315th
Meeting - Tuesday, September 8th 2009
Magic
and Modernity
in Southern Thailand:
Reconfigurations of a
multi-religious Performance and Art Genre
A talk by Alexander
Horstmann
Present: Suriya
Smutkupt, Siripan and Tony Kidd, Manfred Liebig, Bob Vryheid, Jonathan
and
Beryl McKeown, Rosalie and Michael Dean, Nichola Davis, Martha and John
Butt,
Carol Grodzins, Bonnie Brereton, Daniel Bellamy, Hans and Sangdao
Bänziger,
David James, Monek Hut, Megan McArton.
An audience of 20
The full text of
Alexander’s talk
Taming
the Gods in the Manooraa Rongkruu Performance: The Post-modernization
of
Spirit Beliefs in Southern Thailand by Alexander Horstmann Chapter for the book Southeast
Asia’s
Spirited Modernities by Kirsten Endres and Andrea Lauser
Introduction
In
Ban Dhammakhot, a Manooraa Rongkruu
performance is underway. Designated family members holding lighted
candles,
possessed by deities, dance like professional dancers on the stage
under the
guidance of the bird-winged Manooraa
dancers who invoke the ancestor spirits by singing Manooraa
verses and by arousing the goodwill of the ancestor spirits.
In certain parts of Southern Thailand, on the east coast, bordering Lake Songkhla,
the Manooraa Rongkruu enjoys great
popularity.
Manooraa Rongkruu is an example how art creates a space that
reaches
from the world of the living to the realm of the dead. The essence of
this
possession ritual lies in the performance of designated spirit-mediums
or even
members of the community who become possessed by ancestral spirits.
This allows
the living to remember loved ones they have lost, talk to the dead, and
recollect memories in communitas. The liminal beings are invited and
entertained
with dance and dramatic performances. (Parichat 2006; Phittaya 1992,
2003; Thienchai
1999)
It
is not uncommon in the Lake
Songkhla
area to observe
a multi-religious ritual, in which spirit possession blends with
Theravada
Buddhism or Islam (Horstmann 2004, 2008). Like other rituals, in which
the
benevolent ancestor spirits are venerated, there is a reciprocal
relationship
between the living and the dead. The benevolent ancestor spirits
protect the
living and provide fertility, fortune and good health, while the living
reciprocate by giving a sacrifice. The Manooraa
Rongkruu is a unique institution in which it is possible to
communicate
with the benevolent ancestor spirits and ask them for advice. The
performance of
a Manooraa Rongkruu gives high veneration
to the grand ancestors and generates merit for the host. The aim of
this
chapter is to show the reconfiguration of the Manooraa
Rongkruu performance as a religious expression to respond
creatively to the conditions of late modernity in Southern
Thailand.
Thai
popular religion
The
picture of religion in Thailand
today is characterized by a contradictory move: While conventional
Theravada
Buddhism seems to have lost much appeal with the younger generation,
Buddhism
is also being revived in new forms. The worship of Buddhist saints, the
booming
cult of Buddhist amulets, and the presence of magic monks show that
Buddhism is
far from being replaced by secularization (Jackson 1999b; Pattana 2002;
Taylor
1999). The expansion of the capitalist market economy in Thailand
has resulted in a deeply
polarized society and in a widening gap between the poor and the very
rich.
Religious forms are no essential phenomena, but have reacted with
flexibility
to the conditions of dislocation, rapid social change and social
uncertainty
and developed niches in the religious market and religious forms,
catering to
the poor, the lower middle class and also to the very wealthy. (Guelden
1997/2007; Morris 2000).
Buddhism
is also fragmented: Taylor argues that
it has
been commodified (Taylor
1999). In Bangkok,
for example, some of the temples have become like shopping-centers in
which
wealthy patrons donate lavishly to the Sangha for Kathin or funeral
ceremonies.
Buddhism becomes also revitalized in new Buddhist movements where it
appeals
closer to the aspirations of the middle classes: While the capitalist
economy
and the growing nation-state weakened ancestral traditions and
traditional
authority in the village, the same forces propelled the dramatic
expansion,
presence and visibility of spirit mediums in urban areas. (Pattana
2005b;
Morris 2000; Tanabe 2002). These urban spirit-mediums coexist and
hybridize
with revitalized and fragmented Theravada Buddhism. In the
“parade” of deities,
Lord Buddha is regarded as the most respected spirit by spirit mediums
(Pattana
2005a).
Recent
research shows that spirit mediums enjoy huge popularity in
contemporary Thailand
(Pattana
2002). It is the thesis of this chapter that the growth in spirit
mediums is a
reflection of social, political and economic changes in Thailand
and
that religious practices of participation in spirit cults respond
creatively to
the social transformation of everyday life. The phenomenon is spread
throughout
the country. First studies emerged in the South of Thailand (Cohen
2001, Golomb
1978, 1985; Guelden 1995/2007, 2005). Regional differences in
mediumship
reflect the ethnic and religious composition and cultural diversity of
the
South. The manifestations of mediumship include Thai Buddhist, Malay
Muslim and
Chinese mediums which are being possessed by different classes of
spirits. The
issues brought to mediums concern adultery, financial problems, and
various
ailments that might be caused by black magic. Despite the existence of
numerous
clinics and hospitals in the South, healing of physical ailments,
including
chronic health problems, are still a major issue brought to mediums in
parallel
to mental problems (Golomb 1985). Such ailments are also the triggers
that urge
people to host a Manooraa Rongkruu
performance.
Theoretical
Developments
Bruce
Knauft’s idea of an ‘articulatory’ space of the
alternatively modern seems to
be particularly apt to describe this adaptation of the local script to
global
economies (see Knauft 2002). Knauft suggests that alternative
modernities “happen”
in a “multivocal arena” that is delimited and framed by
local cultural and
subjective dispositions on one side, and by global political economies
(and
their possibilities and limitations) on the other. This perspective has
also
been used by scholars of Thai religion.
J. L. Taylor is
among the first scholars to
speak about the hybridization of Thai Buddhism (Taylor 1999).
Hybridization
means a temporal moment and site of contestation for spiritual meanings
and
relevance. Taylor
argues that the rise of the neo-Buddhist movement Thammakai is a
response to
the wider forces of globalization that have profound ramifications for
Thai
social life. Besides hybridity, the postmodernist lens has been used by
scholars
to refer to current developments in Thai religion that already seem to
have
passed the modern stage. Peter Jackson argues that “the modern
phase in Thai
religion refers to following a path of doctrinal rationalization
accompanied by
organizational centralization and bureaucratization whereas the
postmodern one
is characterized by a resurgence of supernaturalism and an
efflorescence of
religious expression at the margins of state control, involving a
decentralization and localization of religious authority.” In
other words,
religion can become a commodity, political ideology, marker of
identity,
marketing machine or object of worship (Jackson
1999a).
