University of Virginia Library

THE RITE OF `SUKHWAN KHAW' (CALLING THE
SPIRIT ESSENCE OF RICE)

The commentary at the end of the myth of Nang Phrakosob described
how, since the time rice-growing has been well known to villagers, a certain
technology of cultivation is practised, and how after threshing the ceremony
of sukhwan khaw (calling the spirit essence of rice) is performed. It described
how offerings are got together for the spirit essence and verses are recited
to call the khwan dispersed in mountain, cave, water, and in the jungles
of India and Ceylon.

The rite of sukhwan related to the myth is performed today by the
villagers. In Chapter 13 I described the rite as it is conducted for human
beings. Here I shall relate how it is performed for rice and examine how,
as a rite, it is related to the myth.

From the moment the paddy grain begins to form in the fields, villagers
address rites to Nang Phrakosob, the female spirit of the rice, that is the
khwan (spirit essence of rice). The rite of plong khaw is performed before
threshing, at which time permission is asked of Nang Phrakosob to
`beat' her, that is to thresh. This is followed by sukhwan khaw, which is
performed by each cultivating household separately when the newly
harvested grain is stored in individual household barns. The officiant at
the rite is the paahm or mau khwan. The members of the household are
present at the barn when the rite is performed.

The essence of the rite is the calling of the dispersed khwan of the

rice to enter the barn and to reside with the grain. The belief is that if the
ceremony is not performed, the grain will be exhausted quickly and that,
moreover, the yield in the following year will diminish. Elaborate offerings
of meat, liquor, the tops of banana trees and sugar cane plants, and sweets
made in the shape of buffaloes are placed in the barn, and the paahm
recites a fairly long text written on palm leaves. After the recitation, the
rite ends with the paahm pouring paddy into a basket—which is described
in Thai as `pouring paddy for children'—and making a final plea for
good yields in the future.

As in the ceremony for humans, here too the recitation of the text is
the most important part of the ceremony. Therefore it is necessary that
we scrutinize the content of the words recited before we attempt to relate
the rite to its associated myth. I give below an English translation of the
complete text read by the village paahm at the ceremony for the spirit of rice.

Text read by `paahm' at `sukhwan khaw': `Saykhe charupe okasa okasa'[16]

When the fifth lunar month ends and the sixth begins, it thunders and it
rains, and the ploughing of fields begins. People go into the jungle with
a sharp axe and cut mai paniang[17] wood and bring it home to make a plough.
The plough is carried to the field; a yoke is made and placed on the
buffalo's neck; the rope is drawn tight, the buffalo walks and the plough
tills the earth. Ploughing takes many days. Then paddy is sown. When the
seedlings have grown well, they are pulled out and tied in bundles. After
their leaf-tips are cut, the bundles are put together in a heap. The field
is then harrowed and the bundles of seedling are divided into parts and
transplanted according to the customs of up-country folk. In the tenth
lunar month during the period of the waxing moon, the rice plants grow
heads of paddy; the heads bend but the leaves stand straight. It is a
beautiful sight to see them sway back and forth in the breeze. We all try
to drive away the small birds—nogkrachib and nogkrachaab[18] —which come
to eat the grain. It takes a long time for the grain to ripen. When they do
so, the leaves turn yellow. The sickle is used to harvest the rice. The
harvested paddy is left in the sun for three days, and then carried and
heaped together on the threshing floor. Then the beating of rice begins;
sometimes we use the buffalo to trample on it. A branch of a tree is used
to sweep away the straw, and then the grains are collected.

All of us then invite a wise achaan[19] to come and be seated on a mat to
officiate at the khwan khaw ceremony. Si si, today is a good day, it is
full of good luck. The offerings prepared by all of us and placed in the
pha khwan[20] are: food, fruit, betel nut, khaw tom (a kind of dessert made
of rice); those placed in the tray are: young banana leaves, tender leaves
of sugar cane, bai koon,[21] boiled egg and boiled chicken. Other articles
are maikan haab and kanlao (pointed sticks for carrying bundles of threshed
rice). We have laid a white cloth on the tray and have also placed in it one
pair of candles, thread (fai sai sin), and four namtao (water vessels made
of gourds). Four taleo[22] have been woven in the shape of a cow's head and
they have been placed at the four corners of the threshing floor. In the
middle of the floor a mat has been unrolled and a wise achaan has been
invited to sit on it and celebrate the khwan of rice.

