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10
THE CYCLE OF COLLECTIVE `WAT' RITES
AND THE AGRICULTURAL CALENDAR

In Baan Phraan Muan, as in every Thai village, a cycle of collective
calendrical rites is held at the wat and conducted by the monks. The rites
I shall refer to here are representative of all the villages of the region
around Phraan Muan. These are collective in the sense that the entire
village participates in the annually recurring rites. Characteristically, they
are merit-making occasions and the names of the rites have the prefix
bun (e.g. Bun Kathin).

What I want to demonstrate now is that the cycle of Buddhist temple
rites is closely interwoven with the cycle of village economic activities,
especially the cycle of rice cultivation, which forms the basis of the local
economy. Secondly, I shall indicate briefly how each cosmic rite, occurring
at a specific time of the year, weaves in particular social themes and
integrates them into the Buddhist religious system, and conversely how
such religious institutions as monkhood and ancestor beliefs fit into the
rhythm of social life.

While it would be false to postulate that Buddhism gets its primary
meanings from the agricultural preoccupations of the villagers, it would
be surprising if Buddhism had no linkage with the agricultural cycle.
Table 5 gives the pattern of wat rites in relation to the rice cycle. The
dating of wat ceremonies is in terms of the lunar calendar, and in the
villages of the Phraan Muan region the first lunar month falls in December.
The traditional Thai New Year is Songkran, which falls in April.

Buddhist events such as Wisaka, Lent and Makha Bucha are fixed
by long religious tradition, in which the local villagers played no part;
however, it is significant that early Buddhism converted the season of
rains into Lent. The villagers are completely free to time their post-harvest
merit-making rites (such as Bun Phraawes) to suit local circumstances, and
their timing may vary from village to village and from year to year.

Starting with Songkran, the major emphasis of each calendrical rite
and its linkage with the rice cycle appears to be as follows.

(a) Songkran falls at the end of the dry season when rains are imminent.
There is thus a dual orientation in this transition period—the end of the
old year and the beginning of the new, the end of the scorching dry

Table 5. Calendar of `wat' ceremonies and the agricultural cycle

                                           

Name of ceremony	Western calendar	Phase of agricultural cycle
Songkran	13-15 April	DRY SEASON
(traditional New Year)		Approximate end of dry season and expectation of rains
		Change in seasons
Wisaka Bucha	May	RAIN
(day of birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha)		Rains and wet season begin
		Time for ploughing fields
Khaw Phansa	July	GROWING RICE
(entering Lent)		Transplanting completed
		Growing period of rice
		Season of rain (Vassa)
Bun Khaw Saak	September	Rice at critical stage when grains begin to form
(making merit for spirits of the dead with puffed rice)
		Height of growth season
Org Phansa	October	Grains have formed and are maturing; end of rains
(leaving Lent)
Bun Kathin	Between full moons of October and November	END OF RAINS
(kathin presentation)
Makha Bucha	February	HARVESTING
(All Saints Day)
Bun Phraawes	February, March	Harvest celebrations
(merit-making for Phraawes)

season and the beginning of the rains—and the ritual activities reflect
both themes.

The three days which comprise Songkran are categorized thus: the first
day is the end of the old year (Songkran); the second day is the intervening
day (Wan Naw), and the third day is the beginning of the new year
(Thalerngsok). On each day the villagers present food to the monks in
the morning.

On the afternoon of the first day the Buddha statue and the monks are
bathed by villagers to wash away their sins and to pay respect. In the
evening monks chant suad mongkhom; the principal ritual objects are
stones in a basket, which are strewn afterwards in the house compounds
to drive away all defects.

On Wan Naw the dead are allowed to visit the living. This is a day for
commemoration of dead ancestors and the transfer of merit to them. The
monks are invited by villagers to perform ceremonies in the village
cemetery (tham bangsakul ha putai). On this day, also, young people take
perfumed water to bathe their elders in order to wash away their sins;
they ask forgiveness of their elders and get their blessings. It is believed,
too, that if merit is made on this day it counts as much merit, and if demerit
is committed it counts as much sinfulness. Thus monks and villagers,
especially young folk, bring sand to the wat to build pagodas and later
decorate them. In the evening the villagers sit by the pagodas and the
monks chant the victory blessing (chayanto).

The first day of the New Year is not characterized by any special rites,
except that merry-making reaches its climax. Throughout the Songkran
period young people of both sexes engage in water sports, throwing
water on each other in a spirit of high fun and horseplay.

Thus the Songkran shows a multiplicity of themes and interests. The
past year's sins are washed away by bathing the Buddha statue, the monks
and elders; at the same time there is a deeper meaning to this in that
these same venerable objects are being purified and rejuvenated by the
young for the coming year. The dead are allowed to visit the living and
they, too, are laden with merit before being sent back to the spirit world.
The young folk indulge in straightforward fertility rituals, and rains are
invoked.

(b) Next come the rains in May, and this is a period of hard work
spent in preparing the fields, ploughing and transplanting, and therefore
inappropriate for elaborate rites. But in fact an event of great Buddhist
importance falls at this time—Bun Wisaka, the day on which the Buddha
was born, attained enlightenment and died. In Baan Phraan Muan this
occasion is unimportant; the rites are observed because they belong to
the Buddhist calendar (popularized on a national scale) rather than because
they have special significance for village life. The only ritual activities
are the feeding of monks in the morning and a procession at night with
lighted candles and joss-sticks which circles the bood three times in
a clockwise direction.

(c) Then in July, still at the height of the rains (and when the amount
of rainfall will crucially determine future yield), the monks go into
retreat (Khaw Phansa). Phansa (or Vassa) is the rainy season of three
months, usually referred to as the Buddhist Lent.

The weeks preceding Phansa in late May and June are when the young
men of the village are ordained as monks; we have seen that monkhood
for these men usually consists of religious service for the period of one

Lent only. The Lenten period coincides with a particular phase of the
agricultural calendar. This is the time when the transplanted or sown
rice is growing. The period of growth is one requiring little work and is
devoted by the elderly villagers to intensifying piety, especially by going
to worship at the wat, listening to sermons, and sometimes observing the
eight precepts. Commonly in Thailand it is considered improper to stage
marriage ceremonies during Lent, thereby emphasizing it as a period of
piety and asceticism.

The main ritual sequences on Khaw Phansa day are the following: in
the morning the villagers make merit by feeding the monks and novices
at the sala. This is followed by the khwan ceremony at which the lay
elders (phuu thaw) recall the khwan (spirit essence) of the monks and
bind their wrists with cord, so that the khwan will be united with their
bodies before they go into retreat.

After this is the presentation of bathing cloths to the monks (pha abnam
fon = cloth for bathing in the rain), which they must use to bathe when
the Vassa starts. The monks give the anumodana blessing, preach a sermon
on the merit acquired by laymen in giving this cloth to the monks, and
are again feasted by the village. At night there is a candlelight procession
round the bood, and finally the monks and novices chant suad mongkhon—
which is a threshold ceremony giving protection and blessings on the eve
of entering Lent.