In Manooraa Rongkruu
performances the
actors and dancers – using local semiotics – show the local
meaning of what it
means to be modern. The Manooraa Rongkruu
engages playfully with modernity and integrates modern techniques and
commodities in their performance – using modern keyboards,
microphones,
integrating the vastly popular country song art genre Luuk
Tung, TV soap operas (lakhon),
comments on sexuality, and jokes on politics. The Manooraa
troupe becomes an economic enterprise that advertizes its
services. The Manooraa troupe of
Sompong from Ban Takae, for example, owns a fleet of five trucks packed
with
props for the stage, costumes and crowns. The female Nai
Noora in Tamot who organizes a Manooraa dance
school also operates a modern video-game hall to
make a living. In many ways, the local art form Manooraa
represents Knauft’s ‘articulatory’ space in which
local
belief and cosmology articulates with global culture and where
customary
production and exchange meets capitalism. The Manooraa
performer today has to balance traditional beliefs, values
and obligations and modern needs, aspirations and expectations. He is a
“shaman” and modern entertainer.
The
Thai in Perak, Malaysia,
distinguish themselves from the Manooraa
in Southern Thailand by insisting on
the
authenticity of their form of the performance. While there are few
Manooraa
troupes left in Northern Malaysia, they claim that the Manooraa
Rongkruu in Southern Thailand
is corrupted or “Westernized”. Their claim to authenticity
is just another engagement
and articulation with modernity.
What
is Manooraa?
The Manooraa Rongkruu is a
performance
genre in which the ancestor spirits are entertained by music and dance
and
invited to come down to communicate with the living. The ancestor
spirits are
elevated to the status of teachers and healers. By singing the Manooraa verses, the Manooraa master and
medium is able to
mobilize the power of healing and knowledge kruumor
and to transmit it to the designated mediums which become possessed by
the
spirits of the great Manooraa
teachers. The Manooraa Rongkruu
illustrates the vitality of popular religion and the spirit world, in
tandem
with the fragmentation of Theravada Buddhism and Islamic revivalisms in
Southern Thailand
(see Horstmann 2004). While other
authors talk about the end of ritual and the weakening of ancestral
tradition,
the Manooraa Rongkruu is very much
alive and the schedules of the Manooraa
troupes are fully booked. The public spectacles in Takae and Takura
attract
thousands of worshippers.
In
the Manooraa Rongkruu ceremony, social
relations between the family members can be renewed and refreshed. In
the Rong, the power and knowledge of the world
is present in a particularly condensed form. The offerings carry the
soul of
the ancestors with them. They express something which cannot be
expressed with
words. The Nairong Manooraa is a sort
of shaman who uses his
privileged access to the spirit world to invoke the great ancestor
spirits and
to make them benevolent: Those who hold a Manooraa
Rongkruu ceremony will be rewarded. The meeting of the ancestor
spirits and
the living is a precious moment in which it is possible for the host
family to
ask for advice about their financial woes and physical ailments
(Thienchai
1999).
For
three days the Manooraa master prays,
sings, dances, and acts out a dance-drama, while directing the ritual
sequences
invoking the ancestral spirits to descend from their heavenly realm to
enter
the trance mediums. The Manooraa
benefits from a common knowledge in the genealogy of the Manooraa
as well as a wide common sense that everybody in Southern
Thailand is a descendant of the first Manooraa
teachers. The belief in the power/position
of the ancestors is widely shared (Gesick 1995). Hence, people believe
on a
meta-physical level that the Manooraa
is able to deliver health and well-being. Scholarly analysis of the Manooraa has emphasized the cosmological
function through which the Manooraa
is embedded in village culture. Thus, the main experts of the Manooraa have underlined the continuity
of a tradition that is deeply embedded within the minds of the
villagers
(Thienchai 1999; Phittaya 1992, 2003).
People
in Southern Thailand feel they are
part of an
imagined community, as they are all considered descendents of the first
Manooraa teachers. People and houses
and
sometimes whole villages are considered of Manooraa
descent (trakun Manooraa). People are trakun
Manooraa because their
ancestors were. Affiliation with the Manooraa
is thus transferred from parents to their children (Gesick 1995: 67).
There
are many versions of the origin myth of Manooraa
(Ginsburg 1972). Some scholars believe that Manooraa
is derived from the Suthon-Manohra, a
jataka tale from one of the many previous lives of Gautama Buddha. Some
feel
that this story has given birth to the ritual dance-drama and that the
tale’s
major character, Manooraa, has developed
into the cross-gendered shaman and winged dancer. Others believe in
their local
version of Manooraa myth, which
usually concerns a story of a young aristocratic lady who became
pregnant out
of wedlock and was driven away from her homeland. This lady gave birth
to a son
to whom the art of Manooraa was passed.
The
term Manooraa is used to designate
both a dancer of the genre as well as the art form itself. In cultural
festivals such as temple fairs, a Manooraa
performer may dance, sing, improvise comic stories, or perform skits
with other Manooraa dancers. But as a ritual act
in a specific social context such as in a grand ceremony for ancestral
worship - Manooraa rong khru chao ban
(ancestral
trance Manooraa ritual for the villagers) - Manooraa
serves a very serious function, since the ritual brings the living in
contact
with the ancestral spirits. In the grand Manooraa
Rongkruu ritual, the aesthetical dimension cannot be distinguished
from the
ritual function as the great Manooraa
teachers receive their knowledge from the gods and the body becomes a
divine entity
during dance performance.
Manooraa Rongkruu literally means Manooraa-Stage-Teacher: The
ancestors
are elevated to the highest position of deities and teachers who
transfer their
knowledge to the living and who enter the stage from heaven. Typical
occasions
for this type of Manooraa ritual
include social or family functions, conflict within the family,
miraculous
healing of an illness, or a vow fulfillment ceremony. The ancestors
help the
living in life crises here and now. The dances performed by the
possessed
spirit mediums are also called vow-dances (Hemmet 1992: 276).
State
of the Art
The
study of the Manooraa Rongkruu is
characterized by a folkloric
and ideal perspective on its cosmological aspects. The perspective
which I want
to call folkloric does not consider the rapid transformation of the Manooraa Rongkruu and its reflexive
response to the conditions of modernity. Its focus on the ritual frame
presents
a picture of an unchanging ritual. This perspective is a-historical
because it
ignores the adjustments that the ritual has made in relation to the
external
forces that impinge on the lives of the people in Southern
Thailand. This static approach has to do with the
motivation of
the researcher to provide an authentic picture of the ritual, regarding
new
elements of the Manooraa as
unauthentic or corrupt. Unfortunately, the perpetuation of the
traditional
image of the Manooraa is not helpful
for finding out the modern articulation of the Manooraa.
