivers which feed the irrigation systems. Floods occur more frequently and large 

amounts of silt have been deposited behind the concrete irrigation dams, which has


seriously affected their holding capacity and their ability to divert water into the 

irrigation systems. Rajathon (1954: 156) noted that outsiders te~ded to ignore the 

injunctions against felling tim?er and killing game in the forests and mountains protected 

by the "Chao Phi". "The folk begin to sense the impotency of the chao phi and 

imitate their modern-minded brothers (in cutting timber) without any knowledge that 

there is harm in it ...". Officials of the irrigation systems lay the blame on illega1 

loggers and not on the lack of supernatural protection, but the problem remains. 

Supernatural power is no longer sufficient to protect even a concrete dam. It has been 

severely damaged by floods twice in ten years, once badly enough to require complete 

rebuilding. One elde£ formerly active in the spirit cults commented : 

ln the past you could trust Great Mountain Lord. He would 

take care .of the rainfall, and the water,· and he would take care of the 

dam--he wouldn't let it be damaged. · In the past the people believed 

like this. Because in the past it was a wooden dam. If we asked him 

to help us in the right way the dam wasn't damaged. But sometimes 

we asked and it was damaged anyway and we had to build it many 

times, sometimes more than once in one year. 

The spirits, in their connection to irrigation, are caught in the midst of changing 

times and institutions. Only in the past ten years has the central government assumed 

anything near the kind of responsibility in local irrigation affairs that Potter (1976 : 

101) maintains was necessary at all times for the avoidance of conflict. The spirits 

have been the law, or assisted human beings in administering in the past in parts of 

rural Thailand where the power of the traditional kingdoms did not reach. The lack 

of conflict in the irrigation systems in the area and the maintenance of a high degree 

of cooperation demonstrates the viability of the traditional social institutions. The 

viability of the offering system involving the. spirits and the irrigation systems is another 

question. · The offerings were not provided in 1982 when they should. have been, and 

the kamnan has shown little interest in the spirits and their offerings. Whether the 

compromise suggested by the Retired Kamnan of offering the great offerings in 1983 · 

will be acceptable or not is questionable. It would put theoffering schedule of Great 

-Mountain Lord and Lord 6f 100,000 Elephants out of order with thllt of every other 

lordly spirit in the area and the dam spirits of the other irrigation systems, and those of 

Khampong and Sugar Cane Dam. In the domain of personal matters the spirits will 

maintain their powers. Their devotees will continue to seek cure of ailments, exemption 

from the draft, protection; and other services . and repay their bon according. to 

tradition. The devotees of Great Mountain Lord managed to. provide a great offering 

on their own in 1982 and Lord of 100,000 Elephants is assured of the support of the 

tobacco curing-plant for his offerings for some time to come.


It is in the domain of control of the natural elements that the spirits are no 

longer reliable. Great Mountain Lord repeatedly mentioned tradition at the ceremonies, 

saying that the great offerings were an old custom to be supported and followed, as his 

reason for why they should be continued. The exchange between the kamnan and 

Great Mountain Lord at his offering ceremony in 1981 shows a fundamantal shift in 

thinking concerning the supernatural. The kamnan said the spirits should show their 

power by providing dependable rain in order to merit their great offerings; not that 

humans should ask for rain in the proper way from the spirits as in the 1979 bon. The 

mistrust that the spirits cannot control the elements as in the past is best expressed in 

the words of an elderly man who was once a ritual officiant in the ceremony for the 

spirits of the dam, and his wife. The wife commented : 

If you asked for rain from the spirits, the rain started falling 

as soon as you went home. The old people told this. In the past it 

was a certain matter, but now I don't know. People said that in the 

past they saw the large footprints of the spirits' horses. 

Her husband added : 

Nowadays belief in the spirits is not as strong as it was in the 

past. If you made an offering to the spirits and asked for rain--after 

the offering was over we got rain. But now we can't. It isn't the same 

as in the past. The spirits aren't so powerful any more. 

Bangkok, 1982 

REFERENCES 

Anuman, Rajathon Phya 

1954 The Phi. JournaloftheSianiSociety41 (2): 153-178. 

Condominas, Georges 

1975 Phiban Cults in Rural Laos. in G. William Skinner and A Thomas Kirsch eds. 

Change and Persistence in Thai Society. Essays in Honor of Lauriston Sharp. 

Ithaca : Cornell University Press. . 

Griswold, A.B. and Prasert na Nagara 

1971 The Inscription of Ram a Gamhen of Sukhodaya ( 1292 A.D.) Historic and Epigraphic 

Studies No. 9. Journal of the Siam Society 59 (2) : 179-228. 

Ishii, Yon eo 

1978 History and Rice Growing, Chapter 2. in Yoneo Ishii, ed .. Thailand, a Rice 

Growing Society. Honolulu: The University of Hawaii Press.


Kaida, Yoshishiro 

1978 · Irrigation and Drainage : Present and Future, Chapter 9 in Yoneo Ishii, ed. Thai- . 

land, a Rice. Growing Society. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 

Kraisri Nimmanhaeminda 

1967 The Lawa Guardian Spirits of Chiang Mai. Journal of the Siam Society 55 (2) : 

185-225. 

Moerman, Michael 

1968 :Agricultural Change and Peasant Choice in a Thai Village. ·Berkeley and Los 

Angeles : The :University of California Press. 

1976 A T.hai Village Headman as Synaptic Leader •. in ChirkD. Neher ed. Modern Thai 

Politics. Cambridge: Schenckman Publishing Co. 

Potter, Jack M. 

1976 Thai Peasant Social Structure. Chicago and London :·The University of Chicago 

Press. 

Spiro, Melford 

1967 Burmese Supernaturalism.· Englewood Cliffs (NJ) : Prentice Hall Inc. 

Sripraphai, Kathleen and Phornchai Sripraphai 

· 1980 Puu Taa: A Description of the Guardian· Spirit Cult in the Pak Plii District, 

Nakhom Nayok, Thailand and its Implication for Rural Migration.. Paper 

presented at the Thai-European Seminar on Social Change in Contemporary Thai- · 

land. 28-30 May 1980. Amsterdam. 

Tambiah, S.J. 

1970 Buddhism· and the Spirit Cults of Northeast Thailand. Cambridge Camb~idge 


Turton, Andrew. 

1972 Matrilineal Descent Groups and Spirit Cults of the Thai Yuan irt Northern Thailand. 

Journal of the Siam Society 55 (2) : 185-225 . 

. Velder, Christian 

1963 . Chao Luang Muak Kham (The Royal Master with the Golden Crown) Report on 

the Forest Spirit of Ban Saliem. Journal of the· Siam Society 50 (1) : 85-92. 

•.: ..

. LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR EST A BUSHING 

A NEW VILLAGE 

ANTHONY R. WALKER* 

1. Introduction 

Dedicated to the memory of Paul CavHtawv, 

loyal assistant and friend, who was born in . 

Burma's Chin Hills some 40 years ago and 

murdered in north Thailand early in 1980. 

During a four-year research period among the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Lahu in 

the hills of north Thailand ( 1966-70), 1 I was fortunate to be able to record and translate 

a substantial corpus of prayer texts applicable to various ritual occasions. Intrinsically 

valuable as "oral literature", these prayer texts also have helped me greatly in deciphering 

Lahu ideas: about the supernatural worl.d and their place in :r:elation to it. 

It is important, I believe, to make this poetic expression of a preliterate mountain 

people of northern Southeast Asia available to oriental, ethnological and allied 

scholarship. To this end, and as another step towards a substantial monograph on the 

Lahu people among whom ·1 worked,2 I have published many of these texts with their 

ethnographic background in scholarly journals. The result is a series of articles, each 

one focusing on a certain ritual occasion and giving the texts (in Lahu and in English 

translation) of the prayers used at that time. Although the present contribution is 

~ written to stand by itself, it could better be read in conjunction with my previously 

. published work. 3 

For readers unfamiliar with Lahu society and culture, I preface this account of 

the rites for establishing a village with some short notes on the Lahu people in general, 4 

* Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. 

1. My research was. centred in the districts of Phrao (Chiang Mai province) and· Wiang Pa Pao 

(Chiang Rai province). I set up house in one Lahu Nyi village and made visits to two neighbouring 

communities. At this time I held the position of "research officer'' at the Tribal 

Research Centre in Chiang Mai. I record here my gratitude to the Director of the Tribal 

Research Centre, Khun Wanat· Bhruksasri, and all his staff. Thanks go also to my wife, 

Pauline Hetland Walker, for editing this paper and drawing the illustrative figures. 

2. So far, my major study of these Lahu is a two-volume mimeographed report to the Royal 

Thai Government (Walker 1970b). 

3. See bibliogr~~;phy at the end of this article. 

4. Further ethnographic data on the Lahu people may be found in Telford (1937), Jones (1967), 

·Walker (1969, 1970b, 1975a, 1975b, 1975g, 1979a, 1983a) and Bradley (1979:1-18, 37-61) . 

. A so~etimes evocative, but not always accurate, account of Lahu life can be found in the 

· novel by Hamilton-Merritt (1973). ·. 

149

150 Anthony R. Walker 

on the Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) in particular, and on the relevant a~pects 

. -· . .. of Lahu Nyi 

. 

material culture, namely the domestic "buildings and sacred centre of tbe village. It is 

only against this physical backdrop that the rites, and the prayers used in them, can 

properly be uncJerstood. 

2. The Laha People 

The Lahu are one of a great many linguistically and culturally distinct minority 

peoples who inhabit the rugged mountains of the so-called "Go14en Triangle" (map). 

This territory falls within the political. jurisdic~ion of four nations--China, Burma, Laos 

a~d Thailand--but it has a greater geographical and ethnic homogeneity t~n its_ political 

fragmentation would suggest. The region is characterised by rugged hills or mountains, 

interspersed with narrow alluvial valleys. 

And everywhere the valleys are occupied. 

predominantly by Tai-speaking peoples:s irrigated-rice fam1er8, long-time adherents 

of the Theravada school of Buddhism, participants ~ a literate tradition and, despite 

the considerable autonomy of theii- village communities, politically organized during 

the pre-modern period into more-or-less independent pr~cedoms, called muang. The 

highlands which surround these Tai-occupied valleys are, by contrast, the home of a great 

number of so-called "tJ.:ibal" peoples, 6 speaking a heterogeneous collection of languages 

belonging to the Tibeto-Burman, Moo-Khmer and Meo-Yao families.' But it is not 

merely their linguistic diversity which distinguishes the upland peoples from their 

lbwland Tai neighbours. The uplanders are swidden, or slash-and-burn, bill farmers; • 

they are not, for the most part, for~al adherents of Theravada Buddhism (although 

Buddhist ideas and practices have penetrated their cultures); they possess no tradition of· 

S. I use the term "Tai" to refer to any group speaking a Tai (or Daic) language; "Thai" refer,s. 

eilhe:f to a citizen of the modern JCiogdom of Thailand or, adjectivally, to something belonging 

to that kingdom, e g., the northern Thai hills. 

6. ·"Hill tribes" is a common designation for the upland peoples of northern Southeast Asia, but 

I am reluctant to use the term.· "Tribe" usually connotes people who have some form _of supralocal 

political organization, considerable cultural uniformity and common occupancy of a 

definite territory. None of these features is usually true for the uplanders of northern 

Southeast Asia. The term also perpetuates the notion that uplanders are completely separate 

from 1owlanders, while in reality the two sets of peoples usually are intimately involved with 

one another. I prefer to call these people "hill folk" or "upland peoples", thus shifting the 

emphasis from sociological to ecological criteria. 

' 

7. For some idea of the linguistic complexity of this region, see LeBar et. al., compilers, 

"Ethnolinguistic Groups of Mainland Southeast Asia", a map to accompany LeBar et. al. 

(1964). But even this is a gross, although eartographically necessary, oversimplifi.c~tion of 

the situation on -the ground.

· .. \ 

.\ 

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISIDNG A NEW VILLAGE 

101" 

s 

\ ·.. 

~------~------~~OKM 

LAHU SETTLEMENT AREAS 

e _ Provincial Administration Centre 

o Other Towns 

~Lahu Settlement Areas ( app: only 

151

1S2 

Anthony'R. Walker 

literacy predating the invention of scripts by Christian missionaries;& and they have no 

political institutions beyond the village community or, at most, the cluster or neighbouring 

village communities (cf. Kandre 1967:616; Walker 1975b:l17). 

The Lahu are one sueh minority group. Originally located w~olly in China's 

Yunnan province (still their population centre), some Lahu during the 19.th century 

began m()ving southwards into territories which are now part of Burma and Laos and, 

subsequently, into whatis now the northern region of the Kingdom of Thailand. There 

were two principal motives for this expansion over the borders of the Middle Kingdom : 

a desire to escape from Imperial "pacification" measures directed at them as "barbarians" 

of the frontier regions, and the need to find new farming lands as the soils of 

southern Yunnan became overworked (cf. Walker 1975a:332-33, 1975b:l13-114). 

Today in China there are 300,000 Lahu living in the far southwest of Yunnan 

province (BR 1980; CP 1981). Here, in 195~, China's new communist administrati~n 

set up for them the "Lan-ts'ang Lahu People's Autonomo~s Area", redesignated an 

"Autonomous County,, or hsien the following year (SCMP 1953; Ch'en 1964 : 46-8). 

South of the Chinese border, in Burma's Federated Shan State, estimates of the Lahu 

population vary from 40,000 to 230,000. 9 Only a few thousand Lahu live in Laos, in 

the far western comer, and their numbers have probably decreased in the ·past two or 

three years as several · Lahu communities have ct:ossed over into Thailand to escape 

political unrest following the communist victory in Laos.l o . In. Thailand, where information 

on the Lahu population is both accurate and up-to-date, there are now ~5,500 

·of these people distributed through 290 villages (Lewis 1980a:1). Finally, there may 

be a remna~t Lahu community, numbering less than 2,000, in northern Vietnam.ll 

8. A minor exception among the hill people living in Thailand are the Yao. or lu Mien people, 

whose spirit-specialists read from ritual texts written In standard Chinese characters (cf. 

Shiratori 1975, 1978:232)'. Further north, in China, the Yi or Lolo people have their own 

ideographic script (cf, Vial 1898), as do the Na-khi or Moso (cf. Rock, 1968:42-45). 

9. Lewis (1980a:1) gives .a low estimate of 205,000 and a high of 230,000 Lahu in Burma, but 

he cites no authority. Ten· years ago, Lewis (1970:80) was of the view that there were 

80,000 Lahu in Burma, while a Burmese publication (BSPP 1970:47) claimed only 40,000 

Lahu. In the light of these widely conflicting estimates, we can. o~ly hope for a detailed 

census to be taken io resolve the problem .. 

10. A decade ago, Lewis (196?) suggested that the Lahu population of Laos was 5,000. His 

recent estimate (1980a:l) is that it is now between 8,000 and 10,000. Again he cites no 

evidence for his estimate. · 

11. In 1948 the Chinese anthropologist, Ruey Yih-fu (1948:1), stated that there were Lahu 

living in the_ mountains "north of Tonkin". More recently, a Vietnamese scholar, Vuong· 

Hoang Tuyen (1974:170-79) (also in a French edition 1973:176-85) has reported a group

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISHING A NEW VILLAGE 153 

Like most upland minority peoples of this part of the world, the Lahu occupy 

no continuous stretch of. territory which, either geographically or politically, could be 

called ""Lahuland". Even in. the Lan-ts'ang autonomous county named for th~m, Lahu 

share the hills with communities of other affiliation: principally Wa, but also a few 

Aini and Yi (Lolo). The valley inhabitants in that "Lahu" county are predominantly 

Tai (Shap), with a few Han Chinese government and party officials and shopkeepers.t2 

In Burma, Laos and Thailand a similar pattern emerges, with different combinations of 

hill peoples, but always a Tai-speaking lowland majority. The Lahu, therefore, constitute 

a cultural category rather than a discrete socio-political group. In other words, 

all Lahu (so far as I can determine) recognize a common cultural heritage, a common . 

"Lahu-ness"; but this does not mean that they could, or would necessarily wish to, 

organize themselves into a single Lahu polity. 

The name "Lahu" (La" hu_)l 3, which is what these people call themselves, is 

ofuncertain m~aning. I have never come across a Lahu who could explain it for me. 

Two slightly different stories from the pens of Chinese journalists link the name with 

tiger hunting, but both interpretations are problematical and very likely they are no 

more than Chinese folk etymologies.t4 Two other names are frequently used for this 

people. One is "Mussur", a Shan (Tai Yai) word derived from the Burmese moksa 

of people "secluded in the remotest corners of the mountains", who are commonly known as 

Co Sung, but who call themselves "La Hu". Vuong reports that these Co Sung or La Hu, 

according to their own ~raditions, came originally from China, and he hints at a possible 

connexion between them and the present Lahu peoples of Yunnan. Unfortunately, Vuong's 

short ethnographic summary lacks any linguistic material which would enable us to relate the 

Co Sung to the larger Lahu ethnolinguistic group with certainty. 

Interestingly, Lewis (1980a:1) in his recent survey of the Lahu population includes 

1,500 as living in Vietnam. He gives the same figure for both "lower" and "higher" estimates, 

from which I deduce that he Is certain of his datum. But he does not cite the source for his 

information on Lahu in Vietnam. 

12. I have built a composite picture using information from a variety of sources. Th~y are: (i) 

Lahu informants now living in Thailand who once knew t~e Lan-ts'ang· area; (ii) Professor 

Ruey Yih-fu of the Academia Sinica (Taiwan), who once studied the Lan-ts'ang Lahu (see 

Ruey 1954, still the major work on the physical anthropology of the Lahu); and (iii) a New 

China News Agency release (SCMP 1953). 

13. See note 25 below, regarding tones and tone marks. In writing the ethnonym "Lahu" and 

the subgroup names "Lahu Nyi" etc, I have joined the syllables "La" and "hu" and omitted 

tone marks, conforming to the usual practice in the ethnographic record. 

14. One author (KM 1957) writes: 

In old times, when the different Lahu tribes (perhaps he means village communities). 

used to hunt together, whenever they caught a tiger-/a in Lahu-they would divide 

the meat and eat it together at a special place called hu; therefore they call themselves 

"Lahu".


"hunter".'S 

It is well-received by Lahu who, whether tiger-hunters or not, pride 

themselves on prowess in the pursuit of wild game. The second name is Lo-hei ( f~ , 'f.. ) 

traditionally used by Chinese for Lahu in Yunnan. It seems to have derogatory 

connotations 16 and has now officially been dropped by the Chinese authorities in favour 

·of the indigenous "Lahu" ( ;fiz. 1~ ) (cf. SCMP 1953). 

Lahu speak a Tibeto-Burman language. To be precise, it is a member of ihe 

Central Loloish branch of the Lolo-Burmese subgroup of the Tibeto-Burman family.'' 

Its closest relative among the Loloish languages is Lisu, the language of a neighbouring 

upland group. Lahu also has close lexical affinites with Akha, the language of another 

While it is true enough that /av (high falling tone) means "tiger", I have no evidence that 

hu_ (very low ·tone) means "a special place where tiger :Hesh is eaten". The second 

etymology appeared in the Yun-nan Jih-pao (Yunnan Daily) of 23 May 1958. I have not seen 

this article but it is cited by Lemoine (1978 : 848), who writes: 

Leur nom, La Hou, signifierait en chinois: Ia (ou lie) "chasseur", hou, 

"(de) tigre"; et !'auteur de cette ingenieuse etymologie ... ajoute que Ia 

chasse occupe encore une grande place dans leurs activites annuelles, b~en 

qu'ils soient deja passes au stade de Ia production agricole ... 

15. 'This name "Mussur" has frequently led writers to confuse the Lahu with the Moso (Na-hki) 

people of the Tibetan borderlands. In this connexion see Walker (1980b:~43nl3). 

16. Thus Scott and Hardiman (1900:579) quote a report to the effect that the Chinese use the 

name Lo-hei (Scott and Hardiman spell it "Loheirh") "out of pure mischief". Their informant 

maintained that "La'hu would have been an equally easy sound, but to the Chinese 

mind it would not have been so appropriate a desig~ation, for it would not have conveyed the 

contemptuous meaning of Loheirh." "Blackness" is ·said tobetbe connotation of this name. 

Chinese anthropologist Ruey Yih-fu (1948:1) also implies that "Lo-bei" is somehow 

derogatory, for be says that although these people are referred to by this name, it is more 

polite. to address them as "Hei·chia" ( _i .tl ), literally "Black family". As the word 

"black" (hei, ,t, ) is present in both impolite and polite names, it is difficult to accept 

that it necessarily implies "barbarity', as has sometimes been thought. 

17. The definitive study on the Labu language is Matisoff (1973), which replaces the grammatical 

sections of an earlier work by Telford and Saya David (1938). Tbere·is also a Lilhu language 

instruction book by a missionary with experience among this people (Peet 1961). Finally, 

there is an excellent recent publication on the dialects of Lahu (Bradley 1979). 

The Lolo-Burmese languages are characterized "by the radical ·simplification of 

initial consonant clusters and the disappearance of most syllable-final consonant contrasts, 

ci:>mpertsated for by a proliferation of tones" (Matisoff 1973:xxxix). Labu, lacking both 

initial consonant clusters and final consonants, but possessing a total of nine vowels and seven 

tones, is an excellent example of such developments in the Lolo-Burmese languages.

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RI~S FOR ESTABLISHING A NEW VILLAGE 155 

people who are near upland neighbours of the Lahu in both Burma and Thailand. But 

recent linguistic work demonstrates that Akha belongs to the Southern, rather than.the 

Central, Loloish group.1s 

The writing of Lahu is, by most accounts, relatively recent.l!1 Three scripts, 

all based on the Latin alphabet, are used by various Lahu communities today. One 

was developed in Burma and used also in Yunnan (and, more recently, in Thailand) by 

18. Personal communication, James A. Matisoff. Peliang, 1977. This serves to correct my earlier 

statement (Walker 1976g:430n 5). The following diagram shows where Lahu fa!Js within 

the Tibeto-Burman language family. (In connexion with n. 15 above, note how distant Lahu 

is from Moso or Na-hki.) 

TffiBTO-BURMAN 

LOLO-B RMOID 

~0-BURMESE 

H•i-hOo. · M=!N•-"/ 

(other major branches of Tibeto-Burman) 

DORM ISH 

~ 

Burmese Atsi Maru 

LOLOISH. 

.A~· 

N. LOLOISH . C. LOLOISH S. LOLOISH 

"Yi" 

/1\ 

Af~ 

Nasu Woni Lu-ch'uan Lahu Lisu Phunoi Mpi 

19. Nineteenth century reportsfrom.the Burmese Shan State and southern Yunnan (H. Walker 

1895:59; Henri d' Orleans 1898:108) suggested that the Lahu did in fact have some form 

of written character. And there is a report from William Young (1914:23), pioneer 

American Baptist missionary among the Lahu, to the effect that "the Lahu .•• have a tradition 

·which they firmly believe that they had a written language and they insist that copies of their 

books are still in existence to the north." It is tempting to link this reported Lahu tradition 

with the literature of the Lolo or Yi people (above, note 8) with whom, as we can see from 

the above diagram, the Lahu share definite linguistic affiliations. However, modern research 

among Lahu communities in Yunnan, Burma and Thailand has. uncovered 

. 

no evidence of a 

.

156 Anthony R. Wa~er 

the American Baptist missionaries.2o Another was introduced by Roman Catholic 

missionaries in Burma and is now used by Catholic converts, still mostly in Burma but 

a few also in Thailand.21 Finally there is· a "reformed" romanization, based on the 

Baptist orthography and developed by Chinese linguists associated with the Central · 

Institute of Nationalities in. Peking (NCNA 1964).22 In this article I use the "Baptist" 

romanization, this being the Lahu writing system most widely used outside Chin·a and 

the one which I used for my field research. 

traditional Lahu writing system. A Chinese linguist, "Ma Hsueh-liang (1962: 27), writes of 

Lahu in Yunnan that "the Labus, who previously had no writing for their language, used to 

keep records with notched Aticks,;, In fact, this use of notched sticks was reported among 

some Labu in Yunnan ~slate as 1957 (KM 1957). The earliest recorded attempt to reduce 

Lahu to writing dates from around t.he first decade of this·c~ntury and was the work of Karen 

assistants to th!) American Baptist missionaries then working among the Lahu. The script · 

adopted for Labu by these Karen was that in which their own Christian literature was written, 

namely a Burmese-based orthography (personal communication, Rev. Dr. Paul Lewis, Chiang 

· Mai, 1970). 

20. The first person known to have reduced Lahu to writing in a Roman script was H.H. Tilbe, an 

American Baptist missionary in. Burma. This ·he accomplished in i906-7, producing a 

hymn book and a catechism which the missionaries heralded as··, the beginnings. of Labu 

literature" (see Anonymous 1907:484; Telford s.a. (1927 ?). Tilbe's romanization was 

subsequently improved by other missionaries: James Telford, Vincent Young and Paul Lewis, 

and bas been used extensively for both religious and secular literature by Lahu Christians in 

Burma and China. Good examples of the reli~ious literature are Telford (1949), V. Young 

(s.a.) and Lewis (1962). (Although it is convenient to cite these ihree editions of the New 

Testament under the missionary-translator.'s names, each one was assisted by several Lahu 

religious leaders, to the extent that some of· them might not claim the major role in the 

translation.) Secular literattue includes school textbooks (cf. Telford 1939; Anonymous 

1959), books which teach Lahu to speak and write Thai (Lewis 1970a, 1971) and, for a time, 

a Lahu magazine (LHLT 1969-71). 

Some of the· Lahu Christian literature published in Burma was sent across the border 

into China for the use of Labu Christians there. Other books were published in China itself. 

Thus, when Professor ~uey Yi-fu visited the Labu in Yunnan in the winter of 1934:-5 

(per!lonal communication, Taipei, 1980), be acquired two examples of Labu. Christian 

literature, one published in Rangoon (ABM 1925) and the other in Chefo~, North China 

(Anonymous s.a.) 

21. Examples of the Roman Catholic orthography for Labu include RCMPT (1952, 1959). With 

the movement of some Catholic Lahu across the Burmese border into Thailand and the 

development of a Catholic mission to the Lahu based in Fang, Chiang Mai province, north 

Thailand (see Urbani 1970, Zimbaldi 1977), books in the Roman Cathl)lic orthography are 

now being published in Thailand for the first time, for example, RCMPF (s.a.:l and 2). 

22. An example of this script may be found in Giljarevskij and Grivnin (1964:151). Bradley 

(1979:214) cites two books written in the reformed romanization which were published in 

Yunnan in 1958 (Anonymous 1958a, 1958b). I liave seen neithermyself.


3. The Labu Nyi or Red Labu 

Within the major eth~o-linguistic category of Lahu are many subdivisions. 

These include Lahu Na (Black Lahu), Lahu Shi (Yellow), Lahu Hpu (White), Lahu Nyi 

(Red), Lahu Sheh Leh (meaning unknown) and many more (cf. Walker 1974d; Bradley 

1979:37-43).23 Just how these di:visions have arisen among the J,ahu and why some 

of them bear colour names is unknown. History~ geography and language suggest an · 

ancient cleavage between Black and Yellow Lahu, and probably other divisions represent 

more recent breakaways from these two major groups. Evidence from modem 

times suggests that religious factionalism is one of the reasons for the emergence of new 

subgroups among the Lahu. Various combinations of dialectal, cultural and social 

differences distinguish one Lahu division from anqther, a fact which mitigates against 

generalizations about "the Lahu". And yet, as I have already noted, all Lahu do seem 

to recognize some kind of common ethnic identity and are, in fact, much more likely to 

identify themselves as Lahu yay "Lahu people" than as a particular subgroup such ,as 

Lahu Nyi "Red Lahu".24 

In the field, although not in the library, my own studies of the Lahu people have 

been .focused on the Lahu Nyi division. In Thailand, where I conducted my fieldwork, 

Lahu Nyi are the most numerous division of this people, numbering around 16,000 

individuals scattered throqgh 155 villages (Lewis 1980a : 9). This represents about 46% 

23. Tonal identifications (see note 25): LaY Hu_Na", Shi, ~pu, Nyi-, Sheh Leh-· 

24. ·Lewis (1980a:3) writes, "At some point in time the term Red Lahu (LaY Hu_ Nyi-) began 

to be used for this group, probably due to the fact that the women have quite a bit of red 

cloth 1n their outfits. They do not refer to themselves in this way; an!f from what I can tell 

do not like to be called this." Lewis (p. 4) suggests that we try to avoid the term "Red", 

particularly because some Thai conclude that "Red" Lahu must be communist Lahu, since 

those Meo (Hmong in their own language) who sympathize· with the Communist Party of 

• Thaihind are labelled "Red Meo". 

Because the Lahu Nyi are an offshoot of the Lahu Na or Black Lahu, a fission which 

took place in the southern areas of Lahu settlement (cf. Walker 1974d: 260-61), they are 

sometimes cailed Lahu Meu Teu (meu" teuy ''southern country", from Shan)~ Lewis therefore 

seems to prefer the usage "Black/Southern (Red)" when describing the Lahu Nyi. 

My field data confirm Lewis's view that the Lahu Nyi do not ordinarily use the 

designation "Nyi" but refer to themselves only as "Lahu people" (cf. Walker 1974d: 255). 

But I have used the designation Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) in my publications because I need a 

term which distinguishes them from other subdivisions of the Lahu people. And my informants 

did not object to this designation, which they themselves used when it became essential 

to distinguish themselves from Lahu J'la, Lahu Shi or some other branch of the Lahu p_eople. 

(The Lahu Nyi _with whom I lived never used the term LaY Hu_ Meuv Teuy, although I have 

heard it among Red Lahu recently arrived from Burma.) Thus I retain the usage "Lahu Nyi" 

in this paper, as be.ing less unwieldy and less confusing than "Black/Southern (Red) Lahu".


· of the 35,000 or so Lahu who live in Thailand. There are also an undetermined number 

of Lahu Nyi across the border, mostly in the Burmese districts of Muang Hsat and 

Muang Ton, and all of them east of the river Hsin. But there are no Lahu Nyi in the 

northerly areas· of Lahu settlement in Burma, nor apparently in Laos. And there are 

certainly no Lahu Nyi in China. Available evidence suggests that the Lahu Nyi are an 

offshoot of·the numerically greater and territorially more dispersed Lahu·Na, the latter 

often considered the premier Lahu division and sometimes called the "Great Lahu" 

(Scott and Hardiman 1900: 580; Ruey 1948: 1; Young 1962: 9). 

The dialects of these 

two divisions are extremely close, and it would appear that the Lahu Nyi broke away 

from the main Lahu Na division comparatively recently, perhaps within the last century 

and a half (Young 1962: 9), and that the segmentation occurred in Burma rather than 

in the Yunnanese homeland. This, at any rate, would help account for the absence of 

Lahu Nyi in China or anywhere north of Muang Hsat and Muang Ton. 

4. The L!lhD Nyi Village : Its Houses and Its Temple 

Headed by its own hk'a" sheh_hpav2s or "master (sheh_hpav) of !he village 

(hk'a")" and the older household heads or yehv sheh_hpav (yehv "house"), the Lahu 

Nyi village (PL 1) in Thailand averages about 16 households and 102 people. Soirie 

settlements are much bigger than this; one had 87 households and 525 people in 1979 

· (Khankeaw and Lewis 1979 : 6). Others are -no more than tiny hamlets of five or six 

· ho~ses sheltering 30 or so people. 

25. · 'As mentioned earlier, ·Lab~ words here are transcribed in the orthography devised by American 

Baptist missionaries in Burma and Yunnan. Supra-and sub-script marks after each syllable 

·indicate the seven tones of Lahu. There are five open tones (long vowel) and two checked 

ton.es (short vowel ending in a glottal s~op). The .tones are indicated as follows : 

superscript wedge (cav) : high-falling open tone 

subscript wedge (cav) : low-falling open tone 

superscript straight line (ca-) : high-rising open tone 

subscript straight line (ca_) : very low open tone 

no mark (ca) : mid-level open tone 

superscript circumlex (ca") :·high tone, checked 

subscript circumflex (ca .. ) : low tone, checked 

Further details of this orthography may be found in Telford and Saya David (1938) and in 

Matisotr (1970). See also n; 20 ~bove.

LAHU NYI (RED LANU) RITES FOR ESTABLISHING A NEW VILLAGE 159 

Lahu. Nyi have no clan, lineage or other corporate groups based on desCent 

principles. The fundamental social group is the autonomous household, comprising the 

inhabitants (averaging just over six) of a single domestic dwelling. 

Such households 

form village communities and remain together for a vafiety of reasons including 

bilateral kinship ties, ma.rriage connexions, friendship and simple economic convenience. 

But these links are brittle and Lahu Nyi communities frequently break up, with some 

households leaving to join other communities or to establish new villages elsewhere 

(Walker 1975a:334-5, 1975b:l17). 

As among the majority of upland peoples of northern Southeast Asia, Lahu 

Nyi agriculture takes the form of "pioneer" swiddening. This means that, at least 

under ideal circumstances, a high percentage of the fields under cultivation at a given 

time have been cut that very year from climax or near-climax vegetation.26 

Consequently, 

villages seldom remain on the same site for more than a decade27 and the Lahu 

have a long tradition of semi-regular migration in search of new and more fertile soils 

under climax vegetation. 

Perhaps because of their mobility, Lahu tend not to build very durable houses, 

nor to fill their homes with many material possessions. Apart from unharvested crops, 

most of a Lahu family's property can easily be picked up and carried away on the backs 

of humans or horses and their villages usually have an air of impermanence. Seldom 

does one find a solidly-built teak house made to last for more than a generation, as is 

the norm in the lowland settlements of the sedentary Tai. Lahu Nyi houses, built 

mostly of bamboo, with wood only for the main supports, are thatched with grass or 

leaves. 

If the harvests have been good and the community has prospered, aluminium 

sheet roofing may replace the traditional thatchwork, but even these metal roofs can be 

dismantled and transported on horseback with other household goods. A status symbol, 

the aluminium roof tends to make the bouse uncomfortable in the hot months but is 

extremely useful during the long rainy season. 

Interestingly, Lahu Nyi houses, unlike those of neighbouring peoples like the 

Akha, Lisu and Karen, have no subsidiary roofing to protect the front and rear walls 

of the building against tbe wind-driven rain which frequently lashes against them 

26. A detailed account of the agricultural cycle of the Lahu Nyi village in which I lived may be 

found in Walker (l970b:348-444, 1976h). See also Wongsprasert (1975). 

27, Non-economic reasons could necessitate a move long_ before this, particularly unfriendly 

neighbours or recurring sickness interpreted by ritual specialists as the work of malicious 

powers.


during the monsoon (fig. 1). A legend accounts for this seeming oversight, as follows :28 

A long -time ago a Lahu brother and sister were living tog~ther. 

The sister, no matter what game she bagged, always shared it equally 

with her brother. One day, when his sister was not at home, the brother 

caught a porcupine, but did not divide up its flesh. When. the sister 

Fig. 1 Comparison of.roof types : Lahu Nyi house (left), Karen (right) 

28. This is the Lahu text, followed as closely as possible in my translation : 

A_ sboe_La" hu_ awv u hpa" awv nuv ma- chi te" geh cheh" ve YOv• . Awv nuv ma 

sha_)ai- ceuv g'a k'o, pehv ca_ pi" vo yov •. Te" nyi hta" awv nuv mama" cheh" hta", awv 

u hpa" chi fa" pu te" hkeh g'a leh awv nuv ma Iita,.. maca_ pi" ve YOv, Awv nu .. ma chi 

k'aw,.. Ia lehfa" pu awv mvuh uiv Jon- hk'a,.. sub sub ve hta,.. mawv leh: "Ngav g'a ve awv 

mvuh chi hi- neb- yaw" hta,.. ca_ pi" ve, yaw" ve awv mvuh chi hui ui_ka;.., ma" ca~la", 

ma da..., ma" cheh" o" k'o" ta- leh, 'mvuh" nyi keh_hpaw" hpaw k'ai ve ce". Chi pa taw 

La" hu_ yehv te k'o, nyi" hpaw" g'awv ma" na. Te" nyi awv nu ma k'aw.- Ia k'o, te 

tcuh- leh cheh" pi" k'o" ve yov. Chi beuv cho,.. hk'a,.. cheh" ve awv u hpa" ya" de~ de" yov.

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISIDNG A NEW VILLAGE 

161 

returned home and saw that the hairs [i.e. the quills] of the porcupine 

.were so long, she said, "Even when I get small.hairs, I give him some 

of the flesh to eat. His hairs are so big and so long, but he does not 

share the flesh. He is no good. I will not. live together with him." 

So saying, she went away to the east. It is for this reason that, when 

a Lahu builds a house, he must not cover the ends. One day, so it is 

said, the sister [i.e. her descendal)ts] may return and then they will build 

an extension to the house and give it to her to live in. Today, all the 

people l~ving here are descendants of the brother.29 

Lahu Nyi houses (Pl. 2; Fig. 2) are raised on stout wooden piles, both to 

facilitate drainage and to bar access to the domestic animals which roam the village 

area--chickens, ducks, pigs, cows, horses, the odd goat and perhaps a mule. Many of 

29. Interestingly,.Harold Young (sa. :4), son of the American Baptist pioneer missionary among 

the Lahu, William Marcus Young, and longtime resident among the Lahu of Yunnan and 

Burma, attributes a similar story to the supposed separation of the Lahu and Karen people. 

He writes: 

Through a misunderstanding within their own ranks, the two 

brotherly tribes Lahu and Karen were finally separated and weakened. 

Before this, both groups had regarded the chiefs of their t:espective tribes 

with the same respect, and paid the same tribute to each. It was the custom 

to set aside a portion of the meat taken during the- hunt for each chief. One 

day the Lahu hunters shot a large sambar deer and sent a portion of the 

meat to the Karen chief.' The following day the hunt was not successful. 

After hunting all day, the only animal shot was a porcupine. As usual they 

divided up the meat and sent a share to the Karen chief with a large quill 

sticking in it. When the Karens saw the small portion of meat. with a very 

large hair on it, they thought they had been cheated, for surely an animal 

with hair of that size should be very large ! They said to the Lahu, 

"Yesterday you sent our chief a large portion of meat from the day's chase, 

and the hairs sticking to the wrappers were very small, but today you have 

sent only a very small portion, yet the hair is that of a great animal. Why 

have you cheated our chief in this way and thus shown your· disloyalty ?" 

The Lahu t~ied their best to explain that the porcupine was a small animal. 

with very large quills, but the Karens would not believe them. After the 

dispute the Karens took their women lind children and all their livestock 

and left for the south.

..... 

0\ 

N 

LAHU NYI HO USE PLAN 

[ g: 

0 

. { ol: .. ·:- 

. . . . ,. 

! _, .. ; ..---'0 

.. 

~ --· I l J.-· I. ~ 

Sect(on D I IL 

Identification 

A 

B 

c 

0 

E 

F 

G 

fl 

I 

J 

K 

l 

M 

N 

0 

p 

Lahu Name 

yeh_hkui- daw ionshaw- 

da _ 

yeh_ yeh- h kui ~daw 

to" Ia 

pi- tehhk 

"aw- daw- caw 

fa ..... co ..... caw""' 

yeh_ yeh- caw 

yeh_ daw 

yeh_hkui-daw lon - cawkeh- 

suh_ 

yeh_ hkuC da w pui- e 

aw_ keh suh _ 

to hkahk 

'a ci- caw .... 

yeh _ yeh- caw- 

Walls • si des } 

front q"o pa 

bock - 

I/. ~ i -· 

~ ~ _}..- lc/ . 

I 

6 

3 

I 

I 

1 

1 

31 

1 

I 

Floor slats • hta hpi 

door = ya- m1 

~ 

y (' __ , : __ , ........ ../ /-..... ~ l ~~~~-}tg ~r 

() 

// ~~ -~i~!tif'J I 

/ / A(. '/ 

Cl 

;. 

0 

Cl 

'< 

:::

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISIDNG A NEW VILLAGE 163 

the houses are also fenced for further protection against the depredations of village 

animals, especially the cows. Lahu cows munch thatchwork, blankets and clothing 

with equal appetite and will even push their heads through the split bamboo walls or 

flooring to reach a tasty garment. 

