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`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.)