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8
THE MONASTIC ROUTINE
AND ITS REWARDS

In doctrinal Buddhism we are told in great detail about the techniques
of meditation and contemplation, by which a monk seeks withdrawal
from the world, acquires a hatred for his body, and places himself on
the path of salvation. The Maha Satipatthana Sutta (see Rhys Davids
1910, Vol. III, Part II, Ch. 22) is a good example of the practice of four
kinds of `mindfulness'—of body, sensations, thoughts, and mind objects.
Or again, the 227 rules of the Vinaya, which a monk must in theory
observe, are an example of the meticulous technology and morality
devised for the professionally religious.

What relevance has all this for village monks? What is the village
monk's orientation to his religious office, what is his daily monastic
routine, and what activities are particularly emphasized?

The facts that are particularly interesting about the wat in Phraan
Muan village are not so much those pertaining to the relations between
monks as a monastic community, but those which throw light on the
pattern of transactions between monks and lay villagers.

The internal structure of the monastic community of the village wat
of the size of Baan Phraan Muan does not portray complex internal
differentiation, hierarchy, and firmly formulated relations between superiors
and inferiors and between equals. We have noted before that the local
wat is in theory a low-level unit in an intricate tambon, district, provincial,
regional and, finally, national hierarchy, but in fact it enjoys a great deal
of autonomy and is run by the village and its monks.

In large monasteries in Thailand, there is at least at the formal level
some kind of stratification and role differentiation. The abbot as the head
may be assisted by one or two assistants; monks or novices may be
divided into residential groups (gana), each in the charge of a senior monk.
The stratification may take note not only of the distinction between
monks and novices but also between `permanent' and `temporary' monks
or novices, and the former again according to the number of Lents they
have served. The relation between monk or novice and his upacha (the
senior monk who ordained him) may develop into a relation of advantage
to the junior; so can the relation between the novice and the senior monk

who is assigned to him as his special preceptor and whom he addresses
as luang phii (respected elder brother).

In the small village wat under consideration, such differentiation shows
little development; the office of abbot alone is conspicuous, and the
distinction between monk and novice, although existent, has no conspicuous
significance for everyday monastic life. Although the novices
are subject only to the ten precepts, as against the monks' 227, both follow
very much the same kind of routine.

The abbot exercises disciplinary authority over monks and novices in
his charge. The abbot of the Phraan Muan wat gave the following
information concerning his disciplinary role. If he was disobeyed, he
would report the matter to the upacha, the priest who ordained the
monk in question. Asked what transgressions he considered serious, he
mentioned three—courtship of girls, stealing, and killing animals either
intentionally or unintentionally. (The transgressions mentioned are three
of the four major parajika offences, which are punished by expulsion from
monkhood.) Concerning the deportment of monks, he emphasized a
matter of decorum: that a monk when he goes into the village must wear
his robe in a neat fashion. (We have seen that the Vinaya itself lays great
emphasis on personal habits and manners.) The abbot's main everyday
administrative duties include instructing the other religious personnel
to clear the wat compound and keep it clean, appointing a monk or novice
to give a sermon when one is required, and teaching the Dhamma to new
entrants during Lent. On the occasion of the annual collective rites, there
is, of course, much greater activity and a co-operation with village elders and
laymen which will become evident when some of these rites are described.

In the village of Phraan Muan, monks and novices go `begging' for
food only in the morning. This food serves as breakfast. The midday
meal[1] is always brought to the khuti (monks' residence) by lay donors,
when they hear the drum beaten by the novices as a signal. However, on
wan phra (`sabbath' day), there is no going-forth in search of alms; both
breakfast and lunch are brought to the monks by devotees.

The daily routine usually consists of prayers in the early morning followed
by cleaning the khuti and compound, and going into the village to receive
food; after breakfast, the learning of chants, attending to personal matters
like washing clothes and bathing, and resting in the slack period before
and after lunch; evening prayers at about 6 p.m., and a further studying
of chants before going to bed. Odd jobs connected with maintaining
the wat and its compound may be done as necessity arises.

The novices, on account of their inferior status and juniority in age,

are likely to be assigned the more menial tasks of cleaning the khuti,
setting out the meals and washing the alms bowls of monks, and fetching
water for the abbot to bathe. There are texts which say that before the
recitation of the Patimokkha (now applied to the four wan phra each
month) it is the duty of the novice to sweep the preaching hall, light lamps
and candles, spread mats and carpets and fill the water pots. While such
duties are primarily those of novices, in practice in the village the abbot,
monks and novices may without obvious status distinction and privilege
jointly clean the wat buildings and compound.

In ordinary times, then, the life of a monk or novice is not arduous.
The chief deprivations are no food after midday and chastity. They have
a lot of time on their hands. If there is any religious preoccupation, it is
not so much with practising salvation techniques as with learning Pali
chants which are necessary on various ritual occasions. The knowledge
of chants has implications for subsequent lay life—which explains in
part why they are so assiduously chanted and memorized.

This rhythm of life changes somewhat during the Lent season, when
there is an intensification of religious preoccupation on the part of both
layman and monk. The abbot himself teaches the monks and novices in
the mornings and afternoons, and prepares those who will stay in robes
for longer than one Lent for religious examinations. Every evening
a sermon is preached to a village congregation, each monk taking his
turn. There are additional observances—mainly concerning freedom of
movement[2] —which have to be kept by monks in conformity with the
classical regulations pertaining to the rain retreat.

The liturgical training of monks and novices can be taken up under
three headings: training to read, memorize and recite chants; training to
recite sermons which are used in various rituals; and formal instruction
for passing religious examinations held by the ecclesiastical authorities.
The first two are more crucial for the public performance of a monk's
role in the village and will be considered first.

Before doing this, however, it is necessary to say a few words about
languages and scripts in North-east Thailand. (See Tambiah 1968a for
a detailed treatment of these and other issues pertaining to traditional
literacy in the village.) The Lao language of the North-east and the
Thai language of the Central Plain (or Bangkok Thai) can be said to be
different dialects. Although they belong to the same language family,

Thai is not completely intelligible to a Lao-speaker and vice versa. However,
in recent times, considerable blurring has occurred primarily as a result
of the educational policy of the Thai government, which has decreed that
Central Thai should be the national medium of instruction in furtherance
of its policy of assimilating all minority and regional groups to a common
national culture and system of administration. Although in the North-east
today most adult males (but not necessarily the females, especially the
elderly) and children are bilingual, the Lao-Thai linguistic distinction
remains valid; the language of conversation and of traditional non-Buddhist
ritual and literature is Lao.

