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

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
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