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15
THE CULT OF THE GUARDIAN SPIRITS

The guardian spirits that concern us in this chapter have village as well
as regional significance, and the cult associated with them comprises
a ritual complex that has an important place in the totality of religious
behaviour of the villagers. It is the phenomenon which some writers have
called `animism' and which with pseudo-historical conjecture they have
identified as pre-Buddhist. Moreover, they have variously treated it both
as incompatible with, and as combining with, Buddhism. In actual fact
its relationship to Buddhism is not simple but complex, involving opposition,
complementarity, linkage, and hierarchy.

This chapter sets out the beliefs, rites and practitioners connected with
the guardian spirits, first at the level of the village and thereafter in
regional scope. The cult is in one sense a totality when viewed in relation
to other cults. But scrutinized from inside it is differentiated. It constitutes
a spectrum and also portrays contrasts, according to context. This double-viewing
in terms of spectrum and internal contrast (Conklin, in Dell Hymes
(1964)) illuminates the category distinctions, linkages, and hierarchy both
within the cult and between it and Buddhist ritual. Analysis proceeds at
three levels: the linguistic level of verbal concepts, the distinctions implicit
in behavioural details, and the dialectic between them.

GUARDIAN SPIRITS

The category term phii refers to spirits to which are generally attributed
powers over human beings. It includes a wide variety of supernatural
agents ranging from those who are a permanently existing category of
supernaturals to those who are transformations of dead human beings.
In the widest sense the winjan (soul or consciousness) of every human
being turns into phii at death; in fact a corpse is referred to as phii khon raaw.

In Baan Phraan Muan there are two supernatural agents who, though
they fall into the category of phii, have an elevated status. They are called
Tapubaan (`grandparent' or ancestor of village) and Chao Phau Phraa
Khao (chao = honorific title, phau = father, phraa khao = monk or holy
man dressed in white). Both may be referred to as chao phau, and in
village conception and attitudes they are as much a respected deity as
phii. They are different from a number of malevolent and capriciously

acting phii, from whom they are distinguished. On the other hand, certain
category distinctions separate all phii from thewada (supernatural divine
angels). Thus it may be said that thewada are opposed to phii, who in
turn are differentiated into elevated guardians (chao phau) and malevolent
spirits (phii). Certain important ritual beliefs and acts (systematized cult
behaviour) are associated with Tapubaan and Chao Phau Phraa Khao at
community, household, and individual levels.

The villagers in some contexts distinguish Tapubaan and Chao Phau
Phraa Khao as two separate spirits; in other contexts they are treated as
a unified conception with dual aspects. The logic of this unity and differentiation
follows from their two separate yet also related domains of influence
and interest.

Before we describe these domains, let us be clear about one general
distinction. In relation to Buddhism, the villagers view Tapubaan and
Chao Phau cults as belonging in a separate and even opposed domain
of religious action (just as, at another level, the thewada are opposed to
phii). Thus it is clearly recognized that Buddhist monks do not take part
in the phii cult, for they `belong to a separate party' (hon la heet la khong).
As one informant put it, `Monks are human beings, chao phau are phii.
Monks never chant for chao phau; they are called upon to chant when
human beings die' (i.e. to conduct mortuary rites, a major ritual function
of the monks). Buddhist religious action is phrased in terms of the
ideology of bun (merit)—when one gives gifts to the monks or the temple
(wat) one receives merit; but when one propitiates or placates Chao Phau
or Tapubaan, villagers explicitly consider the transaction as a bargain, an
offering made to gain a particular favour, generally to remove an affliction
caused by the phii because of an offence committed (pid phii).

But this general category distinction between Buddhism and the phii
cult is by no means the whole story. If the distinction were a basic
dichotomy found in all aspects of ritual action our analytic task would
be easy and the theoretical scheme for placing the systems simple. In fact,
at other levels there are intriguing connections and interpenetrations, the
exploration of which is of critical interest.