Further complications set in when we examine the scripts traditional
to the North-east and to Laos. The history and exact nature of the scripts
of Thailand and Laos (and the neighbouring countries of Burma and
Cambodia) is a complex matter not yet fully unravelled by scholars.
However, as far as the traditional literature of North-east Thailand is
concerned, the following three points are relevant for our purposes:

1. the sacred or ritual literature was written in the Tham or Lao Tham
script;

2. at the same time there was a seclar Lao script connected primarily
with the state and administrative matters; it was also the alphabet of
poetic and romantic literature;

3. since the political incorporation of the North-east by Siam in the
nineteenth century, the Thai script has also been introduced.

The basic differentiation is between the sacred Tham on the one hand
and the secular Lao and Thai scripts on the other. It would appear that
secular Lao writing is in fact an extension of the Thai script. This writing
is said to have been `invented' by King Ramkamhaeng in A.D. 1283 and
represents a cursive form of the epigraphic writing of Cambodia (Khmer).
This Sukhodaya writing was transmitted with few alterations to Laos
and to the Siamese kingdom of the Central Plain (Ayudhya).

But in contrast, the sacred Tham writing of the North-east and Laos is
a branch of Shan writing rather than Sukhodaya writing. According to
Finot, there are at the present time three local varieties of Shan writing—
Tham used throughout Laos, Lur confined to the northern extremity of
Laos, and Yuon of Chiengmai (North Thailand). The word Tham derives
from the Pali word Dhamma, which means Buddhist doctrine and the
corpus of sacred texts. As its name indicates, the Tham script is used
solely for religious writing. As a type of writing it is a mixed form, influenced
by Mon writing rather than by the Khmer form.[3] In the North-east

today all religious writings are referred to as nansy Tham (i.e. Dhamma
books), but this label is interpreted loosely.

The literature used in the village temple is nansy Tham.[4] It includes
not only chants and Buddhist texts but also nitarn, stories of a purely
regional origin which are recited as sermons by monks and therefore
included in the category of nansy Tham. A good portion of the texts of
ceremonies performed by laymen (e.g. khwan rites) and texts relating to
medicine are also written in Tham. However, judging from texts which
I collected in Phraan Muan village, the literature can sometimes be
written in a mixture of sacred Tham and secular Lao scripts. The key
would be the type of person at the village level who did the actual copying:
a Buddhist monk would in the past have tended to employ Tham while
a lay copyist would have been more flexible.

In the village of Phraan Muan there is also another type of literature,
folk opera (mau lum) and `wise sayings' (phaya), which is usually written
in the secular script. Traditional literature in the village thus appears to
have been written in a range of scripts; at the one end is Tham for sacred
and ritual literature, which is by far the major category; in the middle
are mixed forms; and at the other end is the secular Lao type. Traditionally,
the village temple was the place where both scripts, but more especially
the Tham script, were learned. The implications of the wat and of
religious office for the acquisition and use of literacy is an important
issue that will be taken up at the end of this chapter.

CONTENT AND MODE OF LEARNING OF NOVICES AND MONKS

We are now in a position to examine the content and mode of learning
among the novices and monks. This account deals with the situation
fifty years ago, as described by elders, as well as with that prevailing
today. The two time periods can be dealt with together, because teaching
and learning techniques and the content of learning have remained largely

the same. Whatever changes there are relate to script rather than content.
Fifty years ago the village school was run on a voluntary basis by the
abbot. The candidates for novicehood had their primary schooling and
learned to read and write Thai as temple boys. Today boys theoretically
can become novices only after completing grade 4 (i.e. passing the
examination) in the government primary school; even if they do not
conform with this ruling they will normally have had four or five years
of schooling and learned the rudiments of reading and writing Thai.

In the past the education of the novices was in three areas: first, learning
to read nansy Tham and to write the Tham script; second, memorizing
a collection of chants (suad); and third, practising the art of rendering
sermons (teed).

Study of nansy Tham

Novices had to learn to both read and write the Tham script. Instruction
took place after breakfast. First of all, the abbot wrote the alphabet on
paper and read out the letters. When the novices had learned the letters,
they practised reading; each student in the class held the palm-leaf book
in his hands and read aloud, while the teacher, standing behind him,
checked his reading. After reading had been mastered, writing was
practised on paper. In importance, writing was secondary to reading.
Each month, or once in every two months, the abbot tested his pupils;
physical punishment with a stick was administered if mistakes were made.

Today (1966) certain changes have taken place in the learning of nansy
Tham. Teaching monks and novices to read nansy Tham takes place
primarily during Lent when the school is active, but learning to read it is
no longer compulsory. Those who want to learn are taught by the abbot,
and the technique of learning is precisely the same as it was fifty years
ago. The voluntary learning of nansy Tham is a major change, and most
novices (and monks) can no longer read the Tham texts. However, those
who propose to spend more than a year in the temple will have to learn
to read sermons, most of which are still in the Tham script, though
increasingly it is being displaced by the Thai script. What is not acquired
today is the ability to write nansy Tham because, with the advent of the
printing press, the copying of manuscripts is no longer necessary.

Memorizing chants

In many religions, especially the `higher literate' religions, a feature of the
priest or religious virtuoso, be he Buddhist monk or Brahmin priest or
Islamic mallam, is his remarkable command of chants and texts which he
has memorized. Since the training of village religious specialists consists

primarily in memorizing texts (without a corresponding accent on the
understanding of them), I shall discuss briefly the method of learning
chants.

In the past (as well as today), it was on memorizing chants that a novice
or a newly ordained monk was likely to spend most of his time. Every
religious occasion in the temple, or a major rite of passage like death, or
a rite of house-blessing, requires chanting by monks. Village monks and
novices are expected to memorize a certain body of chants (suad mon)
that are recited on these occasions. In addition, they must commit to
memory chants which are used in the daily worship of the Buddha
(tham watr), and other texts such as the Patimokkha, which they recite
fortnightly. This second category relates to the monastic régime and
concerns monks alone.

Below, I give a list of the major chants which novices were, and are,
expected to learn during their normal two-year period of study. They can
be divided into the two categories noted above: suad mon and tham watr.
If the reader notes the occasions at which the suad mon chants are rendered,
he will get an idea of the ritual role of the monks in relation to the layman.
Monks are concerned with the transfer of merit to laymen at collective
temple festivals, at rites of passage, and at merit-making household rites
such as house-warming and house-blessing. Together with blessing go
protection and the removal of danger; these effects are achieved by the
paritta chants. Contrary to the ideas of some observers, village Buddhism
is not solely concerned with the other world as opposed to this world.

