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RITUAL SPECIALISTS

There are a large number of specialists in the village who are able to
cure disease and communicate with the supernatural. Most are called
by names which have the common prefix mau. Thus we have mau song
(diviner/diagnostician), mau du (or mau lek) (astrologer/fortune teller),
mau mau (discoverer of lost property), mau ya (physician/`herbal' doctor),
mau ram (medium of phii fa), mau tham (exorcist of spirits), mau khwan
(intermediary for khwan or spiritual essence, who is also called paahm).

In this chapter we are primarily concerned with the cult of the guardian
phii, and the specialists who figure in this are three: mau song (general
diviner or consultant), cham (spirit intermediary), and tiam (medium).
The latter two specialists are connected exclusively with Tapubaan and
Chao Phau.

The general procedure when illness befalls a person is that he goes to
consult (or he invites to his home) the mau song. He is concerned with
diagnosing, first whether the illness is caused by spirits or not. If spirits
are not involved, then the inference is that it is ordinary organically-produced
illness and the patient is sent to the mau ya, who treats with
medicine. If the illness is supernaturally produced, then the diviner also
names the particular spirit that is affecting the patient and the kind of
offering that must be given to placate it. Village theory of disease is
explicit that a supernaturally caused disease cannot be cured by ordinary
medicine (although a patient may combine medicine with supernatural
placation in the actual cure).

If the diviner finds that the illness is caused by Tapubaan or Chao Phau,
the two guardian phii, then the patient must go to the cham (intermediary)
of these spirits in order to carry out the rest of the proceedings. (The word
cham is used exclusively for the intermediary of the guardian spirits.) The
first sequence is kuad khaw phii, inviting the phii to go out of the patient.
After the cure, the promised fee offering is given at the phii shrine on
a Wednesday (wan pood). The tiam comes into the picture for disease
cure only in extraordinary circumstances.

Having stated these preliminary facts, we can now examine various
facets of the roles of mau song and tiam, especially as they figure in the
cure of disease.

`Mau song' (diviner/consultant)

There were in 1962 at least four individuals who practised the art of
mau song. The word song means `to seek' and therefore mau song may be
described as belonging to the category of consultant, diagnostician or
diviner. The mau song only diagnoses; in that role he does not cure, either
through medicine or supernatural action. His role is conceptually distinct,
although any one person may be mau song and also dabble in other special
techniques. When he performs other roles he is called by the appropriate
name.

There is no standard technique of diagnosis or divination. Individual
diviners practise their special mode. I shall briefly mention four techniques
current in the village, and then examine in detail two of them. One diviner
uses an egg into which he looks and observes the appearance of supernatural
agents; another looks through a paper funnel and sees certain
marks which stand for different supernatural agents; the third studies
the pattern made by the contents of a broken egg and merely tells whether
the disease is fatal or not; the fourth uses a mirror and sees in it the
appearance of supernaturals in the manner of the first diviner.

The pre-eminent diviner in Baan Phraan Muan was a middle-aged
man called Wanthong. Another (Bunsi) who was prominent as cham also
practised as mau song as a secondary activity.

Wanthong, the village diviner: Wanthong's father was himself both
mau song and mau ya, who learned his arts from a man in Laos with
whom he had dealings in cattle. Wanthong began to learn the art of
mau song from his father at twenty-five, and after being an apprentice for
seven years became a fully-fledged diviner at thirty-two. Thus is the art
of divination learned, and quite young men of the village can fill the role.

Wanthong observed certain food taboos which are required by his
divining work. During his apprenticeship he had to avoid eating certain
delicacies such as khaaw pun (or kanom jeen in Central Plain language),
which is similar to Chinese noodles, and khaw tom, a sweet made of rice,
coconut milk and banana steamed in banana leaf. He also had to avoid
walking under banana and coconut trees bearing fruit, as well as under
clothes lines on which were hung women's garments. His technique of
divination is as follows.

A patient wanting to consult him must first offer him kaj. This consists
of an egg, flowers, a candle, a piece of cotton fluff, rice grain, and 1 or

1½ baht of money. This in fact constitutes his fee, but it has ritual importance
inasmuch as these are the objects used in the divination. They represent
a part of the patient, they are vehicles through which diagnosis is made,
and they are a gift to the diviner. An expression used in the village for
these ritual objects is kryang jang hai klab baan (literally: `instrument
given to return home').

The objects are placed on a plate, the candle is lit and fixed on the rim
of the plate. Wanthong first worships (waj) in Buddhist fashion three
times before the kaj. He then invites (pao sagkhe) the divine angels
(thewada) to enter the egg, for it is with their help that he will summon
the spirits (phii). Next he takes up the egg and holding it in front of the
candle says magic words (katha) to summon the spirits. According to one
version given by him, spirits of all kinds appear in the egg and he questions
each whether it is the cause of the illness. If it is not the cause, it goes
away; if it is, it answers.