Tapubaan is the `owner' of the village (baan); villagers sometimes
elucidate this ownership literally in the sense that he was the original
founder and owner of the land. Chao Phau Phraa Khao is, on the other
hand, the guardian of the wat. Thus their domains of authority, baan
(settlement) and wat (temple), are important village ecological and socio-religious
distinctions. Throughout the region in every village the dual
agents, phrased in this manner and called by the same names, are repeated.
(Furthermore, there is a regional cult addressed to a superior guardian

spirit of the swamp to whom the dual village guardian spirits are subordinate.
I shall describe this phenomenon in a later section.) Here let
us note that we are dealing with a widespread religious patterning.

From their respective spheres of influence follow other distinctions
between Chao Phau and Tapubaan. Chao Phau is the phii of a pious man
who lived in the wat, took the ten precepts (the same as those taken by
a novice) and ministered to the needs of the monks. He wore white clothes,
the insignia of a pious layman (upasok). After his death his phii continued
to live in the wat; its place of residence is actually in the bood (the most
holy place of the wat), and there is a wooden statue of him placed beside
the statue of the Buddha. Tapubaan, on the other hand, wears the ordinary
clothes of a layman, and his residence today is a wooden shrine located
at the edge of the village in the jungle. He guards the settlement from its
boundary and his shrine faces the village.

The offerings the villagers make to the two guardian spirits show another
distinction. To Tapubaan is offered chicken, pork, liquor, curries and
other strong foods: he is meat eating. To Chao Phau is offered only pawan[1]
(rice mixed with sugar): he is vegetarian. This meat eating versus vegetarian
distinction is especially intriguing in this context. For unlike
Sinhalese Buddhism, where meat is not offered to the Buddha but is
given to the monks (Obeyesekere 1958; Leach 1962), in Thailand meat
and rice are normal food offerings to the Buddhist statue, as it is to the
Buddhist monks. The Thai villager will say that `the food offered to the
monks is also offered to the Buddha image', which is a perfectly logical
statement. But it appears that at another level—in regard to the white-robed
pious guardian of the wat, as opposed to the secular guardian of the village
—Thai villagers have introduced the Hindu-type pure/impure distinction:
a distinction that is again reflected in the vegetarian offerings to the thewada
as opposed to the carnivoral offerings to the malevolent phii.

Table 6 gives details of Tapubaan's and Chao Phau's separate and joint
spheres of jurisdiction over the villagers and the kinds of action which
call forth their supernatural intervention in the form of affliction and
disease.

In the case of Tapubaan there are certain special interdictions connected
with the vicinity of his shrine (prohibition against cutting wood and
gardening near the shrine) and with eating a certain kind of turtle living
in the swamp.[2] Human beings must observe their distance from him
except to approach him with ritual intent. Chao Phau by virtue of residing

Table 6. Supernatural affliction

                                 

Name of spirit (phii) acting	Human acts which arouse supernatural action	Kind of illness that results
Tapubaan (owner or guardian of the village)	A. Norms concerning village citizenship	[In extreme cases madness or death may occur]
	(i) Extending compound fence on to roads or lanes in the village
	(ii) Going to live in another village without informing and getting permission from Tapubaan via the cham	Fever
	B. Wan phraa taboos (Buddhist Sabbath)
	(i) Polishing rice (female task)	Difficulty in childbirth
	(ii) Taking cart into or out of the village (male task)	Any elder of the village may be afflicted with fainting
	(iii) Cutting and carrying firewood into the village (usually female task)
	C. Tapubaan taboos
	(i) Cutting down trees or bamboo, or gardening in the vicinity of Tapubaan's spirit house	Stomach ache
	(ii) Eating turtle of a special kind (this is associated particularly with the spirit of the swamp (Chao Phau Tong Kyang))	Body pain
Chao Phau Phraa Khao (guardian of the wat)	A. Protection of wat
	(i) Urinating in the wat precinct	Stomach ache
	(ii) Plucking mango fruits in the wat compound, especially by throwing stones at the fruits	Stomach ache
	(iii) Holding any merit-making ceremony at the wat (gnaan bun) without requesting permission from Chao Phau	The abbot will fall sick. Also public brawls or a fire may occur
	B. Wan phraa taboos
	Same as listed above for Tapubaan (B)

in the sacrosanct bood is automatically afforded seclusion from careless
lay approach.

