Kyoto University
People in the world exhibit great diversity in their ways of life. They have distinct cultures as well as different constructions of reality to explain why they are living and where they are going even after death. In particular, notions of the world, which are mostly configured by religious knowledge and practices, are generally developed and applied within a specific region. Such knowledge and practices also serve to create a dialectical construction of a person's life-world, one which often appears strange, exotic and even unintelligible to outside observers who tend to evaluate it according to their own scheme of cultural interpretation.
In addition to World Religions, the scriptures of which have been translated into many languages, spirit cults and other indigenous religious practices have played an important role in constructing folk notions of the world in mainland southeast Asia. Despite the introduction and establishment of such canonical religions as Islam, Buddhism and Christianity, indigenous religious knowledge and practices have never been extinguished. On the contrary, they have not only survived but have resulted in modifications and even different versions of World Religions which vary from region to region.
The Thai-Lao Buddhists in northeast Thailand are no exception [1]. Like other Theravada Buddhists in mainland southeast Asia, they believe in the existence of spirits (phi) and souls (khwan). Rituals and beliefs surrounding these are widely observed and are classified as indigenous religious traditions. Another type of belief concerning the efficacy of spells and their targets can also be observed among the Thai-Lao. Spells refer to words or verses used to control nature and the evils arising in a given society. The practice of casting spells is found not only among Buddhists, but also among people of many other cultures, as can be seen by the use of such phrases as abraxas and abracadabra by the gnostics of North Africa and Allah akbar by Muslims. In general, it is believed that spells can ward off what is undesirable and bring about what is desirable. Spells are recited over those stricken with illness and addressed to the natural elements one wants to control. They are also often used in the preparation of amulets, weapons and objects of sorcery. In summary, spells are powerful spoken formulas, words or phrases of power and protection (cf. Tannenbaum 1995).
The belief in and the use of spells in Southeast Asia are described elsewhere (D'Orleans 1894, Halliday 1917, Geertz 1960, Anuman 1968, Tambiah 1970, Sharp et al 1978, Galomb 1985, Tanabe 1984, Turton 1988, etc). While these studies pay attention to such facets as healing, exorcism and invulnerability, there is a tendency to view the spells themselves as esoteric or superstitious knowledge in terms of the analytical concepts of witchcraft and sorcery.
This paper describes the characteristics of the religious practice of spells among the Thai-Lao, focusing on the people's point of view within the regional context in which this practice is considered to be common and public religious knowledge. The author analyses the characteristics not in terms of such concepts as witchcraft and sorcery but in terms of interpersonal and inter-group relations which are connected with their notions of body and boundary. The author maintains that their spells and related practices demonstrate what is "religious knowledge" for them within a specific region.
2. Spells and Localities
In the Thai language, there are numerous terms to denote the concept of spells. Khatha, khatha akhom and wetthamon are popular in Thailand. Khatha (gatha), akhom (agama), wet (veda) and mon (mantra) all originated from Sanskrit and Pali words. According to Anuman Rajadhon, wet (veda) refers to spells related to post-Vedic Brahmanism, while mantra refers mostly to spells related to popular Buddhism (Anuman 1968: 274) . In addition to these, khun, which comes from the Malay word guna (mantra), also refers to a specific art of spells in Thai society [2].
At the same time, there are specific local terms which categorize notions of the protective power related to spells, while khatha is generally used to refer to verses of incantation in Thai society. For instance, kham in northern Thailand refers to sacred verbal formulas. Among the Thai-Lao of northeast Thailand, wisa (Lao; wicha in central Thai), which originated from the Pali word vijja meaning supreme knowledge for enlightenment, literally means "knowledge" and constitutes a local category of sacred spells and verses to control spirits and supernatural powers. Both kham and wisa are partly similar to the invulnerability charms of central Thailand with respect to bringing good luck and offering protection from bad omens (wicha yu yong khong kraphan, which is often explained as jing mai ook fan mai khao, "guns will not explode, sharp things will not wound if fired or struck at the holder").
