University of Virginia Library

---

345

Individual, household and compound

At this level rites conducted by Buddhist monks are concerned with such
threshold ceremonies as house-blessing and housewarming (khyn huean
mai) and with merit-making by the members of a household or compound
(thambun baan). Such rites are of small importance in the whole spectrum
of rites in which monks participate. The chief recipients of merit are the
household and compound members, although the attendance may be
wider.

In contrast the khwan rites have primary significance at this level of
social structure, for example pregnancy and childbirth, marriage (i.e.
recruitment to and establishment of families and households), and situations
concerned with the economic interests and prosperity of households and
compounds. In such events, the wider community is interested in the
fortunes of its smallest constituent units.

There is a further narrowing in the case of spirit rites dealing with the
afflictions of individual patients. Here the patient and the intermediary
are the major parties involved, and the occasion (illness) has little relevance
outside the household and compound. The rites in question involve
propitiation of malevolent spirits and exorcism to remove misfortunes
and illness.