On an exterior porch, made of wooden planks, are one or two small sheds in 

which the household's firewood and bamboo water-containers are stored. The house 

door opens onto this porch and access from the ground is provided by a ramp consisting 

of one or more stout wooden planks, carefully notched to prevent people slipping on 

them during the rainy season. 

House interiors (Fig. 3) vary only slightly.· There is one main room, who~e 

focal point is an earthen fireplace (Pl. 3). Across the centre of the floor runs a 

r-g -6 

5 

8 

\7 

Q 1 

I 

met res 

4 

3 

; 

Fig. 3 Floorplan of house interior 

1. steps 

2. verandah 

3. main door 

4. central floor beam 

5. fireplace 

6. divine headman's offering shelf 

(in village headman's house only) 

7. · door . . 

8. household head's room 

9. house spirit altar 

2 

1 

wooden beam, which supports the central roof posts at the front and the back of the 

building, and on one side is the wood-framed square of packed earth on which the fire 

is built. Over this fireplace, suspended by split-bamboo ropes from the roof beams, is a 

large rack used for many purposes, but particularly for drying chillies. The fireplace 

may be constructed on either side of the central roof beam but~ whichever side is chosen, 

the opposite side becomes the household head's side where he partitions a small sleeping


room for himself and his wife. On his side, against the back wall of the house, he 

keeps a shrine to the yehv ne v or guardian spirit of the house ( yehv "house", ne v 

"spirit"). The shrine is a small wooden shelf supported by a single wooden post about 

1.5 metres high (Fig. 4). On it are placed two small porcelain cups of Chinese design, 

Beeswax candles 

on iron stand 

Porcelain cups 

for rice and water 

Fig. 4 House Spirit altar 

the one containing cooked rice and the other water: offerings for the house spirit. 

Known as ba Ia ka-eh_, this spirit altar is located in the part of the house opposite to 

that containing the fireplace because, some say,. the spirit is offended by the smell of 

cooking meat. 

Besides the room for the household head and his wife, others may be added as 

their children marry and bring spouses to live in the house. Since these Lahu practice 

both viri- and uxori-local residence, a household not infrequently inclt~des am arried 

son and/or married daughter with spouse and offspring . 

. Lahu Nyi villages frequently are sited on long narrow spurs, with the individual 

houses, erected roughly on either side of a main thoroughfare (Fig. 5). Houses are not 

. of uniform size, as smaller or poorer households tend to build more modest homes. 

But the differences are hardly great and a Lahu Nyi vilJage appears, at least on first 

sight, to consist of houses of more or less the same size.

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISmNG A NEW VILLAGE 

16S 

-~ 

.,3 01 Chicken hu1 

3( . FZJ1 

( .. 

.l[IJ 

,·, ·' 

In' 

~. I R. Reseacchers · house 

L_____; 

g ....., 

-+; 0 R i.ce mortar 

•• 

f} 

t} 

"'r'A1llll 

~) 

Scrub 

15 

METRES 

CLEARING 

Fig. S Plan of Lahu Nyi ~ge studied by author


In contrast to the look-alike domestic houses, there may be another building in 

the village, set apart and of altogether different appearance from the others. This is 

the haw- yehv or "palace house" (haw-, a Shan prince's palace), which is the village 

temple (Pl. 4). Here the Lahu Nyi villagers offer worship to their supreme deity G'uiv 

sha.3o Emphasizing the "royal" symbolism of the haw- yehv, the principal ritual 

furniture in it--an object that looks like a three-tiered altar (Fig. 6) --is called G'uiv 

sha va caw _tcuh or "G'uiv sha's throne" (chaw_ tcuh "chair") 

Fig. 6 Interior of the haw"-yeh ... 

.. - 

Not all Lahu Nyi villages have such temples. Whether they do or nofdepends 

on whether there is any man coinpetent to fulfill the role o~ senior priest or to bo pa _ 

(probably, tO from awv tO ''body" and bo from awv' bo "meritorious", hence "meritorious 

body"; pa_ is the male suffix). Where there is no such man and no hawyeh.,., 

. the centre of ritual observance is a small shrine against a tree at the uphill end of the 

village, dedicated to the resident locality spirit on who~e territory the village is believed 

to be sited. 

30. The etymology of the word G'ulv sha is obscure (cf. Walker 1980b: 244 n36).


Where there is a hawyeh..,, that building is clearly the ritual focus of the 

village. On the twice-monthly festivals associated with the new arid full moon, the 

hawyeh.., becomes the centre of ritual activity, including dancing, in honour of G'ui.., 

sha (cf. Walker 1975d:l39-142, 198lb). The Lahu ritual dance is vigorous and entails 

much stamping of feet and springing into the air. For this reason many (but not all) 

hawyeh.., are built on the ground rather than on piles as are the ordinary houses. 

When not in use the temple is closed, but access is not forbidden. A stout 

wooden fence surrounds the building and encloses a front courtyard in which stand a 

number of tall bamboos, each with a strip of white or yellow cloth on top. These flags, 

called hto" pa_ (a loan-word from Shan), are believed to attract good fortune and 

dispel all evil from the village. 3 I · White, representing purity, is the principal hue 

associated with the all-pure G'ui.., sha; yellow, the colour of the Buddhist monk's robes, 

has also come to be associated with G'ui.., sha by these Lahu, probably because of their 

centuries of contact with Buddhist neighbours in the lowlands. 

Also in the front courtyard of the hawyeh" are a number of roughly carved 

posts (Fig. 7) called kaw mo" taweh_ (etymology unknown). Some people (not Lahu 

Nyi) have suggested that these posts have phallic connotations, but I believe they are 

more likely to be additional symbols of G'ui" sha's royalty, probably copied from the 

Tai lak muang or "city posts" which are "erected in the name of the highest political 

authority", among other reasons (Terwiel 1978 : 159). 

Fig. 7 

Kaw mo" taweh_ sacred posts outside the 

village temple 

31. The use of such flags among the Lahu Nyi almost certainly derives from the practice of their 

lowland Buddhist neighbours, the Tai peoples, who hang flags outside their temples. Among 

the Tai such flags are called tung chai "victory flags" and are set up, according to the famous 

Thai folklorist, Rajadhon ( 1967: 179), "to avert ill or evil spirits and secure good fortune". 

This corresponds exactly to the Lahu conception of their hto" pa_.

• 

168 Anthony R. Walker · 

The t_emple itself is entered through the single door which opens from the front 

courtyard. Inside (Fig. 8), there is only one room. The "G'uiv sha threon" is located 

against the back wall. In front of this is an open dancing space. To the right of the 

throne, also against the wall, is an altar dedicated to G'uiv fu_, guardian spirit of the 

village community and supernatural intermediary between the villagers. and G'uiv sha. 

On this altar are two small porcelain cups of Chinese design which hold, respectively, 

offerings of rice and water placed i~ them by the senior priest on the lunar festival days 

(cf. Walker 198lb). 

3 

4- 

- 

5 

Fig. 8 Interior plan of 

5 

haw-yehv 

2 1. door 

2. dancing place 

3. Gu'iv sha throne 

4. G'uiv[u_al•ar 

0 1 

5. raised platform 

me~res 

. 1 

Long strips of white and yellow cloth, as well as a number of cloth umbrellas, 

hang from the rafters. The strips of cloth bear the same name, htov pa_, as those 

attached to the bamboos outside the building, but inside they are meant only, it seems, 

as gifts to G'uiv sha. The umbrellas, hpa" miv bo (hpa" "cloth", mr bo ?), are also 

said to be offerings to G'uiv sha. But as the umbrella is a symbol of royalty among the 

Tai peoples (an emblem ultimately derived from India), the hpa" miv bo probably, like 

so many Lahu Nyi ritual objects, are copied from Tai prototypes and symbolize again 

the royalty of G'uiv sha, together with the "throne" and wooden posts. But I did not 

hear such an explanation from Lahu themselves. 

To the left of the throne is a small wooden trough, haw_..:. ti" kehv (etymology 

unknown), containing water, from which a rudely-carved bird, co ngeh" "life bird", is 

drinking . . Those few informants who could offer any explanation (beyond awv li 

"custom" ) for the "life bird" said only that G'uiv sha owns such a bird which "cries 

out" (bvuhv ve) for the long life of the villagers.

tAHU NYI (RED LAHti) RITES FOR EStABLISHiNG A NEW VILLAGE 169 

Directly to the right and left of the throne are various ~itual objects made by 

the villagers·andpresented to the haw- yehv with requests .that G'uiv sha grant them 

boons of vari~us kinds, particularly recovery from sickness and freedom from poverty. 

These offerings include ha- pui: stones; .miv co: conical objects fashioned from red 

mud,. and _kaw mov taweh _ _of two designs: unearved lengths of stripped wood as well 

as small replicas of the carved wooden posts outside the temple. The sun-baked mud 

miv co, literally"earth life", symbolize the donor's wish that he and his household 

members may enjoy unending and undecaying life, like that of the earth from which the 

offerings are made. The ha- pui, ordinary stones, symbolize the desire for life as 

strong and enduring as stone. The wooden kaw mov taweh_ are said to have the same 

significance as those.Iarger ones in the temple courtyard. Two other ritual offerings, 

inade from bamboo, are ·called htov hi- and kuv ti,. (fig. 9a,"b ). Nobody was able to 

explain"tomethemeaningofthe htov hi- (htov "flag", hi- from awv hr- "custom").32 

The kuv ti,. (etymology unknown) was said to represent a flower, like those offered by 

devotees at Buddhist temples. 

Fig. 9 Ritual offerings 

. a) htov tz;- (length ~pproit. 30 em.) . 

b) kuv ti,. (height approx. 30 em.) 

32. Awv hi- is an alternative word for "custom';; The more usual terni "is awv liv."'. ·

liO 

Anthony R. Walker 

Other than the domestic dwellings and the village temple (if there iii one), there 

·are few buildings in a Lahu Nyi village. Some households erect granaries near· their 

hdu~es; but others store their padi in large leaf-lined woven baskets which·sti10d on the 

floor in the house itself. 

Almost every household· raises fowl and has a chicken hut, 

b~ilt oil stiits, in which the birds are kept at night (Pl. 6). 

Ponies are stabled underneath 

the house, but pigs and cattle are permitted to wander around the-village as 

th'ey please. There are usually no pig sties or cattle pens, although such enclosures are 

begiilning to be built in villages presently being contacted by govern ment agricultural 

and.husbandry experts.: 

Large wooden mortars fo~ 

husking grain are considered public property and 

several are available around the village area ·(Pl. 5). E!!pecially during the ~ainy 

months of the monsoon season, a rough shelter may be erected over each mortar so that 

people can continue working despite the weather. 

Water is channelled into the village from a spring or stream, often sev~ral 

hundred metres away, by a simple but effective bamboo aqueduct. Sections of bamboo, 

halved longitudinally and placed end to end, form a long narrow trough. Forked sticks 

approximately two metres high, one at each end of every section, support the aqueducthigh 

enough .to prevent the water being fouled by _the domestic animals. 

5. Choosing a New Village Site 

Lahu Nyi must take into account several factors--some mundane, others supernatural--when 

choosing the site for a new village. Practical considerations include 

topography, elevation, the availability of water and of building materials (especially 

bamboo), the characteristics of surrounding soils and the friendliness of neighbouring 

peoples. As for the supernatural factors, Lahu Nyi consider whether or not malicious 

spirits reside in or near the proposed site and whether or not the resident locality spirit 

accepts the intrusion into its territory. 

As shifting cultivators, Lahu Nyi re-site their villages primarily for agricultural 

reasons; their first concern, therefore, is for soil fertillty.33 Another important factor 

. . 

is whether the neighbouring people~, both in.t)le hills and in the nearby lowlands, are 

- friendly, tolerant or hos~ile. In the hills, one cannot _move into a new area--unless it is 

3l. For a discussion of the factors which Lahu Nyi farmers take into account when evaluating 

new soils, see Walker (1976h:l56-9).

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RrJ.:~ FOR ESJ'A~I,.ISHING ft:. NEW VILLAGE 1.71 

entirely uninhabited--without first eliciting the response of neighbouring hill communities. 

Sometimes it may· be necessary for newcomers to acknowledge the political 

' 

suprema~y ohhe community which pioneered the area, no matter what ethnic affiliation 

t~at pioneer community may have. 

(In the are~ where I conducted my field-work, ~he 

Lahu were regarded as the pioneers and a neighbouring Lisu community recopized the 

headman.ofthe largest Lahu village as their hpav yav, a Shan, or Tai Yai, tjt~e, of 

headm~~:tship; cf; Walker 1969:44-6, 1970b:l41-3). 

It may also be necessary to seek 

the approval of lowland officialdom before settling into a new area, since tJle ·hill 

cquntry is in law, if not alway~ in reality, under the jurisdiction of the national gover,n,. 

ment. 34 

Seldom will a Lahu Nyi community risk e~tablishing a new village against the 

wishes of potential neighbours, either in the hills or in the lowlands. 

Given an area with good soils and friendly--or at least tolerant-.:.neighbours, the 

community elders will tum their attention to the choice of an actual site for settlement. 

Generally (there are exceptions) they look for a gently-sloping spur~ and there are both 

practical and supernatural reasons for doing so. 

Good drainage is one advantage of a 

high site; on low-lying land, waterlogging is a major problem during the long wet season 

(June to O~tober). 

The more conservative Lahu Nyi cite another reason for avoiding 

low-lying.area!l! they are pathways for the spirits or nev, who will be angered if their 

movement is blocked by human habitations. Angry spirits, it is believed, "bite" (che,. 

ve) offenders and make them sick.3S 

The proximity of a perennial stream or spring is essential, as is. the pr~sence of 

suitable building materials for the houses. 

Since wood, as well as· grass and leaves for 

~atching, is widely available. in the hill country, the main consideration here is whether 

or not there is sufficient bamboo. nearby. Lahu material culture depends greatly on· 

. bamboo; it is inconceivable for these people. to liveJn 8n are~ ~here it is uriobtain~;~.ble. · 

If the communi~y happens to. cultivate (as do m~t Lahu Nyi in Thailand) dry 

rice for subsistence and opium poppy (Papavar somniferum) a~ a cash crop,36 then the 

34~ . For an account of. the relations between hillmen (such as Lahu) ·and the government· in· Thai 

' ,;l11nd, see Walker (1980d). 

35 .. For more information on .Lahu Nyi concepts of spirits and on their spirit-specialists, see 

. Walker (1976a:379-:-83, 1976g:435-7 [this article is ma~red by the printers~ omissi.on of 

.most ~f the tone marks]; 19l7c 210-12). 

36. For an account of the production and use of opium among the Lahu Nyi I studied, see Walker 

(1980a)". ·: . . . . .. · ··· · ··


ideal village ~ite will be at an elevation:of around 1,200 metres (4~00~ feet). 

Living at 

this elevation, the villagers have access both to high, cool land (to which the strains of 

opium poppy cultivated in northern South~ast Asia are best adapted) and to lower land 

(which, these Lahu maintain, suits the higher-yielding rice varieties among their seed 

stocks)'. 

But villages are not inv~riably lo~ated a_t this ideal elevation. Sometimes, for 

example, a Lahu Nyi community will site its village below 1,200 metres and- have its 

poppy fields far away up in the hil1s~-as much. as a day's walk from the· settlement. At 

least on paper, poppy cultivation is illegal,37 and this arrangement may prevent unwelcome 

strangers from locating the fields. The farmers build substantial field huts, 

enabling them to stay for days or weeks away from the main village. On the other 

hand, the village may be located far above 1,200 metres. The people then will. either 

walk down to their rice fields where, again, they will· build substantial field huts, or 

they will stay in the high country and rely on lower-yielding varieties· of padi which 

can tolerate high elevations. _ And Lahu Nyi are not so wedded to the opium poppy 

that they will not consider aban~oning its cultivation if alternative economic opportunities 

are available at lower elevations. Thu$, some communities have moved right 

down into the foothills and onto the fringes of the Tai-_occupied ·~alleys. 

Here they 

have taken to irrigated-rice cultivation and the production of cash crops like ·cotton, 

sesa~pe and chilli·peppers, which are better adapted to the lowland environment (cf. · 

·Wongsprasert 1977). 

We turn now to the supernatural factors to be taken into account when siting 

a new village. Apart from avoiding the "spirit paths", or gullies, already mentioned, 

Lahu Nyi will also refrain from settling on a site previously occupied, whether by their 

own people or by people whom they call A- vav. Such old village sites are. feared 

because, it is believed, they might be occupied by the malicious spirits of the former 

37. The smoking and sale of opium was declared illegal by the Royal Thai Government in 195~, 

and cultivation of poppy was prohibited in the following year (see McCoy 1973 : 144; Geddes 

1976 : 202). From fairly early on, however, the authorities realized that a precipitate ban 

on opium production in the hills would cause immense economic hardship among the hill 

farmers, thereby giving them cause and encouragement to become hostile io the central 

government. The prevailing view remains that the poppy-growing peoples, like the Lahu 

Nyi described in this. article, should be weaned gently from opium production through crop 

substitution; in the meantime the government authorities do not, for the most ·part, demand 

strict adherence to the law Pt:ohibiting poppy cultivation. But there have been cases of 

unscrupulous officials using the letter of the-law to squeeze money from the hillmen. ·


occupants-specifically, the spirits··of those people who suffered ~·bad" (violent, bloody, 

or otherwise ~D.natural) de_aths. 

Such persons, according to Lahu Nyi belief, are trans· 

formed at death into particularly spiteful spirits who, themselves barred from the peace 

of the land ofthe resp~cted ancestors and even from being reincarnated either in human 

or in animal form, are ever anxious to cause others to join them in their eternal 

suffet:ing (cf. W~lker 1976a:'381). Although I made no formal enquiries on this topic, 

l suspect old Lahu village sites are feared because the spirits of the "bad dead" . are 

most likely to harni those clo~est 

to them:kinsmen (aM:'v vi~ awv nyi) if at all possible· 

and, failing these, any fellow Lahu. Regarding-the Lahu Nyi fear of sites which they 

say were once. occupied by A- vav, my information is more sp~cific .. Among the 

many different categories of spirit or nev which the Lahu re~gnize (cf. Walker 1976a: 

378-82, 1976c, 1976g, 1977a,,"b, c, d, 197Sa, 1979b, 1980a, b, 198la, 1982a), one is 

called the .A- vav nev, th~ spirit of the A- vav people (cf. Walker 198lc). A- va is the 

name by which Lahu.have traditionally known the Wa (in Chinese, Ka-Wa, ·' -tf; 1~ 

people of·the Sino-Burmese -border. But in .Thailand they use this ethnonym for the · 

Austroagiatic-speaking people whom the Tai of this region designate as Lewa or Lua?. 

COnventional wisdom among the Lahu Nyi in Thailand is that the A'- vav who used 

to Jive in these hills were Buddhists.38 Thus, when Lahu uneartlx the remains of an 

. . . 

old Buddhist shrine, as they sometime do when preparing_ a new field, they regard the 

site as having been occupied by A- vav. 

And since this means that the place is 

. prob~bly now the residence of an A- vav nev, a rather malicious spirit, they will avoid 

settling there. 

Spirits of the A- vav people and of Lahu who have died bad deaths may be 

avoided by locating the new village well away from sites thought to harbour such · 

malicious beings. But there is one spirit which cannot be avoided. This is the resident 

locality spirit, belonging to the genus hk'aw nev or ••bill spirit" (hk'aw "hill"). Lahu 

38. The Lu~? people presently living in the hills of north Thailand are, for the most part, no more 

than nominal Buddhists,. although those who have moved down into the valleys are as Buddhist 

as are their Tai Yuan, or Northern Thai, neighbours (Kunstadter 1965:26-7). The nominal 

Lua?_ Buddhists in the mountains believe that they were once more orthodox .. in their Buddhism--even 

that it was their ancestors who built Wat Chedi Luang, the oldest Buddhist temple 

in Chiaug Mai (Kunstadter 1965:26). As for the Wa of the Burma-China borderlands, these 

are frequently categorised by the Shan people (Tai Yai) as "Wild Wa" and "Tame Wa", 

co~responding to th:ose Wa who remain outside the Buddhist fold a.Jid those who have 

.accepted some form of Buddhism, -however nominal (Scott and Hardiman 1900:393..;,94). 

Thus, the·Lahq idea lhll~ the .A- vay were a Buddhist people has a good deal of trlltn·, ·


Nyi believe each hillside to be the preserve of a particular hk'aw ne'!' which, if necessary, 

they will identify by the name of that hiJP9 and address by the Tai honorific Caov maw 

"Prince". But a local hill spirit only becomes important (so requiring a name and a 

title} 'to these Lahu when they undertake some kind of activity on the territory deemed 

to be under the spirit's control. Such activity might involve hunting, cutting wood, 

preparing a new field, 40 or building a new village. Th~re is always a chance, Lahu 

think, that the spirit will resent the incursion onto its territory and will take revenge 

hy ''biting" the intruders. The result of such biting is manifested in physical illness. 

o:n t~e -other hand, it is also believed that this potentially spiteful spirit may be won 

over by a pol~te and respectful request for pe!'mission to enter its teuitory; then it may 

become a force for positive good, acting as the guardian spirit' of those people who have _ 

correctly propitiated it. 

_· T~us, before setting up a new village, Lahu Nyi take care to propit~te the 

resident locality spirit. This they do in a short and simple rite at which the headman 

officiates... Before the men begin clearing the undergrowth and trees, the headman goes 

t() a high spot· above the proposed site luid there erects a small offering post known as 

a shov lo"' (Fig. 10). The post, about l.S. metres high, bas a ~eep double cleft, with two 

Fig. 10 A sho"' /o• (offering post) . 

;. : with u~ f:U_ luv (leaf c~p) 

3~. 'I!hi.s name is a(mqst alw4ys of 'fai origin, as a hilL usually takes t-b,e nam~ of the. major stream 

wl!i.C!h ft.ow~·from.ik· : 

40~ Fat an account of .the pr.opitiatio.n of the hill spirit before fellin~ a new swi~den 1 see Wmker 

(1978a);·_ · . •

tAHU NYt (RED tAltU) lUTES FOR .ESTABLtSlttNG A NtW vtttAGE 

·t7S 

small sticks (about 20 centimetres long) inserted to keep the slits open. In the cleft, 

above the crossed sticks, the headman inserts a leaf cup, called an u -...cu_ lu", in which 

he puts a few unlit beeswax c~ndl~ . a~d some uncooked grains ·of rice. These_ are 

offerings for the spirit. All is now ready for his recitation of _the appropriate_ propitiatory 

prayer. 

In this, the headman informs the resident locality spirit th~Jt he wants 

to establish a new village here and he offers the beeswax candles and rice grains in 

payment for the place, requesting the spirit to move its residence away from the site of 

the proposed village. The following text, recorded for me by a former headman of my 

· study community, shows in detail the nature of the prayer.41 

TEXT ONE : HEADMAN'S P;RA.. YER TO THE LOCALITY SPIRIT 

· 1. Ha_, o-, o-, hk'aw chi tev hk'aw, nyi.,. te ... mo_ te" cu" ve cho, kav haw Ia ... 

meu" peh" ve" aw_ ve" taw"-Ieh cbo., ka., vui.,.cheh" pa-cheh" ve meh_. 

2. Cho., kav nawv hkui haw-- Ia ... haw-·vui,. tepa te ve, a-, cao., maw cao., tu ... , 

cao., ui., cao., yaw", caov pa ... cao., keh-o, naw., cheb" kut caw., kui_., caw" k't> ~ 

k'o, awv klii aw., na a ci- ci_ Ia" she_. 

3. Cao., maw ho...:... ti.-i pfuh" sheh_ hpa", ta ti,.. pfuh" sheh_ hpa", chaw ya" ho- ti,.. 

ma" caw,, ta ti ... ma" caw, leh a-, nyi., te" mo_·_te" cu" Ia ... meu" peh" ve." aw_ 

ve" taw" Ieh peh" bkaw" naw hkaw" taw" Jeh cho., ka., cao.,. maw hk'aw teh 

mui sheh_ hpa", -~aw, bkui haw.:... Ia ... haw- ga., ve. . 

4. Cho., ka., k'o" k'o, naw, cheh" kui.,. caw.,. kui,·caw" g'a k'o" k'o, aw., kui aw., 

na a ci~ ci.....:. Ia"' she:-·' ·to kui to na ci __ Ia ... ~~e_, hk~aw u- h~'aw meh...,.. _ 

s·. A-, vui.,. -te pa te-_ve, nyi.,. te" mo-'-- te." cu ... ve vui.,;. te pa te 've. 

6. Sho meu" kui" meu" ka.,, naw., taw_ naw, suh- Ia", shaw" meuv ma meu" ka., 

naw., taw_ naw, suh- la", hpe" Ia sha hpa ... Ia., hteh--o, ca_ ca_ leh meuv ka., 

nawv taw_ naw, suh- leh po.,. Ia", te" nyi sheh;;, yan",_te" hasheh" yan" hk'a 

g'a" chi g'a"-hk'o" hta ... haw. 

7. 

A- hk'aw g'a":ka hkui ta"'lu la"ta" lu Ia" hk'aw 'g'a" ka ma" g'a ya 

J Y . . V : . • VJ A . '( .' t. . . . V:. . . V :A 

mui, ve,.naw.,._Iio~ ti,.. caw., sheh~-:hpa", peh~ ve "'-~w-_ ve" taw "leh.nay.r.,. 

hk~ib!l~~-Ia,.,-haw~- g~.,.v~. . .. __ .. __ .. 

... ... .. . .. 

41. See note 25 above regarding tone marks. For convenience of reference b~tween the Lahu and 

Eng!ish versions I have broken the texts-into verses. No such divisions !U'~ recognized. by the 

Lahu themselves.

116 · ,.. Anthony k; Wa1ker ··· 

8. Nyi.., te" mo_ te" cu"', te" mo_ te".cu"ve, ya" nyi cho.,. ka.., hk'aw chhe" hk'aw 

·vui.., te pa te ve .. 

9. Yeh.., te _hk'a" te law,; te cheh" ve, cho.., ka.., hpa" ya"·te cheh"-ve, a-, naw.., cheh" 

kui.., caw" k'o" k'o, ci_:_ la" she..:..: meh:-. 

10. o-, o~. aw~ kui aw.., na ci_ -la".·she_, cao.., yaw" cao..,pa ", cao.., keh-o cho.., 

ka.., ve. 

TEXT ONE-- TRANSLATION 

1. Ob, bo42, we people of this community bring for you here at this place beautiful 

beeswax candles and beautiful rice43 prepared by our own bands; here at this 

place we buy, we barter, this hill in order- to live here. 

2. Here at this place, under your feet and under your hands, 44 we buy and we 

barter [this hi11];4S oh, Prince, Great' Prince, Pure Prince, if yo!Jr d~elling place 

is here, please move to the bottom or to tlie top [of this· area]. . . 

3. All-knowing Prince,·all-true person, we people cannot know ali tb,ings, cannot 

be true; oh we of this community bring for you these beautiful beeswax candles 

and this beautiful rice prepared by o;n. own hands, we bring for you thes~ beeswax 

candles;46 oh Prince of this place, you who sit upon the bends in the hills,47 we 

reach under ·your feC?t and under your hands. · 

4. If you have your dwelling-place here at this place, piease move to the bottom or 

to the top [of this area], please move to the bottom or to the top of this place, to 

the. top of the hill OJ: to the bottom of the hill. 

42. Lahu prayers frequently begin with conventional introductory sounds which carry no ineaning. 

43. Peh" ve"aw _ !!e" is one of the poetic couplet~· which abQUnd in. Lahu prayers. Literally it 

means "beeswax-candle flower, cQoked-rice flower" ( peh" from pehv haw "beeswax candle", 

ve" from aw.., ve" "flower", aw_ "cooked rice"); 

44. This couplet is an exaggerated expression· of humility; a common device used by Lahu when 

dealing with the supernatural powers~ With respect to the· supreme being,·G'ui.., sha, the 

humility usually is sincere enough, but when directed to a spirit it is probably just a ploy to 

·obtain one's own ends. Lahu call it ne." hta,._he.., ve "lying.to the. ~pirit" •. 

45. Words in brackets do not appear· in the L~hu original but are implied. 

46 .. The Lahu uses a pair ofco~plets: pehv ve" aw_-~e" (seen.. 43). and peh" hkawv nawv hkaw" 

"beeswax candle" (the two parts of this couplet cannot. be· translated~ separately; 1tkaw" is a 

·classifier,- and nawv means "something sticky"-but l am unsure ·whether thw· translation 

would be appropriate here). 

47. TJ:ris is simply for poetic effect. It does not indicate any preferred·locale on the p~rt of the 

spirit.

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RII.~S FOR EST AB:LISHING A NEW VILLAGE 177 

· S. Oh, we buy;·we barter [this place]; we· of this community buy and barter [this 

.. pl~.ce]. 

6. Three times in one day and three times in one night shield and protect each on~ 

of us from the points of iron, the points of copper, 48 shield and protect us all from 

points of wood;49 shield, protect and save us all from sickness and death by 

[sharp] points. 

7. Oh do not break the hands of anyone of us, do not break .the legs of anyone of 

us; we do not wrong· you, you who know all things; we bring for you beautiful 

beeswax candles and beautiful 'rice, we reach under your feet and under your 

hands. 

8. We of this community, today, here at his place, buy and barter this hill. 

9. The whole village community will live here, the hpav yavso will live here;;oh, if 

you have your-dwelling place here, ple~se move away. 

10. Oh, Oh, please move to the bottom or to the .top [of this place], oh Prince, pure 

, Prince of this place. 

Only after this simple rite has been performed may the villagers get down to 

the job of clearing the ilew -site, provided the day is right. The Lahu Nyi whom I 

studied would avoid beginning such operations on two specific days : lav nyi or "tiger 

day" and mvuhv nyi or "horse day".Sl .Because the presiding animals are fierce or 

strong, it is said that beginning work on either of these days would invite injury from 

knives, axes, bamboo and wood during the felling operation. The new and full moon 

days (shi- 1}yi "merit days") are also avoided, for these are days of prescribed rest and 

ritual observance (cf. Walker 198lb). But apart from these, there are QO restrictions. 

48. A poetic refei"ence. to the knives and axes which will.be used to clear the site. 

49. That is, "May the trees which we cut not hurt us". 

50, As noted earlier, hpav yav is a Shan title, indicating that the headman has several village 

· communities under his jurisdiction. But here it is used only for poetic effect, referring to 

the ordinary village headman (hk'a" sheli_ hpav), who may or may not also hold the rank of 

hpav yav. 

51. The Lahu follow a twelve day cycle, each day named for a presiding animal. Many Asian 

peoples (cf. Davis 1976: 11)--most nota]lly, of course, the Chinese--use a duodenary system 

in reckoning years, days and even hours, and usually each unit in the cycle is named for an 

llnima!, A.!thou(lh som~ t.!lltu (cf. Youn~ s.a. : 75) follow !l12-~ear c~cle, ·the L!\hu I $ftJdie4

178 Anthony R.-Wal_ker 

If there is a hawyeh, at the old village site, before- ·abandoning this settlement 

the to bo pa_, or senior village priest, will enter the hawyeh~. light beeswax 

candles at the altar to G'ui, fu_, and inform this village guardian of the community's 

intention to move. I recarded two versions of the priest's prayer at -this time. The 

first version goes as follows : ' - 

TEXT TWO (A): PRIEST'S PRAYER TO G'Ul, FU_- 

1. o-, 0;_, ya,. nyi'yo, law le" k'o A k'o, G'ui, fu_ tcuh ya".chi YOv tawle" k'o" 

k'o, nga, o" aw _ hk'a "_suh- teh~·ve yo~ l~w le" k'o_" k'o. 

2. - A-, a daw" Ia,. shaw daw" ·chi ina ve, to bo 14l,. shaw daw" chi ma ve, daw" hpu 

te" bk'a" ti- muiv leh ga" hpu. to" ca" ti- ri111i, leh ma" ya,. da,. le.h daw" to" 

ca " ~- mui, leh ga" te" ca 11 ti- mui~ leh ui, ka,.- i ka,. ilga, hui chi ma vo yo, 

- law le" k'o " k'o. 

3. Ya,. nyi_hk'a" pi_ chi a,. ma" cheh" oleh·b" to" hk~a·" k'aw,. teh_ vo yo, law 

le• k'o " k'o. 

4. A-, hk'av-g'a" chi g'a" daw" hpu to" ea" ti- mui,·leh ga".hpu tev·ca·" ti- mui, · 

leh paw hku" hta,.·ma" g'~" leba daw"hta,. ma" g'a"lohc~w ka,. chima ve yo.., 

law le" k'o " k'o~ · 

observe a. duoden~ry cycle oniy of days, not of years. Tlio presiding animals in tho Lahu 

system correspond closely to th9so ha tho Chinese system; probablY. they wore ~nee_-idenrlcal. 

The Lahu animals are a~ follows: , 

1) Fa" nyl · Rat day 

2) Nu nyi Ox day 

3) La" nyi . Tiger day · ,, - 

4) Htaw" Ia nyl_ Meaning unknown to my informants, but Young (s.a•.: 75) has 

"rabbit day", which is almost certainly correct, siii.ce tho rabbit 

appears in this position in the Chinese system · · 

S) Law" nyi Mule day (but this is probably a now interpretation; law" must 

originally have been· a Lahu attempt to pronounce tho Chinese 

long "dragon", as this.is "dragon day'' in the Chinese. system)· 

6) Tsuh nyi Barking deer day (but other Lahu have suh nyi which is su~ly 

borrowed from tho Chines~ she "snake", for "snako-c;l:ay". The 

Lahu Nyi form is an attempt to provide a new ailimal referent, 

as suh means •·death" in Lahu) 

7) Mvuh" ilyi Horse day 

8) Yaw~ nyi Sheep day 

9) Maw,. nyi Jl4onkoy day 

10) G'a"_nyi Fowl day 

11) Hpui" nyi Dog day 

. ·12) Va,. n1i_ Pis day

tAJtU NY1 (RED tAHU) RitES FOR ES'tAi3tiSH1NG A NEW VILLAGE 119 

5. · Dawv tev shi_ ti-, gav tev shi_ ti-, tev g•av yaw k'o, nyiv g•av yaw ve hk'e, 

dawv hpu tev ca "ti- muiv leh nev ka,.. chi ma've, ka ho- h8. hpa_ kaA> dawv 

hpu tev ca" ti--:- muiv·leh gav hpu tev ca" ti- muiv leh a dawv hta,_ tav g'av, to 

bo hta .. tav g'av. 

'6, A..;_. sub·" tsuh ·haw" tsuh YOv law lev k'o" k'o, nev chi ma ve yoy law ley k'o .... 

'~·o, sub ... meuv ma meuv hk'o " YOv law lev k'o " k'o, sub " btu haw " btu, sub " 

chaw haw" ch~w k'o, tav ya,. tav ji" muiv lav, uiv ka,.. i ka,.. chi ma ve, hk'av g'av. 

chi g'av hk'o" hta,., awv hpeh- tav cawv piv. 

7. Sl.lh" haw A YOv law lev k'o" k'o, awv ba,.. awv venv tav g'a piv, nev chi ma ve 

· · k'o .,. k'o ka aw ba aw venv tav ta · da . · 

, . -' . ':II A y - A 

8. A-, a dawv bon ui..; ve yov law lev k'o ". k'o, a dawv shiuiv leh ov tev hk'a" 

. teh:_ g'a ve YOv law:tev k'o II k;o, hki- kui. keh kuiv tav cawv lav. 

• 10. 

9. Dawv ha_, zuh,. hki- mui hki-, a, zuh,. hki- mui hki- kuiv yov law lev k'o" 

· k'o, a e na bOna ca-:- k'aw,. tawv k'aw,.. sub- leh pony piv, tu,.. hpev sha hpa_ 

lay hta"' ka"' k'aw" taw~, k'aw,.. suh-leh ponv piv . 

Chehv sha cawv sha chi bon meh_, shi- meh ti- k'aw,. hpa_ leh bon uiy shiuiv 

k'aw,.. hpa_ leh ~av piy, dawv hpu tev ca "ti- mui~ leh gav hpu tev ca" tr-, 

a dawv mo_ ya'' chi ma ve, to.bo mo_ yav chi ma ve, hki- kuiv keh kuiy m.av 

g'a mawv ve yov law lev k'o" k'o, bon uiv shiuiv hk'o" hta,.. ti- hpa_ leh je 

piy meh_. 

11. A paSha- ca" ka,.., o-! o-, hki- kuiv tav cawv piv meh_. 

· TEXT TWO (A),... TRANSLATION 

1. Oh, today, G'uivfu_, the (divine] servant, I will establish a new village yonder. 

2. Oh, m~y all the headman's people, all the to bo pa_'s people be united by the 

same pure tho~ghts; may there be no fighting among us; may we all be of the 

same mind, both the big and the small, all of us. 

3. Today \Ve shall leave this old village and establish a new village yonder. 

· 4.. Oh,_ may all· of us be united bY the same pure thoughts; let nobody defeat the paw 

hkuv., ~.2 let nobody defeat the headman, nor any of the villagers. 

52. Paw hkuv probably comes from two Tai words. paw "father" and hkuv from khun, a title of 

·respect, hence paw hkuv "honourable father". Among. the Lahti Nyi it is another title for 

the senior pl'iest or to bo pa_. ·

18Q 

· ::Anthony k. Walker.· 

5. Let us all be of the same mind, let two men speak as one man; let us ,aU-be of the 

same pure mind; and you, oh spirits, and you, oh Creator,s3 grant tbat we may 

all be of the same pure mind; let nobody defeat the headman, let. nobody defeat 

the to .bo pa_. · 

6. Oh all you spirits of the great trees, when we fell the trees, when we slash the 

trees, do not fight with us; let us not be stabbed by sharp-_polnted pieces ofwoo~, 

the big and the small, all of us alike, protect us all from wounds. · . · 

7. . All you ~pirits, let us riot acquire sins when we cut down th~ t.::~es; do -not put 

sins [upon us]. . ' · .:. 

8. 9h, may there be great merit for the headman, great merit for the headmans 4 when 

we establish our new village yonder; may there be no misfortune at that place. 

9. OhNa bona ca-,55 once again shield and protect us· from all- trouble, from 

troubled sleep and troubled sitting, from a place of troubled sleep, troubled sitting; 

from _every misfortune, once again shield and protect us ... 

10. May we enjoy health and prosperity, this boon alone bestow upon us, this great 

boon once again grant to us, let all the to bo pa_'s people be of the same pure 

mind, let us see no misfortune, this great boon alone_ spread over us. 

11. Father Sha-ca"56, you also let us not stiffer a place of misfortune. 

A second version of this prayer to G'ui.., fu_ goes as follows: 

1. 

2. 

TEXT TWO (B) : PRIEST'S PRAYER TO G'U lv FU _ 

o-' 0 _, G'ui.., fu_ naw.., yo~ law le" k'o A k'o, hk'a A chi a daw" pa_, hk'a A YOv 

law le" k'o A k'o chi htaA, hpaw eve, ma" cheh" o ve yo.., law le" k'o A k'o, o" te" 

hk'a" hk'a" sub- teh_ ve yo._ law le" k'o ~ k'o, G'uiv fu_ naw.., hta,. a" la" ve 

yo..,. 

Ui.,. ka~ i kaA cheh" sha'caw~ sha u- caw ... gav; zuh~"sba mui sha ti- caw.., ga" ve. 

53. "Creator" .refers to G'ui.., sha, the supreme divinity of the Lahu people, who is responsible 

for the creation of all things. But seen. 55 below. . . . ' . 

54, Repetitive only in English, this phrase in Lahu is-a couplet, a daw"" bon .ui.,. a daw"'shi-ui.,.. 

Wh~le the usual term for headman is hk''a" s.he/1_ hpa_v or "master of th.e village", an alternate 

term is a daw" or "he who thinks" (on behalf of the village community), from dawv ve "to 

think". Bon is from aw.;,·bo1i "me,rit", liiv means "great"; and shi-:- is from aw,;.'shi,... "merit". 

Awv ~on aw~ shi- is a couplet meaning ·~merit". . . . 