Apart from these interdictions Tapubaan is primarily associated with
norms concerning village citizenship. He acts as a disciplinarian. Common
village property rights, as expressed in public roads and lanes, must not

be infringed by villagers. Secondly, a man cannot change his village
membership and residence without a ritual statement to Tapubaan beforehand
and getting his permission. This ritual statement is mediated through
the cham, who is `elected' by being possessed by Tapubaan or Chao Phau.

Similarly, Chao Phau protects the sanctity and property rights of the wat.
Villagers should not urinate in the compound, nor plunder its fruit trees.
But by far the most important aspect of Chao Phau's authority is that no
collective wat calendrical rite nor any village festival (such as the annual
fair) can be held without first informing him at the bood and getting his
permission. Subsequently permission is sought from Tapubaan in his
shrine. Tapubaan's authority here is secondary, because all such festivals
and rites take place in the wat compound. Villagers say that if permission
is not gained from the wat guardian a series of misfortunes may follow—
people may quarrel and fight during the proceedings, fire may break out,
and the abbot of the wat may fall sick. It may also be noted that permission
is not requested through the monks but via Chao Phau's and Tapubaan's
elected intermediary, the cham. No such permission is necessary for the
holding of private or household rituals, which are not village affairs.

In village thought the necessity to get permission from Chao Phau to
hold Buddhist rituals in the wat is not an indication that Chao Phau is
superior to Buddha, or that his cult is more powerful than Buddhism.
Chao Phau's authority lies only in his protective guardianship of the
temple, and such guardianship is quite common in historical Buddhism.[3]
On the other hand, because of his closer association with Buddhism (his
piety, white clothes and vegetarian food habits), villagers tend to give
Chao Phau a formal superiority over Tapubaan. In actual fact, of course,
their spheres of jurisdiction are both well defined and in some areas
unified.

Both Chao Phau and Tapubaan are directly concerned with certain
taboos relating to the Buddhist Sabbath (wan sil or wan phraa). Village
women must not polish paddy on wan phraa; villagers must not take
a cart in or out of the village, or cut and bring firewood into the village.
It is said that wan phraa is the day on which the two guardians freely
roam about—it is their day of active duty. The taboos, in fact, stress that
villagers should not engage in mundane work on the Sabbath. The segregation

of Chao Phau and Tapu[4] from Buddhist values, however, is seen
in the fact that offerings of propitiation and placation to them (especially
after the cure of a disease or illness) must be made on wan pood (Wednesday),
which is special to them. If the Wednesday is also a wan sil (wan phraa),
offerings cannot be made to the phii on that day, but instead on the
following day or the next Wednesday. This ensures that Buddhist and
guardian spirit rituals are segregated in time.

The third column of Table 6 shows the punishment inflicted by Chao
Phau and Tapubaan for infringement of certain norms. Usually the rules
apply to individuals and the offending individual is afflicted with illness—
stomach ache, fever and body pains being the normal punishments.
However, if certain of the Buddhist Sabbath taboos are broken, any
village elder (phuu thaw) may have a fainting fit. And if a village ritual or
festival is held without prior permission, the whole community may
suffer either a disturbance of the public peace or damage by fire. In all
these matters, then, Chao Phau and Tapubaan act as moral agents and
disciplinarians. They do not act capriciously; they are guardians and
custodians of communal property and community interests.

Yet at the same time it must be pointed out that they are not the most
important guardians of village morality. The range of rules within which
they guard is limited, and to locate the entire range of moral rules other
spheres of village religious action have to be considered. The village
orientation to Tapu and Chao Phau is that of a community of children
dependent on a guardian or a father figure who has power to grant fertility,
rain, individual favours, and to inflict misfortunes.