Chants frequently memorized and recited by novices (`neen')
and monks (`phraa')

The language of the chants is Pali, written in the past in Tham script
and today increasingly in Thai. The following are the collections of
chants that a monk or novice is required to memorize, and which comprise
the repertoire adequate for everyday purposes.

1. Tham watr: this is a collection of chants recited by monks in the
temple in their morning and evening worship of Lord Buddha. This
worship is part of the monk's religious discipline and régime, quite
apart from his parish role vis-à-vis the laity.

2. Suad mon: these are chants recited by monks at collective merit-making
rites at the temple (gnan bun) in which the laity participate, or
at the houses of laymen or other locations outside the temple (e.g. cemetery)
where ceremonial is held. The chants are divided into two groups:
avamangala and mangala. Avamangala refers to inauspicious occasions
or occasions which, being charged with danger, have to be `desacralized',

and mangala to occasions which are auspicious or at which `sacralization'
or `charging' with blessing takes place. For example:

(a) Suad kusala is an avamangala chant, which is recited in a funeral
house immediately after a person dies;

(b) Suad mongkhon are an important and frequently recited collection
of paritta verses which give protection from misfortune as well as positive
blessing.

The suad mongkhon are also referred to as suad mon yen and suad mon
chaw (evening and morning chants). At any merit-making festival at the
temple, for example Bunkathin (collective village offerings to monks at
the end of Lent), or at home, or after the completion of cremation, monks
will first recite at night and then on the following morning chant the
blessing, during which laymen fill their bowls with food and give them
gifts. The sequence is `protection' followed by `blessing' and `gift-giving'.
In the case of post-cremation sacralization, monks chant for three consecutive
nights in the funeral house and are feasted on the fourth morning.

The following are an example of the collection of paritta that comprise
suad mon yen (evening chants):

(i) either namo pad or sum putte;

(ii) mangala sutta (asevana), usually in abbreviated form;

(iii) ratana sutta, usually in abbreviated form;

(iv) karaniya metra sutta (suad karanee), either in full or in abbreviated
form;

(v) vipassis (atanatiya sutta).

The concluding suad mon chaw (morning chant), which transfers
blessings to the laity, is usually referred to as suad pahung; the best known
is the victory blessing chayamangala katha. The morning chant (suad
pahung) is also chanted by monks at the wat on wan sil (Buddhist sabbath)
during the presentation of food to the monks (sai bart/tak bart).

The technique of learning chants is as follows. The tham watr are
not memorized from printed texts. Since they are chanted by monks
daily in the early morning and at night, a newcomer repeats what he
hears and memorizes them fairly quickly. But essentially the suad mon
chants and the Patimokkha confessional are learnt by the pupils not only
collectively in school but also privately, with the aid of printed texts.

The abbot gives each student the task of learning a set of chants. After
about five days, at a common class, each student is asked to recite in
turn. The task in question is not merely a matter of learning words but
of chanting them according to certain tunes. Early morning before school,
or after school in the afternoon, novices and monks practise chants
individually in their cubicles (khuti).

The fact that Buddhism is aesthetically a musical religion, and that
the memorizing of words is closely linked to musical rhythms, gives us
a clue to the technique and the way in which novices and monks are in
fact capable of memorizing an impressive amount of words in their
correct order.

There are essentially three musical rhythms employed in chanting. The
Magadha form breaks up the chant into phrases. The Samyoka style, on
the other hand, is somewhat staccato; stops are made irrespective of
meaning in those places where words are joined by certain consonants
like k, c, t, p, d. Both these styles are employed in the chanting of mangala
(auspicious) chants. A third style is Sarabhanna, which employs a higher
pitch of voice and also slows down the speed of chanting, again breaking
the chant into phrases; the Sanghaha is a similar mode of `lengthened'
chanting. Sarabhanna chanting is employed on avamangala (inauspicious)
occasions, such as immediately after death, when its slow and mournful
grandeur suits the occasion.

The verbal structure of the verses (gatha, sutta) has discernible implications
for facilitating memorization. The chants use the method of
repetitions in stylized form. As Rhys Davids wrote:

It is clear, then, that the Buddhist gathas (like the Vedic prayers) initially
belonged to the oral tradition and were designed in a particular form to
facilitate transmission. Committing them to writing came later.

In village religion the Buddhist chants present a problem for interpretation.
The language of the chants is Pali. Traditionally, they were
written in Tham script; today they are available in printed books in the
Thai alphabet, which is one reason the study of Tham is declining. Yet
whether written in Tham or Thai alphabet, the Pali language itself is
alien to most village novices and monks; some who stay in robes for
a length of time may actually learn Pali, but this is infrequent. In effect,
most village novices and monks do not understand the chants, or at best
understand them imperfectly. The lay congregation, all the women and

most of the men, are in even greater ignorance about the actual content
of chants. However, many of them can recognize particular chants
(especially those recited frequently), and often know which chant is
appropriate for which occasion; some men who were previously novices
have a somewhat better idea of the content.

If this is the actual situation, there are two questions we may ask. To
what extent does the knowledge of chants which are in Pali (and to
a lesser extent, the ability to read nansy Tham) constitute an esoteric and
exclusive body of knowledge confined to the clergy? Secondly, if Pali
chants are essential at rituals performed by monks and novices and if
at the same time they are largely unintelligible to the laity, what, then, is
communicated in the rites? The first I shall answer in this chapter; the
second in a subsequent chapter.

Sermons (`teed')

Sermons are also chanted and therefore require practice. The quality
of recitation itself, apart from the words, is a matter of great aesthetic
appreciation on the part of the congregation.

In the village, sermons are not free creations of the novice (or monk)
who gives them. They are standardized and there is an appropriate one
for each particular occasion or set of occasions, written down in palm-leaf
manuscripts. In the past the writing was inscribed by human hand; today,
one frequently sees palm-leaf documents on which the words are printed.
The latter applies to documents in the Thai script, which are increasingly
supplementing the older Tham texts.

Types and content of sermons. 1. One kind are those which enumerate
or `tell' the advantages of making merit (baug anisonk), which in fact
means giving gifts to the monks and the village temple. Typical occasions
when merit-making is extolled are:

Bun prasaad pueng: making merit for a dead person after the cremation
rites are over by carrying a palanquin of gifts to the monks and also
feasting them;

Bun kathin: giving of gifts by the village to the monks after they have
completed Lent seclusion (during the rains), and emerge again into the
world. It is after this ceremony that the temporary monks resume lay life.