Regardless of which term is used, these spells all share some common features. First, most are in languages other than the native language of the user or in a mixture of languages that often includes only the first syllable of the words. Secondly, although practitioners may know the origin of a spell, few understand exactly what each word means (cf. Halliday 1917: 114). Spells among the Thai peoples of southeast Asia are usually composed not only of Pali and Sanskrit words, but also of other languages; ancient Khmer (khom) for the Thai-Lao, Burmese and some minority languages for the Thai-Yuan, Mon for the central Thai, Malay for the southern Thai, etc.. Similar cases are also found in neighboring countries as well. Malay Muslims employ the Thai language for spells and figures (Golomb 1985, personal communication with Prof. M. Yusof), Khmer people use Thai or Cham letters (Sakamoto 1994, personal communication with Prof. O'Connor), the Lao in southern Laos possess spells of Kui words to tame wild elephants (the author's field work at Champasak, Southern Laos in 1992), etc..
Notwithstanding such regional dynamics, there have been few studies on spells in a regional context. One reason may be the fact that native intellectuals tend to dismiss such religious spells as 'deceitful' and dangerous because the belief in magical acts can mobilize counter-political movements. Even those researchers who specialize in comparative religions have only analyzed the use of spells as one of many techniques to control nature and evil things in the context of magical beliefs. In Southeast Asian studies, this category of knowledge is frequently viewed as an extension or a distortion of Indian and Chinese cultures in each locality. It has also been described as the practice of an esoteric knowledge presumably limited to a few experts. Whatever the case, there has been insufficient emphasis on regional dynamics and the creativity of spell practices in this interstitial region.
What approach should be taken? We may assume that, in the past, mutual borrowings of such religious knowledge occurred across regional boundaries in a complex history of migration by various language groups, interspersed with invasions and warfare with neighboring states. However, it would be not only difficult but also unproductive to trace the routes of the diffusion of such religious practices, implicitly assuming their original forms. Rather, it would be more useful to describe the fact that people in the region have developed their own 'theories' and notions of these practices based on their inter-regional experiences.
3. WISA: "Supreme Knowledge"
Most of the Thai-Lao, a major language group in Thailand today, were relative latecomers to the region, gradually moving from what is now Laos into the Khorat plateau of northeast Thailand from around the seventeenth century. Thai-Lao expansion in the region seems to have been completed in the last century. They are rice growers who frequently migrate in search of better paddy land. In the eyes of their non-Tai neighbors in the region, such as the Khmer and Kui, however, the Thai-Lao are seen as petty traders rather than as peasants (Hayashi 1996).
In addition to monks, various religious specialists (mo in Thai-Lao) who at first sight look like ordinary paddy growers can be found in Thai-Lao communities. Some villagers can tell benevolent spirits from malevolent ones, others can communicate with them, and still others can defeat and exorcise evil spirits. All are Buddhist and as pious as ordinary villagers. To name a few examples, there are "spirit specialists" called mo phi, "soul specialists" called mo su khwan, "wisa specialists" called mo wisa, and specialists of "dharma power" called mo tham. Of these, the term mo phi is a general term for someone who can communicate with spirits while mo su khwan (or mo khwan) refers to someone who can strengthen and bind the soul inside the human body when a person is ill or facing new experiences such as ordination, marriage and traveling.
As will be discussed below, there has been a corresponding decline in the number of mo wisa with the growth of mo tham in the past decades. The villagers' notions of wisa and thamma partly overlap in the sense that both are believed capable of warding off evil, but they are definitely different types of specialists in another sense. The actual formation of lay specialists in a village varies according to the composition of village religions during its historical development (Hayashi 1989). Despite these differences, some benevolent/guardian spirits, wisa and thamma, are often categorized into another vernacular term, khong haksa (literally, "sacred thing for protection") in Thai-Lao villages.
3-1 MO WISA (Specialists of "Supreme Knowledge")
Mo wisa, specialists of "supreme knowledge", were popular among the Thai-Lao as part of khong haksa. Rather than being ritual officiants related to a specific spirit cult, they specialize in certain religious knowledge and spells. In the village context, wisa is believed to provide protective power against dangers and misfortunes which are thought to be caused by powerful entities such as malevolent spirits and a different, external wisa. Therefore, among the Thai-Lao in northeast Thailand, the connotation of wisa is equivalent to sacred words and verses used as spells.
Wisa is not inherent. It must be learned from masters who have in turn learned from others in the past. In order to acquire and practice such knowledge, candidates must have a good memory and self-discipline. During the initiatory stage, every master gives candidates some basic spell verses. These must be correctly recited several times. Once the candidates have successfully completed this stage, they are permitted to study further. At the same time they must follow several prohibitions mostly related to food, sex, and improper thought and language. These taboos are indispensable in learning to control and accumulate the power of wisa. Any kind of strong wisa requires this type of self-discipline.