Are we to see any significance in the fact that the monks go into retreat
when the rains are falling, the young rice plants are growing, and sustained
rainfall is hoped for? It is said it was the Buddha who prescribed this
retreat for monks in order that they should not, during their travels in
the rainy season, crush or destroy vegetable life and small creatures.
As the institution operates today, it may seem that the monks' retreat
and intensified religious preoccupation is directly connected with the
successful growth of paddy and the precipitation of plentiful rain.[1] That
this interpretation is not entirely fanciful can be seen from two other,
independent bits of evidence. The first is that the villagers conduct
a rain-making ceremony at around the same time, which is addressed

to the local village guardian deities. And the villagers see to it that on the
day before this ceremony is held a couple of novices are ordained, so that
the merit accruing can be transferred to these deities. The actual rainmaking
ceremony (Bunbangfai) excludes the participation of monks; thus
it is all the more remarkable that ordination is linked with it. The second
piece of substantiating evidence comes from the Bun Phraawes rites,
especially the rites associated with Phra Uppakrut, the swamp spirit which
also symbolizes rain. The rites will be described later in this chapter.

(d) In terms of the agricultural cycle, we next come to September, the
tenth lunar month, when the growing rice is at a critical stage and is
running to ear. At this period is staged Bun Khaw Saak, which means
merit with puffed rice. This ceremony is addressed to dead relatives and
ancestors. The main rite, after the monks are fed and a sermon preached
on the special merit to be made on this day, is that of the villagers, acting
as one collective assembly—but each household acting individually—
putting out packages of puffed rice, cooked rice and vegetables on the
ground near the bood, and, while the monks chant, transferring merit
to their dead relatives by pouring water on the ground (yaadnam).

I have already referred to Songkran (which falls in the fifth lunar
month and is the end of the old year and the beginning of the new) as
an occasion when the dead visit the living. Bun Khaw Saak, which falls
in the tenth lunar month and is the mid-year of the old calendar, is again
a transitional period, and the villagers say that the dead are allowed to
visit the earth for seven days.

A point of ritual importance is the significance of puffed rice as opposed
to raw rice. Puffed rice in its various preparations is specifically offered
to dead relatives and supernatural beings. Thus khaw saak (puffed rice
mixed with sugar) is offered to the dead on Bun Khaw Saak or Bun Sib
Peng; khaw tog taeg (puffed rice without sugar) is strewn on the path
during a funeral procession as an offering to dangerous spirits, and to
show that `death is like puffed rice which cannot be planted to grow
again'. Roughly at the time Bun Khaw Saak takes place at the wat,
villagers also place puffed rice with sugar in the paddy fields so that the
guardian spirit of the field (chao naa) and dead parents `will see that the
fields are being cultivated and therefore will guard the crop'.

In contrast, raw rice grains (khaw saan) are used as a ritual item in
marriage rites. When the marriage payment is taken by the groom's side
to the bride's house, the money is mixed with rice grains and put on
a tray (khan ngoen). I do not wish to insist on the puffed rice/raw rice
distinction as vital in ritual, but the anthropologist has grounds for
concluding that, since puffed rice is appropriate food for spirits as opposed

to human beings, it is intimately connected with the notion of death and
raw rice with life and fertility.

From the standpoint of this present study, what is of relevance is that,
at the critical time when the rice grains are forming in the fields, the dead
are propitiated with `dead rice' and merit transferred to them with the
assistance of monks, so that the rite is categorized as a collective bun
ceremony. The living view the caring for the dead owners of the fields as
necessary to ensure good crops; `dead rice' is exchanged for newly
`living' rice.

(e) By October the rains end and this marks the end of the Buddhist
Lent (Org Phansa). The end of the rains signals the emergence of the
monks from their seclusion. From now on wat festivities begin to take
on an air of conspicuous merit-making.

The day on which the monks leave their retreat is marked by Org
Phansa rites. In the early morning the monks chant in the bood to announce
the end of Lent; villagers gather together at the wat to feast the monks
and to present them with robes, which are a collective gift. The villagers
themselves then eat a communal meal. After the meal young males and
children gather in the wat compound to witness the setting-off of a large
balloon filled with hot air. Following this there is a day-long sermon,
with the life of Prince Sowat being read chapter by chapter, punctuated
by firing of crackers and the throwing of puffed rice at the Buddha statue.
While old men and women listen to the sermon, the young people concern
themselves with firing crackers.

The monks are feasted again before noon, the sermon is resumed, and
the rites are rounded off at night with a candlelight (wian thian) procession
three times around the bood and sala.

(f) But the grand village merit-making ceremony which celebrates the
emergence of the monks and the completion of rains is Bun Kathin.
That is the occasion when the monks and novices are presented with
robes and gifts; thereafter, the monks are free to resume lay life.

The kathin (kathina) presentation is an old Buddhist tradition in
both Ceylon and Thailand (see Geiger 1960 and Wells 1960) and is
perhaps closely linked with the beginnings of monastic life (see Chapter 5).
It is a universal rule in Thailand that a particular wat can receive only
one kathin gift; the custom is that a village wat usually receives its kathin
gift from donors in another village. If this is not forthcoming, people of
the local village will make the presentation. This is what happened in
our village in 1961. Every household contributed cash as well as gave
presents in kind.

As in all major merit-making rites, the activities are spread over two

(or even three) days. On the first day of the 1961 Baan Phraan Muan
celebration after the feeding of the monks, decorations were put up, and
the gifts to the monks were assembled in the sala. All afternoon, individuals
brought gifts of coconuts and other small items, and these were placed
on the hau kathin, a decorated wooden palanquin. Monks from other wat
in the tambon arrived to participate. In the evening all the monks chanted
suad mongkhon: about twenty old men and fifteen old women were present.
That night a miniature fair was held in the wat grounds—a film was
shown, a professional ramwong (popular dance) orchestra ran an open-air
dance with hostesses provided, and an open-air maulam (folk opera) was
performed.

The kathin presentation took place on the following morning. The
hau kathin was brought down from the sala and the procession of villagers
formed. I propose now to give some details about the ritual objects in the
procession, the nature of the procession, and the final presentation of
gifts to the monks so that the reader can appreciate the many facets of
a major merit-making ceremony in the village.

The hau kathin is the most conspicuous item in the procession. It is
a wooden palanquin highly decorated with intricately cut banana stems
and paper. Villagers said it represented a palace (prasaat rajawang),[2] and
in it were placed the kathin gifts, chief among them a set of robes, to be
used later in the rites. The symbolism explicitly formulated by the villagers
is instructive. The palace represented the hopes of all participants that
in their next life they would be able to live in such an abode. (This is an
expression of a prosperous rebirth envisaged on the chakravartin and
not the nirvana model.) From the four corners of the roof were hung
pin-cushions with needles stuck into them: this expressed the wish that
in their next birth the devotees would be blessed with keenness of mind.
The roof ends of the palanquin used the Naga (serpent) motif (which is
the usual motif on the roof of every Thai bood and viharn). This symbolized,
villagers said, Buddha's conquest of craving; also, at the time of Buddha's
enlightenment, a Naga protected him from the intrusions of the world.