2. Another set of sermons are rather specialized and are reserved for
the celebration of the opening of newly constructed (or repaired) khuti
(monks' living quarters), sala (preaching hall), wihaan or bood (sacred
place of worship). These buildings are always constructed by laymen;
it is a classical requirement that monks cannot construct these buildings
for their use.

3. The third category of sermons deserves special attention. They are
called teed nitarn (sermons which relate stories), and these sermons not
only have implications for the villagers' understanding of the morality
and ethics of Buddhism but also represent the focus of genuine audience
participation and a channel of cultural transmission beyond the narrowly
religious. Traditionally, the teed nitarn constitute a major component
of nansy Tham (sacred palm-leaf books). Teed nitarn can be differentiated
as follows: (a) Pathom Sompote. These are stories (nitarn) concerning the
life of the Buddha, especially his birth, the renouncing of his kingly life,
achievement of nirvana, and also the episodes of his previous lives embodied
as Chadok (Jataka) stories. These stories are a common substance of
sermons, and are widely known throughout Thailand, but each region
has its own version or adaptation. The sermons mentioned here are thus
north-eastern creations. (b) Lam Phrawesandaun. This is a story of the
same category as (a) above but deserves special mention because it is
a work of many chapters, based on the great and moving story of Buddha's
penultimate life, as related in the Wessaundon Chadok (Vessantara Jataka).
It is the major sermon listened to (the reading takes a full day) on the
occasion of Bun Phraawes, which is the village's largest religious and
secular festival held after harvest. The north-eastern version of this story
has its counterpart in the Maha Chad (`Great Story') known in Central
Thailand. (c) Stories which are primarily local and regional myths and
folk tales, and which are not found elsewhere. These are particularly
appreciated by the listeners, for whom their moral significance is secondary
to their dramatic value as stories. The best known stories are, to give
examples, Pha Daeng Nang Ai, Tao Sowat, Tao Phii Noi, Tao Chan
Samut, Tao Ten Don, and Tao Nokrajog. The first named of these stories
will concern us in a later chapter.

All the categories of sermons (1-3) are given on the occasion of the
major collective calendrical temple festivals or are read by monks to
laymen during the Lent season. For example, Lam Phrawesandaun (3(b))
is read on the last day of the three-day Bun Phraawes. Category types 1
and 3 sermons are preached at Org Phansa (the conclusion of Lent and
the `coming out' of the monks) and Bun Khaw Chi (making merit for the
dead with puffed rice); some of them also comprise minor sermons
during Bun Phraawes.

I have already stated that the Pali chants have little meaning content
for the layman; the chanting of them on certain occasions is regarded
as efficacious in a `magical' sense. By contrast, the various sermons read
and explained in the north-eastern language are better understood by the
listeners. It is interesting to note that, on merit-making occasions, it is the

villagers who choose the sermon they would like to hear, and it was
reported by the abbot that for the major festivals the villagers invariably
choose a sermon of category 3.

Whereas stories of the life of the Buddha are universal in Thailand
and are heard in variant forms by all Buddhist congregations, we see
that the propagation and transmission of tales which have originated in,
or at least are confined to, the North-east (and perhaps Laos) help to
maintain regional cultural identity vis-à-vis other cultural regions of
Thailand.[5] The temple, of course, is not the only channel of transmission
—folk opera (mau lum) transmits the same stories through a different
medium; furthermore, literate villagers may themselves possess copies of
nitarn and read them at funeral wakes to entertain the mourners and guests.

In recent times, as may be expected, the sermons of categories 1 and
2, which are common to Thai Buddhism in general, have tended to
become standardized by virtue of their being written or printed in the
Thai alphabet. Increasingly, the stories (nitarn) of category 3, including
the north-eastern tales and myths (3(c)), are also being printed in the
Thai alphabet while linguistically retaining the local dialectal form.

The education of monks

From the point of view of learning and literacy, village monks are of two
kinds: those (a minority) who have been novices and are then ordained
as monks, intending to stay for some time in the temple, and those (the
majority) who are ordained temporarily for one Lent season.

For the first type the period of monkhood is a continuation of their
liturgical and philosophical learning. A novice in the course of his second
year of service would normally prepare for the nagtham examinations
(nagtham means one who is versed in the precepts and doctrines of the
religion) held by the district ecclesiastical authorities. Preparation for
nagtham is intensified, and in many village temples engaged in only during
Lent when the clerical school functions systematically.

The nagtham syllabus may be said to consist of four parts. Pupils are
required (i) to show competence in writing essays in the Thai language,
and to study (ii) the life of the Buddha (as embodied in stories of his life),
(iii) the essentials of the Buddhist doctrine (Dhamma), and (iv) the 227
rules of the Vinaya, which are the rules of conduct that apply to monks;
included in this is the study of the Navakowad, which is the admonition
given to a new monk (bhikkhu) about the rules of the Vinaya.

The nagtham examinations range from grade 3 (lowest) to grade 1.
In the lowest grade the study of the above syllabus is begun at an elementary
level, and in the next two grades more advanced study is made.
Most village monks from Baan Phraan Muan do not get beyond grades
3 and 2; the abbots nowadays may pass grade 1 in the course of time, but
this was not necessarily so for abbots in the past. In 1962, for instance,
only the abbot and one novice had passed the second grade; four of five
monks had passed the lowest grade 3, and the fifth none; two of the
three novices had failed the lowest grade. In subsequent years the abbot
passed the highest grade 1 and is now officially entitled to run a school
in the Lent season.

The three nagtham grades do not include the study of Pali, the language
of the chants and Buddhist doctrinal texts. Pali studies are conducted
separately and the relevant examinations are called prayog, which consist
of seven grades (3-9). In theory a monk may embark on Pali studies
concurrently with nagtham studies or after concluding them. In practice
Pali studies are not easy to engage in because, even if the monk or novice
is motivated to learn, he faces the difficulty of finding a competent monk
to teach him. Few village monks are versed in Pali and therefore this
specialized learning is rare. It is for these reasons that I argue that the
majority of village monks or novices are largely ignorant of Pali (or at
most have a shaky knowledge) and therefore of the content of Pali chants
and Pali doctrinal texts. While the latter are accessible in translation
in local script, the chants cannot be reduced into the words of the local
language, for then they would lose their sacredness and their efficacy.

A monk whose service is a continuation of novicehood enlarges his
repertoire of chants and takes up for special study the Navakowad (the
227 Vinaya precepts) and the Patimokkha confession.