The
revitalization of the Manooraa cannot
be explained away simply as a continuity of communitas, rather we need
a more
dynamic perspective that can explain new forms and functions as well as
the
breaks and ruptures. The Manooraa
Rongkruu has always responded to the specific conditions of the
time and
has accommodated the specific interests and power constellations of
specific
local settings through history. Second, I think that previous studies
have completely
ignored the question of class. Thus, they have portrayed the Manooraa Rongkruu as an essentially rural
tranquil ritual that reflects the values of the people in the South.
The Manooraa Rongkruu of today, the boundary
of the rural and urban is withering away and merit-making and religious
practice in Thailand
has a
fundamental class dimension (Bowie
1998).
The Manooraa Rongkruu is
increasingly
used to repair the ruptures, fragmentation, insecurity and anxieties
that are
caused by the entanglement of the villagers and people in urban areas
(migrating
from the rural areas) in the capitalist market forces and the potential
threat
to the social security and the livelihood, including health. The Manooraa is appropriated by different actors
by using the beliefs in its huge power to serve social, economic and
political
interests.
The
Current State of the Manooraa in Southern
Thailand
The
host and the Manooraa artists
carefully follow the script: The conventions (costume, movement,
offerings) of
the Manooraa are not changed and the
offerings are the same as hundred years ago. The Manooraa
Rongkruu is fundamentally an exchange between the living
and the spirits. On the other hand, the Manooraa
hybridizes with modernity in a way that allows the mobile middle class
to
express its aspirations of fortune, wealth and success. The performance
of a Manooraa Rongkruu is being used to
establish one’s benefactor status in society or it is being used
to exhibit
one’s power and prestige. By far the most encompassing meaning of
the Manooraa Rongkruu is healing. In modern
times, the Manooraa Rongkruu is one
of the most efficient and powerful remedies for modern illness:
depression, nervous
breakdowns, disputes or clashes within the family, personal crises. In
this, the Manooraa Rongkruu keeps the
traditional function: It is essentially a vow ritual. But the therapy
concerns
the maladjustment to modern times.
Thienchai,
in my opinion, makes a mistake when he distinguishes the traditional Manooraa Rongkruu from the public spectacle
in Takae. The performance in Takae keeps the form of the Manooraa
Rongkruu, but it is a much bigger event. But the basic
meaning of the performance in Takae is similar to the traditional
performance
in the village: The performance in Takae is a prosperity ritual: The
sponsors
and participants hope to excel in business: if the powerful ancestor
spirits
come down and are prepared to consult with the living, and if the host
has been
generous, he will be reimbursed with fortune, health and incredible
wealth. The
difference is that the traditional ritual remains limited to the
kinship group,
while the events in Takae equal a pilgrimage. The travel and
participation in
Takae is a sacred journey that is regularly undertaken by some
pilgrims. The
pilgrims hope to merge with the power and charisma of the first teacher
of Manooraa and the tutelary spirit of Southern Thailand, Si Sata. The meaning of the
ritual is
the same. Only the size differs.
The Manooraa Rongkruu has
evolved in
close
association with professional spirit mediums that become possessed by a
variety
of deities. The Manooraa has
responded to the spiritual need of the lower middle class who feel
alienated in
the modern urban environment and therefore draw on familiar cultural
resources.
The ancestral domain of the household represents a safety belt, in
which “bad”
money earned in the market economy can be “cooked” and
invested in the
ancestral economy. The invitation of Buddhist, Muslim and Chinese
relatives and
ancestors in the ritual contrasts sharply with a world in which
anonymous
market forces prevail and in which many of the “villagers”
now live in the City
and even abroad.
Buddhism
in Southern Thailand was indigenized
in order
to become accepted by the rural population, whereby the spirits were
subordinated to the growing authority of the Buddha. In the post-modern
era,
new forms of Buddhism emerge that hybridize with spirit cults and
magic. In Southern Thailand, the Manooraa Rongkruu was always associated with Buddhism.
Ideally, the Manooraa teacher performs an
ordination ceremony and spends some time in the temple. The best Manooraa teachers were allowed to
perform in the oldest and most recognized temples and a regular
competition was
hold in Wat Kian in Bang Geow, in Patthalung province.
The Manooraa always depended
on the
patronage by wealthy local élites, the Buddhist Sangha and the
nation-state. Yet, it would be erroneous
to call the Manooraa a “Buddhist” ritual.
The Manooraa Rongkruu is a multi-religious
ritual, in which both Buddhism and Islam were integrated. When I talked
to a Manooraa master, shadow puppet master and
national artist who performed for the royal family, he said that the
power of Manooraa depends on the sincerity of the
heart and not on any religious affiliation. Manooraa
is about the relationship between the people and spirits. The religious
affiliation, Buddhist or Muslim, is secondary.
The Songkhla Lake
area, the heart of Manooraa, came under the influence
of
competing Thai and Malay mandala, whereby the Siamese quickly gained
the
upper-hand. Hence, Theravada Buddhism was installed in Southern Thailand. The
chronicles of
Southern Thai townships show that local society was concerned about
coming
under growing control by the centre in the North and that ethnic or
religious
affiliation was not as important as a marker of cultural distinction as
it is
today (cf. Gesick 1995). It is difficult
to speculate, but from the biography of famous Manooraa
teachers, we can assume that the Manooraa came under
the increasing influence of the nation-state
and the Buddhist Sangha.
In
the 1930s, the Manooraa Rongkruu was
instrumentalized for government purposes by using famous Manooraa
teachers for government propaganda. Manooraa teachers
were invited to teach in public colleges. The
introduction of new forms of patronage strengthened the morale and
prestige of
the Manooraa genre. Manooraa teachers
showed that they were able
to incorporate a politization of the Manooraa
and to mediate between the government and the villagers. As media in
the
countryside were rare, the Manooraa
troupes that traveled the countryside became themselves mediators who
transmitted
the latest news to the population. Although Manooraa
troupes fell under new forms of government patronage, the Manooraa
troupes were able to keep much of their autonomy.
Sometimes, sketches were used to comment on the politics and to joke
about certain
politicians (Phittaya 2003).