55. Na bona ca- is a poetic for.qt of Na boma, itself anothername for Ai ma, the female counterpart 

t6 the male G'ui.,. sha. AI rna partakes itt G'uiv sha's divinity. to the -extent that both 

male and female together may be termed "G'uiv sha". :In one .version of tlte-creatiob. myth, 

G'ui.., sha (seen~ 53 above) creates the heavenly·regions while Ai ma it~ responsi-ble-for -the 

creation of the world (cf. Walker 1976a: 379). · · - · 

56. Here "Father Sha-: ca""· refers to G'uiy sha; Sha- ca" is•also the naine of a Laliu culture 

hero who, although mortal, is said to have entered G'uiy sha's heaveri without having io die.

tAittJ NYt (Rltb tAittJ) Rtl'ES FOR RS'tABt1SHlNG A N~W V1LLAGJ! 181 

,._ 

3. A-, c~ a,. mvuh" miv ma" caw" leh o" te" ~vuh" m~v a,.-hkut:_ta_ muiv ta_ leh 

o" te" mvuh" mi, aw _ teh __ g'a ve yo" law le" k'o ~-k'o, nawv_ht~~ ka,. hk'a deh,. 

hto a" la" a. 

4. · Naw" ht~ ... ka;.. hk'a deh,. -pa" · veti leh·ya" ·ka~ :duv k~~ chi ma- ve, hk'a" rna aw" 

··ce ve ui ka: i-ka. ·chii:ri~v~ rieh'hpu·ya"chpu·chim~:ve·ka h·k'li deh ha 

- ' V ,.. A . ' A' 1\ 1\ 

sha-· leh hki'"":" kui, keh kui,.ta"-caw'~ la",-daw~ ie" ca ':' ti-:-muivlehgaY·te" Ca" 

ti- mui, leh hk'a '· suh- teh_ ve yo" law le" k'o" k'o .., 

5. A-, ce" ka,. ca" ka,. chi rna ve, ta"faw" la", chaw ka,. va" ka,. chi m~ ve, ta" 

faw" Ia", daw" hpu te" ca" ti- muiv leh a daw" Ia,. shaw 4aw" chi ma ve, to bo 

la,. shaw daw" chi m~ ve, daw~· t~" hk'a" _ti- m'~iv Ieh ga" te" hk'a" ti- -~uiv leh 

. .. i 

ta" hka" da,., a; ta" law~ da~. 

6. A daw" hta,. ta" g'a" pi" law", to bo hta,. ta" g'a" pi" yo, la:wle" k'o" k'o; a daw" 

hkaw" ti- na pi", to bo bkaw" ti"7'" na pi".' · _ 1" 

7. Uiv ka,. i ka,. chi ma ve, o" te" mvuh" mi, a,. te ve yo, law le" k'o" k'o, a, hk'a 

deh~ hto a".la" ve. ~ . : 

8. Hki- kuiv keh kui, ta" caw" meh__:_, G'uiv fu_ tcuh ya" ka,., ka ho- ka hpa_ 

pa_ ka,.; te"'nyi'sheh·" yan" hk'a deli,. ha,. sha-' leh te" nyi sheh" yan" hk'a 

deh,. lo_ pi", uiv ka~ i ka,., chi ma ve hta,.; o-, o-, hk'a deh,. nyi Ia" meh_,! 

TEXT TWO (8)-TRANSLATION 

1. Oh, Oh, G'uivfu_, this-village, this headman's village, we shall now abandon, 

we shall no longer live here; we shall establish a new village yonder; of this, 

G'uiv/u_;t'cotne to inform yoti. 

2 .. May dt~,~ig and the_ s~~ll ali~e ff~J~y ~~thi~g b,~t g~o~ heal~h· an{pros~:rit~; 

may we haye nothing but sound sleep and goo~ sitting. .· 

::. ·· . .~.

182 Anthony ttwaiker · 

3. Oh, here we have no country; over there, in that ~untry, we will establish our 

village and OUr fields; over there we can .establish . ourselves, of this I now carefully 

come to inform you. 

4. You also come ~efully with ~s, .~h ~~f~lly ~uard over us al!, over all the 

children of the. village, -the big and the small, tb,e womenfolk and the menfolk; 

• • • • • • • ..! • • • 

grant thllt we suffern~ misfortune, let us all be of t1te. same pure mind wh~n we 

establish our new village. · 

5. Oh, do not punish the animals, do not punish the people; let us all be of the same 

. pure mind; may all the headman's people, all the to bo pa-:-'s people, be of the 

same pure mind; let there be no disorder, no dispute among us. 

6. Do not punish the headman, do not punish the to bo pa_; let the people listen 

to the headman's voice alone, let the people listen to the to bo pa_'s voice alone. 

· 7. All of us, the big and the small alike, will establish a new village in the country 

yonder; of this I carefully come to inform you. 

8. Oh G'~ivfu_, divine servant,let us have a place of no misfortune, ob Creator, 

you also, three times in one day carefully watch over us, three times in one night 

carefully guard us, the big and the small alike; oti carefully look upon us. 

6. Selectiag the Site for-a House 

When G'uivfu_, the village guardian~ 

has b.een tb.us informed of the move, 

the villagers may begin considering w~ere to build their individual. houses at the new 

site. .· Iiead~~n and senior ·priest (io b~ pa~> have fir~t ·. choi~ of ho~ sites, but 

oth~rwise there are no rules about pre~edence. . sltoulci any quarrel emerge, it is the 

headman's duty to reconcile the conflicting parties. But each household head must 

determine for himself whether or not the invisible world is favourably disposed to his 

choice.

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES. FOR ESTABLISHING A NEW VILLAGE 183 

Once. he has selected a potential site, the household head constru~ts from strips 

of bamboo a ritual object kO:own as a leh..:.. o-:--- ·(Pl. 12).57 Among the Lahu, as among 

th~il' lowland neighbours, the Tai peoples, this leh- o- has a variety of ritual· functions; 

here it is an offering to the spirit of the locality (see Text Three verse 4) and 

also, according to one informant, a guard a$ainst evil spkits and sickness. The household 

head then lights beeswax candles and prays to the locaiity spirit. 

h~ prayer ~hich I recorded in my· study village goes as follows : . 

An example of 

TEXT THREE : HOUSEHOLD HEAD'S PRAYER 

TO THE LOCALITY SPIRIT 

1. 0--;, O..;...,.yebv kuiv chi yov law le~ k"o" k'o, irev ch~v ka,. ve_yoy law lev k'o" 

k'o, ya,. shaw- yoy law ley. k'o " k'o, ngay tey yehy tey k'a ji ay ve, ngav yehy te" 

chehy a teh,.. 

2: A,- ney _chi yoy law lev k'o "k'o, ka,. haw leh nawy mawy teh ta_ ve yoy law 

ley k'o" k'o, nawv ta ti~ ta hkay pfuhv sheh~ hpay, yuy leh hpaw lay nieh_. 

. . 

3. A-, ngay ha,. leh may pe,. lay ve yov law ley k'o" k'o, zuh,. ma zuh,. mo hk'o" 

hta,. yov lawley k'o" k'o, zuh,. ma" leh npvha~ pe,. lay yov law ley k"o" k'o, . 

shaw- paw_ k'o, ngav tev yehv tey k'a yehy te Ohehv a. 

57. Leh-o- comes from the Shan and Northern Thai, ta-l eo, Central Thai, cha·leo. McFarland 

. (1941: s.v. cha-leo) describes this ritual object as "A device made by folding and crossiDg 

thin bamboo strips to the shape of two equilateral triangles, so interlaced as to form a.-sixp~iuteci 

figure, having open spaces between the sJa~s. It serves m~y purpose~... Two 

purposes McFarland mentions, "a charm to keep of!'" evil spirits"·and "a boundary mark", are 

identical with those _of the Lahu.ieh-o-.. Rajadhon (1967: eip. 162-3) includes two 

sketches of the Thai.chaleo and likewise mentions;. amons:other uses, the -chaleo "as a charm 

agaiDst evil spirits". Davis (1974: 3) translaies the Northern Thai ~aa laew ~ "hawk's eye": 

and. cites the · Lannathai Chronicle, a folk history of north Thailand, in which a my~ is 

presented to explain the origin of this symbolic object,· · A legendary kiilg·obtained the support 

· of hawks in order to keep animl!-ls out of his people's fieids. But when the hawks were wiped 

out throuih the anger of certaiD spirits, the kiug "decreed that all the people should plait 

strips of bamboo in the form of an eye, tie the eye io the end of a i)Ole. and pJace the pole 

in ·their fields, saying at the same time, 'May the haw~. watch over my field~!' The people 

have followed. the "custom ever since... ·. . 

The use.of theleh~o- ai aa ofl'eririg to spiri'ta (as ·specifically mentioned in Text T~Jree 

vorse 4) seerq•·*

184 AnthonyR. Walker . 

-4. Nga" ·leh- -o~ ~hit~~ av ve; ·nga,; law~ J'Uvhk'aw- yu" yo~;· a; nawv maw" teh 

ta_ yo._ law le" k~o "k'o, yu" hpaw Ia". • 

. . 

5. · Ya,.. pui- ta~ shaw- paw_ k'ai ye yo" law.le" k'o" k'o yehv ·chi yo" l~w -le" 

k'd -,.. k'o, mil' guiv ka,.. te" hk;av aw, ngav lawv leh yehv: te k'a te leh ·ngav tili" 

nga~ yav yehvte cheh" a teh,.. t~ leh ya,..pui- naw" hta,.. hto Ia" ve.· . . 

. 6. Na~v ~o-- ti,...ta ti,- pfuh" she_h~ hpav yov law le" k'o" k'o, na":v maw" teh ta-: 

yo" law le" k'o" k'o, yu~ hpaw Ia". 

7. A,- ya,.. pui- yo., law le" k'o" k'o, zuh,.. ma" zuh,.. mo leh hki- kuiv keh kuiv 

cawv k'o, _ngav ma" heu" . 

. 8. Ngav ha,.. leh:pe,.. la" yo"' law le" k'o" k'o, hki- kuiv keh kuiv ta" caw" Ia", ya" 

du" hta,.. ta" g'a" Ia". 

t. 

9 .. A,- bon ineh_ shi- meh_, cheh" sha caw" sha yo" law le" k'o" k'o, zuh" meh:_ 

· mui '~eh_ ma" g'a daw" ha__:_ ga" hki- leh chi bon hk'o "hta,. yeh" te k'a te ve, 

nawv hkaw" n- teh fa_ k'o" k'o, YUv hk'aw" Ia". 

10\ o-, o--. yaA pui- YOv law le"_,k'o "'k'o, zu4" ma" zuh" shu k'o "k'o, ngav ma" 

heu ", ma" z:uh,.. ma" leh chc;h" sha cawv sha tuv yovlaw le" k'o "k'o, t~" chita" 

mawv la"~·. ' ' ' .. 

; 1 

TEXT THREE-TRANSLATION 

·1. · Oh,: oh, spirit of this house.site~ this morning my whole household will ~lear the 

. _ . site; I will make a :bouse to liye iti. 

2~ Oh you spirit, if. you have kept your property at this place, you who are all 

knowing; all-powerful, please take [your property] and move away. 

3. Oh, ff you do .give [this site] to me, show. me in my drea~s; if you giv~ [it] to me, 

tomorrow my whole-household will build a house to live in. 

4: I place this: /eh·- ~.:._·[here] and I ask and I be.g for [thi~ s~e]; if you have placed 

your property her~, pleas~,take it away. 

5. From this evening; toinoriow morning· and hereaJter,' I beg I may build a house 

on this earth here; my wife and iny_ children wi•l build a hou$o to live in? this 

• • • r . , , , , , , , •• P, ··• , , 

.... ev~njns I com~ tp inform you, , · . . . .. :. •. .

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RITES FOR El)TABLISIDNG A NEW VILLAGE 185 

6. You who are all-knowing, all-seeing, if you have kept your property here, please 

take it and move away. · 

7. Oh, this evening, if I . dream.that . this will be~ troubled place, I do noi want [this 

site]. 

8. If you give me this place, grant that it may not be a troubled place; let there be 

no misfortune to the children or to the grandchildren. 

9. Oh [grant to us] good blessings, health and prosperity, sound sleep and comfortable 

sitting; let there be no trouble if I build my house here; if you have kept 

your property here, please take it back. 

10. Oh, oh, this evening, if I have troubled.dreams, Ido not want [this site]; if there 

is to be health and prosperity, let me see nothing in my dreains. 

As is· clear from the text (verses 3, 7, 10), the household head's dreams during 

the night following this rite are crucial. If he has no dream, thi~ is considered the 

most favourable omen that the site will be propitious (verse 10). But should he dream 

of soil, a hole in 'the ground or a lot of red colour, it is a bad omen, as is a dream of 

losing a figQ.t or digging up a brush-tailed porcupine (Atherurus macrourus; Lahu, fa~ 

peh-). These dreams suggest future ill health and misfortune and are taken to indicate 

the locality spirit's displeasure at the proposed use of its site. If he has such a 

dream, the household head will likely abandon this spot and search for another location. 

The symbolism of most of the dream omens is fairly obvious. The soil and hole in the 

ground suggest a grave, hence a death in the family. 

Red suggests blood, and so 

violent death. Losing a fight is obviously a sign of misfortune; but it is not clear to me 

why a vision of digging up a brush-tailed porcupine is considered inauspicious, 

especially as this animal is a favourite Lahu delicacy.ss · Perhaps its burrow also 

suggests a grave; but my informants simply said that it portended sickness in the family. 

To make quite sure that the supernatural world favours the house site, the 

household head performs another rite. on the day when building is to begin. 

Digging a 

58. Two varieties of por()upine were choice meats among "tliese Lahu Nyi, viz. fa" pu na", the Old 

World Porc~pi~e (IJystrix brachyurus) and fa" peh~ the Brush-taile4 Porcupine (Atherurus 

macro~rus).


small hole at the site, he drops into it ·a numbe_r of raw rice grains, one. for each membe1 

of the household, and covers them with a stone or piece of wood. The household head 

lights ·a pair of beeswax candles and recites .the following prayer : 

TEXT FOUR : HOUSEHOLD HEAD'S PRAYER 

TO THE LOCALITY SPIRIT JUST BEFORE . 

STARTING ro BUILD THE HOUSE 

1. Ha...:...! o-! 0- ! Cao, ui.., cao, yaw" cho, ka,. ve, cao, maw cao.., tu" cho.., ka,. ve, 

hpi- hku- na.., hku- cho.., ka,. ve, ya;. nyi ilga, yeh, te k'a te ve ka,. haw, la,. 

meu" peh" ve " taw " leh Ia,. meu" aw _ ve " taw " leh yeh, te k'a te ve meh_. 

2. Ca, hk'a suh_ shi._: te leh ka,. haw ca.., hk'a te" hk'a k'o, chaw te" g'a" ve hta,.. 

tan- ve. 

3. Yeh, te leh cheh" sha caw, sha kui.., ve, cheh" leh chaw ma" lu.., ma" she" tu'=' · 

k'o, ca.., hk'a chi te" hk'a ka.., ta" meh- meh_. 

4. Ca.., hk'a chi hta,. sha- hke " sha- ca " mtii.., leh sha- hki " sha- she_ mui.., ve, 

a Ia,. meu" peh" ve " aw _ ve " taw " leh nga.., yeh.., te k'a te ve t;neh_. 

5. Cao.., ui.., cao, yaw" cho, ka,.. ve ceu, lao" meh,_. 

6. Sha- hki "sha- ca" ta_ ve, cav hk'a chi hta..., a-, te leh nga, cheh" leh chaw 

ma" cheh" sha yo, k'o ""k'o, naw..,Jeh ma" te pe,.. Ia" ga" yo, "law k'o" k'o, ca.., 

hk'a chi me4- a_ law meh_. 

7. Chi hta,. nga, sha-.hki " sha- ca "mui.., ve, ca,.. hk'a c~i leh ma" meh- yo, law 

k'o ".' nga, yeh.., te k'a te ve. 

8. La,. meu" aw_ ve" peh" ve" taw "leh cao, ui, cao, yaw", cao, pa" cao, keh 

cho, ka,., hpi- hku- na, hku- cho, ka..., hpi- ho_-o hpi laweh""""'" chi ma ve 

cho, ka,., a hk'a deh,. ceu, la" meh_. · 

9. Nga, yeh, te k'a te ve ka,. haw. 

TEXT FOUR-TRANSLATION 

1. Ha I Oh, oh, Great Prince of this pl!!.ce, Lord Spirit of· this place, today I will 

make a house at this place; I bring for you these beautiful beeswax candles made 

by my own hand, I bring for you this beautiful rice made by my own hand; I will 

make a house.. ·

LAHU NYl (RED LAHU) RITES FOR ESTABLISHING A NEW VILLAGE 187 

2. I place here seven grains of rice, I put one grain of rice for each person [in my 

household]. 

3. If, when I make my house [at this place] we will be healthy, when we live here 

we will not sicken, let not a single grain of rice be lost. · 

4. · I make this rice grain oracle~ oh I bring these beautiful beeswax candles and this 

beautiful rice made by my own hand; I will bui~d a house. 

5. Great Prince of this place, come and look! 

6. I place this oracle, I have prepared these rice grains; if, when we live here, the . 

people will not be healthy, if you do not want me to make [my house] here, let 

these grains of rice be lost. 

7. I make this oracle; if the rice grains are not lost, I will build my house. 

8. I bring this beautiful rice and these beautiful beeswax candles made by my own 

hand, oh great Prince, P?werful Prince, Pure Prince, Lord Spirit of this place; all 

you spirits of the streams and spirits of the hills here at this place, come carefully 

and look! 

9. Here I will make. my house. 

After praying thus, the household head uncovers the rice grains and observes 

whether any have been lost. If they are all there (no insect having managed to remove 

one in the short time of the prayer), it is regarded as a good omen and work on the 

house can begin; but if one· has disappeared this is taken to indicate supernatural 

.displeasure and the site will be abandoned. 

Once the household head has received favourable omens (or rather, has not 

received unfavourable ones), work on the new house m~y begin. But some people 

will no~ start work on days they consider inauspicious; others seem not to care.s9 As 

when clearing the village site, they may avoid tiger day and dog day (seen. 51 above). 

One informant said the wood would hurt you, ·as if a. tiger were biting or a horse 

kicking. ·In addition; va,.. nyi, or pig day, may be avoided. This is the day on which 

Ai ma (see .n. 55 above) created the earth, and one informant declared it inappropriate 

to begin work on such an important day. The best days on which to begin the work, 

59. Thus one man told me, "Awv nyi ca" pa_ mav he" leh mav shi_" ("I am not a person who 

reckons the days, so I don't know"- or his words could be rendered "We're no.t people who 

reckon the days; so we don't know".)

1&8 . _. :Anthony_ R . .Walker 

this informant said, were -/awy nyi~ or mule day6o and htawy Ia nyi (meaning tinknown, 

but probably rabbit day). This man reckoned that if he began on, mule day his household 

woqld prosper and if he started on htawy Ia nyi he would become rich. -But he 

.. . . . ' 

. could not link tl.)e na~e of the ~y to the_ (~oped-for) consequence. All informants 

agreed that it mattered· not whether work began during the period of the waxing or the 

waning moon, but of course no work eould be done on the new and full moon days, 

shr nyi (see above, p. 177). · · .- 

The house may be built of any wood except that of the a yaw tree, a ·variety of 

chestnut (Lagerstoemia cylindrica). This tall, straight tree, Lahu say, is particularly 

liable to be struck by lightning--and indeed these Lahu, associate the tree with the 

mvuhy hteh" ney or "lightning spirit" (cf. Walker 1977c : 214). If a yaw wood were 

used in house constru.ction, Lahu Nyi say, it would invite lightning to strike the building. 

The menf~lk usually ~ut the w~od and bamboo building m_aterials, while the women 

assemble the grass or leaves for the thatch, but there is nd fixed division of labour in 

this respect. 

It may take from one to three or four days to finish the house, depending on 

· how much help is received from household members and friends. Then it' is swept 

clean and the first important ritual of occupancy followl. . Some member of the house~ 

hold (unstipulated) fetches water from the village supply and brings it into the house, 

saying, "l" kaA hk'e, chehy sha Ia" I" (like water may we have good health·!) or ••r ka" 

hk'e le may na., may gaw~ gav I" (like. water may we suffer no sickness 1). -- If the 

household has enough pigs, the household head may kill one for a feaS( -to ·mark the 

completion of his house. I was told by the headman of the village iii. which I was 

living that it is highly appropriate to kill a pig on . this occasion, for it will ensme 

success in the hunt for the men of the household. c; I 

7. Entering a New House 

In the evening of the first day of occupancy,~ major rite must be· perform~d · 

during which the spirit protector of the house, the yehv rzev or "house spirit" (cf. 

)\Talker 1977e) is invited to take ':'P residence._ The household head prepares beeswu 

60. A second informant concurred in this view, while a third listed mule day as one of the inaus- 

. _. picious days. ___ . _ _ _ _ _ ·--· .. __ __ _ _ ___ . _ ........ __ _ 

61. His words were .. Yeh., suh- chehY_tev nyi, va" 'caw.,. k'o ti cav k'o, yeh,. chi hta,. chehv htaY~ 

heh" pui- hk'aw sha_ g'a ca pul-a" ("On the day of living.in a new house, if one has a 

pig and kill~ it, when living in this house one will be able to·bag many forest animals").

LAHU NY1 ( RED LAHti) JUTES FOR ESTABL1SH1NG A NEW VILtAGt 189 

candles by twisting them together in pairs.62 

Lighting the candles, he plac·es them at 

various parts of the house, particularly on the newly-prepared altar to the house spirit, 

but also on one or more of the principal upright house supports, cross beams and walls 

and on the earthen fireplace.6 3 

He now prays ... asking to be forgiven for having cut 

down trees to build the house, and requesting. health and prosperity for the :Q.ousehold 

members in their new abode. I recorded three examples of this prayer, as follows: 

TEXT FIVE (A) : HOUSEHOLD HEAD'S PRAYER 

WHEN ENTERING HIS NEW HOUSE 

1. A- , yaA nyi, a-, yaA pui- kav haw yehv ma awv cev chive, shawv suh -- ma suhk'awA 

YUv> a- , shawV hpu shawV CO, shawV baA shawV veV chi ve·, yaA pui- kaV 

haw yeh v ma awv cev yehv bon ta tiM a-, shawv ba,.. shawv vev chi ve, ngav Ia,.. 

meuV pehV ve A hkeh ve A k'aw_.. tu- leh pehV haw_ k'aw,.. tu- leh chi ceuV 

k'awv ceuv u- htaM shawv baA ma baA chi hta,.. haw, a-, tu- leh ngav tev peu_ 

pa A g'a ll- htaA) noV g'a k'a_wv peuV pa A leh ngaV llpa 

A leh keh_ lav. 

ngaV hpawV k'awV peuV 

2. YaA pui- yehv hpawv k'a hpawv chi htaA haw, a- , yehv suh- k'a suh- k'awA 

ta A g'a yov law k'o " k'o, yaA nyi tan_ leh ov k'ai ve, chehv sha cawv sha, zuhA 

sha mui sha ti- cawv laV, hk'awv g'av chi g'av mav dawv mav ha_ , mav dawv 

mav hki-:-, yehv maawv cev chi haw- 

chehv leh chehv sha cawv shave, chi bo11; ti- 

yehv chi tev yehv YOv law k'o " k'o, a-, 

pa " leh k'a lav. 

3. Mav dawv mav hki- , mav dawv mav ha_, a- , hpav kav rna kav, yav kav duv kav, 

mav guiv mav hpa ", neh ceh yav ceh mav guiv mav hpav, pehv ceh ma ceh mav 

gui hk'e, ~hi bon ti- pa A leh k'a lav meh __ . 

62. The lighting of beeswax candle> precedes many Lahu Nyi ritual observances. Indeed, so 

important is the use of these candles that Lahu Nyi frequently call themselves pehv tu- pa_ 

or "beeswax burners" ( pehv from pehv haw_ "beeswax", tu- from tu-ve "to light" , pa_the 

male suffix) . The reason for the use of such candles varies from one informant to another 

and according to the rite in question. Bu t there seems to be agreement that candles "please" 

the benevolent supernatural beings, making them more likely to grant boons. 

The beeswax 

is obtained by the Lahu themselves in the mountains. The wicks are made by twisting colton 

wool which, among the Lahu I studied, was purchased from itinerant lowland traders. The 

- ~ oft, easii:Y plia.ble-beeswax is then molded with the fingers around a wick to make.a thin 

candle about 5 or 6 em. long. In use, two or more candles are twisted together for stability .. 

63 . The supports are called yeltv hk11i- daw, cross beams are to.- /a A, walls are g'oA pa,' fiJ·eplace 

is hk'a civ.


4. Kay haw ya~ nyi shawv .meuv ma meuv, shawv viy ma viy chi ve· kay, ya,. pui--: 

ngay tev peuv pa" g'a u- hta..., k'awv peuv ngav u- g'a pa" fui~ leh pov lav 

meh_. 

5. Kay haw yehy ma awv cev, yehy chi tey shi-· yo., law k'o " k'o, ya,. nyi ngay, a-, 

yeh., sub- k'aw,. ta A leh ka., haw chehv sha caw., sha gav leh yeh., mil. awv ce., 

chi haw-:-, dawv sha gay sha gay leh hk'aw., g'ay chi g•av g'av zuh,. sha mui sha 

ga" leh may daw" may hki- gav, mav dawv mav ha- gav, a-:-, a·:-,. cav g'a meuv 

hkui, daw" g'a meuv meh.,, chi bon ti- pa A leh ka lav meh_. 

6. Yeh., chi tev yeh., cheh" g'a yo., law k'o A k'o, chaw ca_ chaw lawv mav g'a, ne" 

ca_ ne" lawv·ma g'a, chi bon pa.A leh k'a lav. 

7. Yeh., nia aw" ce., chi haw-, chehv sha caw., sha, daw" sha ga" sha, ce" hu k'o, 

ce" mvuh av pi.,, ce" hu k'o, cev hk'a A ca., hk'a A av law", chi bon ti-:- pa A leh 

ka laV meh_; yehv chi te"yehy yo.,· law k'o A k'o, zuh .... sha mui sha, sha-! 

TEXT FIVE (A)- TRANSLATION 

1. Oh today,oh this evening, here within the four corners of this house [for which] 

I have once again taken new wood, oh, [to expiate my sin in destroying the life 

of] this wood; this evening, here within the four corners of thi~ house, all-true 

Blesser of the House, 64 I once again light these beautiful beeswax candles made 

by my own hands, I once again light these beeswax candles; oh [to expiate my 

. sin in destroying the life of these] ten kinds, nin,e kinds of woods,6S I light [these 

beeswax candles]; oh you up there, I pray to you one time so you please nine 

times order the cleansing of my sins. 

2. This evening we climb up into this house; today and hereafter may we enjoy good 

health, good sleeping .and good sitting; oh may there be no misfortune to any of 

the people of this household; may we who live in this house enjoy good health; 

this -boon onQe again order upon us. 

3. May there be no misfortune; oh just as these [entwined] candles do ·not separate, 

may liusband and wife not separate, may the children· not separate, may wife and 

husband not separate; this boon alone order upon us. 

64. That is, the house spirit. 

65. "Ten kinds, nine kinds" simply means "many different kinds". The numbers a1e not to be 

taken literally.


4. · Here today I once again pray, so nine times order that we be separated from 

sharp points of wood, from wooden blades . 

.5. Today I climb up into this new house, this house with four comers here; let us 

enjoy good health, let everybody sleep well and sit well; let there be no misfortune; 

oh may our food taste good to our lips; this boon alone. order upon \ts, 

6. May the people who live in this house not be killed by men of evil intent nor by 

malicious spirits;66 this boon order upon us. 

7. Let there be health and happiness within this house; may the hairs of the animals 

· not fall down, may the animals not die;66 this boon alone order upon us; ·may the 

people of this house sleep well and sit well. 

TEXT FIVE (B) : HOUSEHOLD HEAD'S PRAYER 

WHEN· ENTERING HIS NEW HOUSE 

1. o-, o-, ya,. pui- YOv law lev k'o,. k'o, ngav tev.yehv tev k'a ve, yehv suh- ta,. 

ve yov law lev k'o "k'o; a, yehv suh-: chi ta" ve yov law lev k'o "k'o. 

2. Shawv nev ma nev chi yov law lev k'o ". k'o, ya,. pui- pehv tuv tu ve YOv law lev 

k'o" k'o; shawv nev ma nev k'o" k'o, a, tawv leh sub- leh a paSha- ca" ka,.. 

k'aw,.. tawv, k'aw,. sub- leh a e Na bona ca- ka,..; yav duv, a, tev g'av lav cev. 

3. Sub " sub haw " sub tav ve yov law lev k'o " k'o, shawv nev ma nev k'o " k'o, ya,. 

pui- pehv tuv ve yov law lev k'o" k'o, yehv chi yov law lev k'o." k'o, ngav yehv 

suh- ta "ve. 

4. Ya,. nyi tan_ ov k'ai ve yov law lev k'o "k'o, yehv dui" k'a dui ", eh- ho,. ehdui" 

htawv. 

6. Yehv ta ,. k'a ta ,. ve YOv law lev k'o,. k'o, hk'av g'av chi g•av htawy tay ya,. muiv 

·lav, yehv nev chi ka,.. 

7. A, ya,. nyi tan_ ov k'ai ve yov law lev k'o ~ k'o, yeh., suh- chi ta" ve; mav g'a 

dawv ha_ gav hki- leh chehv sha cawv sha hk'o" hta,. ti- cawv lav. 

66. This is the general meaning, according to my informants, of the coupled phrases chaw cav 

· : 'chaw lawv mav t·'a and nev cav nev /awv ma g'a (chaw· "people"; nev "spirits"). I was 

uuabl¢ to obt!'iu a $atisfl'ctQr)' word-br-worl;l analrsi3. ·

192 AnthonyR. Walker 

8. · Ya" du" a ta" g'a" .ce", chi ma ve hta,., ta" g'a" la"; bki,- :kuiv keh~ kui, ta" 

caw. la". 

9. A, yeh. sub·- chi ta A ve yo. law 1e" k'o A k'o, kaov ca" lao ca,. hk'o ~ htaA ti, 

caw. la"; daw" ha_ ga" hki- ta" cawv la". 

10. U( ka. i ka. chi ma ve, te" yeh. te k'a, ya"kaA du. kaA chi ma ve, daw" ha_ 

ga" hki- ta". g'a" la". · 

11. Ya~ nyi tan_ o" k'ai ve yo. law le" k'o A k'o, a, ca" leh a peuv, veuA leh a" peu. 

ti- caw. la" . 

.12. Yeh, suh- k'a suh_- ta Ave yo. law le" k'o A k'o, a paSha- caA kaA, mvuh" nyi 

ce" lev kaA, ha pa cev le" kaA, g'a ceu,. g'a taw" la", cheh" sha caw;,. sha ti- k'aw, 

hpa_ leh ta_ la", o- ! o- ! 

TEXT FIVE (B) - TRANSLATION 

1. Oh, this eve_ning my whole household climbs up into this new house; oh, we climb 

up into this new house. 

2. Spirit of the trees, this evening we light beeswa~ candles; spirit of the trees, 

shield and protect us, and Father Sha- ca" also, shield and protect us once again, 

and Mother Na bona ca also;6'let there be no trouble for the children or .the 

grandchildren. 

3. . This wood is dead, oh spirit of the trees, so I light these beeswax candles [in 

recompense for killing this wood]; I climb up into this my new house. 

4. Today and hereafter, may the sound -of much happy conversation, the s~und -of 

chattering children be heard in this house. 

5. Oh guardian spirit of the house also, do not fight with us; let· there be no trouble 

at this place. 

6. We climb np into this house, spirit of the house; let there be no ·dispute among 

any of the _people I of this house]. 

:. . . . ' 

7. Oh, fro~ today and hereafter, we climb. up into this new house; let there be no 

trouble, let us have only health and prosperity. 

~7. "Father Sha- ca"" (seen .. 56 above). an4 Na bo mq (~e~ n. 55) refer to G'uiv sh(l a~l;l hill 

fem11le coumerpart, AI rna. ·• · . .- .. ·· ..

LAHU NYI (RED LAHU) RI_TES FOR ESTABLISHING A NEW VILLAGE 193 

8; Let ther~ be no misfortune to the children and the grandchildren; let there be no 

trouble at this place. 

9. Olt, we climb up into this new house; let it be only ~hat everyone talks of our 

good fortune; let there be no misfortune. 

'10. 

May the big and the small, all of them, this whole household, have no misfortune. 

11. From today and hereafter, may the food never be exhausted, may the cl?thing 

never be exhausted, this [boon] alone let us have.· 

12. We climb up into this new house; Father Sha- caA also, the solar assistant also, 

the lunar assistant also,68· watch over and protect us; once again create for us 

nothing but health and prosperity, oh! oh! 

TEXT FIVE (C): HOUSEHOLD HEAD'S PRA)'ER 

WHEN ENTERING HIS NEW HOUSE 

1. o-. o-. yehy bon teh rna_ lay yehy ma awv cey ve, yehy bon teh ma_ lav nawv 

choy ka,.; Ia,. meuv pehy ve A hkeh ve A aw_ ve A tanv leh ya,. nyi chov ka,.,.yaA 

nyi nawy hkui haw- Ia,. haw- gav ve. 

2. A-. cev kav cav kay, chaw ka~ lav kay, hpo A hpo A sha A sha A chi rna ve bk'ov 

bta,., nawv hk'a deb,. nyi hk'a deh,. ngehy lay meh_. 

3. Hkui.tav luv, Ia,. tav luv Ia'; a, may g'a dawv hki- kuiv ve, mav g'a dawy ha_ 

kuiy ve, chi bon ti-:- k'awA jiv leh ta_ laV, chi shi- W"leh ta_ lav meh_. 

4. Nyiv tev mo_: tev cuv ve yehv rna chi haw, a, yehv rna awv cev yehv bon teh rna_ 

lav hpawy haw- gay ve, Ia,. meuv pehv've A hkeh ve A k'aw,. ba leh chov ka,. gav 

ve. 

5. Hk'awy g'av chi g'ay, k'o_ haw- k'o cey kay cav kay, chaw kav lav kay chi ma 

ve, hk'a deh,. taw-· hk'a deb,. sub- leh pov Ia v, te y nyi sheh A yan v~ te v hasheh" 

yanv, o-, keoy_o. 

68. Apart from their being "messengers" of G'uiv sha (G'uiv shave tcuh )'Ov), I could learn nothing 

Jl:IO\lt ~11~ solllr ~P4 1\lpar a~sist11.nts.


·,, j. 

TEXT FIVE (C) - TRANSLATION 

1. Oh, oh, guardian spirit of the four c~rners Qf the house, .. you guardian ~,l)irit here 

at this place; tod.ay, here at this place, I off~r to yc;>u_ these beautiful beeswax 

candles ~nd thl~ beautiful ri~e prepared by my ~wn_ hands; today I reach_ under 

your feet and· under your hands.. . . 

2. Oh please carefully watch over all the animals, alJ the p_eople, the p~:operty, all· of 

these~ 

3. Do not wound our feet, do not wound our hands; oh,: may th~re be no misfortune; 

with this boon alone once again cover us, with this boon cover us. · 

4. We people of this household reach to you, oh guardian spirit of this house, and 

we once again ligh~ for you these llea'!ltiful beeswax candles made by o:ur own 

hands. 

5. Three times in one day, three times in one night, carefully prot~ct and shield 

[from all m.isfort~e] every person,· all the animals underneath ·the house, all the 

household mem,b.ers. · 

8. Establishing a New H.aw- Yehv or Village TemJ!Ie 

There is no need to consult the supernatural world when siting a new hmy-. 

yehv or village· temple. Although I was given no 'reason why this should_l?e' so; I 

imagine it has something to do with the pre-eminence of G'uiv sha aniong all supernl!- 

tural entities recognized by these..:Lahu. Since the villAge teq:~.ple is explicitly '·'G'~iv 

s,ha's house", it would be inappropriate to ask a lesser supernatural ~ing, the resident 

locality spirit, for permission to set up this building ... 

The haw- yehv preferably is sited at the head of the village on the uphill side. 

At any rate, informants were agreed that it should never be built at the bOttom of the 

• . r ·. • 

village beca~se, they said, "all bad· and dirty things" :flow down to the bottom of the 

village and the haw- yehv, house of the supreme deity, should never be defiled by 

:-··..,. ···.··.

LAiitJ NYt (RED LAiitJ) RJ1'F;S F'OR Es'l,'A)3r,;lSiiiNG A NEW VILLAG!t 19$ 

locating it in such a place. If his house were thus defiled, it is said, G'uiv sha would 

not listen to the voices of those who pray.to him in this building. 

There is no special day on which a haw- yehv should be built, but again--as 

wh~n constructing a house~-the Lahu avoid tiger and horse day bec~use of their connotations 

of violence; and pig day because of its association with the creation of the world. 

IIi addition some people said that if they were to start building'a hawyeh;_ on pig 

day the earth might tremble-~ that is,it would cause an ear~hquake. (This idea did not· 

enter our discussion of house construction). 

Every household in. the village sends at least one male representative to assist 

with dte building of the te~ple, arid several will serid more· than one. Anybody with 

the requisite skill may prepare th~ furnishings; no persons are either specified for or 

excluded from such tasks. 

Once .. the building and its appurtenances are ready, each household in the 

village sends along a representative, usually female, with rice and vegetable relishes 

(meat is not consumed in the temple), beeswax candles and other offerings. The to bo 

pa_ (senior priest) receives these offerings inside the new building, and the foodstuffs 

are set before "G'uiv sha's throne". The to bo pa_ then affixes beeswax -candles to 

the poles which support the temple, to the walls and to the various ritual furnishings. 

He ·lights the ca~dles (assisted by others if he so requests) and proceeds, in the presence 

of whichever villagers happen to be around, to pray to G'uiv sha, informing the 

supreme being that the new ha"w- yehv has been completed. While he prays~ other 

men play the percussion instruments~-gong, drum. and cymbals--associated with temple 

wor~hlp among th~s~ Lahu Nyi .. Here is. the text of one such prayer by a to bo pa_ 

when d~di~~iini ~- ne~ ha~- y~hv• . . -.. . ... . .. ..

196 

.. 

TEXT SIX: PRIEST'S PR~YER TO G'UI. SHA 

IN NEW TEMPLE 

1 0 - 1 o- 1 H 1 y · h·k' - ·., h' h 1 ha 1 h ., 

. . , . a . a, nyt a ma aw · ce., c 1 ta", . a, s mo., a., mo,. s a 

chi ma \te, ca u- ca ma_ Ia, meuv shawv, bpu, to bo haw- hpu sha" yeh., .k'awA 

. . 

. 2. Hk'a A maw te" ce~ meu"· pta" hawk'aw" sha leh, ha, ca u- ca ma_ Ia" ineuv 

vav hpu haw- hpu sha v yeh., k'aw" ti g'a yo.,. law. 

3. Hk~a" ma aw., ce., chihia", ui., ka., i ka.,, da,w" hpu t~" cl'i." k'aw ... mui.,, ga" hpu 

t~" she" k'aw,. mui.,, ha, k'aw" go", k'aw, sha" leh no" g'~ a pa Jca ti ... kan" pa" 

. hpaw" meu" k'aw" ta_ g'a. . . 

. 4. .A pa ka ti" ka" sheh~ ka g'a sheh_ hpa"', ha, la" meu" hkaw- lu- hkaw- tan" 

chi ma k'aw ... go", k'aw" ta_; k'aw ... sha" Ieh to bo.haw- hpu sha" yeh., hkui ka__, 

k'aw ... ta_ yo., law. 

5. Te" nyi sheh" yan", ha, ui., ka.,i ka., k'aw ... sha" leh no" g'a aw., na a pa ka ti" 

ka" slteh-:-. hpawv meuv k'aw" ta_ g'a. - 

·6. Ha, na-'- pu_ bon pui bon law., ka sheh_ hpav, na'- pu_ shi- pui shi- law., ka 

sheh_ ma, te" nyi sheh" yan:, te" ha~ sheh" yan" k'aw" ca leh ca g•a· hpa_ 

g'a ta_ g'a sheh_ hpa". 

7. -No.,. g'a g'ui., ma a pa ka ti" kan v pa. A ta:_:_ g'a sheh_ hpa"· yo., law k'o ... k'o, ka~ 

haw hk'a ". ma awv ce., clii hta" haw, ha~ hk'a " ma aw" ce., meu" hta,. ha~, ma 

dawv ma" hki-, ma" dawv ma" ha,-, hk'a., g'a" chi g'a" ve yo., law; 'tii., ka., ~fka., 

chi ma, cheh" sha caw., sha, daw., sha ga" sha.