What has been developed so far concerning Tapu and Chao Phau is
their regulative aspect as guardians, their power to punish. I shall now
describe one feature of their positive benevolent and rewarding aspect,
which also characterizes their role in a village-wide collective cult. They
have the crucial power to ensure agricultural abundance in the village,
which is by far the most vital preoccupation of the villagers.

In this agricultural cult Tapubaan and Chao Phau are propitiated as
closely allied dual agents, this time with the former having precedence.
I have already mentioned that Chao Phau lives in the bood and that Tapu
has a wooden shrine at the edge of the jungle behind the wat. In actual
fact, this wooden shrine has two compartments—one assigned to Tapu
and the other to Chao Phau. The collective rites to be considered now are
enacted at the shrine. In other words, we see that, in this context, the
phii cult is again spatially and conceptually separated from the wat and

Buddhist ritual. No monk participates, and the village assembles as a
congregation under special ritual intermediaries of the guardians.

Twice a year, before ploughing starts in the sixth lunar month, and
again soon after harvest in the first or second lunar month, the villagers
assemble to propitiate the guardians. The ritual officiants are the cham
(intermediary) and the tiam (medium). The pre-ploughing ceremony is
not as lavish as the post-harvest one which celebrates a successful agricultural
season. The purpose of the former is to request agricultural
abundance in the coming season, and it therefore is a kind of bargaining
or promise that if agriculture is successful, offerings will be made again
after the harvest. The typical request made is: `Luug-laan ja tham raj
tham naa ja ma liang haj raksa wua kwai ya haj khon jeb puay' (`your
children and grandchildren are going to cultivate fields and gardens, take
care of the buffaloes and don't allow people to fall ill').

The structure and sequence of the two ceremonies are the same. I shall
briefly describe the sequence before giving a detailed account of a post-harvest
ceremony witnessed in the field.

Each household must in theory provide gai saung pah or two sets of
chicken (i.e. cooked chicken in two trays), plus liquor as an offering for
Tapubaan and pa wan saung pah (two trays of rice mixed with sugar)
for Chao Phau. The householders assemble on the day chosen by the
cham. The cham first lights a candle and invites the two guardians to
accept the offerings, which are then placed in the shrine. After these
collective offerings are made, individuals (qua individuals) may make
offerings either in order to seek personal favours or as thanks-offering
for personal favours granted. This, then, brings out another aspect of the
relationship of guardian phii to the villagers: in their benevolent aspect
they may grant favours to individuals, not as rewards for meritorious
conduct, but as the result of a pledge that offerings will be provided if
the guardians bestow good fortune. Finally, all the villagers sit together
to eat a collective meal of the offerings made to the guardians.

POST-HARVEST OFFERINGS TO THE GUARDIANS:
A CASE DESCRIPTION

The ceremony, which is referred to as liang phii (offering to phii) took
place on 24 January 1962 after the rice harvest was completed.

At 9.30 a.m. about fifty villagers assembled at the spirit house (shrine).
Each villager was said to be a representative of a particular household; in
some cases adult children were sent to represent parents; in other cases
villagers represented the interests of householders who could not be

present, but who sent offerings through them. The critical requirement
was that each household (in cases where junior households lived in the
compound of parents to form one economic unit, this can be extended
to mean `compound group') should present or send offerings. (It is
believed that failure to make offerings will result in sickness to the members
of the offender's household.)

Each householder's offering consisted of a large basket or bowl containing
one boiled chicken, sauce, rice in a small basket, pa wan (rice
mixed with sugar) in a package, betel nut, tobacco, and locally made
cigarettes. In all there were 106 such offerings, excluding the three
contributed by the officiants, the cham, the assistant, and the tiam (medium).

The officiants first cleaned the floor of the spirit house, then lit two
candles and attached them to the posts. Then with flowers in their hands
they squatted in front of the shrine and invited Tapu and Chao Phau
to receive the offerings. The offerings themselves comprised different
categories. One called pa derm, represented the collective offerings of the
village, and were in fact presented in sets sequentially. First, the three
offerings of the cham, his assistant and the tiam were placed inside the
shrine, with the rice basket and the liquor bottle open. The phii were
invited to receive them. After a lapse of a few minutes, half of the chicken
and a lump of the offered rice were put in a bowl and placed inside;
some of the liquor was poured into a vessel and placed similarly. The
left-overs were returned to the three donors.