Actually there is no explicit theory of what he sees or should see. For
on another occasion, while looking at the egg during a session, he said
`paddy field, house, garden, Tapubaan, chata khon raw...' The words
referred to the pictures that presented themselves to him.[5]

It is interesting to compare Wanthong's technique with that used by
another mau song. This diviner puts the ritual offerings (kaj) into a paper
funnel and looks into it. He sees certain signs which are interpreted
according to the following code:

           

Sign seen	Interpretation (cause of illness)
1. a blot of black ink	organic illness (pa yaat)
2. red spot as in fire	phii naa (spirit of the rice field)
3. a red fire with brighter flames than 2	Tapubaan (guardian of village)
4. white lines like thread	phii seua (ancestral spirit)
5. glittering points of light	phii fa (spirit of the sky)

What then the diviner concludes from looking through the ritual object
(egg or funnel) is which one of many sources of illness is at work in the
case in question. A named spirit or an astrological danger or simply an
organic disease is diagnosed as the cause.

Any one type of spirit from a large array may be the agent. If a guardian
spirit—either Tapubaan or Chao Phau Phraa Khao—or the spirit of an

ancestor (phii phau phii mae) is at work, the implication is that some
wrong has been committed by the patient, but the moral aspect of the
business of finding the cause is not the primary object here. Rather the
attention is focused on actual procedures for removing the action of the
supernatural agent. If the cause is some malevolent spirit, rather than
guardian or ancestor, then by definition it is a capricious amoral agent,
and no question of moral breach is involved. The mau song tells the
patient what offering must be given to the afflicting spirit. In most cases
offerings are standardized.

We now turn to the ritual officiants connected with the guardian spirits.
Before seeing how they conclude the proceedings initiated by the diviner,
it is appropriate to examine their mode of recruitment and relationship
to each other.

Cham

The cham is the intermediary of the guardian spirits; the tiam is their
medium. In theory a medium is superior to the intermediary, who assists
the former. In practice there are some complications. Every village in
the vicinity of Baan Phraan Muan has a cham, but not necessarily a tiam. The cham is initially chosen by the guardian spirit by possessing him;
thereafter he is never or rarely possessed. He makes the offerings to the
spirits either to cure illness, or to propitiate them as in the collective
agricultural rites discussed above. The medium is also chosen by possession,
but he experiences it on subsequent occasions when he is called upon to
divine in curing ceremonies of an exceptional kind. He also plays a major
role in the rain-making ceremony, which will be described later. Mediumship
is rarer than the role of intermediary because it requires special
psychological attributes. While the cham of Baan Phraan Muan is well
established and publicly recognized as such, there is doubt among the
villagers as to whether their medium is the genuine product. The cham
is an intermediary of both Chao Phau Phraa Khao and Tapubaan, and in
talking of his mediation both cham and villagers refer to the guardian spirits
(Tapu and Chao Phau) as interchangeable entities. The mode of recruitment
of the cham and the (doubtful) tiam indicate certain interesting features.

Bunsi, now in his late forties, became cham at the age of thirty-one,
which again emphasizes the point that the ritual specialists we are considering
here gain recognition in early adulthood. It is relevant to note
that he had never been a Buddhist novice or a monk. He stated that
before possession by Chao Phau Phraa Khao he had no particular interest
in the guardian spirits. (Village theory is that Chao Phau or Tapubaan
simply come into any person they choose; the choice is unpredictable

beforehand, and so is the logic of the choice.) He also stated that his
first possession was totally unexpected. He was sitting one day in his
house when giddiness overtook him. He felt bodily tremors and lost
consciousness. Those who were with him (the witnesses) reported that
in this fit he spoke with a strange voice which declared itself to be Chao
Phau and said that it wanted Bunsi as his cham. He was told all this when
he regained consciousness.

But probing into the matter and piecing together what the villagers
said, we see that the time was ripe for the recognition of a new cham,
although it is not possible to say why Bunsi was the right candidate.

Bunsi's predecessor was a man called Beng. It was clear that he could
not continue as cham. Apparently certain misfortunes indicated his loss
of power. It is said retrospectively that his wife died because he failed to
respect Tapubaan by not making offerings on wan phraa. The village
concept in such a case is pid phii (a fault against the spirit which arouses
his anger). It is also said that Tapu did not communicate with him any
more. Village gossip also had it that he was too old to be cham, that he
was a drunkard and was not assiduous in his duties. These may have been
vital reasons for wanting to find a new cham.

It was in this context that the man who made claims to being the
medium (tiam) had one of his possessions, in which Chao Phau speaking
through him declared that he did not want Beng to be his cham any more.
Soon afterwards Bunsi experienced possession by Chao Phau in the
manner described earlier. After this he fell sick and had many bouts of
dizziness. Beng, the cham, was called to treat him but he refused. The
villagers were certain that the illness was caused by Chao Phau and that
Bunsi was the chosen new candidate.