LAlttJ NYl (RitD "LAltU) RlTES FOR. EStABLISHING A NEW VlLLAGE 197 

TEX'f SIX-T~A~SLATION 

I. Oh! Oh! Ha !.Today, within the four oorners ofthis.viliage~ the' ·whole community 

once again plants69 the to bopa_'s haw- yehv'o with this white wood [cut 

. . . . 

with t4e knives and axes fashioned by t~e, village] blacJcsmith's own hands.7 I 

2. At one corner of the village72, we one~ again make offerings, we once again. 

plant the white bamboo hawyeh. [cut with knives fashioned -by the village] 

blacksmith's own hands .. 

· 3. Within the four corners of the village, the big and the small, joined by the same 

pure intention, once again str~tch out their hands73 , once again· make offerings 

and once again put [their prayers and ..their offerings] at the sid~ ~f the all-true, 

the all-powerful Father up there._74 

' 

4. All~true, all-precious Father, we once again stretch out our hands, we once again 

put [our prayers at your side], once again make offerings; we· once agaiti put all 

these offerings made by our own hands here at the foot of the to bo pa_'s hawyeh 

•. 

5. Three times in one day, the big and the small once again make offerings and once 

again put (their offerings] at the side of the all~true, the all-powerful Father up 

there. 

69. Given the necessityto sink the mai~ supports into the ground, tho verb ti ve "to pl!'nt" is in 

this connexion quite appropriate. 

70. The to bo pa_, as senior ritual functionary in a Lahu Nyi village, is primarily responsible for 

the operation of the haw- yehv• 

71. The blacksmith, as the one who makes the farming tools and other implements, is recognized 

as one of the most important members of a Lahu Nyi village community. 

72. A poetic way of saying "here at this place". 

73. Holding lighted beeswax candles· in the outstretched right hand is a customary manner of 

praying among these Lahu. 

74. This .is a reference to G'uiv sha and clearly indicates the· anthropomor_[)hic and paternalistic 

nature of the deity, a concept which long predates the arrival of Christian missionaries amon.g 

some of these people. The Christian converts, naturally enough, have readily identified G'uiv 

slla with the Semitic-derived Christian concept of the deity. But the traditional Lahu concept 

of G'uiv sha includes diffuse, impersonal and also bi-sexual aspects, as well as that made 

explicit in the appellation "all. powerful Father".

198 .Anthony Jt:Walkl'r · ... ~ 

6. Ha I You who hold in your hands eternal merit, three times in one day, three 

times in one night, once again search [for merit to bestow upon us], oh you who 

search for, you who· cr~ate and you who bestow [merit upon us] •. 

. : •• •. • . . • : • . • • - •. ., ; : ~--. c: \:.. 1- • .-; ~ _: 

7_. 

You up there;: the aU.;.true, the all-powerful Divine Father; [t~rant us that] within 

the four corners of th~s village there be no troubled thoughts, (gtilnt that l every 

person, the big and the smal~, may enjoy good health and_-prosperity, untroubled 

thOught~·~ · · · -:: ·' · .. ·· .. · · 

9. Concluding Comment 

···'Against the ethnographic background ofthe Lahu hill people, and particularly 

·of the Lahu Nyi, or Red Lahu, division of this ethnic group, my paper has recor4ed the 

process by, which a Lahu Nyi village community :reJocat~s. · ,. ·. · . . _ 

Since it has been my primary purpose to preserve and ·~:nake available to other 

researchers the texts of prayers related to this process, a quick _review of. these texts 

inay be in order here ... They were : 

I .. to. the locality spirit, requesting permission to use its JlrOperty fo;r ~ new. village 

.• . ' • t .. . 

II. to the guardian spirit of the old village, telling it about the intended move 

III, IV. to the locality spirit, requesting approval for the choice of house site 

v. to the house spirit, inviting it to move into the new house 

... . . . 

VI. to G'lii~ sha, the supreme supernatural being, dedicating the village temple. 

Besides contributing a little to the ethnography of village settlement . in liigh]and 

Southeast· Asia, I hope this paper has also given the reader a sense of the' content and 

style of Lahu Nyi ritual poetry. 

-.. . .......... ·--· ......... :"" ... . 

I shall be glad to hear from anyone who has comments or corrections to offer 

on any of the material (descriptive, interpretive or linguistic) ,which appears. in this 

paper.


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I. Lahu Nyi village 

2. House complex: dwelling (right, back); chicken hut (in front o f dwelling): 

pig sty (right. front); grain pounder (front); granary (left ) 

3. Hou se interior 

.4. H u.,.,·- :t~h . or \'illage temple 

5 . Grain pounder 

G. Chicken hu t

7, A main house support 

~. Preparing hole for house suppo rt 

9. Erecting main house ~upports 

I 0. Laying split bamboo flooring 

II . Thatching roof 

12 . Preparing /eh _ o_ o r spirit guard

1983b 

1984a 

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. WALKER, H.B. 


"Traditional Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) Rites of Sorcery and Counter-Sorcery." 

Journal of Asian and African Studies (Tokyo) 26: . 

"Sh;- Nyi Lon: Great. Merit Days among the Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) of 

North Thailand." Asian Folklore Studies 43 (1): 

Sha- LaA Te Ve : The Building of a Merit Shelter aniong the Lahu Nyi 

(Red Lahu) of the Northern Thai Uplands." Asian Folklore Studies 

(forthcoming) . 

1895 Report on the Keng Tung Keng Cheng Missions for 1893-4. Calcutta: 

Government Printing Office. 

WONGSPRASERT, Snit 

1975 Lahu Agriculture and-Society. M.A. thesis, University of Sydney. 

1977 The Socio-Cultural and Ecological Determinants of Lahu Population 

Structure. Singapore: International Development Research Centre, 

Southeast Asian Population Research Awards Program, Research report 

·No 14. 

YOUNG, Gordon 

1962 The Hill Tribes of Northern "Thailand. Bangkok: The Siam Society. 

(2~d ed.) 

• 

YOUNG, Harold Mason 

s.a. 

[c. 1972] 

To the Mountain Tops: A Sqjourn among the Lahu of Asia. Unpublished 

.Ms., Library of Congress, Washington. 

Young, Vincent 

.sa. G'uiv ShaVe Li A Hpu Awv Suh-: The New Testament in Lahu. (Place 

[c. 1950s] of publication not given; privately published in Taiwan.) 

YOUNG, William Marcus 

1914 '"Shan Mission, Kengtung." The News (Rangoon) 27 (6): 23-4. 

ZIMBALDI, Giovanni 

1977 "Fang: En Mission Chez les Lahous." Feuilles Missionnaires: Bulletin 

trimestriel de Ia mission des PP. de Betharram au Siam (Betharram) 

88: 9-10.

'NOTES 

•·NOTES· ON -ANGKOR WAT. 

-s. SIVARAKSA* 

In March. 198~ I. went :to ·Phnom Penh and -proc•e~ed to Angkor by car. I had 

been, to l?hnom Penh before in 19.72, 1980 and1981, but 1982 was the first ti~e that I 

had ever visited Angkor. I may perhaps claim that I was the first Thai to visit Angkor 

\ 

properly since the break-down of the diplomatic relationship between S~a~ and. Cam~ 

bodia during Sihanouk's period in the 1950s. During Lon Nol's regime,· although the. 

Thai and the Khmer Government~ had go6d diplomatic reiations,. neither could visit 

Angkor, which was unde! the control or' the Khmer1t6uge. · . · 

During Pol Pot's regime,. there were a few flights from. B~ngkok dir~ctly :t~ 

Siamriep' for a brief visit' oi'Angkor, b~t that ~as ciwy for tourists, who only had a 

few hours ~o look a."t-the'anc~cnt ·monument;. · · · · . 

For my part, I took ·a Th~i ~a~eranian with 'me. · We. t~avelled. by car, from 

Phnom Penh, with a chauffeur as well as a Khm~r :interpreter. . It Jook us over 11 

hours to reach Battamban~ wber!' we had to spend our first night before we proceeded 

to Siamriep the next day. At Siamriep we stayed at the Grand Hotel which was· v.ery 

much ruh down .. ·. H~rdJy was there any el~ctiicity and we had to bathe in the klong 

nearby. Yet the Khmer Government charged us as if we were· in a first class hotel. 

·we also had to pay for the car, interpreter, guide etc. It cost me a~d --niy ~a~erai'riari 

a fortune, as· we are not rich Americans or Japanese.:· However,: we· bad the ancient 

monuments to ourselves. We 'spent 'three nights in· Siamriep arid two nights in ·Battambang, 

and we had a good look at many temples in Angkor Wat, Angkor 'fhom and the 

environs, . Of · CPtJrse w~ . tteeded at . least 8.:';week more to do ~justi.Qe tO the.· g~eat 

monuments, yet, sit;lce I felt. so pdvilege~··1 as~ed: ~Y pbqt~grapber ~o take ~io;1~ in 

photographing what I thought to be v~~Y important to us historiially, especi(llly theinscriptions 

at . Ang-k~f Wat on Suriya,vpraman . Il's. tr

Figure 1. The author at Angkor Wat, March 1982. 

Figure 2. 

"Siamese leader" with his troops joining Suriyavaraman II's 

army against the Chams.

Figure 3. 

Detail of "Siamese troops" 

Figure 4. 

Inscription next to the 'Siamese troops' L 1-1:: t'W1 nn 

q

Figure 5. 

Inscription e:J'I-l.n 'i1'lfn1'i!J!J 1!1fl llmu 

. . 

L'lf~ nn~ fl u1 t'1!11 nn 

q 

Figure 6. Inscription 'l'l'i:: n~'iL'il~ 

.. A 

eltJ! ft'i 'lf!JtH 

q.

Figure 7. "'~The author at Angkor in February 1983 

mil nn inscription 

pointing at the L'!.\:: 

which had been destroyed in June 1982. 

I 

Figure 8. 

The author being interviewed by USSR 

television at Angkor Wat, February 

1983, about destruction and conservation 

of the historic monuments.

NOTES 209 

On my return to Bangkok, I had the slides shown to accompany my lectures at 

the Siam Society in. Thai once and in English once. I also had a Thai book published 

(au~~~1fl'J.Lfl'l'1fl lito «. fhinH flnio fhn.J1flo1~flfl nmn\'i flu~'l'iwu11mun·nJU.U,'JLa\io 

• q " 

., .. ~ 

~fl'V-Iil~ 

Vtfl, k~ella~) 

In February 1983, I was again invited to attend a Peace Conference in Phnom 

Penh. Without any expectation, we were all flown to Siamriep one day for a brief 

visit of Angkor Wat. I thought I would enjoy the magnificent monuments again. 

Unfortunately when I inspected the inscriptions on Lu:: L;!Jilflfl, it was badly damaged, 

• 

apparently by wanton gunshots. This time there were three other Thai journalists 

present as well as others. So I made a great fuss and they took my photograph pointing 

at the damage. The Russian television man interviewed me on the spot so I 

. complained bitte.;ly that more care should be given by all concerned in preserving such 

important monuments. 

· On my way home via Hanoi, again I pleaded with the Deputy Vietnamese 

Foreign Minister as well as with the Vice Chairman of the National Committee of 

Social Sciences about better conservation of Angkor. Both agreed with me arid said 

they would pass my concerns to the appropriate authorities in the area. 

Unfortunately what has been lost can never again be replaced. Let us hope 

that other inscriptions will be well preserved for future generations of mankind.

.REVIEWS 

Asian Action 

Newsletter of the Asian Cultural Forum on Developmenf (ACFOD) 

Three bound volumes. 

Vol. I Nos. 1 to 5 (1976) 

Vol. II Nos. 6 to 10 (1977) 

Vol. III Nos.ll to 31 (1978-l981) 

Published.in Bangkok; Thailand 

The Asian Cultural Forum on Development (ACFOD) was organized following 

' 

' 

an initial meeting in· Bangkok in i9p of Asians representing a broa~ spectrum of 

religious and cultural traditions. . Those attending were concerned about the dramatic 

changes taking place in Asia; changes which ~ere too often instigated by the West for 

Western purposes. Those attending wanted to bring insights andperspectives growing 

out of the great traditions of Asia to the problems, needs and aspirations of the peoples 

of this continent.. There was also a concern that there be a forum for the "small 

voices" in addition to the many ~nyolving officialdom. 

The three·.volumes under review contain ACFOD's newsletter Asian Action, 

which has been published since January ~976. After a shaky first year in which monthly 

publication was_attempted,-it is now issued regularly six times,~! year. 

Each issue focuses on one main theme. These vary widely; eg. Issue number 

7 (1977) has several articl~s on "Asian Rural Drama" while Issue No. 25 (1978-81) 

deals with the nuclear threat to the peoples and countries of the Pacific. 

Many of the 

issues feature the development needs and pr;oblems of a single country. Other issues 

highlight critical c_oncerns with illustrations from several countries. Issue No. 16 

focuses on "modernization" as experienced in Japan and South Korea. Another 

example is the examination of the "crisis in fishing" (Issue No. 12) as seen in Malaysia 

and the Philippines. 

Western readers will find reading Asian Action a helpful supplement as well as 

corrective to articles on development more widely available in Europe and North 

America. Asian voices speak to areas of concern in the development" process which 

may not occur to Western experts. People participation is stressed as of paramount 

importance. Appropriate technology rather than Western "High-Tech" is encouraged 

as it is seen as more likely benefitting the lower economic levels. Advanced technology 

is _shown to benefit the rich with few advantages for the poor. 

210

.REVI~WS · 

Development aid using European or North American models has not always 

been appropriate ~o Asian needs. In agriculture, the farmer is told by the expert that 

by changing to a new and better type of grain, " ... his life w~ll be different; he will 

become more independent and free." 

So this wonder crop which promises "higher yields in shorter 

time' is planted. This plant i~ unlike the natura[ slow yielding variety .. 

It is made in· the laboratory and is very ·susceptible to disease and 

adverse conditions. Unlike the former natural grain which takes a 

longer time to grow, the new plant bas to be fed with fertilizer and 

chemicals to protect it from disease. This is all very ~ew ap.d strange 

to the traditional farmer who therefore has to rely on experts to teach 

him what to do. The former plant bad a resilience of its own and 

could grow on ordinary ground both nurtured and tilled by his ancestors 

before him. The new modern techniques .. cost a lot of m~ney 

which he has to pay for. So fertilizers hav.e to be pumped into the 

ground and pesticides.sprayed on ~he growing plant if it is to produce 

at all. (No. 14, p. 57-58) · · ·' 

Asian readers should welcome Asian .Ac;tion as. it speaks to their concerns from 

their point of view. It provides. a corrective to some of the .Asian government" and 

"big business" voices which so often dominate d~velopment issues. "Too t:Quch of 

. the planning and.moti~ationalme~h~nisins ~rein the ha~~ of technocratswhose own 

education has de-conditioned them from being able to integrate their skills and ideas 

with locally felt neecls and aspirations." (Issue No.3, p. 2). Asians- will also be 

helped to become more aware of their kinship with the entire region rather than only 

the problems and needs of their own particular country or culture. 

Some readers may find the changes·in prititirig and format from .. issue to issue 

disturbing. This reflects the arrangement of having some ·issues edited and published' in 

different places around the region. Mor~· recent issues have overcome·this; 

ACFOD itself is a:waie of the liqlitations ·which the: u~e of. English places on 

• 1 I .. . . . . · ·. 

Asian Action. The "small people" which ACFOD seeks to reach are almost by definition 

the less formally educated and therefore less likely to be able to read English. 

The expense may make it impossible to publish in local languages as well a:s English~ 

ACFOD sho~ld be commended on the publicati,on of. Asian. Action. It is well 

worth reading by all interested in dev~lopment i~ A~ia. . .. . . . 

American Friends Service Committee, 

Bangkok 

· · : :surcailwallader

Douglas R. Webster, ed., The Southeast Asian Environment (University of Ottawa 

Press, Ottawa, 1983). 

The book is comprised essentially of selections from the Proceedings of the 

Annual Conference of the Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies, held at the 

Faculty of Environmental Design, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada, November 

·13 to 15; 1981. As such, what has been included and excluded are not likely to please 

everyone.- For one thing, it is difficult to decide what should be discussed under the 

heading "Southeast Asian Environment". One suspects that the choice of that 

conference theme itself stemmed from the expediency of budget policies between the 

Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies and the Faculty of Environmental Design 

of the University of Calgary. 

On the overall organization of the book, there are altogether six "chapters" 

including (1) the Physical Environment in Southeast Asia (2) Evaluation of Development 

Projects in Southeast Asia (3) the Macro Economy of Southeast Asia (4) 

Leadership and Government in Southeast Asia (5) Southeast Asia and Canada and (6) 

China and Southeast Asia. Each of these so-called "chapters"· are further divided 

into papers. The reader is treated to a total of fifteen papers covering widely different 

subjects which have been loosely grouped together under very general chapters. There 

is a useful preface which gives a brief summary of the highlights of each chapter. 

The first paper provides a very scholarly as well as interesting analysis of land 

tenure arrangements in Java during 1867-1869. Although the non-specialist is not 

likely to have heard of the Meitzen-Weber hypothesis, the former may still profit from 

this stimulating and lucidly written paper. 

.. . . . However, the papers are of uneven quality. . The Political Uses of Urban 

Design :. The Jakarta Example by Trevor Boddy does not seem to be saying anything 

new. A very similar theme has been treated by Benedict R.O.G. Anderson in a more 

mast~rful manner in "Cartoons and Monuments : The Evolution of Political Communication 

Under the New Order" in Political Power and Communications in Indonesia 

edited by Karl D. Jackson (1978). The next paper is also not very impressive. Shlomo 

Angel's paper gives a fairly brief and lucid introduction, for the general reader, to the 

urban squatter phenomena. The discussion is pegged at a very high level of generality 

and the author apparently feels under no constraint to confine. himself to Soutltea;'t 

Asia. 

I am not competent to c.omment on Helen Legendre's paper the Bas Reliefs of 

the Temple of Angkor Wat and the Royal Project of a Temporal Renewal. 

212

REV.IEWS 213 

Sulak Siv.ar.aksa seems to have be~n given the responsibility of deli'Vering the 

key-note address of the conference in. the allocation of topics. His paper "Southeast 

Asia and the Environment" comes closest in scope to the purported theme of the conference. 

Apart fro1n the radicai· tone, the· paper has a tendency to· present a simpiistic 

perspective, idealize and romanticize the past as well· as make careless assertions eg, 

the suggestion that there is a build-lip of foreign military bases in Southeast Asia. 

One would think that there has been a scaling down after 1975.- However,.in spite of 

the above reservations, my sympathies lie ·with· Sulak. ·Fot as G.K. Chesterton once 

remarked, "It is better to speak wisdom foolishly like the Saints than to speak folly . 

wisely like the Demons". Sulak's general point that the quality of the Southeast 

Asian environment is deteriorating is well taken. Unless deterioration is arrested the 

future of Southeast Asian societie.s may be calamitous. 

After ADgel's paper, De Konick's in-Chapter II on "Work, Space and Power in 

the Rice Fields .of l{edah: Reflections on the :~ispossession of the. Territory" provides 

much more satisfying·reading due to its more focussed approach .. The next paper by 

Voss on "Market Penetration and Class Differentiation in Northern Luzon: the Implications 

of a Development Project Which Failed" is also interesting and falls within the 

tradition which tends to identify the knave in rural society as the capitalist-landlordmerchant-cum-middleman 

class. This perspective may be more true of the Philippines 

than of other countries in the region. In Thailand, official oppression is resented more 

keenly by the rural population than capitalist middleman exploitation. 

Donald Crone's paper on "Mobilization and Transnational Associations in 

ASEAN" is dry, boring, unanalytical and reads like an organizational directory. One 

suspects that it is not so much the author's fault as the fact that there are not many 

significant things to say about the topic. ASEAN as an economic network "exists" 

largely because there· has been so many ASEAN meetings; beyond that ASEAN does 

not quite "exist". 

Ozay Mehmet examines Malaysia's employment re-structuring policies in the 

Fourth Malaysia Plan (1980-1985). One may add that this preoccupation with employment 

restructuring is unique to the development of Malaysia. One does not run across 

this component in the Development plans of Thailand,' Indonesia, Philippines and 

Singapore. However, the author notes that the objectives and targets of the plan are 

based on projections from the high growth period of the seventies. As such the author 

suggests that these targets are unrealistic in view of the current world recession and, if 

pushed, may lead to communal violence.

214 J e.lf rey Sng 

David Wurfel notes, jn· a very interesting paper, that if we compare the 

Philippines wi~h Thailand a~d Malaysia, eCQnomic growth has b~en the slowest for the 

former in both the 60s and the 70s. Eve!l though the Philippines is the most indus-· 

trialized of the three countries, growth .in manufacturing has been the poorest too. 

However, the author suggests that economic performance is less likely to provide a 

basis for legitimacy in the Philippines than in Thailand or Malaysia. 

I 

Chapter v_ on Southest Asia and . Canada is likely to be more interesting to 

Canadians than to Southeast Asians and, among Canadians, to officials more than the 

general intellectual public. . The final chapter on China and Southeast Asia is potentially 

more interesting to Southeast Asian intellectuals and officials than .Canadians, 

although Kwok B. Chan's paper seems to have been written more for Canadian 

consumption since Southeast Asians won't find anything new in the paper. He Zhao 

Fa's paper on the state of Southeast Asian Studies in.China is informative. However, 

one should note that Chinese academies are probably among the least knowledgeable . 

about Southeast Asia. The Chinese political leadership has access·to more reliable and 

intimate information from overseas Chinese occupying strategic positions in the social 

and economic fabric of Southeast Asian countries. 

Singapore 

· . Jeffrey S11g 

. i. 

· .. !' 

~. :. ' . .' . ' 

0 ~ •' : : M

0 •••••• 

\ 

Satya Vrat Shastri, Thaidesavilasim (Delhi, Eastern Book Linkers, 1979), 75 + XVIIl 

pp., illus. 

The Thaidesaviliisam, a poetic description of Thailand, is composed in Sanskrit 

by Satya Vrat Shastri. The title of the work may be rendered into English as "the 

Beauty of Thailand''. The 121 verses cover various aspects of Thailand, such as interesting 

places for visitors~ culture, religion etc. Although the writer had not been in 

Thailand long, with his poetic mind he could give a beautiful portrait of Thailand. 

Following the Sanskrit verses is the Thai translation given by Her Royal 

Highness Princess Mahachakri Devaratanarajasuda and Mr. Prapod Assavavirulhakam. 

The English translation is also provided by the writer himself. 

In the opening verse, the writer names Thailand as "a highly. charming country 

of great fame" and "the foremost. among the countries of the Southeast Asia". Places 

that attract visitors are enumerated with beautif~l descriptions. In Bangkok and its 

vicinities, those places are the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the Grand Palace, the 

snake farm at the Sawapha Centre, the floating markets; the crocodile farm and the 

Samphran Rose Garden. As regards the City of Ayutthaya, the writer describes the 

Mongkhol Bophit Monastery, the Cedi of· Queen Suriyothai, the Phukhaothong Cedi, 

the Candrakasem Palace and the Bang Pa-In Palace. For Chieng Mai, 12 verses are 

given to include the-descriptions of the Phuphing Palace, the Holy Relic at Doi Suthep, 

the handicraft of umbrella and the beauty of Thai women. . The pictures of the famous 

resorts in Thailand, Phatthaya and Phuket, are also presented. 

The writer bas shown his ·keen· interest in Thai history by inserting some 

historical_ anec~otes and legends in ·his descriptions of historical sites such as the Cedi 

of Queen Suriyothai, the Bang Pa-In Palace. However, as already pointed out by the 

translators of the Thai version, there are some minor mistakes due to misinformation. 

For instance, in verst}s 88-89, King_Naresuan, instead of Ki~g Boromakote, is said to 

have built the outer shell of the Phukhaothong Cedi over: its original structure. 

The writer certainly is impressed by the interest of the Thai people in the 

Ramayana. The King, who is considered to be the representative of Rama on earth, 

joins the word Rama to his name. He conducts himself iike Rama and rules over his 

subjects like Rama (verse 10). A number of verses are devoted to the greatness of the 

kings who had made the story of Rama renowned in this land .. King Raina I, who 

was a devotee of Rama, composed the Thai version of Ramayana (verses 34-36). He· 

had a learned son, King Rania II, who also recounted the story of Rama in his own 

words (verses 37-38). I_n his dynasty was born King Rama VI who also narrated the 

Rama story (verses 39-42). 

215 

' 0 HO\ 00: •,-

216 Kusuma Raksamani ·. 

The writer's ingenious use of word can be seen in verse 43 where King Chulalongkorn 

(~W1fl~mm) is said to be the head ornament (~W1t1.1nn1b of the foremost 

~ ~ ' 

among the learned.. Again, in verse 44; the writer states that King Mongkut (&~~ni)) 

founded a university that is a crown (&~niJ) of universities. 

-~ 

Moreover, figures of 

~ ~ 

speech are used throughout the work. In his praise of H.R.H. Princess Mahachakri 

Devaratanarajasuda, the writer compares her sharp mind to the point of the blade of 

sacrificial grass "Kusa" (verse 50). The people who were heading to Sanam Luang on 

the King's 50t-h Birthday are compared to the waters of the rivers ru5hing to the ocean 

(verse 58). 

The jewelry shops are so beautified that one may have an-exquisite feeling 

that the oceans (1.,fl1-l1nt "mine ofjewels") are now left with water only since all the 

jewels have been taken away (verse 14). Nang In, the lady who is believed to enchant 

King Ekathasarot, is described as a moon-faced lady (i'Wn1il'llt'1111;, verse 95). 

- - ~ 

In presenting the Thai names in Sanskrit verse, the writer- states that he has 

tried to follow the Thai pronunciation even of such words as can be said to have 

Sanskritic origin. , He bas resist~d the tendency, so common among the Sanskritists of 

today, to sansk!-"itize them, to make them look Sanskrit (p. xvii). Accordingly, instead 

of "Ekadasaratha" he uses "Ekathasarot" which. sounds familiar to the Thais. However, 

it might be noted here that the writer, who might be misled by the inconsistency 

of the Thai transliteration, differentiates the sound of /VI/ from that of In/. - He uses 

Sanskrit /ph/ for In/ but /p/ for /VI/, such as in Phuke~ (~Lnlll, verse 104), Phupiti 

(~fi,~. verse ,107), Pattaya (WfiU1, verse 100). - Actually, the Thai /VI/. is pronounced 

exactly the same as In/. Both are aspirated and voiceless, equivalent to Sanskrit /ph/. 

The Sanskrit /p/, that is used in Phupin, as well as in Pattaya, is unaspirated. Strictly 

speaking, it should stand for the Thai hJ/ rather than /VI/. In order to follow the Thai 

pronunciation, nri~~ should be given in Sanskrit as Phiiphin and vi'nu1 as Phattaya (or 

closer to the Thai " pronunciation is Phattbaya). - 

Nevertheless, after having' finished the Thaidesaviliisam, one must agree with 

Professo~ Visudh Busyakul who states in his introduction to the work that it is the 

work of a true poet, who has an alert mind, sharp eyes and keen ears for whatever be 

has come across (p. vii). 

Faculty of Arts, 

Silpakorn University 

Kusuma Raksamani

'H1=:U1B~111U11tffiU 

v

218 Karuna Kusalasaya 

"Khamen Sai Yoke", a widely-sung classic song composed by him more than eighty 

years ago, is even today on the lips of every lover of Thai music. 

"Notes on Miscellaneous Knowledge" is an enormous collection of correspondence 

exchanged between this artist-cum-scholar prince and another celebrat~d savant 

of Thailand, Phya Anuman Rajadhon who, like the Prince himself, lived till the very 

ripe old age of 81, and about whom, while still alive, the Cornell Research Centre 

described as .. ethnologist, historian, literateur,. he is one of Thailand's most versatile 

and accomplished scholars." 

The name of Phya Anuman Rajadhon certainly cannot be separated from the 

study of any aspect of cultural Thailand. Till his very death on July 1, 1969, Phya 

Anuman Rajadhon (born on December 14, 1888) was, so to say, the "Resource Person" 

for Thais as well as foreigners who cared to know anything about Thai culture, arts, 

language, literature, .etc., etc. Even today, almost fifteen years after his passing, his 

writings on the above subjects are eagerly read and sought after. Indeed, on the second 

day after his demise, Suthichai Y oon, that veteran Thai journalist, in a tribute to him, 

wrote .. the famed scholar was one of the few Thais whose knowledge of literature, 

history and arts could hardly be challenged ..·.• He left behind a gulf which the present 

genera.tion will find hard to fill." (Bangkok Post, July 2, 1969) 

Now, as to how these .. Notes on Miscellaneous Knowledge" came into being, 

Phya Anuman Rajadhon himself wrote in his foreword to the first volume that, while 

serving in the Fine Arts Department in 1936, he felt the need of broadening his knowledge, 

especially on cultural topics relating to Thailand. Apart from books available 

in the National Library, he could find no source of assistance anywhere else. Luckily, 

circumstances had then enabled him to make his plight known to H.R.H. Prince 

Narisranuvadtiwongse who, on learning of his need, magnanimously permitted him to 

put questions in writing to which the Prince would respond likewise. Thus began the 

long and valuable correspondence between the two giants of cultural Thailand which 

lasted for about eight years, i.e. from 1936 to 1943 . 

.. Realising the priceless worth of these notes on cultural Thailand and their 

value for posterity, I had managed to keep them with great care for well-nigh twenty 

years. Even during the Second World War when conditions in the country were 

chaotic, these personal hand-writings of the Prince were preserved by me with the 

utmost attention", related Phya Anuman Rajadhon iti his fc:>reword to the first volume. 

"I dare say that those who care to read these "Notes on Miscellaneous Knowledge'~ 

will derive from them not only wisdo~ but also pleasure and satisfaction 

simultaneously. Even in terms of literary style and elegance, these writings are 

matchless and worthy of emulation" 1 asserted Ph1a AnJ,Jman Rajadhop in tbe forewqrd 

afore-mentioned. '·~ .

kEVlEWS 2..19 

To sum up, these five volumes of "Notes on Miscellaneous Knowledge" are 

indeed a •must' for all those who desire to dive into the sea of cultural Thailand. As 

for libraries anywhere which are interested in the culture of Thailand, the reviewer can 

only say that this series is well worth acquiring. 

Neatly printed on bond paper and durably bound, all the five· volumes are 

supplemented by indexes for specific terms, personal names and publications referred 

to. In addition, the fifth which is the last volume also gives indexes for specific ierms 

and personal names as occurred in the entire set. 

Karuna Kusalasaya

M.C. Subhadradis Disku1, ed., the Art of Srlvijaya (Paris: ~NESCO; Kuala Lumpur : 

· Oxford ·University Press, 1980), pp. xiii, 68 . 

. Carol Stratton and Miriam McNair Scott~ The Art of Sukhothai : Thailand's Golden 

Age.(Kuala Lumpur: .Oxford University Press, 1981),.pp. xxxiv,.l63. 

In both The Art of Srivijaya and The Art of Sukhothai ~he authors have 

p~ovid~ ooncis~ s.tu~ies .Qf compte~ ~nd still far-from-understood subjects which less 

jptr~pid· scholars wo.uld :.not have attempted .. Both editor-in-chief M.C. Subha~adis 

Diskul and co-authors Stratton and Scott .are· to be commended for making availablQ 

compendiums of information, derived from both primary and secondary sources, otherwise 

unavailable in single volumes. If the rich and important field of Southeast Asian 

art history is· to receive the wide public and scholarly attention it deserves, then it will 

be necessary for some time to publish books such as these, prior to the times when 

definitive answers may be found. 

M.C. Subhadradis Diskul is especially to be thanked for his thoughtful and 

cautious approach to the difficult subject of Srivijaya. Characterized_ by Dr. Piriya 

Krairiksh as "a~ empire without a geography and an art history in search of a style,"l 

Srivijaya poses many problems, not only of interpretation, but of simple definition. 

As understood in the wake of recent research,2 Srivijaya was a thalassocracy 

which appears to have dominated maritime commerce in Southeast Asia from the seventh 

to the eleventh centuries. Having emerged from the states competing for trade 

routes between India and China, it was composed of ·a number of seaports which served 

as both entrepots and suppliers of commercial goods. Inscriptional evidence points to 

Palembang in southeast Sumatra as Srlvijaya's political center, an important seaport 

which appears to have expanded to include vassal regions and a wide range of subordinates 

with varying degrees of political autonomy throughout the "southern seas." 

I 

Although the Kra Isthmus in Peninsular Siam had provided sites essential to the 

India-China trade as early as the third century, it has been suggested that by the time 

Srlvijaya had emerged, ports in this area were of secondary importance and only 

loosely connected with Srivijaya rule. 

1. Piriya Krairiksh, Art Styles in Thailand (Bangkok: Department of Fine Arts, 1977), p. 45. 

2. See especially Kenneth R. Hall, "State and Statecraft in Early Srivijaya" and Kenneth R. Hall 

and John K. Whitmore, "Southeast Asian Trade and the Isthmian Struggle, 1000-1200 A.D." 

In Explorations in Early Southeast Asian History: The Origins of Southeast Asian Statecraft. 

Michigan Papers on South and Southeast Asia, no. ll (Ann Arbor, Center for South and 

Southeast Asian Studies, 1976), pp. 61-105; 303-40. 

220

REVIEWS· 221 

In view of Srivijaya's loosely knit political control and the wide expanse of its 

territories, it is necessary to ask,. as Dr. Krairiksh and others have done; whether 

it is legitimate to apply the· term "Srivijaya" t-o any of the. variety of art styles 

that have been found in these territories.3 

Especially worrisome concerning this 

categorization is that a major group of Peninsular sculpture; generally considered to. 

constitute the most unified style associated with Sdvijaya, does' in fact bear the closest 

stylistic connections with the art of Central Ja~a- not under Srivijaya, but Sailendra, 

domination. Dr. Krairiksh's..label of "Indo-Javanese" for this important group of 

sculpture4 seems more appropriate than "Srivijayan;" and in chapters 1 and 3 of the 

M.C. Subhadradis Diskul book, Satyawati Suleiman, Syed Ahmad bin Jamal, and 

Othman bin Mohd Yatim reasonably suggest "Sailendra." 

But it is to M.C .. Subliadradis Diskul's credit that he presents no single view of 

grivijaya~ Concentrating on Srivijaya as an area and a period· with which numerous 

art styles can be associated, ·he emphasizes the complexities and problems of both 

history and art which must be confronted before an understanding of either can be 

attained. In delineating some of the farther boundaries of empire and archaeological 

finds, the dynamics of cultural and artistic change-rather than the narrower field of 

"style'' per se- is·· explored~ 

Because. of. the . diversity of both empire and art, the term "Srivijaya" is 

probably unacceptable as stylistic terminology. But given the many unknowns of 

history and the uncertain dates and provenance of most related art objects, a gathering 

together of pertinent data such as M.C. Subhadradis Diskul bas presented here :Places 

problems in perspective and provides an overview which readers interested in SoutJieast 

Asian art qan only welcome. M.C. Subhadradis Diskul's_ approach avoids Dr. Krairiksh's 

uncritic~l view that Peninsular Siam was Srivijaya's political hub ("there might 

have been another Srivijaya kingdom flourishing in south Sumatra at about the ·same 

time")S a conclu~ion based primarily, it appears, on the prevalence of art finds rather 

than on historical research. 

The Art of Srivijaya is divided into four chapters, each by a different author, 

or authors. Chapter 1, by Satyawati Suleiman, outlines major primary and secondary 

sources dealing with Srivijaya hi:'story and-notes discrepancies and controversies. The 

art of Srivijaya is defined here as the art of Sumatra, and it is suggested that the lack 

3. Piriya Krairiksh, Art Styles in Thailand, pp. 44-7. 

4. "Piriya Krairiksh, A~t-in Peninsular Thailand Prior to the Fourteenth Century A.D. (Bangkok, The 

Fine Arts Department, n.d.). pp. 4-5. 

s. Ibid.; p. n.

222 hetty Gosling 

of archaeological remains at Palembang is due to the use of wood, for which the shipbuilders 

of the maritime empire would have had a special aptitude. Specific sculptural 

wor~s and archaeological sites are discussed, styles are related to those of neighboring 

areas, and the problem of importation versus local production is discussed. 

. . 

In chapter 2, M.C. Subhadradis Diskul_ describes with his usual precision· and 

elegance a number of works from Peninsular Siam. Significant artistic details are discussed, 

possible Javanese, Indian, and Khmer prototypes are considered, and tentative 

dates are suggested. Although M.C. Subhadradis Diskt~l acknowledges that sometimes 

his dates are highly subjective, in the absence of inscriptional evidence and established 

chronologies, his suggestions are welcomed as knowledgeable hypotheses. 

Chapter 3, by Syed Ahmad bin Jamal and Othman bin Mohd Yatim, considers 

architecture and sculpture in peninsular Malaysia, and chapter 4, by Juan R. Francisco, 

discusses briefly the questionable possibility of Sri:vijaya art in the Philippines. It is . 

disappointing that "because of the lack of time and the impossibility of local study," it 

was not possible to_ include chapters on possible Srivijayan influence in Cambodia, 

Champa, Vietnam, and Yunnan. The inclusion of eighth-and ninth- century Mahayana 

sculpture from central Thailand would have rounded out the picture nicely. 

The Art of Srivijaya includes nearly one hundred photographs illustrating 

works of art discussed by the various authors. There are also five sketch-maps 

showing locations of archaeological sites in Sumatra, Thailand, and Malaysia, and there 

is a short bibliography. Given the editor's reasonable hopes that the book might lead 

of further research, it is puzzling that specific references are not cited. One wishes 

also for illustrations that have not been included for some of the works disc~ssed in 

detail in the text. 

But, all in all, The Art of Srivijaya is a good introduction to a cgmplex and 

controversial subject and a challenge to search for answers. Carol Stratton and Miriam 

McNair Scott, in The Art of Sukhothai: Thailand's Golden Age, also provide a survey 

of a still much-debated subject. But here, in contrast to M.C. Subhadradis Diskul's 

inquiring approach, the authors have opted for an unequivocal non-critical presentation 

that suggests a finality to conclusions that are still in need of confirmation. 

In order to understand the contents of The Art of Sukhothai it is necessary to 

know something of previous works on. the subject. Before Mr. A.B. Griswold's 

Towards a History of Sukhothai Art was published by the Fine Arts Department in 

1967, little was known of Sukhothai's art and history. Mr. Griswold m~de available 

many new and exciting concepts, without which further studies in the English language 

would probably not have appeared for some time. The word towards in the title is 

significant. Since the publication of this important work, new inscriptional and

REVIEWS 223 

archaeological data have become available. But perhaps because of Mr. Griswold's 

expertise, his eminent knowledge, and his highly respected reputation in the field of 

Southeast Asian art and culture, many of his early opinions have continued to be 

repeated without qualification or critical analysis. (Also, as is inevitable in such cases, 

it seems, some of Mr. Griswold's opinions just as vigorously have been attacked.) 

Authors Stratton and Scott, in relating, generally, the most familiar and oftrepeated 

views- well-known secondary sources and primary sources as interpreted by 

other writers- provide a palatable survey of Sukhothai art and history for those readers 

who do not want to be troubled by controversial issues. For those who do not much 

care about the extent of Ram Khamhaeng's kingdom in the late thirteenth century, the 

most recent identification of his monuments, the matter of Sukhothai-Chinese relations, 

and the probable dates of pottery production (and a certain amount of dedication and 

perseverance is required to wade through discussion of these matters), then this book is 

the best available. Many of the arguments and theories that must be taken into 

account if a true picture of the Sukhothai period is to be attained have appeared in 

recent issues of the JSS.6 

The Art of Sukhothai includes chapters on history, architecture, sculpture, 

painting and drawing, and ceramics. Works from Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet 

are inCluded. All sources are carefully cited, and the text is well-organized and 

clearly written. There are well over one hundred color and black-and-white photographs 

that illustrate many (but not all) of the works under consideration, and there is 

a glossary for readers unfamiliar with art terminology and Asian culture. 