There is a striking contrast between spirits and wisa. Wisa is not a kind of spirit in the sense that the origin of its power is not derived from either the natural environment or living creatures where spirits are believed to originate. Rather it is derived from spells composed of words and signs which are cultural products of the human race. In order to acquire wisa, aspirants must look for masters (khu in Thai-Lao; guru) who can teach them. In most cases, men can encounter such masters while they are Buddhist monks. This is why men who know wisa, regardless of their ability to use them, are socially regarded as 'educated' and knowledgeable in village settings (cf. Golomb 1985: 75).
The type of wisa varies according to the "school" of masters. In some schools, it is strictly forbidden to write the spells because it is believed that their power will be lost if they are written down. In most schools, however, ancient Cambodian letters are employed in writing spells, while the contents of the words are "corrupted" as much as possible to make it difficult to identify their original sources.
Regardless of the different schools, wisa illustrates another facet of religious practices among Thai-Lao Buddhists; the fact that knowledge is transferred through master-disciple relations. It must be learned, practiced and transmitted to the new candidates within the context of this relationship. Pupils develop hierarchical relationships with their masters that transcend generations, just like those among Buddhist monks.
Many village elders were once eager to possess wisa. Men were thought to need wisa more than women because they frequently visited distant villages in search of better paddy land and for petty trading. Some say that wisa was a sort of weapon with which they could enter the forest safely, not only for opening land but for traveling between villages. Others say that it was a tradition among soldiers in wartime. In other words, they needed wisa to ward off evil spirits in the forest and harmful external enemies outside their communities.
Theoretically, candidates could at any time obtain fragments of verses from the notes made by their masters. Further skills are required, however, to possess and activate wisa and to generate its power. Wisa obviously will not work, then, unless the teachings are correctly obtained from a master [3]. As mentioned above, concentration seems to be important when candidates start to learn wisa, not only in order to memorize the verses effectively, but also to confirm the suitability of a particular wisa. If it does not work for him, the candidate must look for other teachers with wisa that is more appropriate. What happens when a candidate succeeds in acquiring wisa? According to village theory, the wisa or spells learned settle in the practitioner's body. Spells are efficacious against other 'bodies' including the disease of a patient and targets of particular spells such as spirits and enemies. Spells, then, are seen as portable articles which coexist with the practitioners' bodies. When the practitioner travels long distances from his community, his spells accompany him as part of his body. Thus, wisa is understood in relation with its containers, the bodies of the practitioner and his master.
Wisa was also seen as a characteristic of different language groups. To the Thai-Lao, the Khmer, Kula (traders from Burma) and Phu Thai are people with strong wisa or khong. The Thai-Lao harbor some ambivalent attitudes towards the Khmer due to their fear of this rich tradition of wisa. Kula traders coming from Burma were thought to have strong wisa because of their ability to ward off bandits during their travels (Hayashi 1998a). Bunruang also notes that the Thai-Lao viewed the Kula as wisa holders because they could travel far from their home carrying big heavy haap (Bunruang 1962: 115). In general, the Thai-Lao regard those who can travel around the region as strong wisa holders. They often attribute both the Phu Thai success in trade and the beauty of their women to their wisa, while their ways of life are thought to be filled with various kinds of taboos (Hayashi 1996).
3-2 WISA and PHI POP
The meaning of wisa among the Thai-Lao, however, has some negative connotations because of its ambiguity. Many people wished to learn wisa in order to achieve desirable results. Wisa could be used to expel evil spirits and kill bandits from other villages. Becoming mo wisa therefore, allows a person to use wisa for beneficial as well as maleficent ends. There would be no problem if wisa were always confined correctly within the body of the practitioner and used appropriately as needed. By the virtue of consorting with such power, however, mo wisa can also take advantage of others and sell their skills for extra income. Mo wisa have also been suspected of using this knowledge unethically as practitioners of powerful disease or love magic.
When the actions of mo wisa defy taboos and other regulations, the body of the specialist, which can control and defeat evil spirits itself, will turn into phi pop. The Thai-Lao believe phi pop to be the worst and most powerful malevolent spirit. It cannot be tamed like other malevolent spirits. Moreover, it can take a living person as its host. phi pop flies in the air, killing people by eating their livers, and destroying livestock and agricultural products in the village. Formerly, people had to invite other mo wisa who could handle different, more powerful wisa to expel phi pop.
