 | Buddhism and the spirit cults in North-east Thailand |  |
`BUNBANGFAI' IN BAAN PHRAAN MUAN
Some days before the festival, preparations are made for the making of
the rockets. Money is collected from every householder in the village for
buying `black powder'. The amount collected depends on how many
rockets are to be made, and this is governed, as we shall see shortly, by
another important consideration. A point to note is that the rockets are
made in the wat by monks and villagers. The participation of monks in
rocket-making is a general feature in all villages, and indeed monks are
considered the experts at this craft. The rockets are then stored in the wat.
There are two rockets—one called bang tawai (rocket for paying respect)
and the other bang siang (wishing rocket), both intended for Tapubaan
the village guardian—which are made every year and are necessary ritual
articles. In addition other rockets are made, the number depending on
the scale of the festival. The scale of the ceremony varies according to
the occurrence or non-occurrence of an event which critically relates
Bunbangfai to Buddhism, namely ordination of novices and monks, which
is ideally the first phase of the proceedings. If the rocket-firing is to be
immediately preceded by the ordination of Buddhist novices and monks,
then it is characterized by the making of a large number of rockets (about
ten to twelve), with the two ritually important rockets being especially
large, and the holding of a village fair at night with much merriment and
drinking. In the absence of ordination only two small rockets are made
and there is no fair. Since it is only in exceptional years that no ordination
takes place, my description will be that of a normal festival.
The festival divides into three sequences: ordination (and promotion)
of monks (bun buad), the rocket procession (hae bangfai), and the firing of
the rockets.
In the following discussion I shall describe mainly the festival staged
of the same ceremony performed in the village of Napu, the cult centre
for the region.)
Ordination
In 1964 in the evening of the 11th day of the 8th lunar month, three
novices were ordained at the beginning of the festivities. This ordination
was sponsored by the entire village. On the previous day, called wan hoam
(the day of collecting), the ritual articles necessary for the ordination
were brought to the wat by the villagers, and the sukhwan nag ceremony
(calling the spirit essence of the ordinands) was held by the elders in the
afternoon; after ordination on the following day the resident monks chanted
suad mongkhon that night. These sequences the reader will recognize as
the usual ones connected with ordination. Hence the question arises, what
is the relation between this special ordination associated with Bunbangfai
and the annual ordination of village youth before the Lent season? The
answer is that a varying proportion of the youth, sometimes all the
candidates, ordained in a particular year are ordained on this occasion.[1]
Thus it is clear that the timing of ordination with Bunbangfai, which is
explicitly recognized as a rain-making ritual, has very important implications
for our understanding of how the institution of monkhood is
related and adapted to village interests.
How is ordination, which is strictly a Buddhist institution, related to
the propitiation of the guardian spirits of the swamp and village? As I have
already reported, villagers who are explicit that `Bunbangfai' has nothing
to do with Buddhist monks (an important `first response' to the anthropologist's
question) explain that the word bun (merit) appears in the
name of the ceremony because novices and monks are ordained in order
to make merit for and to transfer merit to the guardian spirits. Transference
of merit by the living to ancestors and by humans to deities and spirits
is, we have seen already, an important reciprocity mechanism in Buddhist
religious action.
Even more significant for the issue under discussion is the monk promotion
ceremony conducted on the same day, which, although exceptional
in occurrence, is nevertheless very telling. I refer the reader to the details
of the water-pouring ceremony, by which a monk is elevated to Somdet
(described in Chapter 7). Monks and villagers pour water into a wooden
receptacle in the form of a snake (Naga) and the water flows through the
head and throat on to the monk's head and body. When the promotion
rites preceding the Bunbangfai festival. It is clear that in this ceremony
the Naga is seen as a friend and guardian of Buddhism; at the same time,
since he is associated with rain and fertility, the ceremony connotes the
sacred Naga enhancing and cleansing the monk who is being honoured.
Since this drama is staged at a rain-invoking festival we are justified in
asserting the equation: just as the Naga pours water on the monk to
increase his sacredness, so may rain fall on the fields and increase their
agricultural fertility. But note the paradox: in the case of the monk it is
his non-sexual sacredness that is increased; in the case of the layman their
material prosperity and fertility. The resolution of the paradox is the one
I have argued previously. The monk is a mediator and vehicle, and it is
precisely his access to sacred life-renouncing power that is transformed
and transferred into life-giving powers for the layman. What is of interest
to us in the ceremony is that it is the Naga that acts as the vehicle for
transferring sacredness.
`Hae bangfai' (the rocket procession)
The rocket procession constitutes the second phase of the Bunbangfai
festivities. In 1964 it was held in the afternoon of the day following the
ordination (i.e. on the afternoon of the 12th day of the 8th lunar month).
The procession was formed with the tiam (medium), dressed in his
clothes of office (red shirt and blouse and handkerchief tied on the head),
the cham (intermediary) with kanha (offering of flowers and candles), and
his assistant at the head. These ritual officiants of the guardian spirit cult
danced as they led the procession. They were followed by the village
elders, carrying the rockets which had been placed in a crudely constructed
palanquin. It was said that all those villagers who had previously been
cured by one of the guardian spirits also danced, because Tapubaan or
Chau Phau was acting upon them. According to the theory, during the
procession possession is experienced both by Tapubaan's officiants and
those he has cured (the latter of whom may be described as the `community
of sufferers', to borrow a phrase from Victor Turner). In fact, all
participants drank great quantities of liquor and their behaviour was
dionysiac and uninhibited, this contrasting sharply with the processions
in Buddhist festivals.
An important feature to note is that monks did not take part in this
procession, even though it formed in the wat compound. After leaving the
compound, it wove in and out of the village settlement, and then made
its way to the Tapubaan shrine. It circumambulated the shrine three
times, and then the intermediary with offering in hand addressed a prayer to
and prevent our oxen, buffaloes, pigs, ducks and chickens from falling
sick.' The rockets were dedicated, and the rocket named bang tawai
(rocket of offering) was fired. The procession then returned to the wat
and circumambulated the sala (preaching hall) three times; the remaining
rockets were taken into the sala and stored for the night.
That night the fair was staged in the wat compound. Before the entertainment
started, the monks chanted suad mongkhon bangfai (blessing
chant on behalf of the rockets) in the sala. Thus we note that here the
monks participated for the first time in the proceedings connected with
rockets: they did not participate in the propitiation of the village guardian,
but they now chanted Buddhist sacred words of blessing, thereby supplementing
and reinforcing the proceedings in the Buddhist mode. Once
again the Buddhist sequence is separated from the guardian cult propitiation;
yet they are complementary and supplementary.
The entertainment at the fair consisted, as in most village fairs, of
ramwong (dancing), maulum (folk opera), and, as in recent years, a film
show. A fair of this proportion is held only when the Bunbangfai is
accompanied by ordination of monks and novices, and it is marked by
the dedication of a large number of rockets to Tapubaan.
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
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
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.
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