The authors are at their best when they venture somewhat off the beaten track 

and express some new ideas of their own. The visual similarity between Sukhothai's 

"lotus-bud" dome and similar architectural elements at Pagan is worth a follow-up; and 

their attempts to distinguish prototypes for Sukhothai's renowned "walking Buddha" 

figures are reasonable. 

It is hoped that the authors, in their future books (the entire art history of 

Thailand is projected), will bring more of their expertise as art historians into play. A 

more judicious and critical approach, combined with their obvious enthusiasm and 

dedication, should result in some books on Thai art well worth waiting for. 

Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, 

University of Michigan 

Betty Gosling 

6. See, for instance, Michael Vickery, "A Guide through Some Recent Sukhothai Historiography," 

JSS 66.2 (1978): 182-246; Hiram W. Woodward, Jr., "The Dating of Sukhothai and Sawankhalok 

Ceramics: Some Considerations," JSS 66.1 (1978): 1-7; Betty Goslin~, "OP.c~ More 1 

J11scriptioP. ~:An 1\rt Histori~n's V~ew 1 " ISS ~9.l-~ (1981): P-4?.

'VH:l'U1'UOUJ 

. . 

. 

cv cv ~ 

ulJ1U1'1iUfUCVIfiE.lafi1'U W.rt'. lmctlsact (Thai Dictionary, The Royal 

Institute 1982) (Aksorn Chareon Dasna Press, Bangkok) 

Three Presidents of the Siam Society were involved directly with the compilation 

of Thai dictionaries. In 1927, H.H. Prince Dhani Nivat, in his capacity as Minister 

of Public Instruction, had the first official Thai dictionary published (tln1'Un13J 'il.tlll 

• 

n1::'YI11.11r111Jn11) and the Royal Siamese Government decreed that all official documents 

and correspondence must adhere to the spelling prescribed in this dictionary, unless 

special permission was granted by H.M. the King. This dictionary was the model for 

G.B. McFarland's Thai-English Dictionary first published in the USA in 1944, which 

inspired Mary Haas's dictionary later on. 

After the coup d'etat of 1932, it was decided that a new dictionary was needed 

aJ!.d Prince W~n Waithayakorn, then a special lecturer in Siamese language and literature 

at Chulalongkorn University, was appointed Chairman of the committee to revise 

the official dictionary which the Committee thought was not quite properly a dictionary, 

but only a compilation of glosses, hence the title ti'Y11'Un13J. The committee's existence 

• 

coincided with the creation of the Royal Institute in 1934 which replaced the old Royal 

Academy under the presidency of HRH Prince Damrong Rajanubhab. Since the new 

Royal Institute had Prince Wan as President, it was natural that the Dictionary 

Committee, under th,e same chairmanship, was transferred from the Ministry to the 

new Institute. 

The Committee consisted of leading scholars in Siamese, Pali, Sanskrit and 

Khmer languages as well as those well versed in royal ceremonies, old palatine laws 

and Brahmanic .customs. Besides Committee members also consulted lea:rned persons 

outside the official circle, like HRH Prince Narisara Nuvativamsa and senior monks as 

well as those who knew Malay, Burmese etc. They debated on each word carefully. 

They also had to set up a sub-committee to coin new words for official usage. When 

Prince Wan was appointed Ambassador to the USA in 1947, Phya Anuman Rajadhon, 

Acting President of the Royal Institute, succeeded him as Chairman of the Dictionary 

Committee. 

It took the Committee 18 years to complete the revision work before they were 

satisfied to call the new publication 'Vi'il'U1U.n13J (Dictionary) which was published in 1950 

. ' . 

-the coronation year. Hence it was dedicated to His Majesty the King, and the government 

decreed that all official documents and correspondence must be written according 

to the spellin~ in the dictionary.

REVIEWS 225 

The GovernmeQt then was under the Premiership of Field Marshal Pibul 

Songgram, who had, during the Second World War, set up yet another committee to 

reform the Thai alphabet and ordered the Thai public to write and speak in this 

simplified Thai language, but that reformed language had a shqrt life as it went out of 

public favour as soon as his government was replaced by the Khuang Abhaiwongse 

cabinet, which gave the people free choice as to the usage of language, dressing custom, 

eating habit and the like, which had been much restricted by the earlier Pibul regime. 

The official dictionary of 1950 was much praised, with little criticism, as it 

consistecJ of sensible suggestions and liberal guidelines. In dealing with Buddhist 

terminology for example one is free to use simplified forms or stick to the full Pali or 

ecclesiastical spellings e.g. 1u~nL1 

or 1uftft'J.L1 •. Besides, one can use either Pali or 

Sal:lskrit forms as one pleases e.g. uu~ or !J'UqJ;_ One only has to be consistent. What 

we missed in the 1950 edition, as compared with the 1927 one, was that we had to look 

up a lot of Pali and Sanskrit words as well as common proper nouns in other reference 

books. · 

The Committee realized its shortcomings as soon as the Dictionary was 

published. HeQce the Royal Institute started a Thai Encyclopaedia Committee soon 

afterwards to deal with proper t;~ouns. The first volume of the Thai Encyclopaedia, 

under the chairmanship of Phya Anuman Rajadhon, was published as ft111'Un·nJl'Vlll in 

AI . • 

1955 and QOW it has reached volume 18 up to the word 'IJ~. Unfortunately its scholarly 

quality has deteriorated with each volume since 1970. 

The old Dictionary Committee also carried on its work by recruiting new 

members from the younger generation of scholars in various universities, especially 

those in the linguistics departments. They wanted to revise the Dictionary and their 

all1Pition was to make it complete with the history of each word as in the case of the 

renownecl Oxford English Dictionary. While Phya Anuman was still alive, I used to 

call on him at the Royal Institute. Often he was presiding over the Committee 

meetings and I was introduced to some Committee members, like the late Phra Dhammanidesa 

Thuayhan, a distinguished Pali scholar, the late Phra Pativedavisith, an old 

jurist and the present Miss Banjob Bandhumedha, a well-known Thaiologist. I therefore 

expected the new edition of the Dictionary which was published to mark the two 

hundredth anniversary of Bangkok in 1982 to be a superior scholarly work. So when I 

consulted it, I was very much disappointed. In fact it is a cheap dictionary distributed 

by a second-rate commercial publishing house -the first time that a government publication 

has been carried out in such a manner. There is nothing wrong in dealing with 

a private enterprise, but the choice should be better than this. In the preface, by the 

pre~eQ~ :rr~~id~nt of the RoyallQstitute, there is only one line mentionin8 the Com:

226 S. Sivaraksa 

mittee set up to improve the 1950 edition, without mentioning names of those scholars 

who painstakingly met so often to have a complete Thai dictionary of which we could 

all be proud. In fact the 1982 edition seems to be a discontinuation of the 1950 one, as 

it appears that the regime of October 1976 ordered that a new edition of the Dictionary 

was needed, so the 1982 edition was the Royal Institute's effort to fulfil· that Govern 

ment's instructions. Luckily the outcome is not as. bad as what happened to our 

language during the Second World War. If the 1976 Government had last~ u~til 

1982, and if it had the same kind of idiotic ideas as the first Pibul cabinet, as indeed it 

had towardS education and national sec1.1rity - not to. mention foreign relaiions, the 

Dictionary would really be a mockery to the Thai people. As it stands now, it is only 

a mediocre product with hardly any improvement on the 1950 edition, except that 

more 1;110dern words have been recorded. Such a dictionary could have been produced 

by any private publisher. In fact a private firm has even published a better dictionary 

than the one recently produced by the Royal Instiiute, which perhaps is in a declining 

state beyond redemption. · 

We only have to look at the names of those responsible for the 1950 edition 

and compare them with those responsible for the 1982 edition. We would at once 

realize that the former drew all the leading scholars from every walk of life to work on 

the national dictionary, whereas the latter had only official representatives from .a, few 

disciplines of the Institute and its employees. None of these disciplines cover the field 

of linguistics or literature. And the three academicians representing each discipline are 

at best second-rate scholars. Besides, those employees of the Institute, however good 

they are, should only serve and not dominate the scholarly world. Yet in the field of 

Thai languages, now we have many distinguished professors in quite a few universities, · 

not to. mention those who are in command of Sanskrit, Pali, and Khmer. How could 

a royal instit~te function without bringing in leading scholars in those fields. Of course 

the Institute said it had the full collaboration of various government offices and THE 

PEOPLE. Yet it did not name any individual or "institution I 

What co~clusion can one draw from such a dictionary ? Now that the g~vernment 

celebrated in 1983 the Seven Hundredth Anniversary of the Thai alphabet 

invented by King Rama Kamhaeng of Sukhodaya, let 'us wait and see whether the 

Royal Institute will produce any publication to mar~ the occasion, and let us hope that 

it will do a better job than the Dictionary published to mark the two hundredth1ll1nive.t: 

saty of Bangkok in 1982. But without a drastic reorganisation of the Institut~,-it will 

not be in a position to lead the public acadeinically, intellectually, or culturally;· 

. t;•· 

s. SIVARAKSA 

Asian Cultural Forum on Development, 

Banskok

R.uth lnge-Heinze, Tham Kbwan (Singapore University Press) pp. 112 including 

appendices, notes, bibliography, index . 

. "Dr. Heinze has provided us witha detailed and informative analysis of the 

indigenous concept of khwan or life-essence so central to an understanding of Thai 

personality. The author describes the khwan and its attendant ceremonies tracing 

origins through cross-cultural, etymological and linguistic comparisons. She outlines 

the variety of ceremonies associated with containing the life essence (Tham Khwan) and 

delineates the actors involved. Dr. Heinze devotes special attention to ceremonies for 

a one-month old child; for the freshman class at Chiang Mai University; and for a 

young man entering the monkhood and analyzes in depth three basic ritual elements of 

the Tham Khwan ceremony i.e. the auspicious tray (bai si), the waving of the light 

(wien thien) and the tying of the wrists (phuk khwan), 

Dr. Heinze seeks an explanation of the khwan concept through socio-psychological 

analysis. Her approach is basically in the anthropological tradition of the 

functionalists, Malinowski, Radcliff-Brown, and Firth. Malinowski might well have 

been speaking of the khwan concept and its attendant ceremonies when he noted that 

religious ritual "counteracts the centrifugal forces of fear, dismay, demoralization, and 

provides the most powerful means of re-integration of the group's shaken solidarity and 

the re-establishment of morale." Dr. Heinze similarly views the khwan ceremonies as 

therapeutic and socially integrative, as restoring harmony between the individual and 

his phyche; the individual and his society; the individual and the supernational; the 

individual and the universe. While the khwan ceremonies may have certain rites de 

passage elements, they should principally be understood in the context of restoring the 

psychic balance of the individual; strengthening morale and inculcating sense of confidence; 

managing :tensions and anxieties; reaffirming family and group solidarity. Thus, 

in the constant reaffirmation through the Tham Khwan ceremonies wherein one's life 

essence is inexorably tied and bound to one's body, the survival of the individual, of 

the family, of the society is assured. 

The au~hor might have better developed her functional approach if she had 

paid more attention to village ceremonies and undertaken intensive in-depth field 

research at the village level. Her extensive reliance on secondary sources leads to a 

certaP1lack of definition, concentration, depth. This aura of diffusiveness is exacerbated 

by inclusion of often lengthy digressions on Thai cosmology, spirit worship, and 

Buddhist history. Nevertheless, Dr. Heinze's study is valuable in its functional analysis 

of the khwan concept and its attendant ceremonies in social, cultural and psychological 

ZZ?

22s .. : 

\Viiliam J. Klausner 

contexts. Furthermore, Dr. Heinze's study adds a significant dimension to the continuing 

"syncretist debate" as to the extent the differing beliefs of Buddhis111, Brahmanism 

and animism form an integrative pattern or essentially travel independent, though 

· parallel, paths. 

The Singapore University Press is to be complemented for publishing this informative 

scholarly study. 

Dr. Heinze, on her part, deserves praise for her sympathetic, as well as intellectually 

stj.mulating, portrait of the "essence of life''. 

Chulalongkorn University 

William J. Klausner

fi1WW'VI1i~'l:~~ {~'VIfNUWfUU Painted Sculpture on. the Life of the Buddha- Folk 

• • 

Art at Wat Thongnopakun (Matichon Publishing House, Bangkok, 1983) 

This is a beautiful book of folk art created in 1915 by a group of independent 

craftsmen at Ban Chang Lor in Thonburi, which was and still is a community specialized 

in producing Buddhist sculpture. It was the Honorable Mrs. Lom Hemajayati, 

benefactress of Wat Thongnopakun who paid for the series of 90 painted sculpture, 

decorating the Preaching Hail of the Wat, which she helped in its reconstruction. Mrs. 

Lom was a millionairess and a close friend of King Chulalongkorn. 

Last year, the old Preaching Hail was in a declining state beyond repair, so the 

Abbot had it removed and rebuilt on a new site. The painted sculpture was well 

preserved and photographs were taken of them by members of the Thai Inter Religious 

Commission for Development, before they were redecorated at the new Preaching Hail. 

Last year being the Bangkok Bicentennial Anniversary, the Association of 

Siamese Architects decided to ask its Honorary Member, H.R.H. Princess Maha Chakri 

Sirindhorn, to present awards to those who preserved their buildings properly, especiaily 

the buildings with artistic and historical values. Wat Thongnopakun was the only 

temple which received the award for looking after the consecrated Assembly Hall as it 

deserved. 

As a consequence, the Association of Siamese Architects in collaboration with 

the Siam Society asked H.R.H., who is also Vice Patron of the Society, to present the 

Kathina Robes to the temple, which the Princess did on 5th November 1983. 

On this occasion, she also presented the Pha Pa (Forest Robes) to the Abbot 

and raised the Chow Fa (Sky Tassel) of the new Preaching Hall. This book was published 

on that special occasion, with some financial assistance from the descendant of 

the Hon. Mrs. Lom Hemajayati and from the Jim Thompson Foundation. 

The book, however, does not mention who the editor was but it is not difficult 

to guess about this anonymous editor. As the book was produced in a hurry in order 

to present it in time to Her Royal Highness, it is not without major printing errors. 

Let us hope that the Publishing House wiii take its time to present a new edition to the 

public with no printing errors at all. 

Mr. Pong Sengking of Silpakorn University was responsible for the Thai text, 

which he did very well. He traced the uniqueness of this type of folk art from this 

Wat to another at Samudrasongkram province to find out that it was the same benefactress, 

through a monk at Wat Thongnopakun, that a series of 84 pictures were 

executed three years later at the temple of that monk's birthplace. 

229

230 :Phra ~racha Pasannadhamnto 

The English text is ·much shorter and was the responsibility of a few Thai 

scholars who tried their best to present the Thai narration on the life of the Buddha 

written .in the archaic style of the early Bangkok period to the English reading public. 

The photographers and designers of the book should indeed be commended in producing 

a beautiful book for us. 

Had all these people taken their time in producing the book, we . would really 

have a. wonderful gift similar to th~ gift of Dhamma as expressed through the allegorical 

life of the Buddha decorating the Preaching Hall of Wat Thongnopakun. As it is, it 

shows human imperfection, which can be improved. 

Suan Mokh Kao, 

Pumriang, 

Jaiya 

Phra Prticha PasfUIIUitlhammo

. 

Phra Rajavaramuni (Prayudh), Social Dimension of Buddhism in Contemporary 

Thailand (Thai Khadi Research Institute, Thammasat University, 1983), 84 pages 

For the student of Theravada Buddhism, the name of Phra Rajavaramuni, the 

author of this mimeograph, needs no further introduction, for he is one of the Sangha's 

rare intellectually innovative and articulate interpreter of the social dimension and 

application of the Buddhadhamma in modern-day life. However, Phra Rajavaramuni, 

is, asS. Sivaraksa rightly puts it, a very modest person and his writings are generally 

collected and published by his disciples and admirers. 

The preparation of this 

mimeograph is therefore an invaluable contribution to the contemporary academic 

circles. 

The articles were originally written in English and presented at different 

occasions in the early 80's and they were all presented before English-speaking audience . 

. It is a great pity thatthe questions and answers, after presentations, are not recorded. 

I believe that they are of great interest. 

In his first article, "Foundations of Buddhist Social Ethics in Contemporary 

Thailand," the author basically argues that Buddhism is not, as many scholars who 

have written on the subject understood, merely the ethics of the mind. Despite its 

emphasis on the mind, the most complex and profound part of man that makes unique 

human existence, Buddhism teaches that man consists of mind and ·body and states 

flatly that a necessary degree of material and social well-being is a prerequisite for any 

spiritual progress (p. 2). Such misconception and misunderstanding lie, according to 

the author, in th~ fact that scholars and interpretors of Buddhism conceptualize only 

within the confines of the Dhamma ·or the doctrinal portions of Buddhism, but ignore 

the Vinaya or the Disciplinary components of it altogether. "Without taking into 

consideration any one of these two component parts of the Dhamma and the Vinaya, no 

idea of the Buddhist ethics can be complete," argues the author, because the whole 

system of the Buddhist ethics is contained in this concept (i.e. Dhamma-Vinaya). 

Dhamma consists in the doQlain of ideas, ideals, truths and principles, while the Vinaya 

covers the domai~ of legislation, regulation and social organization. 

The author then goes on to explairi the social relationship and responsibility of 

the members of the Buddhist community i.e. between monks and monks, monks and 

laity, and laypeople and laypeople, to show that each member has responsibility to 

make a good society that is favourable to the individual development and perfection of 

every member, . 

The

232 Uthai Dulyakasem 

In addition, the issues of poverty and wealth are also clearly discussed. The 

~iscussion in this section is illuminating, particularly for people who are unclear 

whether Buddhist principles are applicable in the modern economic system. The last 

section of the article deals with the system of Buddhist ethics and his discussion is again 

very illuminating. 

After reading this article . for a few times, I wholeheartedly agree with the 

author that the topic of the discussion should be "Foundations of Buddhist Social Ethics 

for Contemporary Thailand" because the Foundations of Social Ethics in contemporary 

Thailand are, sadly, very non-Buddhist. · 

In "Tradition and Change in Thai Buddhism", the author essentially argues 

that a change in contemporary Thai Buddhism so far seems to have resulted from the 

clash and conflict between tradition (not to be equated with originality and authenticity) 

and modernization. He eiaborates ·his argument by giving examples of conflicts between 

traditional Thai Buddhism and modernized practices b()th within and outside the 

Sangha's circles. The author then goes on to analyze the mechanism of ch~nge in 

Thai Buddhism. He asserts that tb,ere are many fundamental causes and conditions, 

for example, no face-to-face challenge to tradition and the"i~orance of both traditional 

and modem groupings in Thai society. If these causes are eradicated, Thai Buddhism 

may, says the author, be purified and reformed. However, he quickly adds that what 

is needed now is a knowledgeable leadership. Even though I agree with most of his 

· arguments, his last condition (i.e. a knowledgeable leadership) makes me wonder whether 

such a leadership can be easily fou~d given the fact that the socio-economic and 

political ethics on which Thai society is at present based are very far from the Noble 

Eightfold Path and its prerequisites. 

In "Buddhism and Mental Health", the author basically argues that the 

Summum Bonum or the final goal of Buddhism is a state of perfect mental health and 

true happiness. The author further explains that in the contemporary world, material 

comforts and conveniences are particularly promoted at the expense of mental wellbeing. 

In so doing, man has violently exploited the environment and caused much 

imbalance in nature which in turn very badly.affects his own life-quality. In addition, 

in pursuit of sensual pleasure, ·man learns to become selfish and develops more intense 

attachment and clinging to enjoyments, possessions and to their own selves. 

. The author contends that to cure all the mental and socio-spiritual diseases, 

man has to be put on the right path and the right path is the Noble Eightfold Path, 

which begins with Right View or Right Understandmg. The author rightly argues that 

in 9r

REVIEWS 233 

have to be created. In other words, the socio-economic and political structures of a 

society must be based on the foundations of Buddhist social ethics so that the growth of 

mental health and mental well-being may be attained. 

For those who, after reading S. Sivaraksa's review on Buddhamma by the same 

author in the JSS (vol. 70 Jan-Jul. 1982 pp. 164-170), felt frustrated because of being 

unable to read the book which is written in Thai, this mimeograph, though not a 

substitution, will certainly minimize such a frustration. This mimeograph is, in the 

view of the reviewer, a must for the student of Theravada Buddhism. 

Utluli Dulyakasem 

Faculty of _Education, 

Silpakom University, 

Nakom Pathom

Bantorn Ondam an4 Stephen Teo, eds., Organizing Experience from Thailand (CCA 

URM RURAL CONCERNS SERIES, No. 1, · Christian Conference of Asia-Urban 

Rural Mission, Hongkong, 1983) 32 pages. 

This small book is a record ~f the experience in organizing people according to 

C.O. or Comm~nity Organization approach. The author tells us al:out his direct 

experience in the village where he was born. For, when be graduated from a university 

in Bangkok, he went back to his home and started his work as a community organizer. 

The coming to power oftbe Thanin Government made his work difficult; even 

while living as a farmer be was suspected of being a communist. But gradually, he 

could win over that suspicion. In 1977, there was a big drought. The villagers had 

much to suffer from lack of rice, and the rice in the market was very expensive. He 

organized the villagers to buy cheaper rice from the government. To do this, they bad 

to pass through all the boring and complicated procedures in the government office. 

The villagers in that area were partly Catholics and partly Buddhists. The 

Catholic Church there with some of its leading members had founded a credit union, but 

it mostly served the rich farmers, that was why they had very few members. The 

Buddhist temple was not very active, and the monks, who were conservative, had some 

connections with the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC). 

Later, he organized villagers through one of the two ways which was allowed 

. . 

and supported by the government. Choosing to form the organization as the Farmers' 

Association, he could have more strength to form a bigger group of farmers. The main 

purpose was to increase agricultural products. They grew the second crop, and also 

organized themselves to buy cheaper fertilizer from the government. 

This is the story of the participation of the author hi the village. In the following 

three chapters, the author is dealing with structure analysis which is very famous 

among C.O. (Community Organizers) analysts. These three chapters are : Reaction 

From the Establishment, Breakdown of ·Community Structures, and Anti-People Forces 

in Action. In this analysis, we have the poor farmers with an organizer on the one 

side, and the rich farmers with the merchants, the bureaucrats, and the religious 

personnels on the other side. 

It is very true that the exploitation and oppression of the rural poor are very 

serious. But the organizing strategy in this book seems to stress too much the conflicts 

between the two factions. Little attention has been given to the common ground by 

which we can include people from other factions in order to gain strength towards the 

common good. The dividing line between factions is drawn so rigidly that the chance 

to see the issue in the wider context is narrowed down. 

234

REVIEWS 235 

The motive used in drawing the villagers together emphasizes too much the 

increasing of yields. By so doing, the village's economy would fall deeper into the 

market-oriented economy. And the use of higher technology, not being aware that 

there are alternatives such as appropriate technology, would draw the village deeper 

into the global scale exploitation organized by multi-national corporations. 

The C.O. approach helps the people to stand on their own feet and realize their 

own potentiality. Still, little attention has been paid to cultural identity, or the 

participation of the people in interpreting the meaning of their lives, which includes 

the meaning of their present struggle for a better society. If the Organizer was more 

aware of this dimension, he could add more to his work-strength and colors that will 

enliven the people's movement. 

However, I find the book very useful in initiating further discussions about the 

C.O. approach. 

Thai Inter-religious Commission for Development, 

Bangkok 

Wisit Wangwinyoo

Sulak Sivaraksa, A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society: Collected Articles by a 

Concerned Thai Intellectual (Thai Watana Panich Co., Ltd., Bangkok, 1981), XXVII 

+ 243p. 

Travelling to the Northeast of Thailand with Sulak Sivaraksa can provide 

important insights into his writings. As we journey overnight by train the conversation 

ranges from virtually every aspect of Thai life to. major international econonnc 

and political issues. In the morning, after .a mere two hours sleep we meet a group of 

young social workers. Sanitation and potable water are the main problems· of the 

villages in the region; how do you organise the villagers to respond ? Can you organise 

anything effectively unless you live and work in the villages for long periods of time 1 

. What is the role of the local wat, the kamnan (rhuu) or phujaiban (NL'V11!im\l.) .. 

the 

Government medical officers, and a ·host of other individuals 1 How can they work 

together most effectively to create stronger, more self-reliant communities in which the 

basic human rights of members are respected and upheld? 

Sometimes Sulak answers a question directly, at other times he remains silent 

while his audience discusses an issue. After an exhausting three hour session we break 

briefly for lunch and move to the campus at Khon K.aen University. As we sit outside 

under an awning a combination of discourse and discussion proceeds without a break 

until late afternoon. The thrust of Sulak's thesis is that while the problems of Thai 

society are many and varied, there are no easy solutions, and it is a mistake to pillory 

·others without at the same time being prepared to criticise one's self. Young people 

must think and act creatively or the systems and institutions will make them as sterile 

as ...-the audience laughs, as the name of a well-benown politician is mentioned. 

Small wonder that Sulak is unpopular .in certain circles, but even a cursory 

reading of A Buddhist Vision for Renewing Society will make it abundantly clear that 

many of the criticisms levelled against hiJiD are without basis. Thus be is unequivocal 

in his denunciation of the world's major competing ideologies : "Capitalism exploits 

religion one way, Communism another." We must fig_!tt both" (p 126). The fight for 

social justice must be non-violent and geared to reform rather than revolution (p 16). 

An essential ingredient of true reform is the active participation of the poorest sections 

of society in the decisions which shape their future, and where this does riot happen the 

door is left wide open for Communism : 

· Anywhere where the poor get poorer, without enjoying full 

participation in governmental affairs, and where their .grievances are 

not remedied justly and rapidly, and yet where their expectation is 

high materially, is an open door for Communism. 

(p 29) 

236

REVIEWS 237 

Sulak distinguishes between the general deprivation of Thailand which occurred 

following the Second World War, and the more recent gap between rich and poor. Of 

the first period he observes : 

It is true that immediately after the War, the American govern;. 

ment, especially in the person of her first Ambassador in Bangkok, 

Edwin Stanton, tried to be fair to the Thai, but not long afterwards 

she began to care for her own aggrandizement ••. Capitalism reached 

the peak of ugliness in this part of the world .•. when the latest technologies 

in all fields made trade and advertising an effective partnership 

in exhorting everyone to work more in order to want more, to produce 

more, to waste more natural resources and to destroy natural environment 

.... In the long run, both the rich and the poor suffered socially, 

culturally and spiritually. 

(p 28) 

Similarly (in the context of a quote by Eric Fromm) : "The Russians think of 

themselves as the representatives of socialism, because they use Marxist ideological 

terminology, not realizing bow closely their system resembles the fully developed 

capitalist system". 

(p 65) 

Thus both western and Soviet policies have contributed to tbQ economic, social 

and cultural deprivation of the developing world, and their contemporary supporters 

both at home and abroad continue to obscure the real issues by defining development 

in terms of quantity, increased productivity, and the importation of inappropriate 

technologies. 

It would do less than justice to Sulak's integrated "vision" to attempt to analyse 

all the distinctively Buddhist strands of his world-view. He thinks, speaks and acts as 

a Buddhist whose "passionate moderation" represents a new Middle Way. At times 

he draws consciously on traditional Theravadin themes, but it is clear that he has been 

strongly influenced by Mahayana and Zen Buddhism, and the imaginative "this-worldly" 

ethic of Buddhadisa (Putatiit). His radical critique of western patterns of development 

parallels Schumacher, and his advocacy of non-violence, while fully Buddhist is also 

very Gandhian. 

According to the spirit of Buddhist development, inner strength must be cultivated 

first-so that "compassion and loving-kindness to others become possible." (p 74). 

Such appeals to the Brahma Vihara to justify social relationships are not unique to 

Sulak and have been made by Sarvodaya Shramadana in Sri Lanka, Dr. Siddhi Butr 

Indr at Chiang Mai University, and several others. As a reinterpretation of historical


BuddJ:lism they are perfectly legitimate, though it is worth bearing in mind, as Edward 

Conze has pointed out, that the Br(lhma Vihara were cultivated in Sariputra's Old 

Wisdom School as a means ofattaining samadhi. But is samadhi incompatible with 

the &oals sought after but frequently not attained by well-meaning activists ? Here 

Sulak makes some important points which, though marginal to his main line of thought, 

are worthy of emphasis: 

, The most important thing in an individual who acts is not his 

action but his personality. In the Thai context, a monk like Bhikkhu 

Buddhadasa is so important, although he hardly does anything to.the 

outside community, except preaching and writing, and lives far away 

from anywhere .... To act in a way that arises from non-action is to 

act in a way to truly influence the situation in a non-violent way. 

Naturally, humanists and ~asters of the Way contribute to the ends to 

save life, but their most valued contribution is their presence, not their 

actions. 

(p 111) . 

Is this Taoism? Perhaps, and it also echoes Thomas Merton's passionate 

conviction that "in the night of our technological barbarism, monks must be as trees 

which exist silently in the dark and by their vital presence purify the air." 

In defining the second of the four Brahma Viharas, Sulak makes direct 

reference to the compassion (karuna) of a Bodhisattva illustrated in specifically 

Mahayanist terms : 

One should vow to become a Bodhisattva who will forego his 

own nirvana until all sentient beings are free from suffering. So one 

should not remain indifferent, but must endeavour to assist others to 

alleviate their sufferings as much as one can. 

(p 75) 

The four Brahma Viharas, metta (loving kindness), karuna (compassion), 

mudit'a (sympathetic joy), and upekkha (equanimity) should be fostered step by step, 

after which the individual is in a position to develop his or her community, starting 

with family and village. Sarvodaya (the universal awakening of aU-very Gandhian, 

though often attributed in Sri Lanka to Budd~ism) is the ultimate national and international 

goal, and the gap between this and the development of the small community may 

be bridged by the promotion of the four dhammas. These are dana (sharing), 

piyav'iica (pleasant speech), atthacariyii (constructive cooperative action), and samanat• 

tata (equality). These are not the only means to the ultimate goal of sarvodaya, but 

Sulak's interpretation of them deserves. careful study. For example:

REVIEWS 

239 

Equality (samanattata) means that Buddhism does not recognise 

classes or castes, does not encourage one group to exploit the other. 

So Buddhist socialism is possible without state capitalism or any form 

of totalitarianism. 

(p 78) 

Thus-and also in more specific practical terms-Sulak outlines his Buddhist 

vision for society. Like all authentic philosophies and theologies it is an open-ended 

ongoing commitment. It draws from the best of several traditions and has been forged 

by the cut and thrust of realistic dialogue with a wide· range of individuals and interest 

groups, of which the most important and formative are the most economically disadvantaged 

sections ·Of rural and urban Thai society. 

Department of Theology, 

University of Hull 

Darid L. Gosling

Vichitvong N. Pombhejara, Pridi Banomyong And the Making of Thailand Modern 

History (Bangkok, 1982), with illustrations, pp 291 

... 0 .!!I Ci'j QJ ..

Joe Cummings, Thailand, a Travel Sur.vival Kit (Lonely Planet Publications, South 

Yarra, Victoria, 1982), ~P· 136 

Guidebooks to Thailand, as with most other countries, come in various sizes 

and with differing audiences in mind. Joe Cummings' guide is intended for what are 

euphemistically known as 'world travellers' these days. This is no carriage-trade tome 

listing the sybaritic delights of luxurious hotels, extravagant eateries and. visiting the 

sights in an air-conditioned car, but a short. work listing the principle attractions and 

explaining how to visit them with the minimum of expense aqd comfort. 

After a brief introduction, there are four introductory chapters proper. 'Facts 

about the Country' are largely correct (apart from the date when Siam first officially 

became Thailand in English translation) and the introduction .to Buddhism is probably 

more succinct and informed than that which appears in Clarac's Guide to Thailand in 

which I had a hand. In 'Facts for the Visitor' one is getting down to brass tacks. 

' Only bring, we are told, one medium-size shoulder bag or backpack, and nudity on 

beaches, we are regretfully informed, is frowned upon. 'Getting There' and 'Getting 

· Around' cover the cheapest possible forms of transport, and considerable detail is given 

to booking train tickets and long distance bus prices (which are likely to get out of date 

fairly quickly). Whereas Clarac and Smithies said on at least one occasion that the 

best way to visit a certain place was to start at one point and send one's driver to 

another to wait, Joe Cummings' travellers would be more likely to thumb a lift on a 

tuk-tuk. 

In the remaining 81 pages, Cummings covers the country in four sections, 

Bangkok together with central Thailand, Northern, Northeast and South Thailand. 

This division is not entirely satisfactory, as too much gets left out. Chantaburi and 

Trad are not mentioned, presumably because they did not fit into the schema, nor are 

Nan and Prae. Petchburi, a delightful place with plenty to see, easily accessible from 

Bangkok, is not mentioned at all, and Lopburi, with its wealth of history and ruins, is 

dismissed in fifteen lines, without even a mention of the Narai Raja Niwet palace. 

Cummings says he is a ruins man, but perhaps not a very enthusiastic one, since those 

at Srisachanalai are somewhat dismissed as being similar to Sukhothai, and Wat Phra 

Si Ratana Mahathat at Chaliang is not mentioned. Kampaengpetch is also completely 

left out, yet the ruins there are of major importance. However, Cummings has space 

to mention in the chapter on the north the jail at Chiengmai : "Come here to see the 

dozens of farangs who have been incarcerated on drug charges." This shows a curious 

set of priorities. Ko Samui and Phuket are described in great detail, Sathing Phra 

does not make it, neither do the splendid frescoes in Wat Klang in Songkhla, and 

Nakorn Sri Thammaraj's museum and city walls are passed over. 

~4l

l42 Michael Smithies · 

Bach of the four regional chapters has a subsection on how to get to the places 

therein, and a final part on eating and sleeping in the region, with list (and prices) of 

the cheapest hotels, rest houses and eateries. This section would certainly be of value 

to the down-at-heel •world traveller', but is useless to the visitor wanting information 

about comfortable if not particularly cheap hotels. 

The style of the text presumably reflec~ that of the intended audience. The 

Thais came 'homesteading in and around' the north before the 13th century, t}:le 

Burmese 'really did a job' on Ayuthaya., Wat Phanomwan 'is an in:-worship temple'. 

This degenerates into an esoteric language which at times is incomprehensible. The 

entire paragraph about 'Thai sticks' in Khonkaen meant nothing to me. 

This is a guidebook then for the young, the adventurous and impecunious, not 

inaccurate but far from complete, and written with a certain breezy dismissiveness that 

YOl,l either like or abhor. It undoubtedly serves a purpose and a pubiic, but will have 

to be revised frequently if prices are to be meaningful, and it has omissions which are 

serious, even for a readenhip of intelligent hippies. 

Michael Smithies 

Nanyang Technological Institute, 

Singapore

Martin Stuart-Fox, ed., Contemporary Laos: Studies in the Politics and Society of 

the Lao People's Democratic Republic (St. Martin's Press, New York 1983; University 

of Queensland, 1982), 345 pp. 

A collection of articles dealing with various aspects of the situation in Laos 

since the revolution of 1975-one of the few works to deal with events in Laos since 

that (une. The editor, Martin Stuart-Fox, who supplies an article on 'National Defence 

and Internal Security in Laos' was formerly a foreign correspondent in Laos and 

Vietnam, now Senior Tutor in Asian History at the University of Queensland. Other 

contributors, including some of Laotian origin, are scholars from the US, UK, France 

and Australia. 

Among the most interesting papers is that of Jacqui Chagnon, Quaker field 

officer in Laos and former peace activist, who with Roger Rumpf examines some of the 

problems the new leadership has faced with regard to education, while Pierre-Bernard 

Lafont, Director of Studies in Indochinese history and philology at the Sorbonne, writes 

on the role of Buddhist monks in a socialist state. Dr. Dore, Charge de Recherche at 

CNRS in Paris, provides a thought-provoking study of how the 'three revolutions' (in 

production, science and culture) have been effected within Laos under the dominance 

of. Vietnam, while Dr. Gar Yia Lee, of the Ethnic Communities Council in New 

South Wales, analyses the effects of govefnment policy on the Hmong people of Laos, 

comparing the resistance against the government by some Hmong to the peaceful 

resettlement of others in accordance with the ethnic unity urged by the Pathet Lao 

leadership. 

Another paper, by Dr. Wekkin,. Lecturer in Politics at the University of 

Wisconsin, describes Pathet Lao policy towards the hill people in general, from a more 

historical perspective, claiming that Hmong alignment against the Pathet Lao was in 

large part the result of the profits which accrued to them from opium production, while 

less favoured minorities, such as the Hill Tai and Lao Theung, more readily supported 

the revolutionary forces. This is of course true only in a limited sense, since many 

Hmong fought on both sides, while the author may have exaggerated the profits which 

actually accrued to the Hmong from their fields. He does point out that the government 

has 'gone out of its way' to appeal to the Hmong in particular, while at the same 

time exciting opposition to the attempt to 'collectivize' shifting agriculture and reduce 

deforestation. 

Other articles, by authorities such as Prof. Macalister Brown (who co-edited 

Communism in Indochina) and Dennis Duncanson of Kent University, deal with broader 

themes outlining the historical evolution of Laos within Indochina and the exact status 

243

244 ..... -· : ... Nicholas Tapp 

~ . . 

of the 1975 revolution (which Macalister. Brown considers close to the 'semi-legal takeover 

through considerable popular support' of Czechoslovakia). Arthur Dommen's 

paper Qn 'Laos between Thailand and Vietnam' traces the present-dlly ethnic problems 

of L~os to colonial policies pur~ued by the French; specific papers lQOk at relationships 

with Vietnam, Thailand, and China, while Dr. Burley co~tributes well-researched 

information on non-military foreign aid to Laos since 1975, from donors such as the 

ADB, ESCAP, the USSR 11nd Sweden, and Bernard Yan-es-Beeck reports on the si~uation. 

of refugees lea;ving La_os. 

Despite the high standar~ of scholarship, because the articles are.so short. (there 

are 18 altogether) they tend to be on the superficial side simply in terms of the information 

they are able to provide, and unfortunately many of the articles reduplicate sections 

and. issues already dealt with in other articles. Although contributors vary in their 

attitudes towards what Macalister Brown terms the 'Communist seizure of power in 

Laos', the general ·consensus of opinion seems to be in favour of the nationalistic 

elements of the 1975 revolution and sympathetic to the overwhelm~g social and economic 

problems faced by the new leadership (who inherited a heavily bombed country 

abruptly d~prived of US aid and an increasing shortage of technical and professio!lal 

personnel), while expressing strong reservations about the nature of events since the 

signing of the Treaty of Friendship and Co-Operation in 1977 which resulted in growing 

Vietnamese influence within Laos. Tllus Dr. ·carlyle Thayer, examining the 'special 

relationship• between the two countri~s. argues that it is the ~anagement of this issue 

above all which will determine the future course of events for Laos, and contrasts the 

dissidence Vietnamese influence has provoked within Laos itself with the extent 

io ~hich the le~dership has been able to manipulate the situation to its own adviUltage. 

I)espite the brevity and repetitiveness of some of the articles, therefore, overall 

the book is ~elc:Ome in illuminat~g some of the problems faced by an evolving socialist 

state, and pla~ing them within a wider historical and cultural context. Beset by problems 

of a social, eoo.nomic. and ethnic nature, Laos seems indeed at a crucial point in its 

development. 

School of Oriental & African Studies, 

London 

Nicholas Tapp

Phia Sing, Traditional Recipes ot Laos TRANSLATORS Phouangphet Vannithone 

and Boon Song Klausner, EDITORS Alan and Jennifer Davidson, DRAWINGS by 

Thao Soun Vannithone (Prospect Books, London, 1981), 318 pages. 

Here is a unique book that will remain of interest to cooks and scholars alike. 

Cooks, especially gourmet types, will be delighted to explore Lao foods and cookery, 

because they are distinctive, delicious and fascinating dishes. Scholars will marvel in 

the suggestion and reality of food, its preparation and artistry of tastes, as a part of a 

rich cultural heritage of South East Asia. Nothing much has previously been published 

about this. 

The dishes combine the prominent use of three ingredients : black pepper, 

green and red peppers, and ginger, as well as lemon grass, tamarind and a wide variety 

of herbs. These mixed-with deliberate precision-with coconut enhance the flavour of 

fish, chicken, beef, pork. Served with rice-often the sticky variety-and a crisp greens 

with spicy herbs- -will cause even the uninitiated to become finally addicted to Lao 

food. The food is also used symbolically in ceremonies at many festivals. 