In those villages which have experienced such incidents, a mo wisa represents a dangerous practitioner who wishes to extort money from his victims. Today, the notion of wisa has been strongly devaluated much like sorcery in the Western sense. Wisa is considered to be a very dangerous spirit when it is out of control. Unethical acts among lay specialists in general are often denounced with the words "si pop laeo (to be phi pop)". In these villages, ordinary villagers regard both benevolent, protective spirits like the village guardian spirit (phi puta) and wisa as ambiguous entities.
4. THAMMA: Knowledge and Body
As far as I have surveyed in northeast Thailand, mo tham has grown in popularity among the Thai-Lao since around the 1930s-40s. It was also during this period that centralization of the provincial administration, including the standardization of Thai Buddhism, was completed in the region (Hayashi 1989, Hayashi forthcoming). It seems that mo wisa were largely replaced by mo tham during that time. A type of lay specialist who studies spells, mo tham are, in a sense, 'Buddhisticized' mo wisa. Mo tham are specialists in Buddhist mantras used to expel evil spirits including phi pop which is thought to be the product of unethical mo wisa. Their power is believed to come from Buddha and his disciples [4].
Functionally speaking, thamma shares many features with wisa, although the power of the former is thought to be stronger than that of the latter. Thamma, which literally means "Buddhist dharma", refers to spells that generate a sacred power to ward off evil. Like wisa, there are many schools of thamma dependent on their masters; candidates must learn their craft under a master, observing food taboos such as abstinence from the raw meat of oxen, pigs, snakes, turtles, etc..
There are several differences between wisa and thamma. Thamma practitioners must obey the five Buddhist precepts (not to kill, deceive, drink, steal, or have immoral sexual intercourse) in addition to food prohibitions dictated by their masters. Without adherence to the five precepts, the power of thamma cannot work. Like monks, mo tham can also apply the five precepts to both the victims of evil spirits and the spirits themselves.
Spells of dharma, as another designation (khun phatham) suggests, are mostly Pali words written in Khom (old Cambodian) characters. Mo tham in every school believe that these have been transmitted from master to disciple as is the case for mo wisa. In many instances, legendary masters are believed to be wandering monks (pha thudong) who traveled various regions, staying in forests, graveyards and caves. These spells, which mostly consist of the syllables of Buddha's disciples, are not copied from original texts but are orally transmitted. They are abbreviated and transformed to the extent that Pali specialists cannot translate and decipher what they mean. Mo tham understand what type of verses they have and when and how to use them. Most are not translated, like the Mahayana Buddhist mantra (dharani).
As in the case of wisa, in studying thamma, the personal suitability of the spells is an important consideration in the candidate's choice of master. Candidates recognize the khu (master), the holder of spells, as a body of knowledge. They must pass an 'examination' to become his disciples. No matter what the school of the master, the examination basically consists of memorizing some verses selected by him. It should be noted that, even if a candidate fails due to the inability to accurately recite them, this failure is commonly attributed to the unsuitability of the spells to their bodies rather than to any lapse of memory.
To cite an example, Mr. D of D village in Khon Kaen, explained, "That sacred knowledge did not suit me. It did not enter my body (khong bo tit, bo khao)". Even those who pass may later change their master and school of spell. Mr. T of M village in Udon Thani province said, "I had passed the examination of one school of thamma and held that sacred knowledge for a couple of years. But I noticed that my health was deteriorating. That indicated that the knowledge I learned did not suit me. I later changed masters twice until I met the best one." These cases indicate that the suitability of the knowledge to the candidate is as important as the efficacy of the spells.
For the practitioner, learning spells is much more than memorizing verses. It means cultivating the ability to generate and hold another sacred entity in his body. Spells must be 'incarnated' within the organization of his body which is regarded as a specific 'container' (O'Connor 1990) of memories and experiences. That is, learning a spell also transforms his body.
Villagers, especially men, often explain thamma in terms of learning wisa. Men tend to explain thamma as religious knowledge which is directly connected with the body to maintain and exercise power, while women, who cannot learn thamma because becoming mo tham is comparable to ordination as a monk, tend to see both as totally different. Some village women believe that mo wisa cannot stay in the same village where mo tham live, emphasizing the Buddhist aspect of thamma much more than men. For women, therefore, to be devotees of thamma is as important as merit making activities for pious Buddhists (Hayashi 1989).