Flags are another category of items in the procession. Those used had
pictures of a mermaid, mermonkey (said to be the son of Hanuman the
monkey, of Ramayana fame) and the Goddess of the Earth, Nang Thoranee.
Informants said these were the symbols of victory in the Mara Yuddha;
when Mara attacked the Buddha with his demon hordes, Nang Thoranee
wrung her hair to produce a flood, and the creatures of the water, such as

crocodiles and mermonkeys, attacked and dispersed the army (see p. 52).
The other articles carried in the procession were sugar-cane branches,
money trees, and ordinary flags and standards.

Four men swept the ground with brooms in front of the procession.
The procession was led by a man (an ex-monk and currently a part-time
barber) who held the image of the Buddha over his head. (I interpret this
as the `return of the Buddha' to the world after the rains.)[3] Next followed
four monks who held a yellow cord attached to the hau kathin: the bearers
of money trees, all males, were behind the monks, and they were followed
by the hau kathin carried by male elders (see Plate 2).

The second half of the procession was gay. A band of musicians playing
long drums and flutes led a large body of males and females, both youth
and adult, all dancing to the music, the children enjoying themselves the
most. The rear was brought up by a merit-making group consisting of
customs officials temporarily stationed in a settlement near the village.
They carried their own money tree.

The procession circumambulated three times, first around both the
bood and sala, and then twice around the sala, before it entered the latter.
Before the presentation began, a long yellow thread was tied round the
sala, thus enclosing the people within. The meaning of this was explained
to us as signifying that all who were inside the sala were within the
boundary of kathin merit-making and thereby acquired merit.

After the requesting of the five precepts by a lay elder came the ritual
of presenting the robes. In order to allocate the village gift of robes to
a particular monk, a set procedure is followed: one monk asks the others
who amongst them is fit to receive the gift; another answers that it shall be
the abbot, and this is assented to by all the monks. After one elder had
presented the robes and the congregation had been blessed in return,
another presented the money trees (ton ngoen) to the monks. (See next
section for the symbolism of money trees.) The elders counted the money
on the trees and noted down the amount. The kathin ceremony then
concluded with the monks and novices chanting a blessing appropriate
after receiving gifts.

The kathin gifts altogether consisted of money (140 baht), robes for
the monks, coconuts, and other small gifts for the monks' use.

(g) From the end of November until the end of January the village is
busy again with agricultural work. Harvesting is the peak working season
of the year, and there are no collective wat rites.

In February, when the harvest has been gathered in and the agricultural
cycle has been concluded, comes the climactic village ritual, Bun Phraawes.
(It is significant that this festival is preceded by Makha Bucha, the Buddhist
All Saints' Day, which is more or less ignored by the villagers except for
the usual candlelight procession.)

Bun Phraawes is the grandest merit-making complex of rites in the
village. It weaves in multiple themes—the celebration of harvest; the
dedication of nature and man to a higher ethical purpose and thereby
the securing of peace, prosperity and health; the inviting of Uppakrut
and the thewada as well as human beings to listen to the recitation of
Buddha's magnificent and supremely moving life as Vessantara. This
festival is the subject of detailed analysis in the next section.

Reviewing this account of the cycle of collective wat rites and their
linkage with the agricultural calendar, what appears to emerge is a pattern
of alternation between `ascetic' Buddhism and `festive' Buddhism, the
former prominent during the period of rains (monks in retreat, the elderly
full of salvation thoughts) and the latter prominent from the end of rains
(monks emerging, the old presenting gifts, and the young participating
in fairs and collective merit-making). During the period of rains the
Buddha himself is in retreat and is inaccessible; after the rains in the
Org Phansa and Kathin he, too, has returned to the world. Then there is
a period of ritual quiescence during harvest; until once again Buddha
is actively present (as are Uppakrut and thewada) during the Bun Phraawes
rites, when his deeds in this world are recounted. Finally, the old year
ends and the new year begins with the bathing, rejuvenation and reinstatement
of the Buddha images, the monks and the elders, by the living, the
community and the younger generation respectively.

`BUN PHRAAWES'

Bun Phraawes is the grandest merit-making ceremony in the village. The
name of the festival derives from the story of Phraa Wes or Wesaundon
(Vessantara), which relates the story of the Buddha in his last birth before
the one in which he attained Buddhahood. For all Buddhists this is preeminent
for its moral implications of selfless giving and its deeply moving
drama that leads from tragedy to final vindication and triumph. In Thailand

it is often referred to as the Mahachad (great Jataka) and is written for
the purpose of being read in merit-making rites in the form of 1,000
verses (Gatha Pun) divided into thirteen chapters. Villagers count Bun
Phraawes as bun-fang-teed or merit from listening to a sermon. Listening
to the recitation of this long text is believed to confer great merit and the
fulfilment of a devotee's wishes.[4]

But Bun Phraawes is not merely an annual religious ritual. It is the
village's major festival, appropriately occurring after harvest, and combines
merit-making with secular interests. In terms of the agricultural cycle
it reflects two themes—thanksgiving and looking forward to the next
cycle. Occurring as it does in the middle of the dry season, it looks forward
to the onset of rains. The particular interest this festival has for our study
of village Buddhism is that it embraces a number of themes and interests
which are given theological integration under the auspices of Buddhism.

Structurally, the Bun Phraawes rites divide into three sequences. First
comes the invitation to Uppakrut to attend the festival; he is associated
with protecting the village and ensuring the rains. In this sense the
first phase is man's communion with natural forces. The next phase,
the inviting and propitiation of the divine angels (thewada), is man's
communion with the upper spirit world. Uppakrut mediates with nature,

the thewada with the divine. The ideologically central part, enacted in
the third phase, is merit-making by recitation of and listening to the
great story (and other subsidiary sermons). Every night of the festival
the village fair is held in the wat precincts.

I shall give a brief ethnographic description of these sequences and
analyse their implications.

Preparations

Preparations go on during the two days preceding the first major ritual
sequence. Stages are built for maulam (folk opera) and ramwong (popular
dancing); a pavilion to store paddy contributions is constructed; four
posts are planted to enclose the sala, with large flags attached to them
at the top and baskets fixed at the bottom; the sala is decorated with
painted cloths and kryang hoi kryang phan (100 things, 1,000 things),
special decorations connected with this festival. Special ritual articles
connected with Uppakrut, thewada and Phraawes have to be made locally
or purchased.

A striking pattern of the preparations is the differential male-female
roles. Old women roll cigarettes, make betel-nut packets, candles, etc.
This is a role that in fact old women perform in every religious or social
ceremony in the village. The men—both old and young—decorate and
construct pavilions (or, in other contexts, coffins or other ritual furniture),
the old doing the lighter and the young the heavier work. Young girls and
young married women are the cooks. It is they primarily who, supervised
by older women, bring food for the monks on ceremonial occasions.