The next offering consisted of seven sets. The same procedure was
followed, and the words said by the cham by way of invitation were:
`thang mod ched pa, nimon chao phau rab nam luug nam laan' (`altogether
seven sets of offerings, made by children and grandchildren, inviting
honorific father to eat'). In the next sequence eleven other sets of offering
were made, and so on until the collective offerings were exhausted.

The collective offerings were followed by another category called pa ba,
which were made by individual persons soliciting favours from the
guardians. In this ceremony four men solicited favours—one requested
that a sick pig be cured; another, whose daughter was employed as a bus
conductor, asked Tapu to protect her from accidents; the third and fourth,
both young men, requested physical safety while doing national service
and success in a forthcoming examination, respectively.

The next set of offerings (see pa) were again made by four persons;
these were in gratitude for favours solicited and granted.

The final ritual sequence was the summing up by the cham and his
assistant: holding five pairs of flowers (kan ha) placed in a bowl, they
said that 106 offerings, excluding the three made by themselves, had been

made by village householders. Let those who paid the guardians respect
be rewarded. A promise was made that in the fifth or sixth lunar month
(dyan ha fa hog) offerings would be made again. (This refers to offerings
before ploughing in the next rice cycle.)

The ceremony was concluded by a meal, all those assembled eating
the portion of the offerings returned to them. The offerings left in the
shrine were later taken by the ritual officiants as their due.

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.

SPIRIT CURING BY `CHAM' AND `TIAM'

We are now in a position to pick up the thread and follow the procedure
of spirit healing.

In most cases, if the mau song diagnoses that one or the other of the
guardian spirits is responsible for the disease, the patient then automatically
goes to the cham. The procedures he must follow are in two sequences,
which manifest important category distinctions.

The first sequence, kuad khaw phii, is concerned with the `invitation'[6]
to the phii to leave the patient (choen phii org). For kuad, the patient or
his representative has to take to the cham certain standard offerings (kaj):
two lumps of rice, flower, candle, betel nut and tobacco. These objects
are called khong jang mun nee, meaning `things given to make it (phii)
go away'. The cham uses these objects at the spirit shrine to invite the
spirit to leave the patient; the invitation has a strong element of bribe
and bargain, for further offerings are promised if the spirit consents to
leave.

On recovery the second transaction takes place, which is the payment
of the fee and a thanks-offering (liang phii) to the spirit which has removed
itself. The offering is pa wan (rice mixed with sugar) if the spirit concerned
is Chao Phau Phraa Khao, and chicken, rice and liquor if it is Tapubaan.
As stated earlier, this payment of the fee must take place on a Wednesday.

In the usual minor procedures of spirit healing the tiam has no part to
play, for the cham is sufficient to make the necessary offerings at the
shrine on behalf of the patient. Minor illnesses get cured in a relatively
short time.

But some illnesses become critical in the course of time or are major
illnesses from the start. In the first case, if cure is not forthcoming, doubt
may arise as to whether the mau song's diagnosis of affliction by guardian
spirit is correct, or if it is, whether he has been able to determine exactly
what offering is required before the spirit will leave the patient. Thus in
persisting illness, if the mau song and cham have failed to effect a cure, the
tiam (medium) is called in to make a fresh diagnosis through possession.

The medium, the cham, and the cham's assistant are invited to the
patient's house. As in the case of the procedure above for approaching
a cham, the patient's household must prepare kaj for the guardian spirit,
but in the present instance it is more elaborate than before. Either five
pairs of flowers and five pairs of candles or eight pairs of each (kan ha

kan paed) must be provided. Other required articles are one or two pieces
of cloth, an upper garment of the patient, an egg and a bottle of liquor.