The dismissal of an existing incumbent and the recognition of a new
one is a tricky business, given the theory of election by possession. For
a cham cannot simply resign his office. He must be given permission by
Tapu or Chao Phau to do so. As an informant put it: `If the phii sees that
the cham is tired, that he has been working for a long time and should be
replaced by another person, then he may be allowed to give up his work.
If he is not allowed, he cannot.'

To become the publicly recognized cham of the village, it is not enough
to be possessed by the guardian spirit, for possession as such might
denote either an affliction verging on madness or an ecstatic state by
virtue of election. The village must decide whether election by Chao
Phau or Tapu is genuine or not, whether the illness signifies a chosen
representative or an affliction of a malevolent kind. Thus the village
public is the final legitimizer of cult office.

In Bunsi's case, his installation was made by village decision simultaneously
with the deposition of the former incumbent. A meeting of
villagers was called by the headman (puyaibaan) and village elders, and
the information was circulated that the incumbent cham, Beng, wished
to resign his office and that therefore it was necessary to appoint a new
one.

At the meeting, which was held at the sala (preaching hall) of the wat,
both the outgoing and the succeeding chams were present. A village elder
—a pious Buddhist lay leader and a maukhwan as well, the most respected
leader in the village—first invited the thewada to attend the ceremony as
witnesses (pao sagkhe) and then called upon Tapubaan to choose one of
the two candidates as his cham. Bunsi alone experienced a possession by
Tapubaan and was therefore clearly chosen. The village headman made
an announcement that henceforth Bunsi would be the village cham. It
should be noted that the Buddhist monks, who do not normally participate
in the cult of the guardian spirits, were present as necessary witnesses.
They did not, however, perform any chanting nor did they confer blessings
on the proceedings, thus adhering to their segregation from the cult of
the phii.

It came as a surprise to me, as an anthropologist, that the cham observed
no special interdictions associated with his mediating role; nor did he
prepare himself in any special ritual manner for a ceremony. In this
sense he is different from the village's foremost diviner (mau song).
I realized later that the cham's lack of association with special interdictions
is consonant with the theory of possession: from the villagers' point of
view it is completely arbitrary in that the guardian phii choose whomever
they want, and the chosen are not distinguished by special virtues or
characteristics.

Tiam

The tiam (or chao phuu tiam) is the medium of Tapubaan, the village
guardian, and Chao Phau Tong Khyang, who is the spirit of the swamp,
but who, in Baan Phraan Muan, is identified with Tapubaan, just as the
latter is identified with Chao Phau Phraa Khao in certain contexts.

In the cult of the guardian spirits a true tiam is in theory given precedence
over the cham. In Baan Phraan Muan the present tiam has a rather
ambiguous position: in 1962 he was regarded as tiam, but in 1965 when
I made a visit to the village his professional position was in question.
This change possibly bears on village social relationships and politics.
Chanla, the tiam, is not a respected leader, whereas the cham, although
not himself a leader, is a more established citizen of the village. His

daughter, moreover, is married to the son of the most respected leader
of the village. There is enough latitude in the principles of validation
of chamship and tiamship for villagers to question (if it seems necessary)
the authenticity of one or the other. In 1965 the idea was current that
Beng was not a true medium (i.e. Tapu did not possess him freely as his
chosen representative) but that by use of magical formulae he was able
to coerce spirits to enter him. This is the distinction between a medium,
who is freely possessed, and an exorcist—or in village terminology, a
mau ram—who has a guardian spirit whom he can control through
magic words (katha) and with whose aid malevolent spirits are made to
submit.

In 1962, however, the role of the incumbent tiam was less ambiguous
in the village; three years later public opinion was divided as to whether
he was tiam or mau ram, but he continued to play the role of tiam in
certain contexts. So in what follows I shall bring out the features of
Chanla's role under the aspect of mediumship.

Chanla experienced his first possession (phii ma soon) by Chao Phau Tong
Khyang at the age of thirty-eight years. His possession in fact followed
the standard pattern as described for cham Bunsi. His version is as follows:
one evening while working in his house Chao Phau entered him. Others
who were present in the house later told him that he had begun to cry
and to shake. He himself had lost consciousness. On being questioned
by the witnesses Chao Phau (through the voice of Chanla) revealed his
identity. When asked the purpose of his entry into Chanla, Chao Phau
answered that `the village was not making progress' (baan myang baan
charoen) because the villagers were not united, and that he had come to
take Chanla as his tiam in order to bring about village unity. When the
witnesses accepted these conditions the Chao Phau left Chanla.

As in the case of the cham, Chanla also denied that before possession
he had shown any particular interest in Chao Phau. He had never made
offerings to him at the biannual agricultural rites because his wife's
father represented the household.

The possession was followed some days later by a meeting of villagers
at the house of the village headman, who informed them of the possession
and requested them to agree to Chanla being recognized as the tiam.
Thus both cham and tiam must gain village recognition of their possession
as signifying genuine election by the guardian spirits. The guardian
spirits' election and rejection of their agents follow a standardized cultural
pattern.