In the afternoon of the second day the Buddha image is brought down
from the monks' quarters and installed in the pavilion. Monks sit in the
pavilion with begging bowls, waiting for villagers to bring them gifts
of paddy. Paddy contributions are the main gift made by villagers at this
festival.

The invitation to Phraa Uppakrut

In the late afternoon is staged the first main ritual of the series—the
invitation to Phraa Uppakrut, who lives in a perennial pond or swamp
(byng). Villagers said that before preaching the story of Phraawes it was
the custom to invite Phraa Uppakrut to the wat. Since the meaning of
Phraa Uppakrut poses problems, I propose to deal with it in some depth
in the final section of this chapter.

The set of ritual articles important in this rite is called kryang (things)
Phraa Uppakrut. They are: monk's bowl, a set of monk's yellow robes,
umbrella, a pair of monk's sandals, two small images of the Buddha,

karuphan (made of various kinds of flowers), puffed rice, two banana-leaf
trays containing locally made cigarettes, and a kettle. All these articles
were placed on a cushion which rested in the centre of a wooden sedan
chair. The procession actually started from the wat compound and was
led by three monks, who were followed by elderly leaders (phuu thaw)
carrying the sedan chair. Then followed a large body of villagers—men,
women and children. Guns were carried, and music was provided by
a bamboo flute and drums. Conspicuous were the flags with pictures of
Nang Thoranee (goddess of the earth), a mermaid, a crocodile, etc.; these
were, as noted earlier, used in the Bun Kathin rites, to represent Buddha's
victorious battle with Mara. The procession, after passing through the
hamlet, headed for a pond in the paddy fields. The ponds selected must
have water all the year round.

After the usual preliminaries in any Buddhist ceremony—lighting of
candles, offering of candles and flowers to the Buddha, and requesting
of the five precepts—Uppakrut was invited. An elder placed the two small
Buddha images on the cover of the monk's bowl. Another held a dish of
flowers and a candle in his hand (as an offering to Phraa Uppakrut), while
the former chanted the invitation to Uppakrut to come and be guardian
of the ceremony. As he chanted, he threw some puffed rice on to the
sedan chair, again as an offering to Uppakrut. Next the guns were fired
several times, the drums were loudly beaten, and all the people shouted
`chaiyo'. (It was said that the guns were fired to frighten off Praya Mara,
and `chaiyo' was shouted in order to proclaim victory.) After this the
monks chanted `chaiyanto', the victory blessing—this was to bless all
those who had joined the procession. The kettle was then taken by an
elder to the pond and filled with water, and placed on the sedan. The
Buddha images were put in the bowl, and the sedan chair lifted. The
procession returned by a different route, entered the wat by a different
gate, and circumambulated the sala three times in the usual clockwise
direction. The sedan chair was carried into the sala, and the articles
(kryang) were put on a shelf in the corner. All the flags were placed near
the pulpit. The kettle of water was put on a high shelf. (Informants said
that when the entire gnan bun (merit ceremony) was over, the water would
be ceremonially thrown away: `Uppakrut lives in the water; that is why
the water is brought.')

Later in the evening, the monks chanted suad mongkhon and sprinkled holy
water on the congregation, which consisted only of old men and women.

The events of the next two days form one continuous series, but I shall
in the following subsections separate out two major ritual sequences: the
thewada ceremony and the recitation of Mahachad.

In the afternoon of the day following the invitation to Uppakrut, a
sermon concerning Pramalai (Malaya Sutta), was preached by the monks.
Since listening to such sacred texts is considered a highly merit-making
act, a large congregation consisting of men, women and children of all
ages were present. The gist of the sermon is as follows: Pramalai was
a monk who went to hell (narog) to preach to all sinners. His visit and
his preaching helped to alleviate their sins. Then he ascended to the
heavens (sawan)—with sixteen levels—to preach to those who had made
merit. He then came to the world of human beings (log) and told them
what he had seen in heaven and hell.[5] This sermon in a sense appropriately
reflects the three major sequences of the Bun Phraawes festivities—the
inviting of Phraa Uppakrut who lives in the swamp, and of the thewada
who are heavenly beings, followed by the great sermon addressed to
human and supernatural devotees.

The homage to `thewada' (`Bucha Thewada')

On the morning of the third day, at 2.30 a.m., when the village fair was
in full swing, a ceremony was staged in which respects were paid to
the thewada (divine angels). It was village dogma that before the Phraawes
story could be recited (or as a matter of fact any merit ceremony begun),
thewada must be invited to come and be witnesses to the act. What is of
significance here is that in no other ritual are the thewada propitiated in

a special rite and made the sole recipients of offerings. It was said that
if the thewada were invited and worshipped they in turn would make
the villagers `live well and in health' (ju dee mee haeng), that rain would
fall as usual and much rainfall might be expected (fon fah cha dee).

A procession consisting primarily of old men and women (except the
drummers, who were young men) formed at the sala with candles and
flowers in their hands, and bowls containing balls of glutinous rice (which
in theory should number 1,000 to represent the number of gatha of the
Phraawes story). It is in fact called the `procession of 1,000 lumps of rice'.
No monks took part in the procession. It went round the sala three times
in a clockwise direction, and whenever it passed one of the four posts
with a flag at the top and basket at the bottom, rice balls, candles and
flowers were dropped into the baskets. These posts were called han (ran)
bucha, and were said to be khong (things) thewada. The offerings, informants
said, were intended for both thewada and Phraawes, but they were unable
to say why the processions and offerings had to be carried out in this
particular fashion.

The han bucha can perhaps be related to Buddhist symbolism unknown
to the villagers. They appear to resemble the `trees that gratify the desires
of men' (Kalpavriksha). These trees have no likeness to any tree at all,
but are hollow wicker baskets on the ends of long poles. In popular
Buddhism they are said to represent the four trees that will blossom
at the four corners of the city in which the next Buddha, Maitreya, will
be born. They will then produce all kinds of delicious fruits in fabulous
quantities (see Young 1907, p. 243). The money trees that appear in
merit-making rites may also be seen as associated with this symbolism.

Recitation of Mahachad

When the circumambulation was over the participants in the procession
entered the sala, placed the bowls of glutinous rice near the pulpit and
took their seats. The ritual articles associated with merit-making for
Bun Phraawes as such are: miangmak (betel-nut packets), locally made
cigarettes (gawk ya), small flags, candles, joss-sticks; each of these items
must be 1,000 in number. Other items are: sanaam, four pans filled
with water containing fish and turtle, and these represent the four
ponds in the forest in which Phraawes lived in banishment; a bee hive
(in memory of the monkey's offering to Buddha); bunches of coconuts
and bananas.

The main sequences in the recitation of the story were as follows:
after presenting flowers and candles to the Buddhist trinity, and the
request for the five precepts, two elders in turn invited the thewada to

come and listen to the great story (fang tham lam Mahachad). `Chaiyo'
(victory) was shouted three times.