What does a monk study who serves only for one Lent? He is expected
to acquire the following competence: he is trained in tham watr (morning
and evening worship of the Buddha), and in giving the five and eight
precepts of the laity (haj sin dai); he tries to memorize the suad mongkhon
chants; and he is taught the Vinaya rules. It is not an exaggeration to say
that temporary monks primarily take back to lay life a limited repertoire
of Pali chants which they will never use again. But while in robes they
will have participated in many temple and household rites where the
chants will have been recited. The life of the novice who later becomes
a monk and spends some years in the temple can be, as we have seen,
quite different.

THE SATISFACTIONS OF MONKHOOD

What satisfaction do monks get from their religious role? The abbot
enumerated the following benefits. The villagers, he said, pay greater
respect to continuing monks, than to those who have left monkhood,
because they keep the precepts and observe the rules of the Sangha. Since
there are so many wat in the country, monks have a place to stay wherever
they go. Being a monk gives time for study and acquiring more knowledge
than a layman. He also said that villagers work much harder than monks;
unlike monks, who lead a sheltered life, villagers have to work in the fields
in sun and rain.

Only one of the benefits enumerated, the second, requires amplification.
Monks do in fact travel widely except during Lent and find ready shelter and
hospitality in other wat. In this respect they enjoy a much greater advantage
than laymen, whose contacts in the outer world are much more restricted.
This incentive to physical mobility—aided by the leisure at a monk's
command—has further advantageous implications for the scholar-monk,
who moves not only geographically but upwards educationally through
the network of country-wide monastic institutions. I shall deal with him
later and indicate the manner in which it is true to say that this mobility
in both senses signifies a transformation of the concept of `homeless
wanderer' of pristine Buddhism.

FROM MONK TO LAYMAN: THE USES OF LITERACY

The monastic experience, especially if it has been of sufficient duration
to have allowed the acquisition of literacy (the ability to read in the
sacred Tham and secular Lao scripts and to copy extant texts, rather than
to compose creatively), can be used to great advantage when lay life is
resumed. This I would claim is one of the most important rewards of
monkhood, which, although not necessarily formulated by the actors, is
nevertheless a significant implication of sociological analysis.

The acquisition of literacy, which gives access to ritual texts, is via the
village temple. In earlier times attendance at the temple school was an
essential first step on the ladder: the progression was from dekwat (temple
boy) to nen (novice) to phra (monk). What becomes of the ex-monk who
becomes a householder? His service in the wat—especially if it has been
long enough for him to have learned Buddhist chants and ritual procedures
and to have acquired literacy (as defined above)—will enable him to
become, if he so wishes, a ritual expert and a religious leader in the village.

Let us begin the analysis by taking a general view of the specialist

statuses in the village that require literacy. Below, I have enumerated
the village specialists and for purposes of convenience divided them into
ritual and secular kinds. It is the ritual specialists that concern us here
(incidentally, I also introduce the variety of ritual specialists and their
cults, which will concern us in later chapters), for the village headman,
who keeps records, and the schoolteacher, dispensing primary education,
are associated with the `new' literacy and are the products of recent
administrative measures (since the 1930s) of the central and provincial
governments. The mau lum (see B2), though traditional and though they
went to temple schools for primary education, did not in the past necessarily
improve their literacy through service as monks and novices nor did they
require mastery of the sacred Tham script for the practice of their art
(see Tambiah 1968a).

SPECIALISTS IN PHRAAN MUAN VILLAGE

(A) Ritual specialists for whom literacy is essential

1. Phraa (monk): Number in village temple during Lent 1966 = abbot +
5 monks + 4 novices. Traditionally novices and monks who had been in
robes for some years could read fluently Tham, secular Lao and Thai
scripts. Competence in writing, however, was variable, again depending
on length of service. The learned monks, especially the abbots (chao wat),
tend to be proficient writers, today in Lao and Thai scripts, in the past
in Tham as well.

2. Achaan wat (ex-abbot or ex-monk and lay leader of Buddhist congregation):
Number in 1965 = 3. Each was an ex-monk whose literacy was
good as far as reading of Tham, Lao and Thai scripts went. Usually could
write in Lao and Thai scripts, but ability was variable and not essential.
Strictly speaking, the title is conferred only on ex-abbots.

3. Mau khwan/paahm (lay officiant at khwan (spiritual essence) rites):
Number in 1966 = 2 + 1 occasional practitioner. Khwan rites are typically
threshold rites and rites of passage, performed especially at birth, marriage,
ordination and pregnancy. (They also extend into rice cultivation, and
rites of affliction.) The officiant was invariably an ex-monk. Reading
ability of Tham and Lao scripts essential; usually could write Lao and
Thai scripts, but not necessarily Tham.

4. Mau ya (physician): Number in 1966 = 1. Attainments similar to
mau khwan (3). Ability to read medical and ritual texts in Tham and
Lao scripts essential. Indigenous medicine includes ritual frills and
techniques of ritual healing as supplement to herbal and other medicines
to cure organic illnesses.

5. Mau du (astrologer): Number in 1966 = 3, possibly more. Usually
has some qualifications as 3 and 4 above. Should be able to read charts
and make simple calculations.

(B) Secular specialists for whom literacy is required

1. Puyaiban (headman): Number in 1966 = 1. Tradionally literacy not
required, although in theory required. Primary role is mediating between
village and district administration. Today, usually versed in Lao and
Thai scripts, though, since records kept are minimal, writing competence
is not advanced. Has usually been a monk, and may be a village elder
with the prestige and qualifications of mau khwan.

2. Mau lum (folk opera entertainer): Number in 1966 = 2. Entertainers
are both male and female. Reading and copying ability in Lao and, today,
Thai scripts required, but not Tham script; special emphasis on memorization
of words. Elementary schooling is essential but not service as
monk/novice.

3. Khruu (schoolteacher): Number in 1966 = 4. As a professional
specialist he is quite recent (since the 1930s) and has replaced the teaching
monk. He has to teach Thai in the Thai script in village school. Perfectly
fluent—both in reading and writing—in Lao and Thai scripts, but not
in Tham sacred script which gives access to traditional regional Buddhist
and other ritual texts. Teachers are not interested in the forms of literacy
of the paahm/mau khwan type. Since Buddhist texts are today being
increasingly printed in Thai script, they are versed in Buddhism.

(C) Ritual specialists for whom literacy is not required

1. Mau song (diviner): Number in 1966 = 3 or 4. The diviner's art consists
of manipulating ritual objects (e.g. looking through an egg or into a mirror)
and interpreting signs. His techniques do not require writing and calculating
on paper. He need not have been a monk and reading ability is
not required; is usually semi-literate as far as reading is concerned.