The tiam now undergoes possession. Sitting down with eyes closed and
holding the kaj, he invites Chao Phau to enter him (phii ma soon). This
sequence is called tiam kaj. When the Chao Phau enters him he feels
tremors and waves his hands (nang ram). He is said to lose consciousness,
and while he is in this condition the cham and his deputy question him
to find out whether it is Chao Phau who is afflicting the patient. Sometimes
the tiam refutes the previous diagnosis by saying that it is not Chao Phau
but some other spirit that is at work, or that the disease is not spirit-caused
but an organic one which has to be treated by the physician (mau ya).
If Chao Phau admits his responsibility, then further questions are asked
to find out what he wants in the way of offerings. The action which had
aroused his anger (pid phii) may be any of those listed in Table 6.

While chicken and liquor are the usual offering demanded, in cases of
major illness, when the patient is feared to be dying, Chao Phau requires
a more expensive offering on recovery. Chicken is replaced by one or two
pigs' heads which are called muu dam muu daeng (black pig, red pig).
This offering is expensive because normally two pigs will have to be
killed.

It is said that the kuad (invitation to leave and promise of offering
made after the diagnosis) is performed by the cham and his assistant
with four elders as witnesses. Of course the promised offering is made
only if the patient recovers.

To sum up this section on ritual specialists involved in spirit healing:
the mau song (diviner) is not recruited by possession—he learns his craft.
He plays a critical role because he is vital for the diagnosis and for the
channelling of patients to the relevant experts involved in curing. The
successful mau song is also likely to be a respected leader in the village,
and may be a pious Buddhist lay leader. But the craft of mau song is an
open and competitive one, and many specialists with widely differing
techniques may exist in the same village. Baan Phraan Muan had one
pre-eminent mau song.

The cham and tiam are recruited through possession; the former does
not experience subsequent possession, the latter does. In regard to the
guardian spirit cult, there can be only one cham and one chief tiam (and
other subsidiary mediums) for the village, and their final recognition
depends on public acceptance and validation. The cham and tiam of
Baan Phraan Muan are not leaders in the village nor are they as literate
as other ritual experts, especially the mau khwan or paahm, who are the
respected elders of the village and often ex-monks. The cham and tiam

showed little interest in Buddhist worship at the wat, and were not involved
with the administration of wat affairs and the organization of Buddhist
calendrical rites.

THE REGIONAL CULT

Tapubaan as guardian of the village settlement and Chao Phau Phraa
Khao as guardian of the village wat are to be found in every village of the
region. All these individual village expressions are pulled together in
a wider comprehensive cult focused on the guardian of the largest swamp
in the region, called Byng Chuan. The villages situated around this
swamp participate together in propitiating this guardian.

These facts dictate an observation which I wish to emphasize: just as
Buddhism finds a local representation in each village through its wat
(which at the same time attracts devotees from many other surrounding
villages to its festivals and grand merit-making occasions), and again at
another level portrays a regional (or wider) participation when devotees
from a whole region or country are drawn to famous common centres
of worship and pilgrimage, so here in the cult of the swamp guardian we witness both regional and lower level village identities. Clearly, then, we
must view the guardian spirit cult as a collective phenomenon in some
respects comparable in scope to Buddhism, provided we keep in mind
the more localizing aspect of the former—for example the domain
of the village guardian shrine is a settlement of people within a small
area, and that of the swamp guardian a region composed of such settlements
in a specified territory; in contrast Buddhism, while it has similar structural
components, cannot be exclusively defined in the same way. In so far as
these two complexes are collective religious expressions we must discard
that formulation which only sees Buddhism as a collective religion,
organized as a `church', while spirit cults are by comparison `magical'
and pertain to individual clients—an erroneous formulation that goes back
to Robertson Smith and Durkheim and has been surprisingly revived by
some contemporary anthropologists. My viewpoint will have more weight
when we see that the guardian cult is characterized not only by formalized
ritual but also by complex mythology.

I shall describe the cult centred around the Byng Chuan swamp, in
which our village of Phraan Muan traditionally participated as a member,
and how it is refracted in individual villages.