In
the last decades, the expansion of markets did not leave the Manooraa genre untouched. The market
economy poured new energy into the Manooraa
and in turn provided the means to keep modernity spirited. As Manooraa troupes depended on the market, Manooraa
teachers became religious
entrepreneurs and their troupe religious enterprises. Manooraa
Rongkruu became a religious commodity and one that was
eagerly demanded. The Manooraa
troupes that used to travel the countryside now were hired for their
performance. It was no longer enough to provide food and drink, but the
performance, including the Manooraa
teacher, the Manooraa dancers and Manooraa
musicians had to be paid. In addition, Manooraa
troupes now were hired for
the public performances in Buddhist monasteries like Wat Kian, Wat
Takae and
Wat Takura. The troupes began to specialize and occupy specific
segments in the
market. It was more important then ever to be famous and to have a
great
reputation. The Manooraa now operated
within the booming consumer culture and adjusted once more to current
economic
realities.
A Manooraa teacher in his
house shows me
his calendar which is fully booked. His troupe meets regularly in his
house to
prepare the next performance. He performs throughout the region,
including in
the urban area of Songkhla. The Manooraa
Rongkruu is not a rural romantic phenomenon anymore, but has moved
into the
city. This Manooraa teacher lives in a
rowhouse in a suburban area of Songkhla. His urban connection does not
make him
less authentic in the eyes of his audience. What counts is his
communication with
the power of the ancestor spirits.
The
absence of invited Muslim relatives in one Manooraa
Rongkruu ceremony of a Chinese-Thai family which I observed in
Tamot,
Pattalung, illustrates the exhaustion of the integrative potential of
the Manooraa. The Islamic ancestor spirit
did enter and possess the Buddhist medium which was dressed in Islamic
clothes,
because no Islamic medium was available. The Manooraa
Rongkruu is strongly identified with the Buddhist temple,
and the reformist Islamic discourse widespread in the Muslim
communities
resents the Hindu and Buddhist elements of the ceremony.
However,
the revived Manooraa Rongkruu
tradition in the Songkhla
Lake
area seems to be losing
its Islamic component, which was always weaker than the Buddhist one.
While the
belief in the power of the ancestors has not withered away in the
Muslim
communities, the Manooraa Rongkruu
ceremonies of the present are largely reserved to Buddhists. That does
not mean
that the Manooraa Rongkruu is a
Buddhist tradition, but rather it is a hybridized ceremony integrating
myth,
history, performing arts, belief and ritual practice. The absence of
Muslims in
the Manooraa ceremony confirms the transformation
of plural spaces into a type of mere coexistence, in which the ritual
spaces of
Buddhists and Muslims are increasingly separated. The Manooraa
is thus no longer able to bring all family members
together, and there are other dimensions than “communitas”
that motivate host
families to book a full Manooraa Rongkruu
ceremony.
Conventions
of Manooraa Performances
The
performance space for a Manooraa dance-drama
varies. Traditionally, it was a makeshift space on the ground, with
only four
bamboo pillars and a roof signifying the performance boundaries. The Manooraa Rongkhruu is performed in the
intimate compound of a private house and is available only for invited
family
members, relatives and good friends. This intimate nature is collapsed
in the public
spectacle, in which only the knowledge of the Nooraa
and the relation of the vow-giver to the deities remain as
intimate.
The rong stage is
constructed only for
the duration of the performance and will be completely dismantled
afterwards.
Music plays a very significant role. A Manooraa
dancer’s costume is layered with a chest piece, a neckpiece, and
shoulder
ornament, all made from strings of colourful small plastic beads. Other
unique
features are the golden crown (soed),
the silver wing ornament, the bird-like tail, and the long, bent
fingernail
extensions. A soed crown is considered
sacred; only those who have gone through a krob-soed
initiation ritual are allowed to wear it.
Performances
of the Noora Rongkruu in the Songkhla Lake
Region today
The
following provides a concise overview of the Manooraa Rongkruu ritual
cycle:
The Manooraa will be
prepared months or
even
years in advance, because it is crucial that all of the family members
are
present, and to complete all associated financial and organizational
arrangements. The head of the family will set a date in the period from
May to September
with the trusted Manooraa master. The Manooraa
master seeks intensive
communication
with the host family, which is indispensable for the preparation of the
ritual and
especially its ancestor-part. He will inquire about every single deity
and
ancestor spirit in the house. Not all dead have the privilege to
receive
ancestor status and only very powerful people who accumulated a lot of
merit
receive the status of great ancestors. The nairong
Manooraa is not able to contact the ancestor spirits of the house
directly,
but he can mediate between the ancestors of the first Manooraa
teachers and the ancestor spirits of the house. He will
also be responsible for the call to the ancestor spirits and for the
control of
harmful spirits who may enter the stage through the back door. During
the
consultations which precede the performance, the nai
Manooraa also inquires about the motivation of the family to
invite the Manooraa band.
The
host family will place photographs of their ancestors on the shrine in
the
house, prepare the offerings, food, and drinks for all the visitors for
the
three days and build a temporary ritual stage on a lawn near the house.
The
stage serves as a ceremonial space as well as a performing area for Manooraa. The palai (spirit shrine) is a
small elevated platform on the right
side of the stage. It represents a high house where only Manooraa
ancestral spirits reside, the shrine for the host family’s
ancestral spirits is in the main house. During the ritual, a white
sacred
string (sai sin) will link the palai
by the stage to the shrine in the
host family’s house. The palai serves
as the link between the godlike realm of the Manooraa
spirits and the host family’s ancestors.
The
main Ritual
First
Day: The Opening
The
host asks for a bai-sri (ceremonial
offering tray of beautifully arranged flowers and leaves) to be made.
Twelve kinds
of dishes are the prescribed offerings to the spirits, and they are
beautifully
laid out on the floor of the stage and on the palai
shrine. The nairong Manooraa
comes with his family and his troupe of five to seven musicians, and
seven to
ten male and female dancers. The group unpacks the soed
crowns, costumes, accessories, and musical instruments. They
arrange the ritual materials, such as areca nuts and betel leaves, some
cash, a
white cotton sheet, uncooked rice, flowers, candles, incense, banana
leaves, and
a mat and pillow. The opening ritual starts with the wai
khru Manooraa ceremony for all Manooraa masters,
from the mythic founders to teachers who have
passed away more recently. Then the performers put on their costumes.
The dance
is an offering to the deities who have been invited, to be appeased and
entertained.
Second
Day: The Main Ritual
Thursday
is considered the teacher’s day in Thailand, so it is
appropriate that
the vow fulfillment and teacher/ancestor worship rituals are conducted
this day.
A Manooraa performance is always
preceded by a wai kru (or kad kru)
(honouring the teachers). The ceremony
commences with a musical prelude, followed by a sung invocation
addressing Manooraa ancestor-teachers.