2. Cham and tiam (intermediary and medium, respectively, of village
and temple guardian spirits = Tapubaan and Chao Phau Tongkyang).
Number in 1966 = 1 + 1; a village can have only one of each kind. Only
memorization of a few words of address to the guardian spirits is required.
Reading ability in any script not essential; same as mau song, 1 above.
Usually these personnel have never been novices or monks in the Buddhist
temple.

3. Mau tham (exorcizer of malevolent spirits): Number in 1966 = 2.
Memorizes charms and spells, some of which are portions of Buddhist
pali chants, other magical formulae without explicit meaning. Literacy

not required; invariably has never been a novice or monk, and usually
has very poor reading and writing competence in any script. However,
exceptions can be found—there are none in Phraan Muan village—of
persons who possess, read and use magical texts; these persons, significantly,
have learned to read esoteric texts and to practise their arts from certain
`extraordinary' monks or lay teachers (guru).

4. Mau lum phii fa (medium of sky spirit). Number in 1966 = 1.
Usually female. Memorizes words and chants, but accuracy not important.
Reading ability not required. Excluded from monkhood by virtue of
sex. Village medium is illiterate.

(D) Secular specialists for whom literacy is not required

Craftsmen and experts in manual skills (e.g. carpenter, blacksmith, cloth-weaver).

In respect of the ritual statuses, the basic distinction I want to bring
out here is that some of them require and are associated with literacy
and others not. The village monk, the acharn wat (the lay leader of the
Buddhist congregation), the mau khwan or paahm (the officiant at khwan
rites), the mau ya (the physician), and the mau du (the astrologer) can
read texts in Tham, Lao and Thai alphabets with varying degrees of
competence. In fact, apart from the monk's, the other roles are lay, and
it is possible for the same man to practise all of them, or some of them,
concurrently. All these specialist roles are interlocked in a manner which,
in general terms, can be stated as follows. Except in the case of a few
persons, monkhood is of temporary duration. Some of the ex-monks
who have reached the required level of literacy can and do become lay
ritual experts whose art is dependent on the reading and consultation
of ritual texts. Buddhism and Buddhist rites are allied to those practised
by the mau khwan (and to the art of the physician) because they are rites
of auspicious `charging' and do not traffic with malevolent spirits (phii).
The monk does not practise khwan rites; but he is not opposed to them
and can himself be the client or patient.

In contrast, all such ritual specialists as mau song (diviner), cham, tiam
(intermediary and medium of village guardian spirits), mau tham (exorcizer),
and mau lum phii fa (medium of the sky spirit) are distinguished as dealing
with spirits (phii), with whom both doctrinally and in practice monks
have no truck and to whom Buddhism is `opposed'. Reading (and, much
less, writing) ability in any script is not required of these practitioners;
their art consists of manipulating objects and memorizing divining codes,
or spells or forms of invocation and thanksgiving; mediumship especially,
inasmuch as it stands for possession by a spirit, is furthest removed

from the monk or ritual expert, who is associated with learning and with
texts.

In light of this, it is understandable that in the village the ritual specialists
who are literate have higher prestige than those who are not literate—
partly because Buddhism and its allied rituals are ethically superior and
opposed to the spirit cults; partly because the former's art is associated
with specially valued learning and literacy per se. This herarchical distinction
is not merely a matter of prestige; it directly impinges upon
leadership. The most important village elders (phuuthaw—or thawkae—both
words mean `old persons' and `mediators'/`witnesses') are those who are
achaan wat, mau khwan or paahm, and mau ya. Together with the abbot,
they comprise the membership of the village temple committee which
organizes Buddhist festivities and manages the finances of the temple.
They are also the officiants at marriages and other rites of passage (except
death, which is the province of the monk), the settlers of disputes, and the
witnesses to marriage and divorce transactions.

No specialist in the cult of the spirits (phii) is a village elder or leader
in this sense. He may be individually respected but he is not a leader in
the community. This is as much as evaluation of the lesser respect due
his cult as of his lower level of personal achievement in both a technical
and a moral sense.

Three kinds of ex-monk literate specialists are particularly important
in Phraan Muan village: the achaan wat (lay leader of Buddhist congregation),
mau khwan or paahm (officiant at khwan rites), and mau ya
(physician). The purist can legitimately criticize my inclusion of medicine
under ritual specialisms. My reasons for doing so are: the literacy in
question was learned in the temple; one man can combine all three
specialisms; the folk science of medicine has ritual frills; and often, in
village Thailand, monks practise medicine and may later function as
lay mau ya or while in robes teach medicine to lay students.

Achaan wat: the role of the achaan is to invite (aratana) the monks on
behalf of the congregation to give precepts, or to chant, or to make a
sermon, and to receive food and other gifts presented by laymen. Every
merit-making occasion which monks attend requires the chanting of
invitations in the Pali language.

The following chants of invitation are some of the most frequent that
an achaan recites:

aratana sil: to invite monks to give the five or eight precepts;

aratana tawai sankatarn: to invite monks to accept food;

aratana pahung: to invite monks to chant before alms are given to
them, followed by breakfast;

aratana theed: invitation of a monk or monks to give a sermon. In the
festival of Bun Phraawes; there is a special invitation requesting monks
to read Lam Phrawesandaun;

aratana Uppakrut: invitation to Phraa Uppakrut (a mythical being
who lives in the swamp) to accompany villagers to the temple before
the Bun Phraawes proceedings start.

In Phraan Muan there were three persons who enacted this role and their
paths of literacy conformed to a standard pattern: preliminary education
as a child dekwat in the school run by the monks; then, in adolescence
service as novice during which skills in reading and copying the sacred
Tham and secular Lao languages were acquired, and finally a period
of service as monk in which ritual skills were perfected. In Chapter 13,
two of these ritual experts will engage our attention in detail.

Mau Ya and Mau Khwan/Paahm: the physician's art is not within the
scope of this book; the village's most successful physician, Phau Tu
Phan, was in fact also an achaan wat and a mau khwan. He learned the
arts of medicine and the conduct of sukhwan rites, after he had given
up his robes, from his mother's brother and a kinsman of his grand-parental
generation respectively, but his previous acquisition of literacy
in the wat was an essential qualification.

The khwan rites and its officiants will be treated in a subsequent
chapter. Here it is sufficient to note that the most popular mau khwan
in the village in 1961 was Phau Champi, who had been a novice and a monk,
was an achaan wat, a pupil of and successor to Phau Tu Phan (a distant
kinsman), a member of the `wat committee', and the village's most
respected and pious leader. His ritual expertise was acquired after service
in the wat, where he gained literacy.