Figure 2 in Chapter 2 plots the location of the Byng Chuan swamp and
the settlements in its vicinity. Some sixteen of these settlements are said
to participate in propitiating the swamp guardian, who is called Tapu

Byng (`grandfather' or `founding ancestor' of the swamp) or alternatively
Chao Phau (`respected father') Tong Khyang.[7] The shrine to the swamp
guardian is built on piles in the very centre of the swamp.

The collective propitiations addressed to the guardian are very similar
to those made to the guardian spirits in village shrines—that is, biannual
offerings made before ploughing and after harvesting—with these differences:
the participating units are villages and not households, and
the offerings made to the swamp guardian precede in time and also take
ritual precedence over those made to the village guardians. Thus the
regional community, constituted of village settlements, takes precedence
and propitiates in advance of the individual village communities composed
of households.

The offerings to the swamp guardian follow a three-year cycle. The
one made before ploughing (which begins with the onset of rains in the
sixth lunar month) is annual and consists of cooked chicken. The post-harvest
offers, made in the second lunar month, follow a different pattern.
For two consecutive years cooked chicken is given, but every third year
a large offering (liang yaai) consisting of a buffalo sacrifice is made.
Money for buying the sacrificial buffalo is collected from the member
villages, and the buffalo is sacrificed at the shrine, cooked and eaten by
the ritual representatives of the contributing villages.

I have already noted, in the section on tiam, that while villagers
distinguish the swamp guardian from the village guardians, they also
fuse them as a single manifestation. When distinguished, the swamp
guardian is the superior; thus, for instance, Tapu Byng is said to be the
father-in-law of Tapubaan. But often both are said to be one, just as within
the village the village and wat guardians are, according to context, separated
or fused. And the ritual officiants as well are seen as agents of both levels
of spirits, again according to context. Above all, the swamp guardian
represents, on a regional scale, what the village guardians represent at
the level of local settlement, namely, the guarantors of rain, agricultural
prosperity, the good health of humans and their domestic animals, especially
the buffalo. It is perfectly understandable that in this dry, arid region of
North-east Thailand, swamps, rivers and streams should not only be
conspicuous landmarks but also symbolize rain, and the fertility of crops,
and the well-being of human beings.

The functionaries connected with the swamp spirit are many in number
and the pattern of their differentiation allows us to bring into relief
certain features in a way we could not do when describing the situation
in the village of Phraan Muan. Two villages, Baan Naapu and Baan Hua
Bueng, are the cult centres for all the sixteen-odd villages that participate
in the cult. These are said to be the oldest villages in the area; they are
also, in fact, the ones closest to the Byng Chuan swamp, with their fields
stretching to its banks. Each of these two villages has a chief medium
(tiam) of the swamp guardian who is, and always should be, a male.
Of the two mediums, the one resident in Baan Naapu is considered the
senior. The two function as the chief officiants of the regional cult at its
biannual offerings and each acts as the chief officiant at his village shrine.
Each has an assistant, the cham, who assists in the rites but is not the
agent through whom the guardian spirit speaks. This distinction and
relative position of tiam and cham was not evident in Phraan Muan village
and in many other villages, for a good reason. A medium has to be `chosen'
by the spirit and should be able to experience repeated possessions by it.
The appearance of such a person may occur infrequently. While a resident
medium is a luxury and can be dispensed with by a village—for its
residents can consult the medium of another village when exceptional
circumstances require it—a cham is a necessity for the making of frequent
offerings. Thus all villages have an appointed cham, even if they have no
tiam.

The rather complex situation that arises may be stated as follows.
In addition to the two chief mediums resident in the cult centres, and
the subsidiary mediums randomly distributed in the region, there is in
every village an appointed male intermediary (cham), who normally makes
the offerings to the village guardians at village shrines, collects money
and food offerings from village members, and acts as the representative
of his village in the biannual rites addressed to the swamp guardian at
his swamp shrine.