This ritual serves as an acknowledgement of
the ancestors who are the source of the performers’ skills. Once
the invocation
is complete, the customary sequence of youngest to oldest dancer/singer
takes
place as the twelve Manooraa maebot dances
are performed with agility and grace. The show culminates in the
dance-drama of jab sib song (twelve folktales)
performed in verse and skits. Performances are watched not only by the
host family
and the onlookers but also by the ancestral spirits. The song
ta-yai (ancestral trance ritual) is conducted during the night
of the second day. Designated trancers usually dressed in white, sit in
meditation waiting for the spirits to possess them while the narong sings the invocation verses
accompanied by percussion orchestral music. Only persons who have a
place
within for the spirits can possibly be possessed. Such persons need to
have
lived a meritful life.
Each
one of the host family’s ancestral spirits is called by name and
invited to
descend to the trance medium’s body. The trancer asks for a
candle and accepts
the offerings by eating the fire of the candle. The trancer converses
with the living
relatives voicing the ancestral spirit. As Thienchai has (1999: cited
in
Parichat 2006: 389) stated: “It seems that the atmosphere during
the trance
possession is mixed with respect, love, warmth and fun. Overjoyed to
meet the
dead ancestors, many family members shed tears while conversing with
the
spirits. They embrace, talk, laugh, and exchange stories. The living
ask the
dead for advice or assistance, a process that is therapeutic for the
living.” There
are many pi ta-yai spirits, and each
one of them has its own characteristics and temperament. Some spirits
may leave
after a few minutes, while others may be more demanding. Sometimes, the
spirits
also possess other participants, making the session quite unpredictable.
Third
Day: The Tad Merai Farewell Ritual
On
the last day, the performers sing and dance for the last time to please
the
spirits. The sequence is similar to one on the previous day, except for
three
climatic dances called ‘capturing the bird’,
‘spearing the crocodile’ and
‘beating evil’. Then comes the final ritual called
‘cutting the sacred string’,
which is meant to terminate the connection between the spirit and the
mundane
world. The nairong recites a sacred
farewell khata and dances the tad merai,
using a knife to symbolically
cut the connecting string. After the cutting of each connecting string,
each
ritual item is removed from the spirit shrine. The last step of the
farewell is
the dismantling of the Manooraa stage
and turning over the floor mats.
In
the following, I provide sketches of the new performances of the Manooraa Rongkruu as I observed them in
my fieldwork to bring out the new articulations of the Manooraa
Rongkruu with the forces of modernity.
The
Manooraa Rongkruu in Ban Dhammakhot,
Songkhla
Ban
Dammakot, where I observed 3 consecutive Manooraa
Rongkruu ceremonies in the household of Wandi and Leg, is exemplary
for
villages in rural Thailand.
Here, many villagers have to leave the village to make a living. There
is
simply not enough land to feed everyone. The village is not far from
the
district centre and the main road. Away from their ancestral land, they
are not
protected by the benevolent spirits and are thus vulnerable to the
fluctuations
of the market. The village is named
after the Buddhist temple. Not far from Ban Thammakhot, there are
Muslim
villages near the Lake. The Muslim
villages
are much poorer than the Buddhist village. Wandi and her husband Leg
made a
small fortune by making cakes and selling them to wholesalers in Hat
Yai. Thus,
the status of Wandi and Leg rose to new rich, and they employed many
households
in their business. But the business was not stable, and the income
highly
fluctuating. In addition, Wandi became ill. She became depressed,
anti-social
and less lively. She felt unwell. Wandi and Leg dedicate a room to the
ancestors.
In the garden, they keep a spirit house, where the guardian spirits of
the land
live. They give regular offerings to the spirits. Wandi and Leg hold Manooraa Rongkruu for three consecutive
years. They believe that they should
hold a Manooraa for every year to
have their business protected by the spirits.
The Nai Noora promises that
their
generosity towards the spirits will be recompensed by increased wealth.
Wandi
and Leg hire a highly reputed Manooraa
troupe from Songkhla, and they prepare the food and offerings for month
in
advance. The offerings are presented on great silver plates and include
elaborate and accurately presented dishes. In addition, the hosts
prepare
flowers, fresh fruits and more platters. The offerings include both
Buddhist
and Muslim items that are presented on different shrines in the Rong.
However,
the performance was opened by 5 monks and hardly any Muslims
participated. The
Buddhist spirit medium was possessed by the Muslim ancestor spirit.
Relatives
arrive from many directions and give donations to help cover the cost
of the
ritual. In addition to the rich offerings, the food for the guests is
plentiful
and delicious, consisting of Southern Thai dishes. The guests are
served fresh
water, but joke during the performances with alcoholic drinks. Wandi
and Leg make
a point that the performance is very costly and that not every family
could
afford this. In a bad year, even Wandi and Leg have to postpone it.
Some
details deserve special attention. The spirit mediums are professional
mediums
from the City. Family members become possessed, too, but one can say
that the
urban spirit mediums returned to the village and merged with the Manooraa Rongkruu. The boundaries become
blurred. The ritual was used to treat some patients from the kinship
group in
the rong. This did not include the host. These sessions between the
professional spirit mediums and the patients were special. The spirit
medium
was possessed by powerful ancestor spirits and moved the burning candle
in
circling movements over the head of the patient who lies on a mat in
the rong. Through the therapy, the spirit
medium aimed to remove excess heat and wind, thus exorcising the
harmful
spirit.
My
field notes illustrate the atmosphere of the possession of Wandi by the
ancestor spirits of the family:
The Nai Manooraa, his wife,
his assistant
and the musicians invoke the ancestors with loud verse. Wandi, the
female head
of the household, appears as a medium and embodies the powerful spirit
of the
domain. The spirit accepts the offering by Wandi’s eating of the
fire. The trancer
returns ecstatically with the candle in her hand to the shrine in the
house, to
pay her respect to the deities in the house, moves back to the rong and climbs the ladder to the palai
to venerate the great teachers before
returning to the core family where the spirit meets the family members,
beginning with the oldest grandfather and proceeding by declining age
through
to the daughter. In great emotional warmth, she hugs and embraces the
family members
and tears are shed, because the ancestors have not seen the living for
a long
time. The spirit is joking and laughing with family members and the
community. The
ancestors inquire about the status of the family and provide valuable
advice.
Then, Wandi is waning, fully exhausted, to reawake later as
Wandi.”
Manooraa Rongkruu in Ban Tamot, Patthalung
In
Tamot, Patthalung, the host family decided to hire a Manooraa
troupe from Nakhon Si Thammarat. The Nai Manooraa was
a young and inexperienced Manooraa teacher who
happened to have its own Manooraa troupe. A modern
keyboard replaces the traditional flutes.