But the essence of this unusual book also lies in its origins. The Royal Palace 

of Luang Prabang in Laos in the early 19th century is the venue. It is a Crown 

Prince's collection of recipes from the Royal Chef ... one Chaleunsilp Phia Sing. They 

were carefully written in the Laos script in notebooks and finally obtained from his 

widow, in order to carry out a deathbed wish that they be published and sold in order 

to build a shrine for the Prabang, the sacred Buddha in the capital. 

Phia Sing was extraordinarily versatile-leaving behind sculpture, paintings and 

poetry. He was also a physician of the court and companion to the Royal Princes in 

their study abroad. The recipes are maintained in his handwriting-the facsimile of the 

Lao language notes and transiated in English on the facing page. They are precise, 

clearly presented, and at times quaint as interesting comments about technique and 

way of service are interspersed. Besides unusual dishes like "Pig's Trotter in Coconut 

Milk" or "Ants Eggs in Banana leaves"-we find curries, egg rolls, soups, "lap" (minced 

spicy meat) and sweets in a wide variety. A forward with full information about 

Laotian eating habits, utensils and ingredients is added. About 100 fine drawings 

enhance the overall impression of the time and often primitiveness of the Lao kitchen, 

by Lao artists. 

Tradit'ional Recipes of Laos will not be everyone's cookbook. But to Asian and 

Asian food gourmets and scholars of Asia's rich treasury of culture, it will be a delight. 

It brings forth the unique cuisine of the Lao people-in all its variety of ethnic groupsand 

is curiously still remote from the domination of the Chinese influence in taste, 

variety and flavour. 

American Friends Service Committee, 

Thailand 

245 

Rut/t K~ Cadwalladel'

U Bo Kay, Pagan Thuteithana Lanhyunt (The Pagan Research Guide) (Rangoon, 

Sarpay Beikman Press, 1981), 459 pp. 

The Pagan Research Guide is one of the most important books written about 

Pagan thus far and one·which must be addressed by all interested in the Art of Burma, 

· students and professionals alike. The fact alone that it is written by U Bo Kay, the 

long-time curator of Pagan and well-known archaeologist and epigraphist, makes its 

advent a significant event. U Bo Kay undoubtedly knows better than any other living 

person the history, architecture, murals and inscriptions of the two thousand plus 

monuments still extant in Pagan, and a book on the subject by him has long been 

awaited. 

As is indicated. by the title the work is not meant for the specialist although it 

does bring new insights and information which will be of interest to the seasoned 

veteran; rather it was conceived as an introduction for ~e neophyte who, coming to 

Pagan, would like to know more about the· monuments and be directed in his or her 

research. The author acts as both teacher and guide and sets forth in a clear manner 

a basic framework within which one may easily study Pagan. The book is meant in 

no way to replace Gordon H. Luce's monumental trilogy, Old Burma-Early Pagan,· 

instead it complements it. 

The first half of the work is devoted to various topics, . each of which is 

important to the general picture, and taken together give the reader the necessary 

baQkground to understand the second section, wherein the monuments are discussed 

individually. U Bo Kay immediately defines the area and traces the origins of both 

the city and its name, "Pagan," which, he notes, comes from "Pyugama," or "Villages 

of the Pyus," indicating the debt which the city owes to the 19 Pyu villages in the 

area. He discusses also the impact of the other two peoples who have contributed so 

much to Pagan's artistic splendor, the Mons and the Palas. He then proceeds to list 

and describe no less than 32 dissimilar architectural designs still to be found in the 

ancient city and gives examples for each type. This certain~y is a first, something done 

by no other art historian. Yet another important chapter is that devoted to Pagan 

Period Buddha images. The author divides these into two types and instructs the 

reader how to distinguish between them. ·He points out that definite epigrapbical 

evidence bas been discovered giving the name for the second type. That name has 

been inscribed on small Buddha images of the Pagan Period found at the Kubyauk 

Temple south of Thiripyitsaya Village, in the s'outhern.most sector of Pagan. One also 

learns that this type often appears in murals in the Minantbu _area as well. Equally 

instructive are his comments on the murals themselves. In these he gives new information 

about the use_ of color and original advice on how to look at the paintings. He 

246

REVIEWS 247 

also performs a great service in explaining what he deems the 13 most important 

subjects; this reviewer has not found a comparable Jist in any other work, including the 

recently published The Buddhist Murals of Pagan by Toro ·Ono and Takao Inoue. 

Other chapters in this first section are devoted to such indispensable topics as inscriptions, 

votive tablets, stucco work, ceramic decoration, the Jatakas and the · Jataka 

plaques. The last chapter is concerned with the reigns of the Pagan kings and 

identifies the edifices ascribed to each particular monarch. 

In the second half of the book U Bo Kay meets the prospective Pagan student 

at Nyaung-u and guicles him in the stqdy, one by one, of well over a hundred of the 

most significant Pagan monuments, many of which, alas, even the most experienced 

Pagan enthusiast has not been able to view because of the current time restrictions on 

visitors to Burma. The author's comments vary in length, partially because of the 

differing importance of the edifices, and partially, one feels, in proportion to the 

author's affinity with them. This reader found in the comments new data even about 

the monuments most often discussed; for example, that the Shwezigon Pagoda is made 

of stone slabs. Not even Luce in his well-documented work mentions this. U Bo Kay 

explaiDs that the stone slabs are _not readily seen because they have been covered over . 

by the gold of the faithful. 

One of the most important aspects of the work is the information it provides 

about the later Pagan monuments not covered by Luce, and the religious edifices built 

in the Pinya, Ava and . Konbaung time!). . Pagan remained a sacred religious area 

despite the fact that it was no longer the capital, and monarchs and members of the 

royal families continued to build religious edifices there throughout the reign of King 

Thibaw. The brief comments about the restoration ordered by King Bodawpya will 

only whet the appetites of scholars, for surely U Bo Kay· with his unique experience 

has tremendous amounts of information at his fingertips about what has and has not 

been restored. 

Unfortunately the book has no pictures or diagrams to illustrate the points 

made by the author, and the fact that it is only available in Burmese will limit its 

accessibility to most readers. Lovers of Pagan, be they tourists or scholars, will look 

forward to its publication in English with appropriate illustrations by the author. 

Having read the book one must ask for additional insights from that profoundly erudite 

mind which has gleaned so much over the years. We can only hope that U Bo Kay 

will take up the unfinished work of Gordon Luce. He has given us full proof that he 

can write the sequel and more. 

'fhe S~aq1 Society 

Virf!inia M. Pi Croc~o

Mohammad Hatta, Indonesian Patriot, Memoirs, Edited by C.L.M. Penders (Gunung 

Agung, Singapore, 19S1), pp. 319 . 

It cannot be said. that the birth of independent Indonesia was an easy one. 

Comparisons are only occasionally relevant, but if the creation of independent India, 

the world's second m0st populous nation, was difficult, at least there was a viable 

indigenous civil service and an economic and communications structure on which to 

build. Dutch policies and geographic obstacles had seen to it that the world's fifth 

most populous country, Indonesia, inherited very little, and the protracted four-year 

war of independence, coming immediately after the dislocation of the Japanese occupation, 

reduced the country to shambles, which the political chaos in the post-independence 

period under Sukarno did little to improve. Westerners, and for that matter 

some Easterners too, with short historical memories often forget the appallingly difficult 

circumstances of post-war Indonesia. 

The publication of the memoirs in English of the country's first Vice-President 

and one of the leaders of the struggle for independence therefore forms a valuable 

addition to the literature of the period. Hatta, a Minangkabau from Sumatra, was 

born in 1902, and from 1921 to 1932 studied economics at Rotterdam University. He 

became by process of natural selection and leadership the principal advocate of independence 

for Indonesia while in Holland, where he was imprisoned for his activities for 

nearly six months. 

Shortly after his return to Indone~ia, Hatta met for the first time the other 

chief architect of independence, Sukarno, after the latter's release from prison by the 

Dutch. Sukarno was proposing a union between his Partindo independence party and 

Hatta's new Pendidikan Nasional Indonesia (PNI, Indonesian National Education 

Party). Almost immediately a personality clash emerged between the impulsive Sukarno 

and the cautious constitutional Hatta, which erupted into print with Sukarno's party 

attacking Hatta for his apparent cooperation with the Dutch in allowing his name to 

go forward as a socialist candidate for the elected Lower House in the Hague. Nothing 

came of the proposal, as Hatta withdrew, and Sukarno was imprisoned again the following 

year. 

Hatta was magnanimous, and wrote an article published in Daulat Ra'jat in 

support of Sukarno, as .a leader of the independence movement. However, when 

Sukarno announced his withdrawal from politics, Hatta returned to the attack, saying 

his "attitude has besmirched the national movement" and speaking of Sukarno's 

'tragedy', his "unsteady character and principles''-. · 

In view of this profound basic antagonism, it says a lot for both that they were 

able to overlook their differences and work together in the cause of national independence. 

Hatta himself was interned in exile from 1935, first at Tanah Merah in West 

Irian, then at Banda Neira in the Moluccas, and from 1942 at Sukabumi in Java, He 

248

REVIEWS 249 

became an adviser to the Japanese authorities, rather than under their command, 

during the war. Sukamo was released from Sumatra by the Japanese and held a 

meeting with Hatta and Syahrir on arriving in Jakarta. Sukarno maintained the 

Japanese would win the war; Hatta disagreed, on the grounds the Americans had 

greater industrial potential. He also warned Sukarno the Japanese would not allow the 

Indonesian independence movement to continue. Sukarno wanted to cooperate and 

establish a new party "for the purpose of satisfying his ambition to agitate". Both 

were cultivated as national leaders by the Japanese and were sent to Tokyo in 1943. By 

1944, when the Japanese were clearly losing the war, independence was promised, and 

in August 1945 Hatta and Sukarno were sent to Dalat where General Terauchi 

announced Tokyo had agreed to grant independence. This, unbeknown to the Indonesians., 

was at the same time as the Japanese had agreed to the Potsdam terms of surrender. 

On returning to Jakarta, not before they had been made prisoner by Indonesian 

youth groups, independence was proclaimed on 17 August, with Sukarno as President 

and Hatta as Vice-President. 

Thereafter it is a story of increasing confusion and chaos, with the British 

arrival to reestablish Dutch rule, groups taking things into their own hands, the Dutch 

making and breaking agreements .relating to independence, simultaneously trying to 

establish the State of East Indonesia and attacking the Republic, the republican forces 

retreating and regrouping, and Hatta flying all over the place, to Surabaya, Padang, 

New Delhi (in disguise), to Yogya. Although nothing is said in the memoirs, this must 

have been a most exhausting and frustrating time for Hatta, who eventually in 1948 

had to take over the Prime Ministership as well, and try and sort out the muddle. 

Reducing the armed forces to a proper level was one of the first tasks : "I decided that 

there should be a ratio of four soldiers to each weapon". Nine admirals with no men 

under their command were dismissed, all officers reduced a rank, and soldiers redeployed 

into productive work. At the same time Hatta had to cope with Dutch 'police action' 

against the republic and negociate with the United Nations' Good Offices Committee. 

The Dutch captured Sukamo and Hatta in Yogya at the end of 1948 and literally 

impounded them on Banka island, while General Sudirman, already extremely sick, as 

Commander-in-Chief conducted a guerilla war. Under international pressure the Dutch 

finally agreed to recognise the existence of independent Indonesia, and Hatta went to 

the Hague in August 1949 to negociate the provisions. He was back again in Holland 

to attend the formal ceremony of handover of sovereignty on 27 December 1949. There 

the memoirs end. 

Politicians' memoirs are often not particularly interesting, turning over events 

long since forgotten by history. Given Hatta's crucial role in the formation of Indonesia, 

his memoirs cannot be dismissed so easily. They detail the circumstances 

leading to the creation of the largest state in Southeast Asia and the key role played by 

one of its founders. Where they are most interesting is in describing Hatta's early 

days in West Sqmatra and his activitie:; in ~he Clluse of independence durin~ his studies

250 



Singapore

Pramoedya Ananta Toer, This Earth of Mankind ·(Ringwood, Victoria, Penguin Books, 

1982). Translated by Max Lane. pp. x + 338 

· ·, Pramoedya Ananta Toer is, according to Pr0fessor A. Teeuw, a leading authority 

on lndoi\esian literatutej 'Indonesia's greatest modern prose writer' (Modern Indonesian 

Literature). Cynics may. say that there is not much competition for the title, but this 

reflects more on tho small 'quantity of work available in translation than on the apparently 

·small number of creative writers in Indonesia. . Bom i~ 1925, Pramoedya has 

spent a great number of years in prison for his dedication to literature. He·· was 

httprisoned by the Dutch fron 1947-49 for possessing 'incriminating papers' (he was 

working for the Voice ~f·Free Indonesia at 'the time) and became assoeiated with the 

leftward leaning Lekra group of artists in the later years of Sukarrio. It is denied that 

he was eV'er a Communist party member. ·Whatever the trUth of the situation, he was 

Jield 'for tourtee'n years without tri~l after the abortive coup of 1965, most being spent 

on the remote prison island of Buru. He was finally released, along with all remaining 

prisoners. 

· Pranioedya, though at first without access to pen and paper on Buru, recounted 

his proposed q~~rtet to fellow political prisoners, and later was allowed to write it 

down. He had been researching the background for the series at the time of the coup 

attempt, whim all his notes and library were burnt.. Afraid of forgetting details, md 

of survivirlg to record them, he recounted his tale, as befits a mediaeval situation, 

orally. Not long after his release, the first two volumes, Bumi Manusia and Anak 

. Sem~a Bangsa, were published in ·Jakarta in August 1980, and were an in1mediate 

s~ccess. The Vice-President of Indonesia; Adam Malik, is quoted on the back of the 

edition of Bumi Manusia·published inMalacca in May 1981 as saying the book should 

be compulsory reading in schools and universities and the contents are excellent. The 

book certainly records a period of Indonesia's history that most young people know 

little or nothing about, and basically sets out to explain in novel form why the Indonesian 

people struggled for independence from the Dutch. 

Very briefly, the novel is about a highly intelligent young Javanese, Minke, son 

of a Bupati (Regent), the only pure native attending the DutcJ;l Senior High School in 

Su~abaya in the 1890's, who is accidentally introduced into the extraordinary Mellema 