There are in fact many differences between mo tham and mo wisa. When the former perform an exorcism, they first pay homage to the Three Gems and then to their masters. After this they begin meditation, rapidly reciting some verses. Several minutes later, they gradually begin to tremble. Communication with spirits in their language follows. Although they behave in a way that resembles spirit possession, according to mo tham, these are not spirits or thewada (deva) entering from outside, but khun phatham arising from within their body and these give suggestions as well as moral forces to confront and expel spirits. If the spirits agree to accept the five precepts in order to be reborn in another world, mo tham have the authority to apply them. When the spirits reject the precepts, the sacred power of dharma is mobilized to expel them.
When mo tham break their precepts and taboos, they lose the power of thamma. Thamma is not, however, transformed into a floating dangerous spirit like wisa. When a mo tham tries to expel evil spirits after he has broken the precepts, he becomes the victim of the evil spirits (cf. Pricha 1974: 417). That is, the result of his misconduct does not cause misfortune for other people but affects only the perpetrator himself. Here, we can see that the Buddhist theory of causality of action has been adapted in their practice.
In this respect, mo tham is much more than a revision of mo wisa. According to their view, successful mo tham will not be reborn as ordinary people but will become Arahat (Arahanta; canonically means one who attained nirvana, the extinction of all suffering) immediately after their because they have practiced thamma and faithfully kept the precepts during their lifetime. Here, we can see a different interpretation of the concept of 'invulnerability' which is common to both practices of wisa and spirit cults. While wisa practitioners remain in an ambiguous position, the afterlife of thamma holders has nothing to do with this world. Invulnerability has thus been incorporated into this laymen's notion of nirvana.
It is important to note that the practice of wisa/thamma among the Thai-Lao is based on a kind of "equilibrium theory" about the notion of body. They believe that a person's physical and spiritual health depends on the soul (khwan) being settled inside the body in a stable condition. Men who possess wisa/thamma, therefore, are people who can not only generate layers of wisa/thamma but who can also maintain the balance between external knowledge and inherent souls.
Men should acquire those 'layers' of knowledge within their bodies throughout their lives. Experiences like traveling in remote areas or becoming a Buddhist monk are thought to be opportunities to acquire such layers. In this context, learning and possessing knowledge means maintaining their autonomy as men who can go anywhere to achieve success. Manhood, in the Thai-Lao context, is proved by the internalized layers of knowledge and experiences from outside the body [5]. This partly explains why traveling masters, such as Kula and Phu Thai traders in the region, have been viewed as having strong wisa and the power to influence others. Knowledge is power in this respect. To accomplish success in the right way, the acquisition of knowledge is not enough. One must also maintain a balance between the soul and alien objects (knowledge), while adhering to the five precepts. Once one has attained this balance and mastery over knowledge, he will be able to incarnate the religious knowledge within his body.
5. Comparative Perspective
Language is one criteria with which cultures can be differentiated and studying the practice of spells may shed light on another important aspect of this subject. Most of the spells are composed of non-native languages. Why have people been so eager to borrow from different language groups when composing spells? Although, in the eyes of the original users, these verse fragments appear to be misunderstood, they are functioning in a different context, and are in fact still governed by the same rule that they must not be used except in times of need. Such 'distortion' and 'systematization' may be an important element in analyzing cultural dynamics not only in traditional societies but also in modern societies.
Why did the Thai-Lao, like the Siamese, use Cambodian characters to render most of their spells in writing? One possible answer is suggested by a historical perspective. Until the period of Thai-Lao expansion, northeast Thailand was part of the Khmer empire. In this sense, old Khmer is the language of a once conquering polity in the region. Moreover, as in central Thailand, until Rama V, who ordered scribes to make full volumes of the Tripitaka in Siamese, all sacred Buddhist scriptures were inscribed in Cambodian characters on palm leaves (Chai 1974: 53). Against this historical background of a tradition of sacred texts in Thailand, it is plausible to presume that Cambodian letters may have been perceived as runic characters for magical purposes (Anuman 1968:275).
This view partly correlates to the "belief in superior out-group magic" described by anthropologists. As has been described above, there are other regional instances in which people obtained various spells as well as protective spirits from aboriginals from outside their own villages or wandering traders (cf. Tanabe 1986). Why do people prefer to acquire and use protective powers from strangers? According to previous studies of witchcraft and sorcery, boundary areas between groups are inherently dangerous and powerful because they are outside the controlled structure of classification. Boundaries then exist where shared knowledge and custom does not work. Power is recognized as what is outside common-sense, the periphery of a society. In other words, the 'social distance' between groups and 'their remoteness and mystery' are the general sources of power (Golomb 1985: 222). Thus the origin of protective power, spirits and mystical spells, lies in a marginal zone. Their popularity, which constitutes a cultural area, is explained by the migratory process of the users.