The reason for hiring in this case was not an ailment but the
forthcoming
marriage of the daughter after her graduation from College. Again,
visiting kin
came from neighbouring villages as well as from Bangkok and Pattani. Muslim relatives
from
the neighbouring villages were invited, but did not show up at all. The
host
family prepared food for the guests and cared for every guest. The
family dedicated
the altar for the ancestors in the main room of the house. Lord (ong) Buddha is invited as the most
sacred spirit on the top of the spirit’s hierarchy. However,
Buddhist mediums
are again possessed by Buddhist and Islamic ancestor spirits.
Among
the designated media dancing Manooraa
in the rong, women are dominant. The Nai
Manooraa somehow invites only the
ancestor spirits of the father’s side. A field note again catches
the special
atmosphere and shows that every performance is unique and situational.
A female
relative who was about to leave the scene returned possessed to the
stage to complain
loudly about the neglect of the pi ta-yai
ancestor spirits of the female side. The lady returned to the stage,
put on
white clothes and ate the fire of a candle before noisily challenging
the young nairong Manooraa. Obviously,
the spirit was voicing her
profound dissatisfaction and her claim of representation of the female
side of
the ancestor spirits also made transparent conflicts within the family.
The nairong Manooraa and his crew had to repeat
the whole sequence to appease the angry and noisy female ancestor
spirit. Other
possessed family members can be seen dancing wildly in and around the
stage,
eating the fire of the candles, and jumping in or running around the
stage and
inside the house. The second day culminates in the blessings given by
the
spirits before leaving each trancer’s body.
The
mother and host of the performance is Sino-Thai and has Chinese
descendents.
That’s why Chinese elements entered in the performance in the
form of offerings
and ritual elements. Chinese elements include the pig’s head and
the walking
over fire ceremony. The multi-cultural elements illustrate the
composition of
society in Southern Thailand. The
absence of
Muslim relatives reveals the growing disinterest of Muslims toward Manooraa. I asked the Muslim relatives
about the invitation and they joked about the superstitious beliefs of
their
Buddhist relatives. The revitalization of the Manooraa
Rongkruu is only among Buddhists. The host also made a
case about the cost of the ritual cycle and that there are few Manooraa Rongkruu performances left in
Tamot. She notes that people are lucky that she hires a Manooraa
troupe so they can benefit from its healing power.
I
also found interesting that the host lady’s daughter was
attracted to a new
Japanese religious movement that she encountered in Hat Yai. I was
stunned that
she did the new religious practice in the main room during the breaks.
She did
not see any contradiction between her main role in the Manooraa
and her participation in the new movement.
The
Manooraa Rongkruu: Between Healing,
Social Reputation and
Prosperity Cult
Spirit
possession is a technique to cope with affliction and illness, in which
the
host possessed by a spirit speaks in the manner and tone, and performs
the role
of the spirit to communicate through bodily movements with the clients.
This fusion
of the other within the self is most profoundly observable in ritual
sequences.
Thus the person could be transformed through embodied ritualised action
and
knowledge from living to dead, from ordinary class to prince. In spirit
possession, the mimetic sensuous experience is fully activated to
incorporate the
power of the external ‘other’ that generates the
differentiating identity of
the medium herself (Tanabe 2002: 58).
The Manooraa Rongkruu
performance in
which the mediums are possessed by the ancestor spirits and actually
listen to
the spirits and speak to them in a warm emotional climate can be
conceptualized
as a crucial instrument of people in Southern Thailand to stabilise and
to repair
a disturbed mind-body equilibrium and to call back the life energy or
soul of
an ancestors by using embodied practice and knowledge. The Manooraa
Rongkruu is a healing ceremony in which the social
relations of the living and the dead are being refreshed and by which
the
ancestors speak to the living. People in Thailand believe if the
life
essence leaves the house, its inhabitants are left vulnerable to spirit
attack.
By tying white cotton thread (Sai sin)
to the shrine, the Nai Noora is
calling back the life essence to the house.
The
motivations to stage a Manooraa Rongkruu
ceremony are manifold: First of all, one crucial function of the Manooraa has often been overlooked: The Manooraa
Rongkruu is one among a variety
of multi-religious rituals that reflect the ethnic and religious
diversity in Southern Thailand. The Manooraa Rongkruu was always performed in multi-ethnic
and
multi-religious settings as both Buddhist and Muslim villagers shared
the
fundamental belief in the healing power of the ancestors. Although the Manooraa Rongkruu came under the early patronage
of the royal court and the Buddhist Sangha, the Manooraa
performance genre continued to enjoy vast popularity among
Muslim villagers. The religious affiliation of the Nai
Nooraa was secondary as either musicians or dancers could be Buddhist or
Muslim. The ritual
also reflected the fact that many kinship groups in the Songkhla Lake
region consisted of Buddhist and Muslim relatives, as Muslims converted
to
Buddhism and vice versa. The offerings
to the deities included specific items and foodstuffs that are closely
associated with Buddhism or Islam. Therefore, the Manooraa
Rongkruu could
be conceptualized as a forum in which the fragile equilibrium between
the
ethnic and religious groups was also balanced and in which the ancestor
spirits
were both Buddhist and Muslim.
The
religious affiliation was not the quality to be possessed by benevolent
ancestor spirits, but the only quality was merit. If a person
accumulated
sufficient merit, this person would be venerated during the Manooraa
performance and her/his picture
shown on the altar. If a person had the place to receive a spirit, the
person
could do so. If the person did not have the place, they could not
receive the
spirit and the Nai Manooraa would
have to dismantle the stage and leave the house.
The
therapeutic function is among the most important. In the case of the
host in
Sichon, Nakhon Si Thammarat, the head of the family lost her voice and
regained
it only after requesting it from her ancestors. She vowed that she will
host a Manooraa every year. In Songkhla, Wandi
was not in good shape. In a third case, the head of the family again
felt depressed. In the Manooraa
Rongkruu, the ancestor spirits are called to exorcise evil from the
house
and the community, to tame the malevolent spirits and to rebalance the
fragile equilibrium
of benevolent and malevolent spirit forces.
The Manooraa helps boost the
economy of
the household. In Songkhla, the nairong Manooraa
on the last day of the ceremony spread red confetti on everybody and
had
everybody taste and share some of the food. He told the audience that
the
spirits are appeased and that the host family will be rich and healthy.
