University of Virginia Library

MERIT-MAKING (`THAMBUN')

Traditionally a basic obligation of the Buddhist layman has been that he
should materially support the wandering monks. Although today the
monks live in village monasteries, the begging bowl is still an important
symbol. In Baan Phraan Muan no food is ever cooked in the wat; it is
regularly provided by villagers. Thus feeding the monks is the most
common religious merit-making act in which a villager engages. There
is a noticeable sex distinction concerning this activity. Men never offer
food to the monks on their daily rounds, nor do they bring food to the

monks' quarters for their midday meal. On ordinary days at 11 o'clock
when the drum is beaten, old women (grandmothers) and young girls
will bring food to the wat, set it out for the monks, watch them eat, and
then carry the utensils back, having received the monks' blessings. Strict
decorum is preserved during this daily meeting with the female sex.
A monk does not express gratitude or pleasure at receiving food, because
he must show aloofness, and because it is he who confers merit by receiving
it. Technically, a monk `should not look into the face of the woman who
is giving the food', and this is observed both when a monk goes begging
and when he is served.

We have the situation, then, that women—old grandmothers past childbearing
and young unmarried girls—readily approach and minister to
the monks' daily needs.[1] The latter can do so without danger because the
monk has suppressed his male sexuality and is asexual. His relations with
them are formal; but when he gives up his robes, it is one of these same
girls that he will marry or have sexual dealings with.

Just as old women readily approach monks, so do elderly men, though
their contact on the whole is limited (except for those who serve on the
wat committee). But in comparison with young girls, young men of
the village tend to avoid the monks (who are of their own generation and
age-group). Young men keep away from the monks during wanphraa
(Buddhist Sabbath) and make their appearance only at collective calendrical
rites and festivals. In general it may be supposed that young virile men
find it uncongenial to approach their peers who have temporarily renounced
the world and whose religious preoccupation, in theory at least, is with
salvation rather than with blessed life here and now.

Daily merit-making, then, is a function of women rather than men, but
the latter also gain merit as heads and members of households. On the
whole, the more conspicuous practising Buddhists are women rather
than men. Or to put it differently, except for a few elderly male leaders, it
is women who have more contact and traffic with the monks.

The frequency of food offerings to monks was measured for a sample
of 106 village families. Only 13% said they had never offered food in
1961-2 and these were in all likelihood newly formed families whose
parental families would have acted on their behalf. While only about
17% of the families offered food daily, another 42% offered on some
days each week. There is another small segment which made merit only
on wanphraa, while the remainder offered food only during the Lent

season, when religious action was intensified. There are certain times
when individual households will intensify their food offerings for a short
period; examples are at times of illness or impending childbirth.

These facts establish that giving food to the monks is an important
and frequently indulged-in category of merit-making. A good way of
estimating the religious orientation of villagers is to compare the pattern
of food-giving with attendance at the wat for purposes of religious instruction
and edification.

Now wanphraa, the Buddhist Sabbath, occurs four times a lunar month,
and can be utilized not only for offering food to the monks, saying private
prayers, and receiving the five precepts and the blessings of the monks
but, more importantly, for engaging in religious action that is not typical
of everyday life. Sermons may be delivered by monks in the mornings
and/or evenings, and pious persons can practise the eight precepts for
a day, thereby observing a temporary asceticism and devoting time to
meditation. However, in Baan Phraan Muan wanphraa, outside of Lent,
is not characterized by such religious action. There is no sermon delivered,
and people do not observe the eight precepts. A few more people than
usual do bring food for the monks.

In comparison with behaviour on the usual wanphraa, religious orientations
during the Lent season show a different pattern, especially among
some of the older people. Since there are more monks and novices in the
wat than usual, more food has to be provided. And on wanphraa during
Lent some elderly people—more women than men—receive the eight
precepts and spend the whole day in the wat. Before breakfast and in the
evening, sermons (theed) may be preached for them.

The same sample of 106 households were asked about their attendance
at the wat on religious occasions in 1961-2. Fewer than ten people in the
sample had observed the eight precepts at one time or another. Such
persons achieve the kind of piety associated with the concepts of upasok
(male) and upasika[2] (female)—religious virtuosi in the Weberian sense.
About eight men and thirteen women in the sample reported regular
visits to the wat on wanphraa outside of Lent, and similar numbers reported
irregular visits. Thus it is clear that the ordinary villager's religious
orientation is by and large not committed to more than the ordinary
five precepts. The practice of meditation and other religious techniques
for achieving `salvation' is of very limited incidence. The old and not
the young show piety, and amongst them women are more frequent
`churchgoers' than men.

The sample results showed that 60% of the male family heads and

48% of their spouses went to the wat only on the occasion of the major
calendrical collective rites. This is to say that the majority of villagers
participate as a large congregation only when major merit-making rites
are held. On these occasions it is the making of merit through giving that
is the villagers' primary concern; sermons and chants are recited by the
monks, however, and I will deal with this aspect of religious communication
later. Here I want to establish the pattern of gift-giving behaviour. The
frequency of gift-giving at calendrical rites is as follows: about 70% of
the families reported four gifts a year per family. These gifts include
not only the usual cooked food but also other items which require a cash
outlay; only 13% reported that they had no occasion to give any gifts.

Wanphraa and the calendrical rites do not exhaust the occasion of
attendance at the wat or gift-giving to monks. Large numbers usually
attend the ordination ceremonies of monks and novices just before the
beginning of Lent; mortuary rites always conclude with merit-making at
the wat. There are other occasions (merit-making rites at the house
(thambunhuean), and for dead ancestors at the burial-place) at which
monks officiate and receive gifts. At marriages monks usually have no
role, but gifts may be sent them. On ceremonial occasions monks are
given gifts of money and of manufactured articles. As may be expected,
it is manufactured goods bought in the urban market that appear as
valued items, appropriately given to monks as special acts of merit-making
on ceremonial occasions. They are more expensive than the articles a
villager can produce or grow locally, and are hence considered more
merit-making.