However, the location of the periphery is not fixed as a political center presumes. In reality, marginal zones are constantly arising between groups at each locality due to the ethnocentric construction of their life/world. In a sense, the less the political center can exert its power over them, the more diffuse the peripheral zones. The "superior out-group theory" is then possible only when it fixes the characteristics of tension between specific groups. As we often see in stereotyping ethnic/religious conflicts between groups in the Third world, this method of explanation is frequently adopted by replacing multi-layered realities with a single reductionist interpretation.
The logic which people employ in their interactions is more practical as well as pragmatic. People can take even fragments of cultures such as the spells of different language groups which are considered to be not only powerful but also successful in fulfilling certain objectives in each region. The origin of spells, therefore, does not necessarily have a superior center of culture. It may be sufficient to possess something which other groups do not have but require. We see the Tai-Yai (Shan), wandering traders, sell their spirits to the Thai-Yuan, while Kui people who are skillful in taming wild elephants introduce spells to Lao Lum in southern Laos. It is also possible that in certain situations spells are acquired in reciprocal relationships between groups who identify such things with each other.
When the Lao Lum use phasa phi (words of the spirits), the hierarchical relation between the practitioner and the original user is not emphasized. All they need to know is that the words of the spirits have been transmitted from the neighboring aboriginal Kui people. However, as stated above, the case of wisa and thamma is totally different. The practitioner must always be mindful of the master-disciple relationship when they practice the spell. Otherwise it will not be effective. The efficacy of wisa and thamma is thus fundamentally dependent on the master-disciple relationship.
Those spells which are partly derived from scriptural tradition must be situated within the relations between the practitioners. The master-disciple relation works as a metaphor constituting the link between the spiritual body of the master and the physical body of the disciple. It also works as a fictitious channel to activate knowledge which means spells, the related taboos and the presentation of the art such as the way of reciting the spell, demanding two kinds of container, the physical and the spiritual body. In other words, recollection of the master serves to restore the origin of such knowledge and arts reflected in the chain of bodies.
Wisa and thamma are fragment verses from canon drawn from the precept-keepers themselves. Then, can we consider both kinds of religious knowledge to be byproducts of the inappropriate practices of literate tradition? Here we should recall that Buddhism came from the transmission of ideas and notions through oral traditions. Even after the use of writing was introduced, oral transmission of textual knowledge was considered the most effective way to prevent them from being lost or destroyed. This is clearly evident in the process of the restoration of Khmer Buddhism after the extensive destruction it suffered during the Pol Pot regime. The most important element in its recovery was not resurrection of the Tripitaka but the re-ordination of monks who had memorized the Buddhist teachings and chants needed for ritual occasions (Hayashi 1998b).
What has been kept and transmitted in such traditions? Paradoxically, the content of knowledge, the words and verses themselves, seem to be less important than the art of chanting and performing, including the way of expelling evil spirits. This observation is also relevant to the practices of Buddhist monks. Although they share the same Pali canon, it is also well known that the pronunciation of verses and related ritual performances are used as markers to differentiate groups (nikai) of monks and their regional formations from each other (cf. Ishii 1998: 93).
Pali is a dead language. Buddhist Pali canon in Theravada Buddhist societies is transliterated into each 'national' language which is used by major language groups in the region. Sacred Pali canon written in Thai makes no sense to Burmese Buddhists. However, they can chant the same Pali verses, even though the pronunciations of some vowels and consonants differ due to differences in their spoken language. For the majority of ordinary Buddhists wherever they live, the canon are orally recited rather than written in script. The "imagined community" of Theravada Buddhists can be described not by an ideograph like Arabic for Islam but by a chanted 'sound'. Therevada Buddhists are equivalent to their religious practices which are totally different from Anderson's generalization for classical communities linked by sacred languages (Anderson 1992:20). Sacred script and chanting sounds differentiate and unite Theravada Buddhists from region to region.