The next sequence was the sermon called Teed Sangkaad, delivered
by a monk. Its delivery has to be requested by a village leader of the
congregation. This invitation, called aratana Sangkaad (which I summarize
as recited in the village), is a recounting of the Buddha's renunciation of
the kingly life and his wife and son, his departure on his best horse, Maa
Keo, one of the seven treasures of the Emperor (Chakravartin), the death
of this horse through sorrow, the Buddha's cutting off of his hair and its
reception in a golden vessel by God Indra, who took it to his heaven
and deposited it at the Phra Choolamani monument.

The theme of the monk's sermon which followed was the well-known
Mara Yuddha (see Chapter 3); the features given prominence were the
tricks resorted to by Mara in order to defile Buddha's state of enlightenment.
Mara sent his three daughters to excite Buddha's sexual passions.
He rejected them, and the girls `finally became old women'. Informants
said that this sermon was an essential prelude to the Mahachad recitation.
Monks took turns in reciting the long text of the Mahachad, and the
recitation, which started early in the morning, did not conclude till 8 p.m.
First a Pali verse was recited; then the audience threw puffed rice at the
Buddha image; then the monks told the story in Thai. People came and
went and the attention to the sermon was not intense (see Plate 3).

At the conclusion of the recitation, villagers brought money trees
(ton ngoen) and presented them to the monks and wat. People came in
procession in groups. Finally a monk made lustral water (nam gatha
phan = water of 1,000 verses) and sprinkled it on all those present.
Villagers took home some of the sacred water to sprinkle on their buffaloes
in order to drive away illness. Thus were concluded the Bun Phraawes
ritual and festivities.

There is a belief associated with the Mahachad recitation that it must
be completed in a day; if not, unfortunate accidents and misfortune will
occur. This is why, we were told, the thewada ceremony had to be staged
in the early hours of the morning, so that the recitation could be started
very early and concluded in the evening.

The themes of the monks' preaching of the Dhamma were renunciation
of the kingly life and family, selfless giving in the Mahachad, rejection of
sexuality and passion in the encounter with Mara's daughters, and the
after-death phenomena of heaven and hell. It could be said that the last
phase of the Bun Phraawes, the sermonizing and recitation of texts,
recounts the great episodes of the Buddha's life: renunciation of secular
glory and comfort, the ardours of the search for the truth, and final

achievement of detachment and salvation. At the same time the paradox
is that these words of renunciation and selflessness (as well as the other
ritual sequences) are viewed by the participants as endowing them with
merit, and ensuring a `good and healthy life' and plentiful rain. Mara,
the enemy of Buddha and man, is held at bay, and the lustral water of
the thousand verses (nam gatha phan) confers health on man and buffalo.
Thus a problem is posed as to the mechanics of the Buddhist ritual—
how the use of sacred words which deal with the virtues of renunciation
transfer to the participants the seemingly opposite benefits of life affirmation.

The activities of the fair

I have thus far concentrated on the Buddhist rituals. I must now
describe the fair briefly in order to give a rounded picture, for Bun Phraawes
combines with merit-making robust fun and sheer entertainment. The
annual temple fair is the chief recreational event in village life and characteristically
Buddhism shows its robustness by combining it with conspicuous
merit-making.

The fair ran for three days and two nights, the nights being the time
of peak activity. Shops—mostly selling food and drink—were set up in
the wat compound. The chief attractions were ramwong (popular dancing),
conducted by a professional orchestra and dance hostesses from a nearby
village; maulam (folk opera), also performed by a visiting professional
troupe; and movies.

The monks, true to their rules of priesthood, avoided the maulam
and ramwong, but did not avoid interest in the movies. They were, however,
mainly involved in ritual merit-making activities in the pavilion with the
Buddha statue. There, the two main activities were: takbart sawan—
laymen put money in the monks' bowls and in turn were sprinkled with
holy water; and pidtong phraa—laymen bought pieces of gold leaf and
daubed them on the Buddha statue. (An additional money-making device
was khai dogmai, in which laymen bought flowers in order to present
them to Buddha.)

Persons of all ages and both sexes attended the fair. Most old persons,
male and female, first engaged in merit-making by contributing money,
then looked at the movies for a while, and then gravitated towards the
folk opera. Adults watched the movies and ramwong and also found the
maulam of absorbing interest; the young men were primarily interested
in the movies and ramwong, while young girls of the village found the
movies and maulam their chief attraction. Children were the most consistent
audience at the movies. No local village girl took part in the
dancing. The fair was an occasion for flirting between the sexes. Some

ritual sequences of Bun Phraawes, which ran parallel with the fair, were
largely ignored by the young people.

A few words about the scale of participation. Bun Phraawes in all the
villages around Baan Phraan Muan is staged with a fair. It therefore
attracts devotees and pleasure-seekers from a number of adjoining villages.
People from at least seven or eight tambon (communes) were present at the
Phraan Muan proceedings: they made merit, contributed money and had
fun. Particular hamlets or groups of villagers from elsewhere often acted as
a merit-making group, each contributing a gift of paddy or a money tree.
Twenty-six monks from other wat took part in the Bun Phraawes proceedings.
It is usual to send out invitations to other wat, and for the
latter to send representatives. The following distribution shows the range
of inter-wat co-operation—15 monks came from 15 wat in the same
tambon in which Baan Phraan Muan is located; 6 monks came from 6 wat in
the adjoining tambon of Mumon; the remaining 5 monks came either from
the same district (Amphur Muang) or from the adjoining districts of Pen
and Pue. The vendors of food and drinks also came from a widespread
area. Of a total of 40-5 vendors only 5 were from the local village; 4 came
from the town of Udorn and the rest from at least 8 adjoining tambon.

These facts, I think, establish the nature of festive Buddhism as a supra-local
religion. It is true that it is local people who primarily patronize
a village wat; but merit-making is a society-wide ethic and such prominent
merit-making occasions as a gnan wat attract many others who see participation
in them as a chance of acquiring greater merit than usual. Just as
outsiders attend grand merit-making rites at Baan Phraan Muan, so do
residents of the latter participate in the wat festivals of other villages.
By contrast, the cult of the village guardian spirit (Tapubaan) is of an
essentially local character, being bound up with a settlement (baan) and
its land and people. All the villages around Phraan Muan propitiate the
same village guardians; the cult is widespread but no outside villager
needs to propitiate the guardian of another village. But traditionally the
villages in the region combined to propitiate a common swamp spirit
which expressed a regional identity and interest. (The guardian spirit
cults will be described in a later chapter.)

INTERPRETATION: WHO IS UPPAKRUT?

In this final section I examine the symbolism of Uppakrut in terms both
of the limited context of village behaviour and of the links between locally
observed symbols and those of the grand Buddhist (and Hindu) historical
traditions.

