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

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.