The Manooraa Rongkruu ceremony has become a
costly enterprise as the Manooraa
troupe normally does not receive any sponsorship. The host has to pay
for the
artists, the dancers, costumes, and stage and,
most costly, for the food to entertain the guests. Every guest,
whenever she or
he arrives, should be properly served. The guests also donate some
money to the
hosts, but the donation will not cover the expenses. Hence, the poor
cannot afford
the Manooraa and the performance. But
the poor can flock to the Manooraa ceremonies
in the village, enhancing the benefactor status of the host family or
to the
big spectacles in Takae or Takura. Some people hope to boost their
reputation
by performing a Manooraa Rongkruu
ceremony.
In
Ranong, Songkhla, for example, a lady hoped to reconstruct her
reputation which
had been badly hurt as a result of her being indicted for theft of communal money.
By staging a Manooraa she hoped to be forgiven by the
ancestor
spirits. In Ranong
province again, the influential people
of
the district, including politicians, civil servants and police wanted
to boost their
prestige by inviting a famous Manooraa
group and by investing heavily in the pavilion, the offerings as well
as in
food and drinks for the guests. The medium was a policeman and known
spirit
medium who was recognized for his powerful love charms. As the Manooraa Rongkruu becomes increasingly
commercialized, Manooraa groups vie
for reputation and prestige and so do host families.
Thai
popular religious beliefs are expanding and diversifying in response to
the
challenges of modernity and the new global economy. In Southern Thailand, we find a deeply polarized
society. Modernization has
tended to be detrimental to small-scale agriculturalists that have
protested
the degradation of their environment and the threat to their
livelihoods. Young
women now find jobs in the tourist and sex industry in Hat Yai, Phuket
and
border towns while others work in rubber factories and food processing
plants,
often leaving young children behind in the care of the elderly.
The
enchanting arena of the Manooraa Rongkruu
reflects highly contradictory modernization processes. Although the
poor can
hardly afford to host a performance, they are not excluded from the
audience
and are equally fed. They participate in the preparation of the dishes
and elaborate
offerings. The rich hosts hold Manooraa
Rongkruu performances in which they display their power and wealth.
The
choice of the Nai Noora, the
decoration of the stage, the offerings, the choice of the spirit
medium, and
the food all influence the representation of the host in the community.
Thus,
the Manooraa Rongkruu is not only a
ritual of communitas, but is a ritual in which power and wealth can be
celebrated
and in which merit-making is in the hands of the new rich. The Manooraa Rongkruu is used equally to
rebuild one’s social reputation in the community and kinship
group after
falling victim to all kinds of modern
misfortunes,
and as an increasingly individual strategy for social, economic, and
political success.
This
new meaning of the Manooraa Rongkruu
becomes even more evident in the public, spectacular performances of
the Manooraa Rongkruu in Wat Takae and Wat
Takura that are sponsored by extremely wealthy temples, the local
government,
or wealthy businesspeople in the area. These public performances
attract
thousands of pilgrims and worshippers every year.
The Manooraa Rongkruu in
honour of the
first teacher in Takae and the Ta Yai Yarn in honour of the first teacher’s mother have become highly
commodified
festivals that however keep the intimacy and the spirituality of the
original Manooraa epos - in which all people are
descendents
of the first teachers and are thus expected to venerate the great
ancestors.
The
grand crowning Manooraa Rong Kru for the first Manooraa teacher in Wat Takae, Pattalung
The
ceremony in the temple
Wat
Takae in Pattalung
takes place yearly in the last week of April for veneration of the
first
teacher of the Manooraa, Khun Si Sata,
the son of Mae Simmala, and believed
to be a reincarnation of the Hindu god Shiva. Six of twelve Manooraa
founder spirits are said to
possess spirit mediums in Wat Takae.
The
grand ritual in Wat Takae is a public spectacle which attracts hundreds
of
people from all parts of the South to honour the first teacher of the Manooraa, Khun Si Sata and to offer him a
gift. It is believed that the soul of Si
Sata is living in Wat Takae. The Nairong
Manooraa who has the privilege to perform in the grand ceremony in
Wat
Takae is regarded as direct successor of Si
Sata and has to be among the greatest living Manooraa
teacher in Southern Thailand.
During the grand Manooraa Rong Kru
ceremony at Wat Takae, the successor of the first Manooraa
teacher is crowned and accepted as a teacher of the grand Manooraa.
The Manooraa teacher derives his power from the spirit
of the first
Teacher, Khun Si Sata, whose spirit
is present and who observes the performance with keen interest.
Khun Si Sata is commemorized with a statue that sits like
a Buddha
in a small viharn that has been constructed to accommodate him. The
pilgrims
offer flowers and food offerings to the spirit of Si Sata
in the small viharn. The great ritual is carried out among
the Manooraa family which includes
all people with Manooraa descent. As
nearly all households in old villages are trakun
Manooraa, everybody is called upon to join the ceremony in Takae.
It
is a hot day and huge crowds come to the temple. The event is organized
by a
committee, which consists of the abbot, local civil servants and
prominent businessmen.
The main representatives of the preparation committee present the Manooraa Rongkruu at Takae as a Buddhist
tradition. One particular businessman in construction and engineering
who
dresses in the traditional white clothes of the spirit mediums is the
main
sponsor of the event. This businessman accumulates huge prestige by
sponsoring
the ceremony. During the ritual, he will be possessed by the ancestor
spirits and
dance among other mediums in the pavilion. He is among the designated
spirit
mediums that participate every year in the Takae ceremony. Entrance to
the
stage is restricted by the authority of the Manooraa
teacher. Nevertheless, it seems that people come and go and that the
stage
becomes a very fluid space. A hundred onlookers are allowed to stay
closely to
the stage in the hot sun to observe the spectacle and to comment on it.
The
music is extremely noisy and loudspeakers blast across the temple
terrain.
After
the performance of the Manooraa
dancers, the stage is filled with dancers, and people who wear the Manooraa mask of the hunter. Old women
join and begin spontaneously to dance. Spirit mediums in white clothes
join the
scene and become successively possessed by the great Manooraa
ancestor spirits. The stage is constantly filled with possessed
spirit mediums and dancers, unless the nairong
Manooraa calls the dancers from the stage to make space for a
ritual.
After
a break, the Manooraa teacher gives waiting
families the possibility to enter the stage and to present their babies
and
children. Some babies suffer from a skin illness that leaves terrifying
red
sores in the face. As the medical treatment of this illness is
difficult and
costly, the magical treatment by the Manooraa
teacher is a viable alternative. This
special ritual - called yiap sen (“stepping
on the sore”) - is well known in Southern
Thailand
and has been performed for centuries. In the perspective of the Manooraa, the illness is caused by malevolent
spirits: A female spirit would have selected the child and therefore
marked it.