The recruitment to these positions may be summed up as follows: the
practice of medicine and khwan and associated rites requires literacy of
the type acquired in the temple; yet a person who has been a novice and
monk does not automatically become a medical or ritual expert. Traditionally
these arts have to be learned from an existing practitioner, who is likely
to nominate and train a kinsman to succeed him; the apprentice usually
waits until his teacher is ready to give up before he himself practises
on his own. This appears to be the professional etiquette within the
village.

Thus this interlocking relationship of teacher and chosen disciple means
that recruitment for the learning of the arts of mau khwan and mau ya
is not completely open nor a simple commercial transaction. The eligibility
and suitability of the candidate are assessed by the teacher, and the
prescribed qualities of character are intrinsic to the role of ritual elder.

THE `WAT' COMMITTEE

Throughout Thailand each wat and its monastic community communicates
for certain purposes with the outside world of lay parishioners, and
vice versa, through an organization called the wat committee, which is
composed usually of the abbot and a few secular lay leaders. The members
of the committee (excepting the abbot) act as the lay trustees of temple
affairs. Thus while the monastic membership and the village households
are two distinct communities, they are formally linked through the wat
committee for the facilitation and regulation of their reciprocal communication.

Wat Phraan Muan, like all other wat in Thailand, had a committee; it
consisted in 1961 of the abbot and three elders, all of whom had served
their time as monks and were in fact leaders of prestige. (One was Phau
Champi; other ritual leaders described earlier had in former years been
active members of the committee.) There is no popular election of a wat
committee; the present members were appointed by the previous abbot.
Their duties are to organize village labour and finance for holding collective
calendrical rites, to see that the wat is provided with the necessary
equipment, and to act as treasurers for money collected in the merit-making
ceremonies. The role of these lay elders in village affairs must
not be minimized. It is they, in fact, who structure and channel the
collective participation of the village as a religious congregation. Ritual
leadership is the only conspicuous leadership in the village, and it is
always available to an ex-monk of exceptional qualities and mature age.

TRADITIONAL LITERACY: SOME QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS

I shall now extend this discussion of the traditional literacy of novices,
monks and lay ritual experts (all ex-monks) by commenting on the number
of people who travelled on the traditional path of literacy and emerged
literate. In modern educational jargon, I am considering the problem of
`educational wastage' from the point of view of literacy, not in terms of
other benefits.

In the figures given earlier on the number who became novices and
monks, I have indicated that although more than half of the male family
heads had seen some kind of religious service in the temple, only about
a fifth of the total number had been both novices and monks, and therefore
could be assumed to have had the time and training for mastering the art
of reading nansy Tham and documents in the secular Lao-Thai scripts.
But even this minority could not be assumed to have retained their

ability to read when they resumed lay life. There are many elderly persons
in the village today who, although they had studied nansy Tham in their
youth, have virtually lost their literacy.

In 1966 a very rough count was made of the number of laymen who
were versed in the traditional Tham and Lao scripts. Seven elders were
mentioned by villagers as having this capacity. Of these, only three were
lay ritual leaders and medical practitioners of the type we have discussed:
achaan wat, mau khwan, and mau ya. The other four, although able to
read the occasional literature that might come to hand, were not using
their literacy in a manner that had any visible impact on the village.

This leads us back to other facts already cited. A novice or monk does
not automatically acquire lay ritual and medical skills; after a lapse of
years, he may learn from a practitioner who is willing to have him as his
successor. Interest and effort on the part of the recruit (individual achievement
factors) as well as the right kinship connections (ascribed criteria)
come into play.

In the village, then, monkhood and novicehood as such are not restricted;
they are virtually open to any male, and it is not beyond the means of
most villagers to have their sons ordained. In fact, in Baan Phraan Muan
ordination is a collective rite to which the entire village contributes
financially. However, certain individual or idiosyncratic factors primarily
determine which of the many young men will serve long enough in the
temple to attain literacy and religious knowledge. Once lay life is resumed,
individual factors of interest and personal effort as well as restrictive
criteria (i.e. finding a teacher who will pass on knowledge to a chosen
or approved successor) play their part in determining the total number
of men who in their middle age will become ritual experts, highly appreciated
in the village.

What are the implications for traditional ritual and medicine of the fact
that in recent years there have been hardly any young men in the village
who can read the traditional manuscripts, both because of the government's
educational policy of teaching children only in the Thai language
and because the novices and monks of today need not, and in the main
do not, master the Tham script?

Village elders are very much aware of this as a problem, for the number
of mau khwan and mau ya in the region is dwindling, but not, as yet, the
public demand for their services. The khwan rites are still widely practised.
Most villagers are treated by their own village physicians rather than by
government doctors. Nevertheless, the loss of traditional literacy will
seriously affect the emergence of traditional specialists in the future.
Already, the death of elderly specialists is causing a visible shortage.

THE PATH OF LITERACY OF THE SCHOLAR-MONK: FROM
VILLAGE BUDDHISM TO HIGHER BUDDHISM

In the last section I shall look beyond the narrow universe of village
Buddhism and discuss briefly two features of extra-village literacy in
order, on the one hand, to remind the reader of the confines of my discussion
of village literacy and, on the other, to indicate the complex educational
network that encompasses an isolated village. Clearly, in Thailand, networks
of monastic educational institutions exist on a regional level, with
urban and historic rural centres being focal points. In turn, these networks
converge upon Bangkok, the national capital. Apart from famous monastic
schools Bangkok has two universities for monks, which teach subjects
ordinarily taught in secular universities.

Village youths, especially novices who are promising and keen, may
leave their village temples and go to district monastic centres. From there
they may be sent to historic provincial centres of learning, and even
finally find their way to Bangkok. This path of literacy is made possible
by certain features peculiar to monkhood. First, a young novice or monk
always has assigned to him an older monk as preceptor (called by the
younger man luang phii, that is, `respected elder brother') who teaches,
sponsors and supports him. This relationship between upacha (preceptor)
and pupil monk can be an important one for mobility within the Order.
Secondly, the abbot of a village temple has contacts with other abbots
and with his district head, so that he can find a place for a keen student
in a monastic centre which gives superior education. Further, the status
of novice or monk is a `detached' one and in theory any such religious
person can be mobile, going from temple to temple, provided he can
find a place through the active collaboration of his preceptor and sponsor.
Placement in other communities through kinship, as is done in the secular
world, is more circumscribed than the mobility that is possible for a monk.
Here is indeed a transformation of the concept of `homeless wanderer'
of pristine Buddhism.