Si si, today is an auspicious day and I am going to perform the sukhwan
ceremony for the rice plants in the field. When the plants are transplanted
and when the heads of paddy grow erect, we refer to them as khaw makkok;
the plants which are transplanted on the sides of the bed are called
khaw makkeua; plants whose grain are shaped like the makgleua tree are
called khaw kajmak; plants which have a cluster of many grains are called
khaw plong saeng; plants which have many grains are called khaw makpoh;
plants which bear many heads of grain are called khaw leb chang.[23] From the
plants which bear good grain are selected the seed paddy for the next year.

Om! Rice grown on the upland field, you are asked to return today at
this moment. Rice planted in the wet-land fields and which are now
growing in Myang Lan Chang,[24] you are requested to come today at this
moment. Rice spilled from the basket which fell sideways because its
string was broken, is asked to return today. Rice spilled while it was
being carried on the shoulder-pole is asked to come today. Rice which
was carried away by the rice birds (nogkrachib and nogkrachaab) is asked

to return today. Rice which fell into the elephant's mouth, into the tusked
boar's mouth, rice stolen by the horse, rice eaten by the rabbit which
lives near the field is asked to return today. Rice which went waste in the
partridge's (nogratah) beak, in the yellow-headed rice bird's beak is asked
to return today. Rice which was in the parrot's (nogkaeg) beak, in the beak
of the rice bird, nogkrachib fyang (which lives in the fields), is requested to
come today. Rice which fell into the peacock's beak is asked to come today.
Rice eaten by the mouse (nuu) and by the crab (puu), rice which was
destroyed in the fish's mouth is asked to come today. Rice eaten by worms
and insects is asked to return today. The tops of rice plants eaten by cattle
and buffaloes, elephants and horses are asked to return today.

Red gold, liquor and egg have been laid out for all khwan which come
from every field, from every place. Come and reside in the pile of paddy.
Let the barn remain full, even after paddy has been taken for consumption
for ten years. When paddy is taken out, let it flow back into the barn
like the flow of the Ganges River and the ocean. Come, khwan, come and
stay in the barn which has a wooden floor, which is roofed with elephant
grass (ya faeg); come and sleep on the bed made with hardwood (maj kaen).
When you are taken out to be pounded,[25] please be replenished again;
when you are taken away for consumption, please, khwan, be present.
When we strike a wedge in the barn, or pound the mortar, please don't be
frightened. May you rice grains entwine as naga (serpents) do; may you
embrace like young lovers; may you protect one another.

Anyone who eats this rice, may he have a long life, may he become
as wise as Phraa Chao Mahosot[26] and be as patient as Phraa Mettai.[27] Let
everyone's wishes be fulfilled as I have said.[28]

The message of the ritual text

The text begins with the invitation to thewada (divine angels) to be
present to make the proceedings auspicious. It then proceeds to give in
prosaic terms an account of the paddy cultivation cycle practised in the
village: the sequences of preparing land, ploughing, transplanting,
harvesting and threshing, up to the point when the paddy is ready to
be stored in the barn. One may wonder why the villagers, for whom the
growing of rice is an everyday occupation, need to have recounted these
humdrum details of their technology.

The text then describes the preparations for the ceremony: the invitation
of the officiant, the offerings got together. This is a description of the
way a ceremony should be conducted, recited in the course of performing
the actual ceremony, a statement of details of staging while the drama
itself is being enacted.

The main body of the recitation is the lengthy calling of the khwan of
rice. (The metaphorical descriptions of rice—the comparisons with various
fruits and with the toes of the elephant—are a good example of the villagers'
poetic sense.) The respective and sonorous, yet compelling, calling of the
khwan is worthy of attention. In reconstituting the dispersed spirit-essence
of rice, rice from the various fields, rice spilled or left behind, rice eaten
by various birds (of which the small rice birds get repeated mention), by
elephant, deer, boar, fish, crab, mouse and insects, by the stubborn
buffalo, are requested to return.

Finally, after the spirit of rice has been recalled, it is invited to enter
the barn, and to replenish the store of grain despite continual consumption.
The final blessing is in terms of the highest Buddhist aspirations—may
he who eats the rice become as wise as Phraa Mahosot and as patient as
Phraa Mettai.

The text illustrates certain points already well known in information
and communication theory. The actual description of rice technology and
the details of how the ceremony is performed as embodied in the text
may be said to be a store of information. In a sense, a man who reads the
text finds in it the necessary instructions to perform the ceremony. The
compelling repetitive calling of the khwan is akin to `redundancy' in that
it is meant to ensure the message gets through emphatically to the listeners.

Nevertheless, the message contained in the ritual text expands in scope
when placed in relation to the myth.