At the same time, however, we should note that, notwithstanding the difference between Pali canon and magic spells, the ways of reciting religious verses rather than the content are important practices because they are closely related to the notion of the body [6]. Aside from these arts, abstaining from sex and adhering to food taboos and precepts which can only be ordained by a master and which cultivate differences between schools, are all connected with self-discipline and conditioning of the body. The ideology of self-discipline and its connection with spiritual power may follow from this. It establishes the notion of a divine energy or inner strength which enables the individual to control himself, other people, and his environment. This power is accumulated and concentrated through asceticism and through other forms of self-discipline. Spiritual power in this context is power-protection. As Tannenbaum wrote, "Practices of control are an important corollary of power-protection. To be powerful, one must also be able to protect one's self and one's dependents... Without control one cannot protect; beings without control are not powerful, merely dangerous" (Tannenbaum 1993: 78).
The belief in invulnerability, with which the power-protection practice is concerned, is as old as beliefs concerning the dead in human history. Both are related to the condition of the body. What is more, both Buddhist practices and non-Buddhist rituals are also strongly connected to the body, whereas Tambiah clarifies only the latter in a way that rituals related to both the soul and spirit perceive the body as a boundary differentiating between the internal and external realm (Tambiah 1970).
That is, according to village narratives, the true Buddhist teachings are contained in the bodies of pious Buddhist monks. Their bodies are vehicles for canonical knowledge, which is why people often refer to monks as a "body of precepts" and "walking Tripitaka". This perception is obviously a kind of reification. There is no need, however, to assume fetish theories, for the concept that knowledge is a part of the human body has been recognized among peoples with oral traditions. This metaphorical relation between sacred knowledge and the physical body was also demonstrated in the statements of a leading monk in modern Thailand who maintains that the Tripitaka, or sacred Buddhist text, is the body of Buddha himself (Prayut 1999: 11).
In this context, people comprehend that religious knowledge is the result of people's experiences. It is not knowledge in modern terms. It is a part or a component of the body. Therefore, religion is not only for practicing but also for 'having' (thu satsana) or possessing within their bodies. Religious knowledge for the Thai-Lao then is not comprised of abstract, transmittable statements devoid of any connection with the body, but a "spiritual power" that embodies the experiences and memories of social interaction. And when they possess it, it becomes a vital object (khong saksit, sacred things).
There is another important factor underlying the practices of wisa/thamma. The teaching activities of the masters could capsulate such religious knowledge, making it individualized and transportable (Barth 1990). Once religious knowledge is transportable, it moves across the boundaries between ethno-religious groups and into remote regions through population migrations. For this reason, many village men were able to learn spells from 'traveling teachers' in the region.
As more opportunities become available for state-controlled secular education, and as migration to urban centers continues, such body-based local knowledge and its use will decrease. Under such circumstances, opportunities to study the realities of life in one's own locality along with its deep-rooted philosophy will rapidly disappear. As the use of 'scientific knowledge' supercedes the use of local knowledge, those notions of body and knowledge will be concealed behind a 'universal' modern technology which de-contextualizes the various facets of human experience.
6. Concluding Remarks
Spells appear to be individual-oriented practices when compared with other Buddhist merit making rituals based on communal feasts. However, just as acts of merit making stress the relations between the actors and their kin-based relatives, the practice of using protective powers expresses the master-disciple relationship. Moreover, the number of villagers who attempt to acquire spells is not limited to a few outstanding specialists. Practices of spells are as 'popular' as many other collective Buddhist rituals. People require them for protection and for luck, especially when they leave their natal villages for various reasons. Thai-Lao wanderers have eagerly sought religious knowledge to generate protective power.
In their origins, both wisa and thamma are 'imported' knowledge obtained through master-disciple relations which transcend the boundaries separating different communities. They become sacred knowledge only when practitioners can internalize and control them while observing certain taboos and precepts. Such master-disciple relations are also closely connected with the notion of the body. The concept of the body as a container among the Tai including the Thai-Lao seems to have been an important metaphor for the recognition of self in a specific environment. In other words, the body is the core locus for differentiating between the internal and external world. Therefore, following the allocation of the body, we-they relations will be generated to mark boundaries elsewhere.
The Thai-Lao people were not isolated. On the contrary, as with other Tai groups in mainland Southeast Asia and southwestern China, they were adept at making contact with non-Tai indigenous people in the region. As practices of wisa and thamma show, the Thai-Lao have configured their own concept of religious knowledge connected with their notion of relationships. 'Corrupted and distorted' configurations are not the result of any misunderstanding of the original practices but of their own creativity in developing a composite of various elements from outside realms. Although the knowledge is fragmented, it is composed in a bricolage so as to be meaningful for the actors who cross various boundaries within the region.