Who is Phraa Uppakrut? What is his role in these Bun Phraawes
festivities? This is indeed an intriguing question and I do not know
whether I can provide an answer. I will report in detail the points of view
expressed by village informants. First some references found in the literature:
according to Harry Shorto (personal communication), the Upagupta
legend and cult has a fairly long history. Upagupta was the subject of
a local Indian cult centred in Mathura. There are literary Canonical
texts which refer to him (e.g. Asvaghosa's Sutralamkara (extant in Chinese);
Divyavadana, and Lokapannatti). I have not been able to consult these
Indian texts but Shorto says the striking point expressed in them is that
Upagupta converted Mara, Budha's enemy, to Buddhism and is called
alaksonako Buddo (probably `the crypto Buddha'). However, Duroiselle
(1904) gives a translation of the legend found in a Burmese Pali version
of the Lokapannatti which makes the same assertions and is similar to
the Thai legend reported by Wells. Wells (1960, p. 113) states, in regard
to the Loi Kratong festival (festival of lights) in Thailand, that one of the
popular explanations advanced for it is that `King Asoka once decided
to build 84,000 cetiyas but Mara threatened to destroy them. The king
appealed to the Lord of the Nagas, Phraa Upagota, to help him by capturing
Mara. This the Naga Lord did, and since then the people have shown their
gratitude to the Naga by this river festival.' The Loi Kratong festival is
not celebrated in Baan Phraan Muan; but Upagota (Uppakrut) appears
in the Bun Phraawes festivities.

The villagers were by no means agreed as to who Uppakrut was, and
it is precisely because he represents several ideas that he is especially
interesting.

1. Two elderly informants, one of whom was very learned in ritual
matters, gave roughly the same version. Phraa Uppakrut was a novice
who lived in the water of the swamp (in a subterranean town). He was
the son of Buddha and his mother was a mermaid. It is said that once the
Buddha forced his semen (beng nam asuchi = forced out impure water)
into the water and a mermaid swallowed it, became pregnant and gave birth
to Uppakrut. He was subsequently ordained as a novice (or monk) and
lives in the water, for he is a mermaid's son.

One of the elders who advanced this story said on further questioning
that Phraa Uppakrut has great supernatural power (rit ah-noo-phab), more
power and authority than monks who have attained the highest level of
religious merit (phraa arahan) (arahat). Whenever a big ceremony is
undertaken, he must be invited to ward off dangers caused by Praya Marn,
a giant (Mara the demon king, Buddha's enemy and signifying death).
He finally explained Uppakrut's power to subjugate Mara in this way:

`When we make merit, we invite Phraa Uppakrut to come so that he
will prevent fighting and killing and damage by fire.' Uppakrut is not
invited for any other village ceremony or collective wat rites.

It is important to note that all informants, whatever original story of
Uppakrut they give, are consistently agreed that Uppakrut is the enemy
of Mara and is invited to the Bun Phraawes in order to safeguard the
proceedings, to prevent participants from fighting or killing one another,
and to bless them in order that they may live long and in good health
(ju dee mee haeng). His absence will enable Mara to sow disaster.

2. The second version collected from laymen said that Uppakrut is
a Naga or serpent spirit. This Naga lives in the water; at the same time,
water is Uppakrut. He is invited to guard the proceedings; if he is not,
then murder, storm and lightning will occur through the acts of Mara.

3. As might be expected, the monkish version is different. A monk of
wat Phraan Muan said: about 236 years after the death of Lord Buddha,
King Asoka called together a meeting of 1,000 monks in order to eliminate
doctrinal differences. It was the third meeting of this sort since Lord
Buddha's death. The monks assembled but someone was sorely needed
to preside. There was in the gathering a novice, ordained while the Buddha
was alive, and greatly respected, but he declined to be the head. Instead
he went and invited Phraa Uppakrut to preside; he was in the water
meditating.

While Uppakrut was on his way to the meeting he was met by King
Pasenathikosol, who, seeing that he was a thin man, decided to test his
strength. An elephant was let loose to attack Uppakrut but he vanquished
it; he then successfully presided over the meeting, eliminating
controversies in respect of the Dhamma and contributing to the success of
Buddhism.[6]

The following structural elements can be discerned in the three stories.

In the first story Buddha (human being with spiritual power) is possed
to a creature of the water (nature), and from their union springs a novice
who resides in the water, thus combining both elements. Tentatively, we

may postulate that this story represents the taming of the spirit of the
natural element (water) and its conversion into a Buddhist agent (novice).

In the second story human beings and their solidarity (society) are
opposed to their mortal adversary Mara, embodiment of passion, death
and malevolence (chaos). The Naga as nature's powerful agent allies
himself with humans to protect them.

In the third story, the latter half poses the opposition between religious
or spiritual power (thin ascetic) and royal power (symbolized in the
elephant, symbol of royalty). Uppakrut as monk is superior to temporal
power, and also defends Buddhism by reconciling theological differences
in the Sangha.

Now to go back to the ethnography. The rite of the `invitation' of
Uppakrut at the swamp consists of words chanted by a village elder
combined with the act of manipulating ritual objects. I shall just deal
with the words.

The invitation begins with the Buddhist Pali verse repeated three
times: `Namo tassa bhagavato arahato samma sambuddhassa.'

There is then a shift to the local Lao language and I give a free translation
into English of the words said:

The words thus begin with a Pali formula used in all rituals in which
monks participate. They make it crystal clear that Uppakrut is an opponent
and subduer of Mara, the archetype enemy of the Buddha. We also

note that, together with Uppakrut, the denizen of the water, are invoked
the cosmological and planetary entities to lend their power to the great
battle and also to participate in the worship at the wat, where the supreme
deeds of the Buddha as a world renouncer will be recounted. The monks
come into the picture only after the invitation is completed by lay elders,
to chant in ringing tones the victory blessing.

If we now examine the rite in toto, concentration on the non-verbal
acts and manipulation of objects, we are able to perceive a slightly different
emphasis in the proceedings.

We have seen that some of the ritual articles carried were conspicuous
symbols of monkhood—the begging bowl, sandals and robes. What was
interpreted as `invitation' by the villagers seems to me the taming and
conversion of the Naga or spirit of the water to Buddhism. Note that the
Buddha images were shown to Uppakrut, that he was then coaxed with
puffed rice to come on to the sedan. Finally the kettle of water is carried
to the sala. Cries of victory and the monks' victory blessing express the
success of the encounter. Thus the ritual successfully recruits the power
of the Naga to protect human society and Buddhism, and it enacts the
two phases: submission (invitation) and then protection.

There is, however, another dimension of meaning. Uppakrut lives in
the never-drying pond. As mermaid's son, or as Naga, he represents water.
In the villagers' statements continual references are made to rain, long
life, good health and absence of conflict. The preoccupation with rain is
real and this agricultural interest is reflected, I think, in the Bun Phraawes
rites.