That such networks are used and that village youths of promise have
climbed the ladder of literacy is attested by certain writers (e.g. Klausner
1964). In another essay (Tambiah 1968a) I have recounted the educational
career of an extraordinary monk who was born in a north-eastern village,
not in Baan Phraan Muan but in the province of Mahasarakam, and who
has reached the apex of monastic learning in Thailand, being currently
engaged in Sanskrit studies in the University of Cambridge. The account
describes in detail many of the points I can merely mention here: the
network and levels of monastic centres of learning, the institution of

preceptor-pupil relationship, the number of novice/monk pupils in these
centres, and finally the kind of instruction in Pali studies given at the
centres.

Now it is clear that, compared with the story in that account, the
village of Baan Phraan Muan is undistinguished and has not systematically
nurtured gifted young men who have then entered the network of higher
learning. But I must hasten to add that Baan Phraan Muan, in fact, falls
into the lowest and largest category of villages in the hierarchy of traditional
learning in North-east Thailand; its situation is shared by many others.

In estimating in a crude way the efficacy of monastic educational
networks and the proportion of novices and monks who go beyond the
elementary nagtham studies to Pali studies, it is relevant to note the
following facts. There is no systematic recruitment of novices or monks
from villages into higher centres of learning. The point is rather that
a gifted student, adequately sponsored, can find his way into the upper
reaches. The system does not work in the manner of contemporary
national educational systems which channel students from primary schools
to secondary schools to universities. Another way of saying the same
thing is that the vast majority of village novices and monks do not aspire
to become learned in Pali studies. This is due not only to the custom of
temporary religious service. Even those who stay in robes for some length
of time do not in the main aspire to become Pali scholar-monks.

There are many reasons for this. The role of the monk in a village is
primarily a ritual one; we have already seen that in order to perform
his parish and monastic role he needs only to acquire a certain amount
of literacy in the sacred Tham and secular languages and to memorize
a body of oft-used chants. Pali studies are not essential for this purpose.
Furthermore, a monk who becomes engaged in Pali doctrinal studies is
in all probability also one who becomes increasingly committed to following
that kind of doctrinal Buddhism which, if taken seriously, results in
progressive detachment from the world and involves practising meditation
and self-control and entering into mystical realms which promise nirvana.
In other words, he tends to become a world-renouncer, and only a few
are capable of engaging in this higher pursuit.

From the point of view of literacy, a most relevant consideration is
that which stands in contrast to the situation of the Islamic mallam.
In Islam Arabic studies are a necessary vehicle for mastery of legal,
judicial and other codes which have a direct secular significance. The
learned man is an interpreter of law and a judge and counsellor of men
in everyday affairs. The Pali doctrinal texts of Buddhism have no implication
for the laws and customs of everyday life of the laity. For a village

monk, we have seen, his pay-off is primarily ritual eldership in the village,
for which he requires only a kind of literacy that is acquired at the village
level.

It is for these reasons that few monks take their nagtham studies
seriously or enter upon the more complex Pali studies. Some do learn
Pali, for it confers prestige and entitles them to conduct village religious
schools. Thus, centres of learning feed their pupils back into the villages.
But such monks rarely go beyond the first few grades of Pali studies. It is
not a matter of importance to the village congregation that they should in their midst a Pali scholar—it is enough that someone is available
in the neighbourhood to perform the required rituals.

However, a professional monk may wish to climb the religious hierarchy;
he may aspire to become abbot of his village temple and then become
a district head (chaokana amphur). Such a monk must have a certain
amount of intellectual training and service in other temples. While the
village of Phraan Muan has never produced a scholar-monk, it has produced
one monk in recent times who has climbed the clerical hierarchy. He is
Phra Khru Anurak Punnaket, forty-eight years of age, and at present the
ecclesiastical head of Pen District. He is the son of Phau (`father') Puay,
an ordinary and undistinguished farmer in Phraan Muan village. Phra
Anurak spent about fifteen years in a temple at the provincial capital
of Udorn and several years in Bangkok, then returned as abbot to his
native village from where he received his promotion. He has some knowledge
of Pali but would not consider himself a scholar. His local influence
is great because of his position, his varied experience, and his wide
network of contacts, both ecclesiastical and secular.

THE BUDDHIST AND HINDU STAGES OF LIFE

A question raised in Chapter 6 concerning the relation between the Hindu
four stages of life and the Buddhist life cycle statuses can be answered
now.

The Hindu formulation is that of a progression from celibate student,
to householder, to withdrawal from secular responsibilities, to homeless
wanderer and world renouncer. These stages were theoretically possible
to any person.

In contrast, the Buddhist conception appeared to state two distinct
paired progressions. For the seeker of salvation, a progression from
novice-disciple to monk (a radical world renunciation at the threshold of
adult life); and for the layman a leisurely journey from simple householder
to piety and withdrawal from worldly preoccupations in old age.

But in actual fact, in the Thai village described, we see that for the
majority of male laymen another more comprehensive life cycle has been
worked out which exploits the classical option that a monk may give up
his robes without dishonour. A village boy, who in the past started as
a temple boy (dekwat), becomes novice as an adolescent, then a celibate
monk at the dawn of adulthood. After this religious service and education,
he resumes lay life to marry and set up a household and to materially
support the monks in the wat. In the course of lay life, those who had
undergone a sufficiently long period of religious education could become
ritual experts and lay leaders of the congregation, sponsor the ordination
of village sons, and intensify their religious piety towards the end of
their lives and in the face of death.

Only a minority of village youth adhere to the narrower path of passing
from novicehood into a lifelong state of monkhood, renouncing marriage,
the founding of a family, and active participation in the affairs of this
world. But even these permanent monks lead a community life in monasteries,
which must depend on the laity for daily material support, and are
honoured by the laity and are called upon by them to transfer merit by virtue
of their own excellence acquired as renouncers of the layman's way of life.

The logic of the village scheme whereby renunciation and withdrawal
is practised by most males in late youth and early adulthood, followed by
the full life of a householder and culminating in, again, religious piety—
in other words the successive stages outlined above—can best be understood
not as a derivation from classical tradition but as a transformation of
classical possibilities[6] which finds its basis in village social structure: the
expectations and obligations between parents and sons and between
generations, the notions of collective merit-making and merit transfer, and
the orientation that merit-accumulation is not so much a private quest but
a public action which not only states but reinforces and increases one's
social status and prestige, which are in turn themselves indices of ethical
well-being.