The practices of living religions or "religions-in-places" of Theravada Buddhists in regions where various language groups encounter one another such as southwestern China and mainland Southeast Asia, have been constructed on the basis of their historical experience accumulated during daily life. While most modern literate intellectuals tend to categorize other cultures in terms of the scriptural aspects of religions and a reified notion of ethnicity, they interpret their in-group and inter-group relations in terms of their living religious practices. The we-they relationship in this context is not always hostile. It often operates not only to build boundaries between groups but to increase opportunities for exchanging cultural products along with cultivating differences in both inside and outside groups.
It is obvious that every type of religious belief and practice is a regional product. This does not mean, however, that they remain unaltered. Their reality is dynamic, changing according to various regional formations. Living religions and practices have been developed from their experiences in the region within which their interrelations are configured. Therefore, the study of local knowledge, and especially of religious practices, will shed light on the non-scriptural regional development of World Religions. Theravada Buddhism in the regional context, which has long been obscured by the canonical interpretations of various Buddhist schools, appears not only as a localized version of a world religion but also as a practice of personalized sacred knowledge based on historical experience. The variations which occur are not due to misreading of scriptural text but to the type of configuration such as the notion of power (cf. Hayashi 1989, Tannenbaum 1995). Further study on such facets of the local configuration of religious knowledge, including scriptural tradition itself, promise to be highly productive.
This perspective will, moreover, lead us to the study of the regional dynamics of religious practices without insisting on a fictional model of a universal human mind or of 'eternal and primitive folk' living in unchanging indigenous cultures. Supernatural powers related to the practice of spells, especially in anthropological discourse, have long been described in terms of the concept of mana, which is thought to be a moral power among the people. However, the scheme of modern science has reduced mana into an impersonal power. As stated above, in the Thai-Lao version of mana, the power related to spells, has been viewed as "knowledge" which recalls the master-disciple relationship. The Thai-Lao notion of religious knowledge is not based on texts or institutions. Rather, it is based on the relations of the practitioners in each locality who embody their experiences.
Notes
1. The term "Thai-Lao" is used here to distinguish them from the Lao (lao lum; lowland Lao) in Lao P.D.R. and the Thai in central Thailand. The Northeast region covers approximately one-third of the area of the country dominated by the Khorat Plateau, and contains more than one-third of the total population of Thailand. The most of the population of Thai-Lao speaker concentrates and occupies about 70% of the region (Suwilai and Noraset 1996, Hayashi 1998).
2. It is an incantation by which a piece of rawhide is reduced in size to harm an enemy sending it with means to enter the victim's body. The consecrated rawhide will resume gradually its normal size inside the victim and he will suffer great pain and die in agony (Anuman 1968: 279-80). Among the Thai-Lao, it is known and feared as nang niao witchcraft.
3. This is the point to differentiate "specialists of soul" (mo su khwan) from mo wisa and mo tham, both who confront spirits outside of body. The former does not have to be skillful in whatever the kind of performative arts except for learning texts.
4. Among the Lao in Lao P.D.R., the designation of mo mon (specialists of mantra) is popular instead of mo tham to refer the equivalent specialist (cf. Zago 1972: 195).
5. The author observes womanhood, to the contrary, is marked by their productivity based on their body such as giving birth, weaving textile and the like. Of course this view is centered on community, presupposing uxorilocality of social structure among the Thai-Lao. Once it became common that women go outside village realm, alternative definition will be made. Their fertility seems to be identified with their well-to-do marriage outside village and acquiring richness.
6. According to the intensive study of folk tradition of Okinawa, Japan, the way of singing and the related body performances have been more important than the contents of rhyme itself in succeeding their tradition (Watanabe 1990).
Acknowledgements:
I am greatly indebted to the COE program of Monbusho (Japanese Ministry of Education, Science and Culture) for their support. My sincere thank to Prof. Richard A. O'Connor for his suggestions and Prof. Thaweesilp Supwatthana for giving valuable comments and suggesting historical record on Thai notion of wicha.
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SOUTHEAST ASIAN RELIGIOUS: Mainland
Cultures source: Mircea Eliade (ed.) 1995, The Encyclopedia of Religion. |
| figuer 1 and 2 Khatha and formula to produce protective power for mo tham.  |
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