Good grounds for my linking Uppakrut with rain appear in the ethnographic
facts pertaining strictly to the village as a contextual field. The
villagers of Baan Phraan Muan have a cult of the village guardian spirit
(Tapubaan); he is the `owner' of the village and acts as a communal
guardian and disciplinarian: he has a counterpart who is the guardian of
the wat (Chao Phau Pha Khaw); both are on the one hand distinguished
and on the other fused in a common shrine. Uppakrut then takes over
their roles at Bun Phraawes; he is incorporated into Buddhism, while the
two guardians in their non-Buddhist aspect remain intact. Buddhism
cannot entirely secure their submission or, to put it differently, the
submission of natural forces in the service of man and religion. The
village and wat guardians are again, as an entity, differentiated from the
owner and spirit of the swamp, who is propitiated for rain at the same
time as the former are propitiated separately for village security and
prosperity. Uppakrut in Bun Phraawes takes on the aspect of rain spirit
and thus is brought under the aegis of Buddhism; but the swamp spirit

also preserves his separate identity and autonomy. Thus I see in the
Uppakrut rite the universalizing aspects of Buddhism, its attempt to bring
nature under man's metaphysical control; but its comprehensiveness must
remain partial, for man's control over nature is always incomplete.

Now to turn to a level of ritual symbolism which poses problems for
the anthropologist if he tries to shift from his immediate ethnographic
context and the conscious thought processes of his subjects to the realm
of historical traditions and mythology on the grand civilizational scale.

Villagers identify Uppakrut with the Naga, with water and rain, with
protection against the machinations of Mara as an antisocial agent. The
villagers are also familiar with fragments or `distorted' versions or reinterpretations
of mythology several centuries old. While not imputing
these cognitive associations to the villagers, I want briefly to indicate the
wider implications of the Naga symbolism.

To begin at the village level and then to move away: as indicated in
Chapter 7 before, the Thai word for a man in his transitional status
just before ordination as a monk is nag (Naga), and in that chapter I
interpreted the symbolism implied. I also described the ceremony for
honouring a monk, in which the nag in the form of a wooden serpent
appears as a conspicuous ritual object, namely the vehicle for bathing the
monk with water, and uniting in its person the dual themes of animal
sexuality and potency transformed into the energies of asceticism and
of faithful benevolent service to the Buddhist faith.

A brief consideration of the Naga in Hindu and Buddhist literature
helps to illuminate the symbolism of Uppakrut in our village ceremony.
In Hindu symbolism, the Naga and the Garuda, the serpent and the eagle,
are opposed as eternal enemies, and this opposition is finally resolved
in the attributes of Vishnu. The spiritual antagonism between them is
symbolized in terms of natural elements: the serpent represents the earthly
waters, it is a subterranean creature, it is the eternal life force; the eagle
is the sun principle, it is free from the bondage of matter and represents
the higher spiritual principle of the infinity of heaven (Zimmer 1946, Ch. 3).
In Buddhism the Naga has an important role as pious devotee and as
representing animality. It is said that all the creatures of nature, together
with the gods, rejoiced upon the birth of the Buddha and guarded his
progress towards enlightenment. A telling illustration referred to earlier[11]
is the story of the cobra Muchalinda who protectively enveloped the
Buddha seven times and spread out his hood as an umbrella over his
blessed head to protect him from a storm as he sat, absorbed in his bliss,

under the bodhi (bo) tree. An important function of the Nagas is that of
door guardian, in their proper attitude of pious devotion. Geiger writes
that the Nagas `are always adherents and worshippers of the Buddha.
The Bodhi tree, when it was brought to Ceylon, was protected by them,
and they wished to get it for themselves . . . In their possession were the
sacred relics of the Master which afterwards were deposited in the great
Thupa at Anuradhapura' (1960, p. 166).

Alabaster (1871), who deals with Thai sources, not only refers to the
Muchalinda legend, which is frequently depicted in Thai temples, but
also adds that `In the "Life of Buddha" we read of the Naga King Kala,
who wakes only when a new Buddha is about to illumine the earth, and
who, having arisen from his subterranean abode, honours the Buddha
with innumerable songs of praise and then returns to sleep' (pp. 300-1).

The serpent also is the symbolic vehicle representing Buddha's conquest
over life. (The Naga symbol as representing Buddha's conquest over
craving is known to the villagers.) As Zimmer (1946, p. 68) comments:

I may add that the Naga was the symbol of Konagamana, a Buddha who
preceded the historical Gotama Buddha.

To return to the village temples of Thailand: while the bood and sala
in Baan Phraan Muan are singularly meagre in architectural elaboration
and decoration, a vast number of them, in both villages and towns, have
balustrades in the form of long Nagas (i.e. the temple rests on the serpent),
and gable ends in the form of Nagas with their heads as eaves, or alternatively
with hang hong or `swan's tail' (actually tail of hamsa, the gander or
wild goose). The hamsa in Hindu symbolism represents the twofold
nature of all beings—it is at ease in both the upper celestial and the lower
earthly spheres and not bound to either, a perfect symbol for expressing
the Hindu ideas of maya and atman and the Buddhistic idea of salvation
through conquest of our human condition.

The better known duality in Hindu and Buddhist (especially Mahayana)
mythology and sculpture (and art in general) is the opposition between
the Garuda (the mythical sky bird) and the Naga (water-serpent), enemies
but also reconciled and united in God Vishnu who rides on the Garuda
(his vehicle or vahana) and also rests on the Naga (sesha) of the ocean.

It is unnecessary to document the importance of these symbols in Southeast
Asian art: Khmer architecture, for instance, never tired of the drama
between the Garuda and the Naga and represented it in various ways
(e.g. see Lawrence Briggs 1951).

It has been argued by some writers (see Waddell 1912/13) that the
fierce brahmanical sun bird was transformed by Buddhism to the golden
peacock and the milder golden goose of the Asokan pillars, and of the
Burmese and Thai temples. Nevertheless, the Garuda persists as an
important symbol in these Buddhist countries, perhaps most importantly
in Cambodia, which went through various religious phases.

In some astrological charts currently used in Phraan Muan village the
krut (Garuda) is opposed to nag. Perhaps it is not accidental that popular
tradition transformed the name Upagotha to Uppakrut, thereby making
the serpent of the water share the name of the mythical sky bird and
reconciling both in the service of Buddhism.

The problem of interpreting the symbolic significance and role of
Uppakrut has taken us on a long and devious journey. There are complex
levels of communication between village tradition and the grand tradition,
a complexity at least showing, rather than a separateness between them,
a mutual reinforcement and illumination. The anthropological perspective
as it focuses on contemporary village behaviour and traditions demonstrates
more than this: the contextualization of literary and artistic themes and
forms of a grand past may be in a humbler form, but importantly not as
a dead past but as a living reality; one also sees the elaboration and
expansion of meaning of these themes as they are closely woven into the
texture of contemporary social life and interests. In this way the anthropological
present gives flesh to the historical past while at the same time
the past persists in the present.

Uppakrut, his legends and rites, are known in Burma, Thailand's
neighbour. In the appendix to this chapter I review the Burmese data
and interpret them, and show that the features demonstrated for the
Thai case are reflected in Burma as well.