Ontosoroh family. His entire futw,-e is changed by the contact. Nyai Ontosoroh, the 

~~~ub~e-niothe~, fluent in Dutch, widely read, runs the dairy farm business ·and seeks 

to reve~ge herself on tll.e society which sold her .at the age of thirteen to Herman 

Meilema. 'To do' this she tries to be one better' than society in au· spheres. Mellema 

has beoome jnad, ljis peace shatt~red by the appeararlc~ of a leg~timate son _also seeking 

·: .. · · · · -.. ·! ·.~ · . ·. · :.. .. . - · ~ ' .. · . : . ' . ' - · 'r.·. · ~-- ··; :. • ., ... '' · · · ·. . :. 

··- ....... ":" ,. .. ..·.. .• ... 25.1 " ' ., - '• . 

. ; '·

• 

isi 


revenge and whom he had left in Holland with his abandoned wife. Mellema is 

poisoned in a nearby brothel where he and his illegitimate son Robert had taken up 

residence. As Robert sided with his father (and like him caught syphillis from the 

same whore), so his illegitimate and beautiful half-caste daughter Annalies sided with 

her mother, Nyai Ontosoroh. Minke falls devastatingly in love with the young beauty, 

discovers she had been deflowered by her own brother, but marries. her nonetheless in 

a Muslim ceremony. He is separated from his legitimate wife by the edict of an 

Amsterdam court, which did not recognise the legality of the marriage. The court 

noted that she had been recognised as Mellema's natural daughter, gave her and her 

inheritance, as she was under age, to the care o~ the legitimate son Maurits, and had 

her transported to Maurits' charge in tlie Netherlands. The novel ends with Minke 

whispering to his mother-in-law, the Nyai, "We've been defeated, Ma," and her reply, 

"W~ fought back, child, Nyo, as well and honourably as possible". 

This bare outline of the plot hardly does justice to the novel as a whole. The 

development ·of Minke into a pseudonymous writer, in Dutch, for the local paper, his 

removal by the police and ritual grovelling appearance before the Bupati of his home 

town who turns out to be his own father, his progress'through school and the animosities 

his position gave rise to, are chronicled realistically. There is a host of secondary 

characters: Dr Martinet, the local physician, turning to the new science of psychology; 

Jean Marais, a French mercenary turned painter whose work Minie sells; Magda 

Peters, the over-enthusiastic liberal Dutch language and literature teacher; the daugh- 

. ters of the Assistant Resident who espouse the cause of Minke; Babah Ah Tjong, the 

brothel keeper; Maiko, the Japa[lese prostitute who brought ruin to the Mellema fa~y; 

Darsam, the Madurese guard, all brawn and no brain, who however towards the.·end is 

following Annalies' case as reported in the Malay language newspapers with the aid of 

his ch~ldren. . .. . . . 

The world of the Dutch East Indies at the turn of the century is convincingly 

evoked. Minke, born with a silv.er spoon in his mouth, realises he is powerless before 

the colonial machine and its laws. The extraordinary importance of race, where 

'pures' (whites) were above the lndos, the half-castes, who were better than the natives 

(who were apparently not aliowed to use Dutch in the courts, even if they spoke the 

language· fluently) come over very clearly. So too do the enormously important 

linguistic divisions of society. 

There are numerous very deft touches, including the humorous scene between 

Marais and Nyai Ontosoroh, the former consistently referring to her as Madame, as a 

good. Frenchman should; the latter consistently refusing the title and repeatedly 

correcting him with Nyai (concubine). More painfui is the moment when Minke,

ltEvtEWS 253 

suffering from a splitting headache, taking various local and ineffective' remedies, 

recalls having heard , the Germans had recently developed something called aspirin 

(actuatly formulated in 1899), but it had not arrived ~n Java yet. The Indies, Minke 

bemoans, were etematly waiting for products from Europe,- never inventing or producing 

by themselves. 

But there are also weaknesses. Perhaps ,the most striking is the shallowness of 

some of the characterisation, most markedly in Annalies, a person without a will of her 

own, given to the vapours, dying of love, a beautitill empty shadow. Indeed, all the 

women are rather flat : Sa:rah and Miriam de Ia Croix, the Assistant Resident's daughters, 

are cardboard characters, Minke's mother personifies gentle reasonableness but 

does not emerge as a person, the boarding house landlady is a stereotype; Magda 

Peters, like the de la Croix daughters, is a vehicle for ideas rather thaa a person, though 

she is better drawn than they, thanks to the minute observation of her freckles and 

gulpings. The Japanese prostitute's tale reads more like a sociological case study, and 

even the way in which Nyai's story is told to her daughter is a little artificial as Iiteratu~e.. 

Only Nyai Ontosoroh emerges as a genuine female character, in her case so 

powerful she devours the will-power of everyone around her. She is more masculine 

than the men in her entourage, claws her way up to the top against all odds, dominates, 

but is ultimately defeated, not without a spirited eondemnation of the feudal colonial 

system-"Who turned me into a concubine? Who turned us all into nyais? European 

gentlemen made masters." 

There are occasional shifts in the narrative which are poorly arranged. It 

seems inconceivable that Minke should not have known, if only by gossip, as he chose 

not to read his family's letters, that the Bupati of B ... was his own father. From 

being in the de Ia Croix residence there is a jump to reading the letters Minke had 

hitherto chosen to ignore, to being followed by the spy Fatso. A smoother transition 

is desirable. 

There are strange quirks in the translation, which talks of the 'part' of the 

hair instead of the parting, and has Fatso 'hanging around the ticket' at a station, when 

presumably the ticket office was intended. A subject was supplemented by 'quite a 

deal' of extra information, and sometimes objects are unclear-"the white official rose 

from his chair, took the sash and draped it over his shoulder"; whose, his own or the 

Bupati's? The proof reading also leaves something to be desired. A whole line is 

repeated on p. 163, 'someone' is misspelt as two words, and the unforgivable error 'It's 

title was' appears on p. 240. The footnotes are helpful, though it is perhaps hardly 

necessary to explain what is mahjong.

254 Michael Smithies 

/'t.s a nQvel, th~ book certainly holds togetllC?r and grips the. attention. The 

I.'Jl

I Made Bandem and Frederik Eugene deBoer, Kaja and Kelod: Balinese Dance in 

Transition (Kuala Lumpur, Oxford University Press, 1981), pp. 191 

In 1938 Beryl de. Zoete and Walker Spies published their classic 'Dance and 

Drama·. in Bali, which was reprinted ten years ago by the publishers who have brought 

out the title under· review, a handsomely produced volume complete with ten black and 

white. plates,. 52 colour plates, nine pages of figures~ a very necessary glossary, a bibliography 

and index. I Made Bandem and deBoer at~ consciously updating the earlier 

work, and codifying and classifyirtg the changes which have taken place in ilie now no 

longer esoteric realm· of Balinese dance. 

The book is divided into six main sections, and their order depends on an 

understanding of the meaning of kaja and kelod in Balinese. Kaja, 'toward the 

mountain', is the realm of the gods, kelod, 'toward the sea', is the place of demons 

and devils. Humans occupy the middle ground between. So the book moves from 

the dances of the inner temple in Chapter 1, through a classical dance or'th~ second 

tempi~ courtyard, il.ie masked dance~ of the bebali or ceremonial group, the secular 

dances in the outer temple, to secular dances in secular spaces. The last main chapter 

deals with magic dances of the street (crossroads are places of evil) and the graveyard, 

a~4 there is an epilogue dealing with performances for tourists, notably the cak dance. 

It is fitting that the book should start with the rarest and most mysterious 

berutuk of the Bali Aga village of Trunyan. Whether it is really a dance or a ceremony 

could be debated, but it is sacred, with masks (and aU that impli~s in the Balinese 

context) and quit.e extraordinary combination of initiation, purification, devotion and 

release. One would have· liked. to know more of the source of information for the 

description of the statue in .the Trunyan temple; only Stutterheim and Bernet-Klempers 

have left accounts, but neither is given as the source. _The statue and the rites relating 

to it are not in the .ge~e.ral Balinese tradition, and have curious similarities (as do the 

costumes .of the dancers) with the Tolo of New Britain. 

It is probably equally fitting that the book almost ends with a· description of 

the keeak dance, sometimes known as the monkey dance. The basis of the dance is 

sacred (the solo cak chorus is in one of the inner temple dances) but the performance 

for tourists is purely secular,. and now tells the whole of the l{amayana in one hour 

flat; a masterpiece of compression. It may be significant that this Balinese dance which 

is .the mo~t popular with tourists is cine of the very few devised for them and is profane 

in In.ore than one sense. 

·255

256 Michael Smi~hies 

Much more characteristic are Legong, Kebyar, ~rja, and modem Baris, all 

. secular dances of the outer temple, all immensely popular wit~ Balinese, and many now 

well-known to visitors. The descriptions of the history of these dances underline how 

adaptive the Balinese are, . and how much their dances wax al)d wane in popularity. 

Kebyar was virtually unknown in 1908; by 1919 the style was established. I Nyoman 

Mario, impressed, by it, invented the Kebyar Duduk in 1925. 

'The Kebyar style of 

music and, the new d~nce by Mario swept over the entire island of Bali with a swiftness 

that seemed to mark it as a craze or fad, and possibly a short-lived one'. Variations 

of it, like Janger, did pass away, but 'Kebyar has become the established Balinese' style 

of dance and music. 

It is in this respect that the title of the book is at the same time apt and inappropriate. 

· AlthQugh certain, particularly the most sacred, dances are virtually immutable, 

most Balinese dance forms are in a constant state of adaptation and renewal, 

so that it could be said that Balinese dance is no more in transitioli now than fifty or 

five hundred years .ago. The way fashions change in Balinese dance is remarkable: 

this reviewer reme~bers a village performance of Arja in 1970 as singularly impressive, . 

and when asking about it a.few years later was told it was not performed any more as 

it was no longer popular. This vital nature of Balinese dance, its response to audience 

reaction, is just as striking as the better known features of trance, masks, the Rangda 

and Barong. 

It cannot be said that the book makes for particqlarly easy reading {'Here we 

see a movement from the secular towards the sacred, as a bali-balihan genre becomes a 

wali one') and there are times when the -style is overpowering: 

'In keeping with the multi-media nature, of the Balinese 

performance, a gamelan plays instrumental music for the accompaniment 

of the dancers, while the a capella choir of Kidung singers car-· 

ries on relentlessly in their own corner, without relation to the other 

elements of the performance.' 

Chthonic is a ·favourite word of one of the authors (one suspects deBoer, a 

professor of theatre at the Wesleyan University in Connecticut) and the influence o~ 

Time magazine is not always fortunate ('According to I Nyoman Rembang, Balinese· 

musicologist, .... '). The editing could be improved: on p.121 we are told 'A Dutch 

physician, Jacobs, who visited Bali in 1880 saw a performance ... .' but we have already 

.been informed on p. 99 •Jacobs, a Dutch medical doctor who travelled in Bali in 1881 

on government assignment, reported ... .'. Apart from the indefinite article, the date 

also needs sorting out. The photographs on the whole are excellent, thoush five

REVIEWS 257 

colour plates of batik paintings, in origin Javanese, of dances are superfluous, and why 

in the line drawings only the kendang, suling and gender are illustrated among all the 

musical instruments forming the Balinese gamelan is a mystery. 

These are minor quibbles. The book is attractive, authoritative, informative 

and alas expensive. Whether Balinese dance is any more transitional now than previously 

remains to be seen. Covarrubias in the 30s doubted whether under the impact of 

tourism Balinese culture could remain intact. Half a century later, the authors of 

this volume voice the same doubts, in a period when the trickle of tourists has become 

a deluge. The Balinese ability to adapt and survive is remarkable, and it is devoutly 

to be hoped that they will continue to do so in a transitional and perhaps increasingly 

ke/od world. 


Singapore 

Michael Smithies

Koson Srisang, ed., Perspectives on Political Ethics, an Ecumenical Inquiry (World 

Council of Churches, Geneva, 1983). 

There is no need to introduce the World Council of Churches. As far as the 

present volume, presented by this world organization, is concerned, it is necessary to 

point out, as the editor does in the introduction that the World Council of Churches has 

the mandate "to express the common concern of the churches in the service of human 

need, the breaking down of barriers between people, and the promotion of one human 

family in justice and peace." (p. ix) 

Among the many Units of the WCC, Justice and Service has made, in the past 

decade, many meaningful contributions. Programmes undertaken were e.g. transnational 

corporations, human rights, militarism and disarmament, and the search for a 

just, participatory and sustainable society. Publications of the results of discussions 

and reflections have been appearing continuously. The present volume is the last one, 

resulting from the follow-up of the former programmes kneiwn as "Just, Participatory 

and Sustainable Society" (JPSS). The focussed issue is "political ~thics".: 'l;he volume 

is a collection of papers and reports summarizing discussions, which took place in 

Cyprus, October 1981. It is mentioned clearly that they are notes on the conversation 

rather than a consensus statement. They are meant to explore the issue and work out 

future agenda rather than produce a conclusive document. However, examining especially 

the longest part of the volume on "Report of the Cyprus Consultation", it is a 

"statement", maybe not a consensus or an official one. It is a document. 

And if the 

introductory paper on "Continuing an old discussion in a new context" is taken into 

account, then there should be no 'conclusion" in the absolute sense. Political ethics is 

an old argument. It has to be reexamined and rediscussed as the context continues to 

change. Given this remark, it is meant here thf,lt the importance of any statement is 

not its form, whether it is "official", "conclusive" or not.. What counts should be its 

inspiration and insights which are interrelated to actions and the signs of the time. In 

fact, it is also pointed out that "it is hoped that this initial report will contribute to the 

continuing search for a just, participatory and sustainable society in general and to the 

discussion of political ethics in particular." (p. 16) 

Besides the report of the Cyprus consultation and the introductory or inspirational 

paper of Konrad Raiser, the volume is highlighted also by various contributions 

from different continents: Political ethics in Africa by Aaron Tolen, Reconstruction of 

political ethics in an Asian perspective by Anwar Barkat, Some aspects of political 

morality in the Caribbean by Neville Linton, Political ethics in the European context : 

258

REVIEWS 259 

the ethics of peace by Wolfgang Huber, Political Ethics in Europe (a summary of a 

European dialogue), Morality, politics and violence: a Latin American interpretation 

by Orlando Pals Borda, Aspects of political ethics in the Middle East, Towards an 

ecumenical ethics: a marginal American view by Alan Geyer and political ethics in 

Vanuatu by Fred Timakata. There are added also two other articles as appendices 

on "Towards a method in political ethics" and "Report of the Advisory Committee on 

0 

"The Search for a Just, Participatory and Sustainable Society", 1979. 

Ecumenical political ethics, as .one can observe on the title of all the contributed 

papers mentioned above, has no universal definition. Approaches and methodology 

may be common, but its "content" must depend on or have relevance to the context. 

It is thus commonly understood in principle that the search for such political ethics has 

to move through several areas of inquiry such as the interpretation of the world political 

situation, the understanding of the biblical tradition~ the approaches to political ethics 

and the forms of Christian political witness. These seem to be very important points 

of the consultation. Though shortly reported, these are the core of the whole discussion. 

They are statements which inspired all the following discussions. Given such a 

condensed report, it would be inadequate to make any other summary. In the short 

term, one may compare it with the contextual theology, Catholic theology in Third 

World countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia. It comes from the internal 

reflection of Christians today. We talk of theology since most of the participants of 

the consultation are church leaders or engaged in church· activities. Theology, a 

contextual one, is a reflection of the Christian faith in a given context. A statement 

of wee as quoted in the introduction says: 

"The churches live in the midst of injustice, oppression, waste, 

poverty and deprivation. Very often these evils appear in organized 

forms or are the products of social systems. Very often too Christians 

and Christian communities have become involved in them. But today 

the peoples of the world cry for deliverance. They long for justice and 

freedom. They desire that the world's resources be shared more justly 

and freely. They want to care for the earth and its resources for life 

"abundant" so that it will sustain them and the generations yet to be 

born." (p. x) 

Being Christian today, as ever, one has to bear witness, which must be integral. 

Integrality of witness means that one must not exclude any aspect of life or separate 

on~ from others. Political witness is a duty. "Because the churches are part of the 

political reality, they cannot escape their accountability in the exercise of their own

260 Scri Phongphit 

role within that reality. The Gospel has an inescapable political dimension which 

manifests itself most clearly where it is proclaimed under conditions of extreme oppression·. 

There, the Gospel inspires and sustains the oppressed; the Bible can even become 

a subversive book in the eyes of the oppressor. This is due to the clear bias in the 

biblical witness in favour of the oppressed, the poor, those under domination and 

without power;" (27) 

The option for the poor is not an abstract statement. ·The consultation points 

out the political actions by the churches, thus concretizing their option. Here the 

dilemma of non-violence versus violence comes up again .. The issue has been ta~en up 

by wee for years. "In final analysis, the problem is not violence vs non-violence, 

but how to confront illegitimate powers which create injustice." (p. 31) "It is not 

possible to deal in abstract terms with ~ese questions: the context within which the 

decision on non-violence or violence must be made is of vital importance." (1. 31) 

Again here, as in former statements, priority is set for non-violence. 

A very important point, which is clearly spelt out in the report and which also 

can be seen in all other contributions from different con:tinents, is people's participation. 

The issue is again taken here with the tendency of option for people-centred 

approach of political ethics. Although there are various attempts to unfold the 

meaning of the term "people" it is agreed that " "the people" are not simply all citizens 

of a given political community." (p. 25) More or less they are those "dominated, 

deprived, oppressed and poor." People's participation in politics is an essential factor 

for a more just society. It is furthermore stated that "The text for political ethics is 

the politico-historical life of the people in the context of faith." This implies the · 

approach which turns the understanding of the process of development upside-down. 

It is the people who should decide their own destiny. They should have the opportunity 

to express themselves, their identity. The cultural-political dimension of the people 

is to be taken more seriously. What is often mentioned as "faith in the people" must 

be justified by action. The people, if the possibilities are given, are capable of developing 

themselves and taking part in political decision. As methodology of the search 

for political ethi~, these points are proposed in the consultation: "a) the historical, 

cultural and religious heritage of the people 

b) the contemporary power sti'l:lctures of human society 

c) the commitment of faith to search in hope for the messianic kingdom where 

justice and fullness of humanity (life) will be realized." (39) 

It is thus clear that to take the people ~ore seriously means to have faith. in 

and respect for their historical and cultural background. A political ethics is not

REVIEWS 261 

possible without _people's participation, because political ethics is "fundamentally ethics 

of responsibility," (p. 39) a responsibility not of any one person or one group or one 

class, but of the whole society. 

Perspectives on Political Ethics is not an academic research report. It is 

reflections of experiences from all over the world; experiences of those working not 

only for the people but in a particular way with the people. Actions, and not pure 

speculations, are at the base of all these reflections. One who sincerely wishes a just, 

participatory and sustainable society should not miss this inspirational volume. 

Thai Khadi Research Institute, 

Thammasat University 

Seri Phongphit 

•

OBITUARY 

HOMMAGE A L'INSPIRATEUR 

·oE LA THA.iLANDE MODERNE, PRIDI BANOMYONG 

Le lundi 9 mai, nous avons ete plusieurs centaines-Tha'iland!lis, surtout, mais 

Franc;ais aussi-a nous reunir au Pere Lachaise, pour rendre uil dernier et solennel 

hommage au plus grand homme d'Etat de Ia Thailande moderne, Pridi BANOMYONG, 

mort en exil a Antony il y a quelques jours, a l'age de quatre-vingt deux ans . 

. Cet homoiage, nous le devious a celui qui, il y a cinquante ans, a, engage son 

pays dans un processus de democratisation traverse, depuis, par des tragedies et des 

retours en arriere, mais qui n'en pas mains constitue Ia mutation majeure de Ia Thailaude 

contemporaine. Meme si, malgre l'avion, Bangkok parait encore loin de Paris, 

le rappel de ce fait d'histoire ne saurait nous laisser indifferents, nous autres Franctais. 

En efl'et, c'est a Paris que Pridi BANOMYONG ·fit sa formation juridique et politique, 

puisqu'il vint chez nous entreprendre des etudes de Droit qu'il termina brillamment, en 

recevant le Doctorat en Droit de Ia Faculte du Pantheon. C;est encore a Paris 

qu'impregne de !'heritage de. Ia Revolution de 1789 et influence par ses contacts avec 

les chefs de file de Ia lutte anticoloniale en Asie .(le futur Ho-Chi Minh et Chou En-Lai 

n'etaient-ils pas alors en France?), i1 creera-avec d'autres jeunes Tha'ilandais dont Ia 

plupart frequentaient, comme lui, les Facultes du Quartier Latin -le cercle de reflexion 

et de propositions qui etudiera les moyens de mettre fin a l'immobilisme de l'ordre 

monarchique feodal dans ce que l'on appelait alors le Siam. Le coup d'Etat pacifique 

du 24 juin 1932 recompensera l'audace de l'entreprise, et, d'un jour a l'autre, Pridi 

BANOMYONG et ses amis-formant le Parti du Peuple-se trouveront appeles aux plus 

hautes fonctions de l'Etat. 

Mais -I' experience franc;aise du XIXeme siecle le prouve amplement-il ne suffit 

pas de changer les institutions d'un pays pour y reformer l'ordre des choses. Pridi 

BANOMYONG le savait bien, qui tenta, des le lendemain de Ia revolution democratique, 

de lancer Ia Tbailande sur Ia voie du changement economique et social, en 

preconisant, notamment, une reforme agraire dont }'application eut bouleverse le 

systeme feo.dal existant alors dans Ia campagne siamoise. L'entreprise etait legitime, 

dans un pays oii., a 80%, Ia population etait constituee de ruraux. Bile echoua, 

pourtant, devant Ia resistance acharnee des proprietaires terriens et le leader du Parti 

du Peuple dut reporter Ia mise en. oeuvre de son programme a des jours meilleurs. De 

Ia date l'hostilite et Ia peur que Pridi BANOMYONG inspirera, jusqu'a Ia fin, aux 

conservateurs de Thailande. De Ia date aussi l'estime que n'ont cesse de lui porter, 

depuis, les progressistes de ce pays. 

262

Obituary 263 

Au lendemain de l'anniversaire de !'armistice de 1945, l'hommage rendu a 

Pridi BANOMYONG a ete aussi- en particulier pour les Franc;ais qui y participaientle 

salut a l'homme qui, fidele a ses ideaux democratiques, lutta contre le fascisme japonais 

pendant Ia deuxieme guerre mondiale, apportant ainsi une aide eminente non seulement 

a son pays, mais egalement aux Allies aux prises avec le militarisme japonais. Car-on le 

sai t-la junte alors au pouvoir a Bangkok avait pris fait et cause pour le Japon, dont les 

troupes finiront, avec leur accord, par occuper une grande portion du territoire 

tha'ilandais. A l'immage de l'action menee par Charles de Gaulle pour combattre le 

nazisme, Pridi BANOMYONG creera une Resistance clandestine anti-japonaise, le 

"Mouvement des Thais libres", lequel alignera, a Ia fin du con:flit, quelque 60,000 

hommes. C'est grace a lui que Ia Thailande pourra-a pres !'armistice americanojaponais- 

negocier dans des conditions favorables les traites inegaux que lui avaient imposes 

auparavant les puissances coloniales-Grande-Bretagne et France-alors installees 

en Asie du Sud-Est. 

Si nous avons ete nombreux a dire un dernier adieu a Pridi BANOMYONG, 

c'est encore-et sans doute surtout- parce que celui-ci a su rester, jusqu'a Ia fin, le symbole 

de Ia luHe qui se poursuit en ThaiJande pour une societe plus juste. Au pouvoir 

a Bangkok, en exil a Pekin, puis a Paris, Pridi BANO_MYONG plaida toujours pour un 

socialisme humaniste, ce qui lui a valu haines et rancoeurs, tant du cote des militants 

communistes- qui lui reprochaient sou vent sa moderation-que de la part des conservateurs, 

hostiles a toute reforme. Tous les moyens seront bons pour le deconsiderer : 

taxe de menees subversives contre 1 Ia monarchie dans les annises 30, il verra, a pres Ia 

guerre, les militaires de Phibul SONGKHRAM !'accuser de complicite dans la mort 

du Roi ANAND. 

:Et- pourtant ,....)es adversaires du pere de Ia Thailande mod erne n'ont pu atteindre 

leur objectif. Ecarte de Ia vie politique thallandaise depuis plus de trente ans, Pridi 

BANOMYONG est reste, aux yeux de la plupart de ses concitoyens, le· democrate qui 

avait ouvert a son pays le chemin du progres, le symbole de la moderation et de l'integrite. 

Ill'est reste pour ceux qui l'ont connu, et nombre de Thailandais, de passage a 

Paris, allaient rendre visite au patriarche d' Antony. Fondateur de 1' Universite 

Thammasat de Bangkok- haut lieu de Ia lutte contre 1

ANNUAL REPORTS 

.The Houorary Auditor's Fioaucial Report 

December 31, 1982 and 1981 

We have examined the statements .of assets and liabilities of the Siam Society 

(Under Royal Patronage) as at December 31, 1982 and 1981 and the related statements 

of revenues and expenditures for the years then ended. Our examinations were made 

in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and, accordingly, included 

such tests of the accounting records and such other auditing procedures as we considered 

necessary in the circumstances. 

The accounts of the Society are maintained and the accompanying financial 

statemetlts have been prepared on the cash basis, with adjustments to give effect to 

unsold publications, dues collected in advance and inclusion of provision for depreciation. 

In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, on the 

basis described in the preceding paragraph, the assets and liabilities of the Siam Society 

(Under Royal Patronage) at Dece~ber 31, 1982 and 1981 and its revenues and expenditures 

for the years then ended, applied on a consistent basis. 

YUKTA NA THALANG 

C.P.A. (THAILAND) 

Registration No. 1 

March 18, 1983

THE s:IAM SOCIETY 

STATEMENTS OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES 

AS AT DECEl\HBER 31, 1982 AND 1981 

':\ 

CURRENT ASSETS 

Cash on hand and in banks 

Temporary investments 

Publications for sale 

Other current asset 

Total Current Assets 

ASSETS 

PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT-At 

cost or assigned value less 

accumulated depreciation (Note 1) 

Land 

Buildings 

Furniture, fixtures and office 

equipment 

Transportation equipment 

Total 

LIABILITY AND FUNDS 

In Baht 

I982 198I 

CURRENT LIABILITY 

Dues collected in advance 

301,161 168,35:1 FUNDS 

6,573,199 5,778,98(i Endowment fund: 

350,190 386,17:' Thai Government 

48,000 48,00(~ Members' contribution 

7,272,550 6,363,511! Life membership fund 

Kamthieng Memorial fund 

Revolving fund 

Notes on Custom of Cambodia's fund 

Edwin F. Stanton fund 

1 ]. 

,. 

Carlsb!'rg Foundation fund 

3 

:' Mr. E.G. Groarke fund 

Staff welfare fund (Note 2) 

862,973 906,9l'j Friends of Society fund 

2,084 4,168 

865,061 911,089,: Accumulated excess of revenues 

over expenditures 

Balance, beginning of year 

Excess of revenues over 

expenditures for the year 

Balance, end of year · 

Total Funds 

1982 

50,237 

2,000,000 

323,396 

987,373 

166,131 

101,675 

100,000 

47,834 

10,205 

9,400 

4,000 

3,750,014 

3,711,024 

626,336 

4,337,360 

8,087,374 

In Baht 

1981 

49,365 

2,000,000 

323,396 

915,923 

63,519 

101,675 

51,063 

10,205 

44,435 

4,000 

3,514,216 

3,341,901 

369,123 

3,711,024 

7,225,Z40 

TOTAL ASSETS 

8,137,611 7,274,605 TOTAL LIABILITY AND FUNDS 

8,137,611 

7,274,605 

See accompanying jf\lote to Financial Statements. 

(With Mr. Yukta na T~ang's report dated March 18, 1983)

THE SIAM SOCIETY . 

STATEMENTS OF REVENUES AND EX .. ENDITURES 

FOR THE YEARS ENDED DECEMBER 31, 1982 AND 1981 

1982 

REVENUES 

Interest income 1,135,291 

Members' dues and fees 657,357 

. Sales of publications 233,290 

Donation from H.R.H. Princess Marayart Diskul 

Others-net 441,900 

Total Revenues 2,467,838 

EXPBNDJTURES 

Salaries and bonuses 430,381 

Travel and transportation 352,925 

Cost of publications 244,666 

. Provident funds (Note 2) 197,234 

Electricity and water 134,219 

Depreciation 125,127 

Postage, telephone and telegram 82,749 

Dues and subscriptions 79,342 

Repairs and maintenance 54,726 

Stationery and printing 47,352 

Representation and entertainment 19,562 

Staff. welfare 9,338 

Insurance 9,844 

Miscellaneous 54,037 

Total Expenditures 1,841,502 

EXCESS OF REVENUES OVER 

EXPENDITURES 626,336 

See accompanying Note to Financial Statements. 

In Baht 

(With Mr. Yukta na Thalang's report dated March 18, 1983) 

1981 

893,444 

471,425 

243,621 

3,000 

398,885 

2,010,375 

410,198 

320,749 

282,102 

27,290 

133,651 

138,423 

67,300 

74,256 

29,266 

71,020 

24,669 

9,590 

7,732 

45,006 

1,641,252 

369,123

L PROPERTY AND EQUIPMENT 


NOTES TO FINANCIAL STATEMENTS 

DECEMBER 31, 1982 AND 1981 

The Society has adopted the practice of recording donated properties at 

nominal values. . Because of the nature of the Society's activities, it has not put 

emphasis on establishing the current values of these properties. In the past, the 

Society had obtained a valuation for its land which was quoted at Baht 7.2 million. 

Furniture, fixtures and office equipment are being depreciated by the. declining 

balance method; whereby the depreciation rate of 10%-20% are being applied on the 

net book value at the beginning of each year, while the transportation equipment is 

depreciated by the straight-line method of five years. Depreciation expense amounted 

to Baht 125,127 in 1982 and Baht 138,423 in 1981. 

2. PROVIDENT FUND 

The Society established a funded providen~ fund covering all full-time employees. 

Contributions to.the fund by both members and the Society are based "on 5% of 

the employees' basic salaries. Benefits as defined in the plan, are payable upon 

retirement, death or separation from the Society. 

The provident fund expenses .during the years are composed of: 

Retroactive adjustment for 

provident fund expenses for 

periods prior to January 1, 1981 

Current year's contribution 

Amount reversed from staff welfare fund 

In Baht 

1982 1981 

211,206 

30,409 

(44,435) 

197,234 

27,290 

27,290

Minutes of the Annual General Meeting of the 

Siam Society, Under Royal Patronage 

131 Soi Asoke, Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 

Thursday, 25 March 1982 

The Annual General Meeting terminating the Council year 1981/82 was held 

on Thursday, 25 March 1982 at the Society's Home, and commenced at 8.00 p.m. The 

meeting was attended by 61 members. The following members of the outgoing Council 

were present. 

President 





Honorary Editor 

Honorary Secretary 


Dr. Tem Smitinand 



Mrs. Katherine Buri 


Dr. Chitriya Tingsabadh 

Mr. Francis W.C. Martin 


Mr. Dacre Raikes 

Mrs. Sonia Krug 


Dr. Warren Y, Brockelman 



Dr. Thosaporn Wongratana 

1. Adoption of the Min~tes of the last Annual General Meeting held on 

Thursday, 26 M~rch 1981. 

No comments were raised and the Minutes were adopted as presented. 

· 2. . Presentation of the Annual Report for the Council year 1980/81. 

No questions as comments were raised and the Annual Report was adopted as 

presented. 

3. Presentation of the Financial Statement for 1980/81. 

Mrs. Katherine Buri, the Honorary Treasurer, presented the Financial Statement 

for 1981 and called members' attention to the cost of electricity and which had 

doubled within one year. Further, another 166,835 baht had to be subtracted for the 

staff Welfare Fund and the Society also owed 31,564 baht to the author of Yao Design 

for the publication of a new edition. 

267

268 Annual Repor~s 

A question was raised by Mr. F;G. Groarke who asked that the matter be 

recorded. He recalled that he had offered a sum of Baht 10,000 to the Society as a 

contribution to give assistance to Thai students wishing to join the Society. The offer 

was still open. Mr. Buayporn explained that the matter was raised over a telephone 

call and there was no letter to confirm the offer. Mr. Groarke said he would confirm 

his offer in writing. 

With these comments, the Financial Statement was adopted as presented . 

..,,.· ·., 

4. Election of tbe Honorary Auditor for 1982. 

The outgoing Council proposed the re-election of Mr .. Yukta na Thalang as 

Honorary Auditor. Mr. Yukta na Thalang was re-elected Honorary Auditor. 

5. Election of Correspondiug Members. 

The outgoing Council proposed the election of Professor Yoneo Ishii and Herr 

Volkmar von Zuelhsdorff as Corresponding Membel'S. Prof. Ishii and Herr Volkmar 

von Zuelhsdorff were elected Corresponding Members. 

6. Election of Council for 1982/83. 

a. M.R: Patanachai Jayant was re-elected President. 

b. Dr. Tem Smitinand, Mr. Vivadh na Pombejra and Mr. Sirichai Narumit 

were re~elected Vice-Presidents. 

c. Mrs. Nongyao Narumit was elected Honorary Secretary. 

d. Mrs. Katherine Buri was re-elected Honorary Treasurer. 

e. Dr. Chitriya Tingsabadh was elected Honorary Librarian. 

f. Dr. Tej Bunnag was re-elected Honorary Editor. 

g. Office of "Leader of the Natural History Section" was filled ex-officio by 

Dr. Tem Smitinand. 

. Council members seeking re-election and members proposed as Council 

Members were introduced. 

h. The following were re-elected Ordinary Members of Council: 


Mr. Christopher J.A. Chubb 





Mr. William Sage 


Dr. Thosaporn Wongratana


~69 

The following were elected Ordinary Members of Council: 

Dr. Richard Engelhardt 

Mrs. Hillary Feddersen 

Mr. Saido Ikeya 

Mr. Wilhelm Mayer 

H.E. Mr. William F.M. Schmidt 

Mr. Rolf E. Von Bueren 

7. Any other business. 

a. Mr. Francis W.C. Martin read the Council's recommended change to 

Rule 9. "9. The Annual Subscription for Ordinary Members shall be 

800 baht". 

There was a discussion during which Dr. Tej Bunnag pointed out that the 

financial position of the Society had been far from satisfactory in 1981 and had in fact 

been in difficulties for a number of years. A revisio~ was made in 1981 to retain the 

Baht 500 fee for Ordinary Members while Ordinary Members who would like to 

subscribe to the Journal and the Natural HistOry Bulletin would pay 300 baht and 100 

baht extra respectively. However, it was difficult to make distinctions between nonsubscribing 

an4 .subscribing members and the costs of printing and postage had been 

increasing rapidly. The Society hoped that members would support the change back 

to one subscription rate. The ame~dment to the Rules of the Siam· Society was adopted 

as recommended by the outgoing Council. 

* * * * * * 

After the formal business of the Annual General Meeting, Dr. Prawes Wasi, 

Magsaysay Award winner for Public Service for 1981, gave a lecture on "Bare-Headed 

Doctors". 

The President adjourned the Meeting at 10.45 p.m.

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ADMINISTRATION COMMITTEE 

1982/83 

As in previous years, the Siam Society continued to carry out its main lines of 

activities during the year of 1982, namely the varied programmes of events and 

functions held at the home of the Society as well as the popular excursions both within 

the country and abroad. 

With the help of wider publicity, attendance at our programmes is on the 

increase and excursions are all well-subscribed. 

Notes of our activities which appear in both Thai and English dailies enable 

news of our Society to reach not only our members but also the public at large. 

The installation of c1,1rtains in the hall had considerably improved the sound 

system, whereas the new chairs lend an air of attractiveness to the hall and comfort 

for our audience. 

The Society is still faced 'Yith problems of storage space. Some of its publications 

and books are temporarily stored in various places and are still in need of a nl:'w 

storage site._ It was therefore suggested that the Society build shelves. and proper 

shelter for the books in the open building next to the staff house at the rear of the hall. 

Funds are needed for this project as well as for, the Kamthieog House which 

must have its fence repaired or a new one built. 

In addition to the Society's own programmes of regular lectures, film shows 

and other events, our air-conditioned hall with its improved sound system was more 

widely used by members and non-members alike for such occasions as receptions, 

exhibitions, dinners, teas and wedding parties. . 

Six tables and 160 chairs for use in the hall were purchased as the number of 

chairs were found insufficient for the evening programmes when lectures/and performances 

and dinner parties take place simultaneously. 

MEMBERSHIP: 

Membership in the Siam Society as of the end of December, 1982 was 1,244 in 

the following categories : 375 life members, 845 ordinary members and 24 students 

members. Mr. F. Gregory Groarke, one of the Society's members donated a sum of 

10,000.00 Baht as financial assistance to qualified students who applied for student 

member ship. Thus the number of student membership is hoped to increase. 

To promote its membership, letters'have been sent to Diplomatic Missions in 

Bangkok, The American Chamber of Commerce, The British Club and The Foreign 

Correspondents Club, inviting their respective members to join the Society. 

270.


STAFF:. 

Mr. Jannarong Mekindharangkura, Assistant Administrative Secretary, resigned 

at the end of his probation period in May, 1982. 

Mrs. Amaraporn Anantato, Curator for the Kamthieng House resigned to 

further her studies in November, 1982. 

Miss Surat Nujcharern was employed as Assistant Librarian in May, 1982. 

All in all, the Committee is satisfied with the staff's discharge of their duties. 

The Administrative Secretary and other members of the staff have been working with 

conscientiousness and dedication throughout the year having willingly contributed 

their own time outside office hours to help in all aspects of the Society's activities at 

its home and on excursions. 

At present the Society has 13 personnel on the staff. 

The Employment Rules and Regulations for the employees of the Siam Society 

approved in principle by the Council in 1980 had been revised and made effective 

since September, 1982. 

The Revised Providence Funds for the Society's employees were proposed and 

approved by the Council at the 775th Council Meeting in 1982. 

TAX OBLIGATIONS: 

The Society paid a new rate of land tax at 25,156.00 Baht for 1982 after an 

appeal tol the authorities concerned for favourable reconsideration in view of the 

Society being a non-profit body. 

Beginning January 1983 a tax of 5% will be levied on all income except donations 

and membership fees. Since the Siam Society is a non-profit institution and the 

Society performs an important cultural task in Thailand in various fields e.g. promoting 

the arts, publishing new research, preserving natural and cultural heritage in many 

ways as well as encouraging students and other groups to further these goals, the 

Society will·continue, as it has done in the past, to negotiate with the tax authorities 

with a view to bringing about a tax waiver or reduction. 

HONORARY POSTS: 

In order to relieve the heavy work load on tlieHonorary Secretary, the Council 

has appointed Mrs. Virginia M. Di Crocco as Assistant Honorary Secretary. 

INSURANCE: 

In the past the property of the Siam Society had been underinsured. Through 

Mr. Vivadh na Pombejra, Vice-President, an intermediary re-assessment of value and 

arrangement with the Samakki Insurance Company are being worked out to have the 

Society's property insured at a new concessionary rate.

272 Auual Reports 

DONATIONS AND GIFTS: 

Mr. Thawisak Wiriyasiri, a free lance photographer, donated to the Society the 

16 mm. colour film on "The Royal Cremation of H.:M. King Anandamahidol", (Rama 

VIII), which is now being processed for use in video cassette form. 

With the cooperation of Studio 1 0-the Society took the initiative to produce 

a 1! hour-long video tape on "Bangkok Bicentennial and 150th Anniversary Celebration 

of Bangkok" to be projected for the benefit of its members and the public at a later 

date. · 

M.L. Tritosyut Devakul, a well-known architect, off.ered. as a gift to the Society 

a large Phra Bot painting on cloth, approximately 7 by 7 feet in size, provided that 

the Society handle and hang it appropriately. The painting is over 150 years old and 

of great value. The Council decided to collectively contribute towards the cost of 

framing the painting. 

Mrs. Nongyao Narumit, Honorary Secretary, has given to the Society 12 torch 

lights for use at evening parties on the .lawn of K.amthieng House. 

VISITORS: 

On 27th November 1982, Sir Charles Throughton, Chairman of the British 

Council, and Lady Throughton attended a tea party hosted by the British Council 

Scholars' Association on the lawn of the Kamthieng House. The President and a few 

Council Members were invited to attend the party. 

Mr. Terry Bigalke, Assistant Representative of the Ford Foundation visited the 

Society on June 11, 1982. 

Mrs. Hillary Feddersen, Council Member concurrently member of the Administration 

Committee, left the country. 

COMMITTEE- MEMBERS: 





Mr. Chri$topher J.A. Chubb 

Mrs .. Virginia Di Crocco 

Mr. Euaypom Kerdchouay 

Chairman 

Co-Chairman 

Secretary

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE 

. 1982/83 

This year 1982-1983 may be considered a good year financially for the Siam 

Society due to the high rate of interest of 16% on its assets, arising from the sale of the 

Siam Cement Shares some years ago. 

On the other hand, caution is neces~ary for the year 1983-1984 due to the 

lower interest rate and the increase in our basic expense such as- 

Baht Baht 

Insurance 9,843.65 to 17,740.00 

Land tax 

9,300.00 to 25,156 00 after an appeal 

Cost of printing the Journal 100,000.00 to 165,000.00 

Cost of printing the Natural History Bulletin 60,000.00 to 70,000.00 

These expenses have to be met. Apart from this there is the need to replace 

our flimsy bamboo wall between the Shell Pump and the very very dry wood of 

Kamthieng House with a brick fence. 

COMMITTEE MEMBERS: 


Mr. C.J.A. Chubb 





Assistance Honorary Treasurer 

273

ANNUAL ~EPORT OF THE LIBRARY COMMITTEE 

1982/83 

LIBRARY COLLECTION: 

For the year 1982 the Library had 421 titles added to its collection. Out of 

these, 257 titles were in Thai. The total number of the Library's holding is now 

16,846 volumes, out of which 9,508 are in foreign languages. 

DONATIONS: 

There wer~ 148 titl~s donated to the library, of which about SO titles were in 

.Thai. Donors were both individuals and institutions. One of the most outstanding 

gifts was a collection of thes~s and research work in the Tllai language, in the· field 

of arts and culu~re, p~esented by .the Jim Thompson Foundation, along with a shelf to 

house the material. 

COOPERATION PROGRAMME: 

In addition to exchange programmes with local and foreign institutions and the 

inter-library loan service, the Library has cooperated with the National Archives for 

an in-service training programme. 

PERSONNEL: 

0Qe Assistant was employed in 1982. During the past year t];te library was 

grateful to have Mrs. Bonnie Davis as a library volunteer, who d~voted her· time to 

helping w:ith foreign correspondence, as well as checking an~ indexing the Bangkok 

Times newspaper for microfilming. 


Dr. Chitriya Tingsabadh 

Mrs. Chitra Pranich 

Mrs. Bonnie Davis 


Mrs. Yuvadee Pitak 

Chairman 

Secretary 

2:74

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SECTION 

1982/83 

EXCURSION: ·· ·· 

~ During the fiscal year 7 excursions were arranged by the section as follows: 

22-26 July Two days and two nights at Angthong Marine 

1-4 October 

30 Dec.-3 Jan. 

3-6 December 

11-14 February 

25 Feb.-2 March 

4-9 March 

National Park. 

··Hike to Kun Tan National Park. 

Hike to Phu Luang National"Park. 

Hil~tribe Trek. 

Hike at Khao Yai National Park. 

Excursion to Tarutao National Park. 

Excursion to Tarutao National Park. 

FILM SHOW: 

Four film shows entitled, "The Last Roundup" and "Osprey", "The Voyage 

of Charles Darwin" Parts 1-7, "The Making of Mankind" Parts 1-7 and "The 

Waterhole" and "Amate-The Great Fig Tree", were shown during the fiscal year. 

LECTURES: 

Two lectures were organized at the Society's Home: "The Impatiens of Thailand" 

by Prof. Dr. T. Shimizu on 16 September 1982, and "Studies on Gibbons of 

Thailand" by Dr. Warren Y. Brockelman on 15 February 1983. 

NATURAL HISTORY BULLETIN: 

During the fiscal year the section fulfilled its commitment to publish NHB vol. 

30 Nos. 1 and 2 containing original articles pertaining to the biological sciences of S.E. 

Asia with particular emphasis on Thailand. 

To bring the NHB up to professional standards, an Editorial Board has been 

organised consisting of the following members : 



Dr. Jeremy Y. Raemaekers 

Dr. Thawatchai Santisuk 

Mr. · Jeffrey A. Sayer 


215 

'' 

Editor in Chief 

Managing Editor 

Reader in Zoology 

Reader ~ Botany 

Reader in Conservation 

Reader in Ichthyology·

276 



Mr. William Mayer 


Mrs. Katherine Burl 

Dr. Thosapom Wongratana 

H.E. Mons. W.F.M. Schmidt 


Leader of the Natural History Section 

and Honorary Editor 

Deputy Leader 

Conservation Chairman and Co-editor 

Financial Advisor

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE 

1982/83 

During the fiscal year, the following books were published by the Society: 

- Kamthieng House by Sonia Krug and Shirley Duboff. 

- The Reconstruction of Rama I of the Chakri Dynasty by Prince Dhani 

Nivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh (reprinted); and stocks of the following 

formerly-printed titles remain available:· 

- The Lofty Sanctuary of Khao Pbra Vihar by John Black. 

- Monuments of the Buddha in Siam by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab. 

- Articles Reprinted from the Journal of the Siam Society by Prince Dhani 

Nivat. 

- Chulakantamangala: The Tonsure Ceremony as Performed in Siam by G.B. 

Gerini 

7 Wat Phra Yiin Reconsidered by A.B. Griswold. 

- The Siamese Theatre: . A Collection of Reprints from the Joun:tal of the 

Siam Society by Mattani Rutnin. 

- ·Gardening in Bangkok by Pimsai Amranand. 

- In Memoriam Phya Anuman Rajadhon edited by Tej Bunnag and Michael 

Smithies. 

- The Religion of the Hitlong Njua by Nusit Chindarsi. 

- Collected Articles in Memory of H.R.H. Prince Wan Waithayakorn. 

- Old Bridges of Bangkok by Sirichai Narumit. 

- The Orchids of Thailand by Gunnar Seidenfaden and Tem Smitinand. 

- Three Thai Poets by Angkarn Kalayanapongs, Naowarat Pongpaibool and 

Witayakorn Chiengkul 

- A History of Wat Phra Chetupon and Its Buddha Images by K.I. Matics. 

- The Ceramic Wares of Siam by Charles Nelson Spinks. 

- The World of Buddhism: a Pictorial Presentation by John Blofeld. 

- 55 chants d' amour kmong blanc by Jean Mottin. 

- Yao Design of Northern Thailand by Jacqueline Butler-Diaz. 

In January, the Publications Committee was re-organized with Mr. Richard 

Engelhardt as its chairman, with the view to re-vitalizing the Society's traditional role 

as publisher of significant scholarly books on Thailand. 


Dr. Richard A. Engelhardt 


Mrs. Virginia Di Crocco 


Chairman 

277

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE KAMTHIENG HOUSE COMMITTEE 

1982/83 

GENERAL: 

The Kamthieng House_ received more visitors during 1982 than in previous 

years, even though the number of visitors was still not as high as the Committee expected. 

Plans about contacting tour agents to bring tour groups in were- discussed, but 

actions were postponed, as a sizable amount of investment will be involved to get ready 

for large groups ofvisitors: (i.e. construction of extra W.C., etc.) 

CURATOR: 

Mrs. Amarapom.Anantho ~orked uptil the end-of December 1982, when she 

resigned to join her family up-pauntry. , New curator is being sought through contacts 

at the National Museum and the Sllpakorn University. . . 

DONATIONS: 

Contributions -from the 'East-West Seminar, Japan, continued to come in 1982 

the amount was $4,300. The salary of the curator was paid out of this sum. 

Donations _fro~ va_rioua parties who came: to utilize the house and its grounds 

occurred at intervals~ and ainounted to approximately 15,000 baht by the end of 1982. 

Admission fees .to the_house averaged about l,2QO baht a month. 

PUBLICATION:: . · 

