The firing of the rockets
On the following morning the rocket-firing festivities took place. First
of all the monks were feasted at the wat by the villagers in order to make
merit, and then all the remaining rockets were carried to a launching
site near the fields.
Next followed what is ritually the most important sequence—the firing
of the wishing rocket (bang siang), which actually will foretell the outcome
of the wishes made to Tapubaan. If the rocket flies straight and high the
omens are auspicious. The intermediary (cham) first addressed the guardian
spirit thus: `If there is to be prosperity, health and rain, let the rocket
rise high, if there is not to be prosperity...let the rocket fail.' Then the
rocket was fired; its trajectory was declared to be auspicious.
There is some looseness of interpretation by the villagers concerning
the symbolism of the two rockets thus far ignited, the first on the previous
evening and the second just described. Some informants held that the
rocket of offering (bang tawai) is also a wishing rocket and that it represents
the wish for rain, while the rocket fired the next morning expresses the
wish for the good health and prosperity of the villagers and their buffaloes.
It would seem that this interpretation would act as an insurance against
the possible failure of using a single rocket as a prophesying agent. Since
the chances are that both rockets will not fail, the prophecy can be manipulated
in favour of the villagers.
The firing of the second rocket gave way to proceedings whose character
can only be described as ritual licence. Virtually the entire village congregated,
including the monks and novices. The remaining rockets were fired
in a spirit of competition. If a rocket either failed to take off or did not
go high, the unsuccessful firer was subjected to mud-throwing. This
punishment was meted to everyone without distinction, including monks
and village elders (phuu thaw), both of whom participated in the firing. Thus
it is clear that the ritual licence allowed dissolves the two most important
hierarchical statuses in the village—the Buddhist monk, who normally is
highly respected and socially distinct, and the lay elder, who by virtue
of his generational superiority and headship of the compound clusters is
respected, wields a certain amount of authority, and occupies a position
of leadership in the village. Bunbangfai represents the one occasion in
village life when such extreme privileged joking is allowed. During
Songkran (New Year) festivities a certain amount of licence is allowed.
Young people throw water on everyone indiscriminately. Throwing mud
is, however, a more disrespectful and insolent act in normal circumstances.
The ritual licence is regarded as `fun'. Games were played, cockfighting
was staged, as well as `buffalo fighting' with young men impersonating
the bulls. Young men devised ways of extracting money from the spectators
for buying liquor. One such is to carry around to houses an evil-smelling
vulture tied to a rope; money was given quickly to get rid of the odour.
Let me recapitulate and summarize what seem to constitute the dominant
features of Bunbangfai. It is a cult addressed to the guardian spirits,
who are invested with power to grant rain and good health to the village.
As such they are concerned with basic and vital interests. In propitiating
them the villagers see them as elevated deities, not malevolent spirits.
They are approached as children approach a powerful father figure who
grants his favours as a result of wishes expressed in the right manner.
The approach has, however, an element of bargaining, characteristic of
the approach made to them for the cure of illness and in the biannual
agricultural rites, analysed earlier. Thus for instance in 1965 the village
ritual was made on a relatively minor scale, but at the ceremony a promise
was made that if there was copious rainfall the villagers would make bigger
rockets the following year.
In so far as monks do not participate in the procession to the shrine
nor in the propitiation, the guardian cult is segregated from Buddhist
rituals such as Bun Phraawes. Bunbangfai, nevertheless, has important
links with Buddhism which are woven into the texture of the festivities
while certain category distinctions are kept clear. The monks help in the
making of the rockets, which are stored in the
wat. In the first sequence
of the festival monks and novices are ordained in a strictly Buddhist
ceremonial; but at the same time, one of the chief purposes of the ordination
is to transfer merit to the guardian deities. And also connected with the
ordination is the occasional monk elevation ceremony.
The propitiation of Tapubaan and the firing of the wishing rockets are,
however, among the sequences in which Buddhist monks do not participate.
These sequences express the category opposition between Buddhism and
the guardian spirit cult, for no Buddhist monk can worship or propitiate
a spirit. But we note at the same time in a separate sequence, after the
rocket procession is over, the monks on that same night chant suad
mongkhon on behalf of the success of the rockets. Here the Buddhist
sequence is supplementary and reinforces the wishes of the villagers for
rain and fertility. At the same time that the villagers propitiate Tapubaan
for rain and fertility they are also making merit in the Buddhist way to
double their chances of success. The essential requirement is that monks
should not propitiate Tapubaan, whereas the villagers can have two strings
to their bow—they can practise Buddhism and also propitiate the guardian
deities.
The structure of the Bunbangfai festival shows an arrangement whereby
the Buddhist sequences in which monks participate are kept separate
from those in which the officiants of the spirit cult participate, and order
is obtained by fusing the sequences without confusing them. Only in the
final sequences are all distinctions of social and religious hierarchy
temporarily dissolved in ritual licence, as a prelude to beginning a new
agricultural and religious cycle.
Having described the Bunbangfai festival, I shall now proceed to
consider two versions of the myth associated with it.