The symbolism of the Naga in Thai religion is not exhausted yet; we
shall encounter the Naga again in a later chapter, not as a servant of
Buddhism but as an agent in its own right. It is only after seeing these
more general contrasts that we may better grasp the many facets and the
internal structure of the religious kaleidoscope.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 10

UPAGOTHA FROM BURMESE SOURCES

Upagotha appears in Burmese legend and ritual, and it is therefore
intriguing to examine the Burmese data in order to find out whether, and
to what degree, the structural conclusions derived from Thai data are
confirmed in them.

Maung King gives a legend which is quite obviously a more elaborate
version of one of those related in our Thai village. According to this
legend, Maccadevi (The Fish Princess) was found in the stomach of
a fish and she preserved its odour, which got stronger as she grew older.
She was therefore placed on a raft and left to drift with the current of the
river. The rsi Upa prayed to her to receive him on the raft so that he
could cross from one bank of the river to the other. Upagupta (Upagotha)
was born to Maccadevi as the result of this encounter with the rsi (Duroiselle
1904). (One is immediately reminded of the legend of the birth of
Vyasa, the son of the rsi Paracara and the boatwoman Satyavati in the
Mahabharata I, 63.)

The encounter between Upagupta and Mara appears to be the most
frequently known legend in the Buddhist literature; for example the
Jinatthapakasani, the Burmese history of the life of the Buddha, gives
a story of the encounter. The oldest Burmese source is the Pali text
Lokapannatti, which is discussed by Duroiselle (1904): in this version
Upagupta struggles against Mara to protect the acts of piety of Asoka,
which are disturbed by Mara, and converts him to Buddhism (a story that
is close to the Thai version cited by Wells and to the monkish version
recited to me in the Thai village). The Lokapannatti legend is long, has
many colourful incidents, and deserves an intricate analysis in its own
right. Incidentally, our protagonist in this text is called Kisanaga Upagutta:
the appearance of Naga in his name is important and lends weight to my
interpretation.

Let me now allude to some other Burmese sources. Shway Yoe (1896)
describes Shin Oopagoh as a universally honoured payah-nge, a lesser
divinity, who lives down at the bottom of the river in a brazen spire
where he zealously keeps the sacred days. In pictures he is represented as
sitting under his brazen roof, or on the stump of a tree, eating out of an
alms-bowl which he carries in his arms. Sometimes he is depicted gazing
sideways up to the skies, where he seeks a place not polluted by corpses.

Grant Brown (1908, 1921) confirms this legend. Shin Upagok, one of
Buddha's disciples, born after the Buddha's death, lives in a many-roofed

pavilion surrounded by water, and anyone wishing to invoke his aid had
to send him a message in a golden bowl, which floated to its destination.

Both authors refer to a story that explains why Upagotha is compelled
to remain naked in the water: it is a punishment for having, while a boy
in a previous existence, run off with the clothes of another boy with
whom he was bathing, so that his companion, being modest, had to remain
in water up to his waist till Upagotha relented and returned the clothes.
It is perhaps plausible to comment that his nakedness is consistent with
his character as the god of water; also that while his companion was only
temporarily half-naked (half-immersed), Upagotha is fully and permanently
immersed.

Local Burmese legend and ritual clearly associate Upagok with Buddhism,
as seen from these additional facts. Yoe reports that Upagok is condemned
to remain in his watery abode until the arrival of Aramadehya (Maitreya),
the next Buddha, when he will be set free; upon entering the Khenga[12]
(Sangha) he will become a yahanda (someone who has entered the path
of salvation) and attain Nehbau[13] (nirvana). One notes that just as the Thai
imagine him to be a novice, so do the Burmese represent him as a disciple
not fully ordained, that is, he is not fully incorporated into the Buddhist
quest. He is, however, destined to be a future Buddha. Furthermore, it
would appear that statues of Upagotha (fully clothed) are found in Burmese
pagodas; they are represented as doing homage to the Buddha images.

I have already reported in the text Shorto's information that Upagotha
has a literary history in Indian Canonical lore which states that he converted
Mara to Buddhism and is called alaksanako Buddho (`the crypto-Buddha').
The feature of Upagok holding an alms-bowl in his hands and the recommendation
to a supplicant that he should float a bowl to him on the
water reminds me of the following Buddha legend. After the night of
the last watch before his final effort to reach salvation, the maiden
Suchada brought him savoury rice in a golden bowl. Having finished his
meal, the Buddha floated the bowl upstream, and having travelled 80
cubits, the bowl sank into the realms of Kala, the Naga King, and it
clashed loudly against the bowls which had been similarly set afloat by
former Buddhas and placed itself beneath them. The Naga, hearing the
noise, awoke, made offerings and sang songs of praise. I interpret this
marvellous legend as Buddha's final leap from animality into liberation:
the bowl, the symbol of mendicancy, is left to the safekeeping of the
Naga, and the Buddha goes forward to his final meditation under the
bo tree, which brings him to nirvana.

The Burmese legends thus appear to convey two features about Upagotha

which are also stated in the Thai legends: that he is a creature of the water
who brings rain, and that at the same time he is a benevolent Buddhist
agent who is the enemy of Mara. These features, I would claim, are also
the properties of the Naga: animality tamed and made subservient to the
Buddhist cause.

There remains a puzzle to solve about the rituals associated with
Upagotha that are practised primarily in Lower Burma. It concerns the
timing of the ritual, sometimes coming before and sometimes after the rains.

Grant Brown relates one type of rain-making ritual: when there is
a break in the rains which endangers the crops, or when the monsoon
is late in coming, the Burmese resort to rain-producing rituals, one of
which is to take the Upagotha image from the pagoda and put it out in
the broiling sun. The logic of this is, it appears to me, that Upagotha
as a water creature is `opposed' to the sun (he is pictured as looking up
at the sun), and through this confrontation of the two rain is produced
by the union of opposites and falls from the sky.

A second type of ceremony, however, is the more usual and elaborate.
Shway Yoe describes it as happening at the end of Lent (i.e. at the end
of the rains); Shorto (personal communication) witnessed the same rites
at the end of harvest and the beginning of the agricultural close season.
This is the well-known festival of setting adrift little oil lamps fastened
to floats of bamboo or plantain stem—called in Thailand Loi Kratong
and in Burma Yay-hpoung hmyaw thee. In Burma, at about the same
time, houseboats or rafts with partitions constructed on them and sometimes
containing images of Upagotha are launched, heaped with gifts and
offerings. People who come upon them make further offerings and send
them on their way.

The question here is why, if Upagotha is a rain god, are these rafts
launched after the rains?

The answer, I venture, is that as a rain god he can appear in two different
kinds of ritual, before and after the rains. When rainfall is scarce he is
induced to make rain by being taken out of his watery abode and exposed
to the sun. On the other hand, at the end of the normal agricultural
season, when rains have fallen, or more extremely, when there is too much
rain, it is appropriate that thanks offerings are made to him and he is
sent on his way back to his watery element. We are told that `in order
to stop the rain and restore good weather it is sufficient to take a statue
of Upagupta and plunge its head in the water while setting out some
offerings in his honour' (Duroiselle 1904).

In the Thai village of Phraan Muan the invitation to Upagotha takes place
at the post-harvest festival and his role there has been explained in the text.