A book on .Kamthieng House by Sonia-Krug and Shirley Duboff came out in 

April 1982. This well-researched and detailed book repla~d the former guidebook 

which was about to go out of print. Even .though a bit high-priced, the book sold 

steadily to visitors who sought proper reference on the subject. 

GUIDED TOURS: 

In January 1983, a:n agreement was made with the National Museum Volunteers 

Group to organize ·guided touts of ihe Kamthieng Hou~e · in Bngli~h on every 

Saturday morning. A trial tour was made on 22 Janu~ry 1983 and the regular tour 

~tarted on S February. All the guides are volUn.teers, under the cooperation of the 

National Museum Volunteers Group. 

.. ' 


Mr. Sirichai Nanimit 



Mr. Nondha Buranasiri 

Mr. Sadao Ikeya 

Chairman 

278

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE·ART AND CULTURE COMMTTEE 

1982/83 

Since all funds available for use in the making of small grants to worthy 

projects outside the Society's direct control were exhausted at the end of 1981 no grants 

could be made until acquisition of additional funds in the last quarter of the 

current year. The Art and Culture Committee was nevertheless able to assist in 

the coordination of certain important temple mural preservation projects on behalf of 

donors. Two programmes of northeastern dance and ~usic were presented at the 

Society and two separate groups of visiting Malaysian dancers and musicians were 

presented at schools, colleges and universities in the immediate Bangkok area and in 

South Thailand; one group also gave a performance at the Society. A film of Beijing 

Opera, with an accompanying lecture, was also screened at the Society. A bus load of 

members attended a performance of Nang Yai, accompanied by supper, in a village 

outside Rayong on a tour which was chie:Oy devoted to the minor industries of the East 

Coast. During the trip, participants also had the opportunity to be present at a seance 

eonducted by a "rusee" at a temple outside Cholburi. 

These activities are reported in greater detail below:' 

MURAL PRESERVATION: 

Wat Bangkhanun, Nont~aburi, with funds provided by Siam Cement Company; 

Wat Rakhang, Thonburi, also assisted by. Siam Cement Company; Wat Bangyikhan, 

Bangkok, with funds provided by the European Asian Bank as their Ra~tanakosin 

Bicentenary Celebration contribution . 

. The Committee for the Survival of 'rha,i Murals was inactive thrQughout the 

year as leading members have departed, It is hoped that it will be reactivated during 

1983. 

THAI DANCE AND MUSIC·: 

The ~7th of J.anuary 1982 saw the Society presept a programme cpnsisting 

mainly of spirit dances such as the Thai Da~'s "Ra'm Chong Pang" exor~ising dance 

and the medium's dance "Semg Nang Kwak" which had been researched in their region 

and pres~nted J:>y the Teachers Training College of Loei. Also included were "Fon 

Khoon Larn", a dance of propitiation in honour of Mae Phosop, the. rice goddess, 

amongst oth~rs. . . These proved to be a series of interesting dances which it is difficult 

' 

to see outsid~ their region and only then on special occasions. 

279

280 Annual Reports 

The northeast was represented again when, on lith November, the Wong Gaen 

Esarn Group of the Teachers Training College of Mahasarakam, under the leadership 

of Acharn Pornchai Srisarakam, came to the Society and gave a very different programme 

with ponglang, kaen and drums beating a brisk and up-to-date beat. Some dances 

such as the "Serng Kao Poon" (Khanom Chine Dance) and "Serng Koop" (Frogcatching 

Dance) were modern, barely a year or two old, having been choreographed by 

Acharn Pornchai in the northeastern tradition since the formation of the group, but 

one dance of historical interest was the "Fon Porn Suwan" which came originally from 

Laos where it was known to have been used to escort and bid farewell to the Emerald 

Buddha when the then Chao Phraya Chakri took the sacred image from Vientiane and 

brought it to King Taksin's new capital at Thonburi in 1779 AD. 

The dance traditions of the central plains were represented by a just-extant 

group of ageing nang yai dancers on the outskirts of Rayong. The Wat Ban Don team 

of dancers and musicians, under the leadership of Khru Praew Kaesarat, took their 

giant leather puppet figures (many of which were in a sadly deteriorated condition) out 

of storage for one night to give an appreciative group of Society members a performance, 

accompanied by an excellent supper, of the Ramakien episode in which 

Hanuman is sent to arrest Mongkol and Lop. Whilst the music itself was somewhat 

debased, as the musicians had lost the ability to play many of the correct na pat 

melodies associated with stage movements, the enthusiasm of the dancers and players, 

and the happy ambience associated with a live performance near an upcountry village 

more than compensated for the technical defects. 

THAI-MALAYSIAN CULTURAL EXCHANGE: 

Maintaining a now annual tradition Kesuma, the cultural troupe of Universiti 

Malaya, visited Thailand for two weeks in August under the joint auspices of Srinakharinwirot 

University at Prasarnmit and the Society. The 35 members of the troupe 

hired their own bus in Haadyai and gave a programme at SWU Songkhla, two each at 

Benjama Rajutit School in Rajburi and Karnchana Nukroh School in Kanchanaburi 

before coming into Bangkok to perform at Wat Boworn School. One programme in 

Lopburi opened their second week before they returned to the Bangkok region and 

entertained students' at Wat Kesia Apirom, Nonthaburi, Sathit Kasetsart University, 

Sathit Prasarnmit and the Phra Nakorn Teachers Training College. They also gave a 

show at the Society and were featured in a TV show on Channel 5. One final appearance 

in the regular Friday evening programme at the Phanfa branch of the Bangkok 

Bank brought their two weeks sojourn in Thailand to a happy conclusion.


Thus inspired by the Malaysian troupe a return visit was made by train to 

Kuala Lumpur and PenaQg by the 40 strong Folk Dance and Music Troupe from 

Srinakharinwirot University:, Prasarnmit for 10 days in October. 

These two cul~ural exchange visits proved to be so popular that a. second 

Malaysian dance troupe asked if they could also visit Thailand on the same basis (i:e. 

hosts provide board and lodging and, if necessary, transport). The semiprofessional 

Kumpulan Budaya Seri Wilayah was accepted in mid-December and gave many much 

appreciated performances until their departure just before the New Year. During those 

two weeks, which opened with a performance at the Ousit Zoo, they entertained 

a largely student audience with two shows each in Utong, Nonthaburi and Pakret as 

well as at Wat Rakhang in Thonburi. They also performed for the Teachers Training 

Colleges of Phra Nakom and Chombung in Rajburi. Seri Wilayah gave a performance 

under the auspices of the Fine Arts Department in the·regular Sunday evening 

cultural show at Sangkeet Sala in the National Museum compound and they too were 

presented in the Siam Boritat programme of TV Channel 5. 

BEIJING OPERA: 

By courtesy of the embassy of the Peoples' Republic of China, we were able to 

borrow their film of the opera "Mu Gui Ying". A scene by scene· deScription of the 

story was prepared by Mr11. Yi-Ming Chang prior to the showing at which she also 

delivered a short lecture outlining the history and some of the traditions of Beijing 

Opera. Despite the length of the film, some 21 hours, an interested audience was 

present throughout the two halves of the screening during the break in which Mrs. 

·Chang delivered her lecture. It is hoped to screen other quality films in this genre as 

and when the PRC embassy confirms that they are available. 

THAI DANCE AND MUSIC IN EUROPE: 

On account of the Rattanakosin Bicentennary which put great pressure on a 

lnajority of sponsors to support local cultural endeavours it was deeided not to promote 

a European to~ in 1982. Plans are however firming 11P for a troupe to travel to 

England and Greece in July/August 1983 if adequate sp~sorship is forthcoming. 




Dr; Piriya Krairiksh 

Mn, Vir~ni~ P~ C~occo 

Chairman 

Co-Chairman

ANNUAL REPORT OF THE PROGRAMME & TRAVEL 

COMMITTEE 1982/83 

Last year we arranged our programme and travel to mark the bicentennial 

celebration of Bangkok as the Royal Capital City with a variety of events focussed on 

the Rattanakosin Era. 

Our success was due largely to the help of the Nat1,1ral History Section as well 

as the Arts and Culture Committee, which helped to pr~sent interesting lectures, 

performances and study tours. The money raised by this committee was spent _to.. help 

defray the cost incurred in running our Society, as membership fees ll.lone w~re 

insufficient to maintain the Society's activities. We thank our members and friends 

who supported us all along. Some of the money raised by our committee has. also been 

donated to worthwhile causes, especially in conservation of our national heritage, for 

instance, our support of the Ho Trai at Wat Rakbang fro~ the beginning bore it11 fruit 

when its restoration ·was completed and it was opened formally by HRH the Princess 

Maha Chakri Sirindhom on behalf on His Majesty. This was in .. connection with the 

Bicentennial celebration of Bangkok, as the Ho Trai was the original home of H.M. 

King Rama I, Founder of the Dynasty. . 

Simil&rly, the Association of Siamese Architects singled out Wat Thongnopkhun 

lis the best example of a contemporary Thai temple, well conserved for its artistic value. 

The abbot received a gold medal ~rom HRH the Princess Maha Chakri . 

. These two Wats were examples of those our Society supported technicaiiy and 

financially.· Support made possible by funds raised-by the programme and travel 

committee. 

We hope to carry on the good work in the year to come. Al)y· suggestion, or 

criticism from our members are, of course, most welcome. 

Schedule of events during 19.82/83 : 

27 March 

30 March 

1 April 

S April 

· Mr. Euaypom Kerdchouay, Administrative ·S.ecretary, led an 

EXCURSION TO SUPANBURI PROVINCE. 

Mr.· F. W.C. Martin, Member of Council, lectured on SOME 

SIAMESE AND SOME SCOTSMEN: THE EMBASSY OF 

DR. JOHN CRAWFURD TO THE COURT OF SIAM IN 1822. 

Video "THE LAST PLACE ON BARTH PART 3 and 4" was 

shown. 

The observation of "ROYAL BARGES PROCESSIONS",

Annual" Reports 283 

20 April 

22 April 

27 April 

2 May 

6-10 May 

11 May 

15-16 May- 

22-23 May 

27 May 

1 June 

10 June 

15 June 

Dr. Ronald Skeldon, Population Division, ESCAP,lectured on 

OF REFUGE: CULTURES ON WANE", 1st 

series on LADAKH AND THE WESTERN HIMALAYA. 

-·~REGIONS 

M.R. Patanachai Jayant, President of the Siam Society, 

·· · lectured on KING PRAJADHIPOK AND THE REVOLU- 

. - TION OF 1932 and the showing of the film 150th ANNIVER 

SARY ·CELEBRATIONS OF BANGKOK AND KING 

PRAJADHIPOK'S CO~ONATION 1925. 

Dr. Ronald Skeldon, Population Division, ESCAP, lectured on 

"REGIONS OF REFUGE: CULTURES ON WANE", 2nd 

series on THE QUECHUA OF SOUTHERN PERU. 

¥.R. Doangchai Chumbala, led an EXCURSION TO VISIT 

MONUMENTS AND PLACES DESIGNED OR DECORA 

TED BY H.R.H. PRINCE NARISRANUVADTIVONGSE. 

Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac, Member of Council, led an EXCUR 

SION TO UBOL RATCHATANI AND YASOTHORN 

. PROVINCES .. 

Dr. Seri Pongpit, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University, 

introduced a Thai film entitled THE FRINGE OF 

SOCI)3TY. 

Mr. Euaypom Kerdchouay, Administrative Secretary, led an 

EXCURSION TO AMPHAWA, PHOTARAM, RATCHA 

BURI AND PRACHUAP KHIRIKHAN. 

Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes, Member of Council, led an EXCUR 

SION TO CHONBURI AND RAYONG WITH NANG 

YAI PERFORMANCE. 

Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa, Member. of Council, lectured .on BUD 

DHADASA BHIKKHU AND FIFTY YEARS OF SUAN 

MOKH. 

Mr. Paul Quinn~Judge, a freelance Britist journalist, lectured 

on ANGKOR WAT AND ANGKOR THOM . 

. . Mr. Asghar Ali Engineer; Director, Institute of Islamic Studies, 

Bombay, lectured. on ISLAM AND CONTEMPORARY 

PROBLEMS IN ASIA .. 

Video Show on BICENTENNIAL· FESTIVITIES AND 150th 

~NNIVERSARY CBtEBRATlONS OF BANGKOK;>·-: ·

284 

19 June 

22 June to 6 July 

24 June 

27 June 

2-7 July 

27 July 

10 August 

15 August 

20-22 August and 

27-29 August 

25 August 

31 August 

4-5 September 

7 Septemb~r - - 

Annuat. Reports 

Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, Member of Council, led a TOUR TO 

VISIT THE GRAND PALACE. AND THE TEMPLES OF 

THE EMERALD BUDDHA. · 

· Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac, Member of Council, led an EXCUR 

SION TO KASHMIR AND LADAKH. 

Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Thai 

Khadi Research Institute, Thammasat University, introduced 

the Thai film entitled THE KING OF THE WHITE ELE 

PHANT. 

Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay, Administrative Secretary, led a 

group for. A SUNDAY WALK IN ORCHARDS AND VISIT 

to TEMPLES IN THONBURI. 

Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay; Administrative Secretary, led an 

EXCURSION TO CHIANGMAI, MAE HONGSORN, LAM 

PHON, LAMPANG, PHRAE AND NAN PROVINCES. 

Miss Wilaiwan Kanittanand, Department of Linguistics, 

Thammasat University and Mr. James Placzek, of Centre of 

Asian Studie~· University of British Columbia, lectured on THE 

IMPACT OF MODERNIZATION ON A TRADITIONAL 

BELIEF-KHWAN. 

Dr. Theodore Panayotoli, Agricultural.Deve1opment Council 

and Faculty of Economics, Kasetsat University, lectured on 

THE POVERTY AND STATE OF NATURAL RESOUR 

CES: IS RAPID ECONOMIC GROWTH DESIRABLE OR 

EVEN SUSTAINABLE? 

Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac, Member of Council, led an EXCUR 

SION TO LOPBURI. 

Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay, Administrative Secretary, led an 

EXCURSION TO THE RESERVOIR NORTH BHUMIBOL 

DAM. 

Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes, Member of COuncil, introduced the 

MUSIC AND DANCE FROM MALAYSIA. 

Slide Show : A SHOW OF SLIDES TAKEN BY MEMBERS 

DURING THE EXCURSION TO KASHMIR AND LADAKH. 


EXCURSIONTOPONGTUK, PHRATAEN DONG RANG, 

THAM TANLOD IN KANCHANABURI PROVINCE. 

- ·Miss Chusiri Chamorlitnan. FacultY of Arts, Silpakorn Univer- 

•

ADD.aar Reports. 28·5 

10-13 September 

14 September 

18-19 September 

28 September 

8-11 October 

15-17 October 

19 October 

24 October 

26 October 

11 November 

21 November 

23 November 

28 November . 

sity, lectured on SOME NEW COMMENTS ON. THE 

LOCATION OF THE ANCIENT .PORT OF PATTANI. 

Mr. H~nri Pagau-Clarac, Member of Council, led an EXCUR 

SION TO UDONTHANI 'AND. NONGKHAI PROVINCES. 

Video Show : The film entitled· ONE WAY TICKET TO 

HUA LAMPONG was showrt · · ··· 

Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, 1\{ember of Council, led an EXCURSION 

TO NAKHON.PATHOM, RATCHABURI AND PHET 

CHABURI. 

Mrs. Yi-Ming Chan~, Member of the Society, introduced a 

film on a Peking Opera "MU KUI YANG". 

Mr. Henri Pagau-Clarac, Member of Council, led an 

EXCURSION TO PHRAE AND NAN. 


EXCURSION TO THE RESERVOIR NORTH OF BHUMI 

BOL DAM. 

Mr. John Blofeld, expert on Chinese Buddhism, lectured on 

SOME VIEWS ON THE FUTURE OF CHINESE CULTURE. 


EXCURSION TO. VISIT. ~URAL PAINTINGS IN TEM 

PLES IN THONBURI. 

Mrs. Natalie V. Robinson, lectured on BENCHARONG 

CERAMICS. 

Miss Paijong Laisakul, Mr. Jeffrey Sng, Mr. Kamsing· Srinok 

and Mr. Thepsiri Suksopa, introduced the film entitled TONG 

PAN followed with film show and supper. 


EXCURSION TO VISIT TEMPLES AND OTHER SITES 

OF INTEREST ALONG NAKHORN CHAISRI RIVER. 

Mr. Sidhijai Tanphiphat, National Housing Authority, and Mr. 

Paul Chamniaq, Director of Building Together. Association, 

lectured and introduced a film on LAND-SHARING 

SCHEMES FOR HOUSING THE POOR. 

Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay, Administrative Secretary, led 

members to visit CLARAC'S HOME AND SOME TEMPLES 

'IN THONBURI.

. 281) 

1 December 

9-13 December 

14 December 

21 December 

30 Decem~er to 

3 January 

14-17 January 

17 January 

27 January 

8 February 

13 February and 

5 March 

17 February 

l·March· 

Annuaf:Repor.ti 

Profe8sor Gerald Drager, OBE, of the University of Sussex, 

. JJ.K., lectured on THE INFLUENCE OF KING ASOKA 

AND .BUDDHISM ON INTERNA.TIONAL LAW,, ... ; ..... 

Mr. Euaypbrn Ker4ohouay, Adaunistrative Secretary, led an 

. EXCURS~9N . JO . PID PHI DON AND PHJ. .PHI .LJ.J 

ISLANDS, 

Mr. Sulak ~ivaraksa, Me.~ber of Council, lectured on HUE, 

. THE tASf .. RbYAL CAP1TAL OF VIETNAM AND .ITS 

ROYAL MAUSOLEUMS:. 

Mr. Sirichai Narumit, Vice~President of the Society, lectured 

on THE OLD BRIDGES OF BANGKOK. 


.EXCURSION TO SONGKHLA, PATTANI, YALA AND 

NARATHIWAT PROVINCES. .· .. 

H.S.H. Prince Subhadradis. Diskul, Rector of· Silpakom 

University, led an EXCURSION TO PHITSANULOK, 

KAMP.HAENGPHET, SUKHO'J'HAI .. AND SI SATCHA- 

NALAI. . · . ·- 

Mr. Ian Glover, the Instiiute of Archaeology, London, lectured 

on ·ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION AT BAN:',DON 

· TA PHBT: ... ITS SIGNIFICANOB ... FOR THAI IDSTORY. 

Mr. Dacre F.A.- Raikes,' Member of Council,· introduced 

MUSIC AND DANCE FROM . PHBTCHABOON PRO 

VINCE. 

:Mr. Qacre F.A, .:aaikes, Member of Council, lee.tured on 

WQRKING IN .TEAK FOREST 30 YEARS AGO. 

H.S.H. Prine~ Subhadradis .. J;>iskul, Rector of Silpakorn 

UJ,~iversity, led a tour tQ STUDIES. OF THAI RA~AKIAN 

(RAMAYANA) FROM THE MURAL PAINTINGS. 

Dr. Magdalene V. DewaJ-1, South Asia Institute, Department of 

Ethnology/Archaeology, Heidelberg, lectured on ARCHAEO 

LOGY IN SOUTHWEST CHINA AND LATE BRONZE 

AGE. SOCiETY· OF HIGHLAND SOUTH EAST ASIA: 

SOME CURRENT 'ISSUES IN THE LIGHT OF RECENT 

··FINDS. 

·. · Dt .. Hans Ulrich Luther, Lecturer at Thammasat Unh.tersity, 

· lecfuted on. DEVELOPMENT POLICIES IN LAOS AFTER 

·1975.


12-13 March 

24 March 

Dr. Piriya Krairiksh, Member of Council, led an EXCURSION 

TO PHNOM WAN, PHIMAI, PHNOM RUNG AND 

MUANGTAM. 

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING-ELECTION OF COUN 

. CIL followed by lecture and slides show br Dr. Suraphol 

Sudara, Department of Marine Biology, Chulalongkom 

. University, on, REPORT ON THE ENVIRONMENTS, RAT 

TANAKOSIN ERA 200. 


Mr. Sulak Sivaraksa: 



Mr. Siricbai Narumit 




Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay 

Chairman 

Co-Chairman 

MemQer 

Member 

Member 

Member 

Member 

Secretary

LIST OF PAID-UP M·EMBERS, 1983 

*DENOTES LIFE MEMBER 

*Mr. Hisashi Abe 

Mrs. Vicki J. Abella 

* Mom Kobkaew Abhakara Na Ayudhya 

* Prof. Arthur S. Abramson 

Mr. Klaus M. Ackermann 

* Mr. A.C.S. Adams 

Mr. A. Peter Adcock 

* Mrs. V.T. Adloff 

Mr. Osamu Akagi 

Mr. M.V. Akbar 

*Mr. A. Alexander 

*Mr. P.J. Alexander 

Mr. Peter D. Alexander-Marrack 

Miss Christine Alfsen 

*Mr. Anvar T. Aliakbar 

Mrs. Catherine B. Allen 

*Dr. Charles T. Alton 

Mr. Chalie Amatyakul 

* Mr. Pricha Amatyakul 

* Dr. B. Ammundsen 

*Mr. Pinglasvasti Amranand 

* Mr. Piyasvasti Amranand 

Mr. Prok Amranand 

*Mr. Vidusvasti Amranand 

Mr. Diethard Ande 

Ms. Annabel Anderson 

Miss Donna J. Anderson 

*Dr. Douglas D. Anderson 

Mr. Hans G. Anderson 

*Mr. Hiroshi Ando 

Mrs. Josefine Andorfer 

* H.B. Mr. G. Andre 

Mr. David I. Andrianoff 

Mr. Marco Andrighetto 

• Miss Mary Anglemyer 

Mr. Dusadee Angsumaytankoon 

Miss Boonchua Ankapradit 

*Prof. Edward M. Anthony 

Mr. William Aoustia 

*Mr. Yoji Aoyagi 

* Mr. Hachiro Arai 

Mr. Alain Archambault 

Mr. C. Archaimbault 

Mr. Ray Archer 

Mr. H. Gunther Arlt 

Mr. Charles H. Armstrong 

Dr. Woraphant Arthayukti 

* Mr. Charles D. Arthur 

* Yehuda Assia, 

Mrs. Dorothy C. Asumendi 

Dr. Phanupong Asvakiat 

Mr. Siva Asva Asvakiat 

Miss Ratami Athirakool 

*Mr. Kim Atkinson 

*Mr. Bunchana A~thakorn 

* Mr. B. Atthakom 

Mr. John B. Ault 

Mrs. Khy Hlahla Aung 

Mrs. Betty M. Avery 

*Prof. Tsuneo Ayabe 

Mr. Liam Ayudhrij 

Mrs. Jacqueline Bader 

Miss Kathleen Badger 

Mr. John H. Baines 

Dr. Christopher Baker 

* Mr; Michael H. Baker 

* Dr. R. Balakrishna 

* Mr. Daroon Balasiri 

~88


289 

Mr. John Michael Ball 

*Mr. Dieter-Mafia Balzar 

* Miss Banchop Bandhumedha 

• Mr. Dharmadasa Banij 

Mr. Dusit Banijbatana 

* Prof. P.V. Bapat 

* Dr. G. Bare M.D. 

Mrs. Lindsey Badon 

Mr. J.N.A. Barnes 

Mr. Barnett F. Baron 

Mr. D. Barrett 

Mr. G. Barrie IV 

• Mr. Norman Bartlett 

Mr. James R. Basche, Jr. 

• Mr. Douglas N. Batson 

Mr. Erwin Baumann 

Mr. Robert M. Bayliss 

Dr. Robert A. Beale 

Prof. Dr. Heinz Dechert 

Miss Anne Beck 

• Dr. Damrong Bejrablaya 

Dr. Sarah M. Bekker 

Mr. Geoffrey Bell 

Mr. Kittisak Bencharit 

Mr. Kledchai Benja-Athonsirikul 

*Mr. Paul J. Bennett 

Mr. Richard H. Bennison 

Mr. Arthur B. Berger 

Mrs. Marie Marthe Berlingieri 

Mr. Mel T. Bernard 

Mr. Massimo Bernardinelli 

Mr. Klaus D. Bettenhausen· 

• Miss Chamrieng Bhaviohitra 

Mrs. Rambha Bhoocha-oom 

• Mr. Robert J. Biokner 

Mr. Jan Bierdrager 

Dr. George A. Binnew 

Dr. Med. Ernst W. Birmele 

Mr. Brian Birley 

Mr. Kurt Bischof 

Mrs. Mona M. Bittenbender 

* Mr. J. Black 

• Mr. Otto Bjorling 

Mrs. Beryl Blacka 

Mr. Thomas B. Blair 

Mr. F. Blanchard 

Mr. John Blofeld 

Mr. Axel Blom 

Mr. David J. Bluford 

Mr. Robert Boca 

• Mr. J.J. Boeles 

Prof. Dr. Ernest Boesch 

Mr. Marc Bogerd 

H B. Mr. Rudolf Bogner 

• Prof. Jean Boisselier 

Mr. Richard N. Bones 

Mr. Gilbert Bonneau 

Mr. Simon Bonython 

• Mr. Thanongsak Boonyarungsrit 

Mr. William Booth 

Miss Cinzia Boraso 

Miss Christine Borgeaud 

Mr. Richard Borsuk 

Mr. Alexander Hay Borthwick 

Dr. Meredith Borthwick 

Mrs. Marcelle Boschan 

Mr. Huysmans Boudewijn 

Mr. Wayne A. Bougas 

Miss Henrietta A.B. Bouman 

• Mr. Carroll G. Bowen 

Miss Delores Boyer 

Dr. David Bradley 

Mrs. Jennifer L. Bradley

290 

Dr. William L. Bradley 

* Mr. Heinz Braendli 

Dr. Nigel J. Brailey 

*Mr. Kennon Breazeale 

Mr. Thor W. Brehmer 

Mr. Walter Brenneis 

Dr. R. Peter Brenner 

* Ms. Bonita Brereton 

Mr. Jean-Marie Breton 

Mrs. Lesley a Brewin 

Dr. Colin M. Britton 

Dr. Warren Brockelman 

*Mr. Jean Claude Brodbeck 

* Mr. Jere Broh-Kajm 

* Dr. John F. Brohm 

Miss Emma R. Broisman 

Mr. Merle D. Brown 

Mr. Michael D. Brown 

Mr. Viggo Brun 

* Mr. Prakit Buabusaya 

Maj. Gen. Prasert Buabusya 

Prof. Saroj Buasri 

Miss Rachaniwan Bulakul 

* Mrs. L.C. Edna Bulkley 

Mr. William Bunch 

*Mr. Danuj Bunnag 

Mr. Marut Bunnag 

Mr. Peter P. Bunnag 

* Dr. Tej Bunnag 

*Mr. Nunt Buranasiri 

Miss Vilaileka Buranasiri 

* Mrs. Katherine Buri 

* Mrs. Prapai S. Buri 

*Miss Prapar N. Buri 

*Mr. Prasam Bhiraj Buri 

• Mr. Prasit Buri 

Dr. Rachit Buri 


Mr. Herbert 0. Burri 

*Mr. William Spencer Burtenshaw 

Mr. John J.S. Burton 

Miss Victoria Butler 

Mr. John Cairncross 

*Mr. C.W. Callaway Jr. 

*Mr. Tunothy Carney 

*Mr. G.D. Carpenter 

Lt. Col. Donald J. Cann 

Mr. Bjom lngvar Percy Carlsson 

* Mrs. Carroll L. Cartwright 

Mr. Bertrand Casalis 

Mr. Suchint Chaimungkalanont 

Miss Vilai Chaivises · 

Mr. Tana Chaivorapat 

Dr. James R. Chamberlain 

Mr. Varyil M.H. Chamberlain 

* Miss Chusiri Cbamaraman 

Mr. Chalaw Cbamoraman 

Mr. Joompot Chanalittanont 

*Mr. Abhai Chandavimol 

Mr. Albert T. Chandler 

Mr. David P. Chandler 

* M.C. Sasavin Chandratat 

Mrs. Wanpen Chandr-virochana 

Mr. Wiwat Chandrvirot 

Mr. Tsong-Zung Chang 

Mr. Y.H. Chang 

* Mr .. Damrong Changtrakul 

Mr. Kasem Chantarapat 

. Mr. Manop Charoensuk 

Miss Monique C. Charrier 

Mrs. Wichanee Charuthas 

* Prof. S.K. Chatterji 

Prof. Dr. Kamheang Chaturachinda 

Mr. Paul Chauzat 

*Mr. Chamras Chayabongse


291 

* Miss Seela Chayaniyayodhin 

Mr. Chetta P.C. Cheng 

Mr. Sumdh Chhim 

Mr. Chatri Chiarapurk 

* Mr. C.F. Chicarelli Jr. 

Mr. Charoon Chinalai 

Ms. Mary E. Chirathivat 

Dr. Preeda Chitarachinda 

Mr. Hatai Chitanondh 

Miss Tongbai Chittamongkol 

Miss Bancha Chittibhol 

Miss Kotchakom Chivakunakom 

Miss Nancy Chng 

Mrs. Francoise Chomthongdi 

* Miss U. Chongpipatanasook 

Mr. Bangkok Chowkwanyun 

* Mr. Chow Chowkwanyun 

Mrs. Evelyn Chowkwanyun 

Dr. John J. Christian 

Mrs. Nancy M. Christians 

Mr. Tom Chuawiwat 

Mr. Christopher J.A. Chubb 

* M.R. Doangchai Chumbala 

* Mrs. Saisuree Chutikul 

Miss Krongthong Chutima 

Mrs. Oon Chutima 

*Mrs. Nandana Chutiwongs 

Mr. C.A. Clarac 

Mr. G.C. Clark 

Dr. Harry R. Clarke 

Miss Joan M. Clarke 

Ms. Marsha A. Clink 

Mr. Erroll D. Coles 

Mr. T.H. Commins 

Dr._ Carol Compton 

* Prof. Georges Condominas 

Mrs. Patchrie Conrad 

* Mr. Robert N. Cook Jr. 

Miss Mary N. Cooke · 

Mrs. Teresa Cooney 

Mrs. Rosemary Copeland 

* Mr. J. Corman 

Mr. R. Coster 

.Dr. Conrad P. Cotter 

Mr. Peter Cox 

Mrs. Lois E. Crittenden 

Mr. Jean Crozatier 

Mr. Richmond Cubis 

*Mr. J.L. Culbertson 

* Mr. William H. Cummings 

*Dr. Richard D. Cushman 

Mr. Lawrence Daks 

* Mr. Lance Dane 

Mrs. Ans Dankers 

*Mr. Chitra Dansuputra 

Mrs. Kamalasiri Davahasdin 

Mr. Adi J. Davar 

Mr. S.J. Davies 

Mrs. James E. Davis 

Mrs. Martine Dean 

Miss Nerina DeAngelis 

Mr. Jacques de Barrin 

Miss Chantal de Boisboissel 

Prof. Dr. Johannes G. de Casparis 

*Mr. A.I. de Courcy Lyons 

Mrs. J. De Fels 

Mrs. Eileen Deeley 

Mrs. Karla M. Dejean 

* Miss Sukanya Dej-Udom 

Dr. Jose Eduardo Da Mello-Gouv~ia 

Dr. Eugene Denis, S.J. 

* Mr. Ulrich Dennerlein 

Mr. Edward de Renzie Brown 

* Mr. John de Salis

292 


Mrs. Paulette de Schaller 

M.R. Anogdevan Devakul 

Mrs. Fee de Vallois 

Mr. David DeVoss 

* lr. F.C. de· Weger B.I. 

* Miss Chalermsri Dhamabutra . 

* H.E. Mr. Sanya Dharm.asakti 

Mrs. Francine Dhesee 

*Mr. Edward Dickinson 

* Mr. W. Dickinson 

Mrs. J.V. Di Crocco 

Mr. Ludo Dieltjens 

Mr. Alessandro O.N. DiFranco 

Mr. Dirk J. Dijkstra 

Dr. Anthony Diller 

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Prof. Lee A. Peter Gosling 

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Mr. Terrance R. Greenberg 

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" Dr. M.E. Griffith . 

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Miss Georgia Guldan 

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294 Annual Reports 

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295 

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Mr. E.E. Jornbeck 

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M.C. Sita Jumbala 

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Prof. Dr. Otto Karow 

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Miss Jean Kennedy 

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• Dr. Konrad Kingshill 

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296 

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M.L. Taw Kritakara 

Mrs. Stanley Krug 

Mr. Gerard A.M. Kruse 

Mrs. Ulla Kruse 

* Mr. Ernest Kuhn 

Mr. Cherdgiet Kulabutara 

Mr. Bbornchai Kunalai 

Mr. Miles Kupa 

· * Prof'Masanori Kuwahara 

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Dr. Aye Kyaw 

Mr. E. Lachenauer 

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Miss A.B. Lambert 

Mr. Banthoon Lamsam 

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Mr. Peter Lange 

H.E. Dr. Hans C. Lankes 

Dr. Charles C. Lantz 

Mr. Phitak Laohasomboon 

Mrs. Maria Laosunthara 

Dr. Pijit Laosonthorn 

Prof. Kai Larsen 

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* Mr. Douglas A.J. Latchford 

Mr. Patrick Laycock 

Dr; H. Leedom Lefferts, Jr. 

Mr. Bernard Lefort 

Mr. F.K. Lehman 


* Dr. Boon song Lekagul 

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Miss Suree Lertprathanpom 

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Mr. Stephen J. Lesiuk 

* Mr. L.E. Letts 

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Mr. T.A. Lewis 

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Mrs. Pongpun Likanasudh 

Mr. H.H. Lim 

*Mr. Surind Limpanonda 

* Mrs. M. Linck 

*Mr. Herbert Link 

Mr. John R. Lillis 

Mr. Preedeeporn Limcharoen 

Mr. Beat R. Lobsiger 

·Mrs. Catherine M. Loehr 

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Prof. Denys Lombard 

Mr. Frank Lombard 

*Dr. H.H.E. Loofs 

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Mrs. Sylvia Lu 

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297 

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Mr. C.R. Maberly 

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Mr. Martin M. Magold 

Mr. Prateep Mahasuwan 

Peta M. Mainardi 

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M.L. Pin Malakul 

Miss Pikul Malasiddh 

Dr. ·P.Y. Manguin 

Mrs. Fumitake Manita 

* Mrs. C. Mangskau 

* Mr. Ariyant Manjikul 

Mr. William L. Mann 

Mrs. M.K. Manoharan 

Mrs. Alfred L. Marks 

* Mr. Michel Marliere 

Mr. F.H. Marsh 

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Mr. G.A. Martin 

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Prof. Osamu Matsuyama 

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Mr. Philip R. Maytiew 

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298 

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Mr. Imtiaz Ahmed Muqbil 

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Miss Vipha Muttamara 

Mr. Hans Naegeli 

Mr. Tsugio Nagai 

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"' Prof. Prasert Na Nagara 

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*Mr. Wiraj Na Songkhla 

Mr. Dirk Naumann 

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Mr. Poul M. Nielsen 


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Mr. Snob Nilkamhaeng 

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Prof. An Nimmanahaeminda 

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Mr. Pompart Nimwatana 

Mr. Eric Lendor Nissen 

Mrs. Thavil Prakob Nitisar 

Mr. Aroonchai Nitisupornrat 

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Miss Noreerat Noparatnaraporn 

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Dr. Taryo Obayashi 

Mr. Richard O'Connor 

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Mr. Surin Osathanugrah 

Mr. Jacky Ott 

l\4r. Nigel F. Overy 

Mrs. Sundri Paaopanchon 

Miss F eresita Padilla 

Mr. Henri ~agau-Clarac 

Mr. Spha Palasthira. 

Mrs. Rita Palla 

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299 

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Mr. Jurgen M. Pfeifer 

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Luang Promadbat 

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Miss Chanchai Puckadhikom 

Mr. Henri Punta 

Mr. Tos Puntumasen · 

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Mrs. Sophia W. Quinn-Judge 

Mr. J. Race 

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Mr. Dacre F.A. Raikes O.B.E. 

* Gen. Rasmee Rajanivat 

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300 

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Mr. George B. Roberts 

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Mr. James P. Rooney 

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Dr. Waldemar Sailer 

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Mrs. Hinako Sakamoto 

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* Khunying Lursakdi Sampatisiri 

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Mr. D.V. Sassoon 

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*Prof. Dr. Meinrad Scheller 

Mr. Michel Scherrer 

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H.E. W.F.M. Schmidt 

* Dr. Hans Schneider 

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Mr. Adrianus Schrama 

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Mr. Dieter Schutt 

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0 

* 


301 

Mr. Ulrich Seeger 

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Miss Kulanuch Sertsuwankul 

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H.E. Phya Manava Raja Sevi 

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Mr. Masahjde Shibusawa 

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Mr. Amaret Sila-On 

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Mr. David M. Sims 

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Sirindhorn 

Miss Aroonee Sirivadhna 

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Mr. Javanit Sivakua 

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Miss S. Skul Jittajarem · 

Mr. Edwin Slatter 

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Miss Sarapee Smutkochom 

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Mrs. Pasherin Snidvongs 

* Mr. Pochana Snidvongs 

Mrs. Surapee Snidvongs 

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* Miss Wipudh Sobhavong 

• Soedjatmoko 

*Dr. Wilhelm G. Solheim U 

* Mr. J. Paul Somm 

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Miss Sirintorn Sosothikul 

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302 

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* Mr. Willy Steck 

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Mr. Sc:;ri Suddhaphakti 

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"Dr. Dhara Sukhavachana 

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• Dr. Kunthon Sundaravej 


Prof. Helmut Sundhaussen 

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Miss Suvarnapha Suvarnaprathip 

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Mrs. Pha-oon Suwannawin· 

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Mr. D.K. Swearer· 

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Assc. Prof. l'akuji Takemura 

* Mr. David K.S. Tan 

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303 

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* Mr. Paothong Thongchua 

• Brigadier General Elliott R. Thorpe 

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Mrs. Sally Timm 

Mr. Marten G. Timmer 

Mr. Charit Tingsabadh 

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* Prof. Takejiro Tomita 

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M.R. Puckpring Tongyai 

M.R. Tongyai Tongyai 

Dr. Steven J. Torok 

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Prof. Arne Trankell 

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Mrs. Sheila Tuchinda 

Ms. John W. Tucker 

Mr. William S. Turley 

• Mr. G.M. Turpin 

Mr. Andrew Turton 

• Dr. Snoh Unakul 

* Mrs. Margaret Ungphakorn 

Mr. K.M. Uvhagen 

Mrs. Rachanee Valls 

· • Luang Saman Vanakit 

Mr. Steven D. VanBeek 

Mr. A.D. Vanderboon 

Mrs. Florance Van Duyn 

Mrs. lngeborg Vanek 

* Mr. H. A. van der Flier 

• Dr. M.B.C. van der Velden 

Mr. Johannes A. Van Ginkel 

Mrs. Anita Van Hoeve 

Dr. W.J .. van Liere 

Mrs. Penny Van Esterik 

Miss Jeanette E. Vail Einden 

Mrs. Romee Staring van Luttervelt 

Mr. J.D. van Oenen 

• Mr. Johan A. Van Zuylen 

• Mr. Pichai V asnasong 

Mrs. Leonie Vejjajiva 

* H.E. Nissai Vejjajiva 

• Dr. Christian Velder 

Mr. Gabriel Vernier 

Mrs. Daniel Verpillot 

Mr. Michael T. Vickery 

Miss Suzanne Vigeant 

Dr. John Villiers 

• Miss Suri Vimolohakarn 

* Dr. Samak Viravaidya

304 

*Mr. Navamintr Vitayakul· 

Mr. Vittorio 

Mr. Swai Vivorakij 

• Dr. J. Vixseboxse 

* Mr. Rolf E. Von Bueren 

Mr. Charoon Vongsayanh 

* Prof. Dr. Oskar von Hinuber 

Mr. Chusak Voraphitak 

M.R. Chirie Voravarn 

Miss Suchitra Vuthisathird 

Mrs. Barbara Wagner 

Miss Elizabeth Walch 

Mr. Louis Walker 

Mr. Rieser Walter 

Mr. Chanin Wanadit 

Mr. Suvit Wanglee 

Dr. Derek Wangwiwatana 

Miss Kanchanasit Wansom 

Mr. Sirajit Waramontri 

Mr. George Ward 

Dr. David A. Warrell 

Mr. Charles P. Warren 

Mr. William Warren 

Mr. D.B. Waterhouse 

M.R. Da~anee Wattanayakorn 

Mr. Hansjuerg Weber 

* Dr. Karl E. Weber 

Mr. Ulrich Weber 

· · Mrs. Margot Weinmann 

Mr. Roger Clarke Welty 

"Dr. K. Wenk 

Mr. Schappi Werner 

Mr. Sam S. Westgate 

Mr. T.K. Whalley 

Mrs. Mark I. Whitcraft 

Mr. Peter White 

* Mr. William S. Whorton 

*Dr. Adul Wichiencharoen 

Mr. Hansjoerg Wiedmann 

Dr. Martin Wieland 

Mr. Leo Wienands 

Mrs. M.M.F. Wiggins 


Dr. Gehan Wijeyewardene 

Dr. Henry Wilde 

Mr. Endymion P. Wilkinson 

Mr. M.J. Wilkinson 

* Mr. Curtis C. Williams, Jr. 

Mr. John Willoughby 

* Dr. Constance M. Wilson 

Dr. Harold E. Wilson 

* Mr. Thawisak Wiriyasiri 

Miss Geeskelien Wolters 

Miss Christine E. Wong 

Mr. Albert P. Wongchirachai 


"Miss Carol Woo 

* Mr. James L. Woods 

Mr. R.A. Woodward 

Mr. Michael Wright 

Mr. Peter Wuest 

Mr. Andrew Wynne 

• Prof. David K. Wyatt 

Mr. Shusuke Yagi 

Mr. Tadayuki Yamamoto 

Mrs. Yoshiko Yamamoto 

Mr. Seigo Yamauchi 

" Mrs. M. Yipintsoi 

"Mr. Toshiharu Yoshikawa 

Miss Mineko Yoshioka 

Mr. Prachitr Yossundara 

Mr. Allan B. Youn_g 

* H.R.H. Prince Bhanubandh Yugala 

* H.R.H. Prince Chalernibol Yugala 

M.C. Mongkolchalerm Yugala 

* Mr. Thanit Yupho 

Mr. Boguslow Zakrzewski 

Mr. Nicholas C. Zefran 

Mr. Pierre Zerdoun 

Mr. Carl J. Zeytoon 

Mr. Alexis Ziering 

Mr. Daniel D. Zoller, Jr. 

Dr. Volkmar V. Zuehlsdorft'

LIST OF INSTITUTIONAL SUBSCRIBERS 

AUSTRALIA 

BURMA 

CANADA 

CHILE 

DENMARK 

FRANCE 

GREAT BRITAIN 

HOLLAND 

HONG KONG 

INDIA 

ISRAEL 

JAPAN 

James Cook University of Queensland, Queensland 

Monash University, Clayton, Victoria 

Burma Socialist Programme Party, Rangoon 

The University of Calgary, Alberta 

Universidad de Chile, Temuco 

Centralinstitut for Nordisk Asienforskning, Copenhagen 

Det Kongelige Bibliotek, Copenhagen 

Statsbiblioteket, Aarhus 

Office. International de Documentation et Librairie, Paris 

Sciences Humaines, Paris 

British Library, Boston Spa, Wetherby, Yorks 

Koninklijk Instituut voordde Tropen, Amsterdam 

Universiteitsbibliotheek SA, Amsterdam 

University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 

Jawaharlal Nehru University •. New Delhi 

National Botanical Research 

Bethlehem University, Bethlehem 

Jewish Natl & University Library, Jerusalem 

Kokkai Toshoka, Tokyo 

Kokusai Daigaku Library 

Nanzan University, Aichi 

National Museum of Ethnology Library, Osaka 

Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Osaka 

Tsukuba University. Library. 

305

306 

Annual R,eports 

'·· 

l• 

.. I 

MALAYSIA 

PHILIPPINES 

SINGAPORE 

SWEDEN 

TAIWAN 

THAILAND 

Univer~iti 

Sains Malaysia Libra.ry, Minden, Penang 

University 'or PhUippines, · ·Diliman 

Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Pasir Panjang 

.. '· 

University of Lund 

Science & Technology Inf. Clr., Taipei 

Chianginai University Library, Chiangmai 

Chulalongkom University, Bangkok . 

Office of the National Education Commission Library, Bangkok 

Ramkamheang University, Bangkok 

Silpakorn University, Bangkok 

Sitpakorn Universit~, Nakorn Path~m 

·songkhlanakrin University, Pattani 

Songkhlanakri1:1 University, Songkhla 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

Arizona State University, Tempe~ AZ 

Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 

Brigham Young University~ Provo, UT 

Carleton College Library, Nortltfi,eld, MN 

College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 

Columbia Universiiy Libraries; New York 

Indiana State University Cunningham Library, Terre Haute; IN 

Indiana :tJniv.ersity Libraries, IN · 

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, CA 

Northern Illinois University, ILL 

Ohio University, Athens, OH 

Rice University iJ~r~~y,' Hou.Stqn, TX 

Stanford._ University,· Stanford, CA. · . 

- · ·· .St~te ·l.Jniversit~ ·of· N.Y.' at Bufr~o; "Bulfalo, N.Y. 

The Hon~old ·Library,· Clare~ont, CA 

Tufts University, Medford, MA 

University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ .


307 

W-Germany 

University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 

University of Chicago Library, Chicago, ILL 

University of Illinois University, ILL 

University of MD/McK.eldin Library, College Park, MD 

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 

University of N.Y. Albany, Albany, NY 

University of Washington, Seattle, W A 

University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WIS 

Washington State University, Pullman, WA 

Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 

Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden

BASEL. 

BELGIUM 

BRUNEI 

CHINA (TAIWAN) 

DENMARK 

ENGLAND 

FRANCE 

INSTITUTIONS EXCHANGING PUBLICATIONS 

WITH THE SIAM SOCIETY,-:1983 

Tauschstelle der Naturfrschenden Gesellschaft in Basel. 

Jardin Botanique National de Belgique, Bruxelles 

Brunei Museum, Kota Datu 

Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, 

National Taiwan University, Taipei 

Institute of Fishery Biology, N~~otional Taiwan University, 

Taipei 

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei 

Bonanisk Centrabibliotek, K0benhaven 

British ~useum, Department of Natural History, London. 

Royal Asiatic Society, London.· 

Royal Botanic Garden, Bclinburgh .. 

School of Oriental and African Studies, University of 

London, London 

Ecole Francaise d'Bxtreme Orient, Paris 

Musee Ouimet, Paris 

Societe Asiatique, Paris 

GERMANY, FED.RBP. OF· 

Botanischer Garden Und Botanisches Museum, Berlin 

Seminar fiir Sprache und Kultur Chinas. South Bast Asian 

Department, Hamburg. 

HONG KONG 

Geographishes Institute der Universitat Bonn, Bonn. 

Staatliches Museum fiir Natu.-kunde, Bibliothek, Stuttgart. 

Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch. 

303

An~ual Reports 

S09 

INDIA 

JAPAN 

MALAYSIA 

NETHERLANDS 

NORWAY 

PHILIPPINES 

POLAND 

SARAWAK 

SINGAPORE 

SRI LANKA 

SWITZERLAND 

All-India Kashiraj-Trust, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. 

Asiatic Society, Calcutta. - 

Institute for the study of languages and Culture of 

Asia and Africa, Tokyo Gaikokugo Daigaku, Tokyo. 

Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo, Tokyo. 

National Museum of Ethnology, Senri Expo Park, Suita, Osaka. 

Oriental Library, the Toyo Bunko, Tokyo. 

The Toyoshi-Kenkyu-Kai, The Society of Oriental Researches 

Kyoto University. 

Ford Foundation, Kuala Lumpur. 

Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Jalan Sultan, 

Petaling Jaya. 

Malayan Nature Society, Kuala Lumpur. 

Persatuan Pencinta Alam, Malayan Nature Society, Kuala 

Lumpur. 

Koriinklijk institut voor Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde, Leiden. 

Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde, Leiden. 

The Royal University Library ·of Oslo. 

University of the Philippines at Los Banos, Laguna. 

Museum of Natural History, Sienkiweicra, Wroctaw. 

Sarawak Museuav, Kuching. 

National University of Singapore Library. 

South Seas Society. 

·National Museum Library, Colombo. 

CoQ$ervatoir~ ~t Jardin Botanique 1 Bibliotheque, Gen~ve.

310 

Annual ~eports 

THAILAND 

Development Document Center, National Institute of 

Development Administration,· Bangkok. 

Library of Congress Office, American Embassy, Bangkok. 

Thai National Document Center, Bangkok. 

. . 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

Albert R. Mann· Library, Ithaca, New York. 

American Museum of Natural History, New York. 

American Ornithologists' Union, Depattment of Anatomy 

(UMIC) Chicago, ILLINOIS 

Biosciences Information Service, Literature Resources 

Department, Philadelphia, Penns~lvania. 

Field Museum of Natural History; Library, Chicago, lllinois. 

Museum of Fine Arts, Library, Boston, Massachusetts. 

New York Botanical Garden, Library, New York. 

Smithsonian Institution Library, Washington D.C. 

University of California, Genertd Library, Berkeley, 

California. 

University of Florida Libraries, Gainesville, Florida • 

. University of Hawaii Library, Honolulu, Hawaii. 

University of Southern California, Allan Hancock Foundation, 

Hancock Library of Biology and Oceanography. 

Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, New 

York.

PUBLICATIONS OF THE SIAM SOCIETY 

IDUrtud of tile Slam SocietY, per number (before vol. 67 part 2) 

(from vol. 67 part 2 onward) • • • .. • .. • .. • 

Index of volumes 1 to 50 • .. . .. . .. .. . .. . . .. . .. 

Commemorative reprint volumes published on the Society's 50th anniversary : 

Vols. I & ll, Selected Articles from the Siam Society Journal, 1954, 290 & 300 

pp., resp ................................ .. 

Vol. IV, Lop Burl, Bangkok and Plluket, 1959, 304 pp. 

Vols. V & VI, Relations wltll Burma, 1959, 207 & 228 pp., resp. 

Vol. Vll, Relations with Port•g11l, Holland and the J1atican1 1959 

Vol. Vill, Rel11tions with Fr11nce,. &gland lln4 Dennuuk, 1959; ~SS pp. 

John Black, The Lofty SIIIICtllllrY of K1uzO Phra Jliliiir, Together wltJ tl.e Inscriptions 

of'Kiulo Prat Jlihiir', 2nd ed., 1976, ill., 88 pp. ... ... ... ... 

Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, Mo111111f/lnts of the Blltldhll in Si11m, 60 pp. 

Richard Davis, A Northern T1ull Rellder, 1970, 91 pp. ..~. ... ••• • .. 

Prince Dhani Nivat, Articles Reprinted/rom the Journal of the Siam Society, 

1969,-194 pp. ... ... ••• ••• ... ••• ... ... ... ... ... ... 

G.B. Gerini, Cllfllakantamongtda: The Tonsare Ceremony tu Per/otmed In Siam, 

1976 reprint of the 1893 edition, 243 pp. ••• ... ... ... ... ... 

A.B. Griswold, Wilt Pra Yin R«:t~nsldered, Monograph No.4, 1975, 120 pp. 

Mattani Rutnin, ed., The Si11mese Tlle11tre: A Collection of Reprints from: the Journal 

of the Slam Society, 1975,.291 pp. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 

Pimsai Amranand, Gtlrtlealng in. Bangkok, 2nd ed: 1976, 169 pp. ... •.• ... ... 

Tej Bunnag and Michael- Smithies, eds., In Memoriam Playa A.nuintm Rtd•dTttm, 

1970, 397 pp. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 

Nusit Chindarsi, The Religion OJ the Bmong Nj1111, 1976, 197 pp~ ... ... ... 

Collected Articles 111 Memory of B.R.H. Prince Wlill Wfliilulyakorn, 1976. ••. ... 

Sirichai Narumit, Old Bridges of B11ngkok, in English and Thai, 1977, 176 pp. 

Ruethai Jaijongrak and Anuwit Jaroensuphaku~, ._'hflllltlonal Thill BOII8ea, in 

Thai, 1976, 53 pp. ... ... ... ..•..:·:':-~· :.. ... ... ... ... ... 

The Nat•l'tll History Bfllletin of the Slam SOflety, per number (before vol. 28) 

from vol. 28 . onward. ... ... ..• .... 

:... ;..· ..• . .. ..• ... ... 

Gunnar Seidenfaden and Tem Smitinand, Tu Orclrlds of Thailand, Parts I-IV, 

1959-1965, 870 pp., ill., 164 col, phc)ro~ :. '... ... ... ... ... 

Albert H. Banner and Dora M. Banner, The Al11~d SWmp of Thllllan4, 

1966, 168 pp. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 

Floru Slamensls EIIIUIIBrtltlo 

Angkarn Kalayanapongs, Naowarat Pongpaibool and Witayakom Chiengkul, Three Thai 

Poets, in collab. with Thai PEN Club. and Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, 

1979, 47 pp. ... ... ... ... ... ..• ... ":· ... ... ... 

K.I. Matics, A History of Will Pllr11 Clletrq/Dn i11ul Ita ·sillldhll lmoges, 

1979, 71 + xiv pp. ... ... ... · ....·...:. ;.•:,.':. •'· ··... . .. 

Charles Nelson Spinks, The Cer11mic Wares of Siam, 3rd ed. 1978 (publ. 1980), · 

221 + ix pp. illus. ... ... ..• .. •.• .-.-.: .·.·• •. . ... ... ... .. . ... 

John Blofe1d, The World of Buddhism : a Pictol'ifll Presentation, 1980, 62 + iv pp. 

Jean Mottin, 55 cl111nts d'amoar lunong blanc (55 tllj kwP txhi11j lunoob clawb), 

1980, 173 pp. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. . 

Jacqueline Butler-Diaz, Yao Design of Northern Thlllllln4, Revised Edition, 1981 

Prince Dhani Nivat, Kromamun Bidyalabh, The Reconstruction of Rama I of t/11 Cltukri 

DynastJ', Rattanakosin Bicentenn~al 1982, Thai and English, 97 + 27 pp. . . . • •• 

Prices in 

bahi/US$ 

100/5 . ...,. 

150/7.50 

15/0.75 

100/5.- 

50/2.50 

50/2.50 

50/2.50 

50/2.50 

{ 

70/3.50 

40/2.- 

40/2.- 

100/5. 

j (hard) 130/6.50 

l (soft) 100/5.- 

80/4.- 

120/6.- 

100/5.- 

120/6.- 

100/5.- 

100/5.- 

150/7.50 

(hard) 30/1.50 

(soft) 15/0.75 

450/22.50 

• 30!1.50 

100/5.- 

80/4.- 

30/1.50 

30/1.50 

90/4.50 

200/10.- 

100/5.- 

100/5.- 

175/8.75 

SocietJ members are allowed a discoaat of 20% oa the above prices. The prices do aot 

iaclade postage. Orders aad eaqalrles should be addressed to the Administrative 

Secretary, Slam SocletJ, G.P.O. Box 65, Baagkok, ThaOaad, 

75/3.75

THE KAMTHIENG HOUSE 

ITS HISTORY· .t\ND COLLECTIONS 

~ Classic Example of Northern Thai 

Residential Architecture of the Nineteenth Century 

Text by .................. ~Sonia Krug 

Photographs by ............. Shirley Duboff 

Drawings by ............... Euayporn Kerdchouay 

Design b~ ...... ·.~ .._....... Jacqueline Page Sutliff 

The Sia~ Society 

Under Royal Patronage 

Bangkok 

April 1982·


UNDER ROYAL PATRONAGE 

The Society's home: 

Telephone: 

Mail address : 

131 Soi 21 (Asoke), Sukhumvit Road 

391-4401, 391-2407 

G.P.O. Box 65, Bangkok, Thailand 

The Siam Society was founded in 1904, under the patronage of His Majesty 

the King, as an organization for those interested in the artistic, scientific and other 

cultural affairs of Thailand and neighbouring countries. The Society maintains an 

excellent Library, which is at the disposal of Members and visitors. The Society 

publishes the Journal of the Siam Society, in addition to occasional works of 

topical interest and scholarly merit. The Society sponsors a programme of lectures 

and artistic performances, and regularly conducts excursions to places of archaeological 

and cultural interest in Thailand and abroad. The Kamthieng House on the grounds 

of the Society's home provides an example of a traditional northern Thai house, with 

artefacts of rural life and superb collections of woven materials and wood carvings. 

The Natural History Section of the Siam Society, which was organized in 1913, 

sponsors its own programme of lectures and excursions to places of natural interest, and 

concerns itself with the conservation of Thai wildlife and flora. The Natural History 

Section publishes the annual Natural History Bulletin ofthe Siam Society, as well as 

occasional works of scientific interest. 

MEMBERSHIP : The Society welcomes new Members, resident in Thailand or 

abroad, on the following bases: 

LIFE MEMBER - 10,000 baht (US$ 500.-) 

ORDINARY MEMBER 800 baht (US$ 40.-) 

renewable annually 

Life Members receive the Society's Journal and the Natural History Bulletin, a 20% 

discount on all publications, excursions and performances, as well as the right to vote 

at the Society's Annual General Meeting. Ordinary Members enjoy the same privileges. 

In addition, all members resident in Thailand receive the Monthly Programme, and the 

Annual Report of the Siam Society which is issued in advance of the Annual General 

Meeting. 

STUDENT MEMBERSHIP is a special category (50 baht, for Thai students 

only; renewable annually) and carries the same privileges as Ordinary Membership. 

SUBSCRIPTIONS to the Journal of the Siam Society and the Natural History 

Bulletin of the Siam Society are available independently of membership at the following 

rates: 

JSS - 300 baht (US$ 15.-) per volume 

Bu/letirz - 150 baht (US$ 7.50) per part 

Applications for membership, subscriptions or further information on the 

Society are welcome. Please contact Mr. Euayporn Kerdchouay, the Administrative 

Secretary of the Society, at the address given above. 

Printed at Prachandra Printing Press, Maharaja Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand, Tel. 222 1555 

Mrs. Sanitwan Bunyasiribhandhu, Proprietor, Printer and Publisher, 1984

Old Homes of Bangkok 

Fragile Link 

Text and Photographs by 

Barry Michael Broman 

With a foreward by 

M.R. Kukrit Pramoj 

DD Books 

Bangkok 

The Siam Society 

Bangkok

The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

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