Whereas at the cult centres and at the swamp shrine the prime officiants
at rites of propitiation are the mediums, assisted by the intermediaries, in
villages other than the cult centres the intermediary tends to act as
officiant, with the medium, if present in the village, figuring mainly in
divination procedures in severe cases of affliction.

Now we can deal with the interesting phenomenon of the subsidiary
mediums. They are usually female but not exclusively so. As in the case
of Phraan Muan village, they are sometimes male. It is not at all strange
that the female mediums are concentrated in the cult centres. In the village
of Naapu there were three and at Hua Bueng one, all four subordinate to

the chief male mediums. Their main role is to deal with individual cases
of affliction by the swamp or village guardian spirits, who, apart from their
communal significance, act punitively to cause illness in individuals.
In such instances, the female mediums, serving as oracles of the guardian
spirit, inform the victim and his family whether the spirit is responsible
for the illness and, if it is, what offerings it requires as expiation. The
subsidiary mediums also have a wider divinatory role, for the guardian
spirit of the swamp, in his capacity as benevolent protector of humans and
being superior to lesser, capricious spirits, can also reveal which malevolent
spirit is causing a particular affliction and what placatory offering would be
efficacious. Thus the guardian spirit, in his benevolent aspect, serves to
combat the ravages caused by lesser, capricious and malevolent agents.

The sex composition of the mediums of the guardian spirits, their
mode of recruitment, and their ritual techniques, open up important
questions of comparison. All mediums are recruited through possession,
and the distinctive features of their rituals are ecstatic possession and
dance, and oracular statements—which characteristics are altogether
different from those exhibited by monks and the paahm who conduct
sukhwan rituals. Linked with these features is the fact that, although the
chief mediums of the cult are male, the majority of subsidiary mediums
are female. Here, then, for the first time in village religion we see an
opening for female functionaries associated with a certain kind of religious
expression.

This correlation is manifestly recognized by villagers. Women are by
temperament prone to possession and the spirits possess them because
they are soft and penetrable; therefore they are effective hosts. (Although
we are here interested in female mediums, it is appropriate to note that
this logic is extended to possession by evil spirits and ensuing illness; as
we shall see later, women are said to be the commonest victims of attack
and subjects of exorcistic cure.) Such ideas are perhaps more finely
elaborated in North Thailand, where mediums are called maa khii, that
is, `horses ridden' by spirits. Usually such mediums have suffered attack
by the spirit (expressed as illness, fits, or certain states of dissociation) and
were `cured' only when they agreed to subject themselves to the authority
and sovereignty of the spirit and thus became his medium; that is, the
cure consists in redirecting the illness itself to a positive and culturally
acceptable use. We may thus state that the guardian spirit cult, in so far
as it is associated with afflictions resulting from attack by the guardian
spirits, has a special kind of female functionary who through possession
acts as their vehicle. This is the only sphere in which females have
a dominant ritual role to play.

While the role is not confined only to females, it emphasizes a `feminine
syndrome' of behaviour. Both males and females who act as the vehicles
and whose position is that of mediator between humans and the guardian
phii, adopt a ceremonial dress and engage in behaviour that is somewhat
ambiguous. The costume consists of a black waist cloth or skirt, and a
blouse, head cloth, and handkerchief all red in colour. If these are worn
by a male, he resembles a female; if worn by a female, she resembles
a man. That is to say, the mediator assumes somewhat of a transvestite
appearance, and engages in an unrestrained ecstatic behaviour in which
liberal consumption of liquor and smoking tobacco is an element. The
transformation is especially conspicuous in a female medium who, in
addition to all these features, speaks in a male-like voice.

For reasons of insufficient data and competence I must conclude the
discussion on this note, a discussion limited to the reporting of cultural
conceptualization of the mediums' characteristics and observed role
behaviour, and not venture into the possible motivational and psychological
aspects of the medium's personality. Spiro's (1967) discussion of
these aspects in respect of the Burmese nat kadaw (nat wife), who conventionally
is a female medium of the nats while in fact, as in our case,
a small number of males also assume the role, seems to be echoed here,
but I am unable to confirm his interpretation.