According to the legend, Khun Si Sata
healed this illness and removed the sores from the faces of two hunters
by
washing his feet in sea water and putting them on the wounds. The
parents bring
their babies on the stage and put them on a soft pillow. In the dance
the nairong Manooraa bathes his bare foot in
a bowl of sacred water and betel leafs. He writes a mantra in old Khmer
language on the big toe and puts it into a flame. The rhythm of the
music
intensifies, when the nairong Manooraa
moves his foot turns around and touches the face of the child firmly
with his
bare foot. The musician beats the drums strongly and increases the
dramatics.
The nairong Manooraa is possessed by
the spirit of the first Manooraa
teacher and uses his power and knowledge in the healing ritual. The
authority
of the nairong Manooraa in healing
the sores is unquestioned and widely known in Southern
Thailand.
The yiap sen ritual is repeated several
times as many parents come with their babies to the ceremony full of
hope that
the spirit can be domesticated and bring healing.
The
climax of the Takae ceremony is the crowning initiation ceremony. The
assistant
of the nairong Manooraa, who was
dressed in white clothes during the ritual, is prostrating in front of
the nairong Manooraa. There is concentrated
silence at this stage as everybody is aware of this precious moment.
The nairong Manooraa puts a crown on the
head of his assistant, thereby transmitting the power and knowledge of
the Manooraa tradition to him. The so-crowned
assistant is now able to found his own Manooraa
group and perform with it. The new Manooraa
master is now allowed to change his costume and to wear the beautiful
costume
of the Nai Manooraa. He submits
himself under the authority of his teacher for the duration of the
ritual, but
will eventually succeed him. After the crowning ritual, he carried out
his
first performance under the auspices of his teacher and the spirit of Si Sata.
During
the ritual, the stage is one of the main theatres of action, but in
parallel,
the image of Si Sata in the small temple
building also attracts large crowds who offer candles, flowers,
incense, betel
leaves and food in worship of the first teacher. In the Takae ritual,
only the great
ancestors are invited to the boost, including the first Manooraa
teachers, the guardian spirits of the land of Takae,
the kings and Buddhist saints. Spirit mediums and masked dancers feel
free to
occupy the stage throughout the ritual. Every single ritual, whether in
the intimate
sphere of the house or in public space, represents the microcosm of the
world
and the universe in the understanding of the Manooraa.
The public performance in Takae attracts hundreds of
participants and onlookers who hope to benefit from the presence of Si Sata’s spirit and his power to heal.
In
the first week of May, another grand ceremony attracts thousands of
pilgrims
who come in families to flock to participate in the merit-making
activities at
the temple
of Ta Kura in
Satingpra. The ritual in
Satingpra is also organised by a committee consisting of local
bureaucrats and
the Buddhist abbot of Ta Kura. The ceremony transforms the sleepy village of Ban Ta Kura into a huge feast in
which
large crowds are attracted by the healing power of the Buddha image
that is stored
in a box behind two temple doors. The unwrapping of the small Buddha
image
under the music of the Manooraa
musicians is the highlight of the festival. In addition, hundreds of
young
women are ordained as Buddhist nuns for one day in fulfillment of a vow
to Mae Simmala.
The
Ta Yai Yarn ceremony
in honour of Mae (mother) Simmala in
Wat Ta Kura, Satingphra,
Songkhla.
The Manooraa Rongkruu in
Takura is a
hybridization of Theravada Buddhism and Manooraa.
Basically, two things happen in Takura at the same time: First, Ta Kura
is an
important place in the Manooraa myth.
According to the old people, Mae Simmala
donates the gold that the elephant has found in a bamboo tree to the temple of Wat Ta Kura to distribute it
among the people
in one narrative, or donates it to the abbot to have it transformed
into the
holy Buddha image according to another. The Buddha image is presented
in a cage
to the pilgrims who wait for hours to catch some holy water and to
sprinkle it
on the Buddha image. The unwrapping of the Buddha image is preceded by
intensive chanting of Buddhist monks in Pali sacred language and drum
play by
selected Manooraa musicians located
in the temple hall in front of the door. Male dancers wearing the
ancestor Manooraa mask of the hunter dance wildly
in the smaller pavilion.
A
special stage is again erected for the Manooraa
Rongkruu performance. Hundreds buy 50 Baht tickets to enter the
stage and
to dance along the music transmitted by audio-cassettes on
loudspeakers. The
dancers wear only individual parts of the Manooraa
costumes or the hunter-masks. After 5 minutes, the music stops and the nairong Manooraa sends the dancers from
the stage. He gets ready for the next ritual, the yiap sen
(stepping on the sore). Again, people buy
their ticket for 50 Baht and
in this case mothers
bring their children on the stage. Before curing the babies with his
foot, he
inquires with the mother about the illness of the child. Just as in
Takae,
numerous families flock to the temple in the hope of a cure.
Another
event brings hundreds of young women to the temple festival at Ta Kura.
Young women
are ordained resulting fulfillment
of a vow
they made to the mother of the Manooraa.
In contemporary Thailand,
women are heavily marginalized, especially for ordination. In Ta Kura,
women
have the special opportunity to be ordained for one day. The young
nuns-to-be are
eager to perform the ordination ceremony, but because of the sheer
number, the ceremony
is carried out in a very concise form. Every 30 minutes, ten women are
ordained
in a row. The young women identify with the female hero of the Manooraa epos. Their ordination to the
status of Mee Chi in Ta Kura as a
meritful act and as a way to reciprocate their vow. The sprinkling of
the
Buddha image, the dancing in the viharn, the yiap sen
on the stage, the horoscopes of monks, and the mass
ordination of young nuns all take place in a atmosphere of a popular
festival
with a hundred market stalls, selling food, drinks, Buddhist amulets,
handicrafts, fake hunter-masks and musical Manooraa
instruments. The commodification of the Manooraa
Rongkruu, its hybridization and post-modernization is brought to a
climax
in Ta Kura.
On the
second day of the ritual, on Thursday, a striking scene takes place: A
young
mother with a black jilbab pushes her way through the crowds. The nairong Manooraa nods and orders her
baby on a pillow. He slowly rotates, puts his foot into the holy water,
the
fire and on the face of the crying baby. In her desperate need for a
cure, the
young Muslim mother comes all the way from the province of Chumphorn. Ready to find her way to the Nairong
Manooraa, she ignored the
Buddhist environment.
The
Manooraa Rongkruu as Spiritual
Experience, Prosperity Cult and
Pilgrimage
The
crowds joining the festivals do so for several reasons. Many come
regularly
every year as pilgrims to worship the great Manooraa
ancestors. They emphasize the importance of the ritual by giving it the
attribute: Big. Here, the cosmological power is particularly dense. It
is thus
possible to participate in the life essence and to dance to the Manooraa verse even only for a few
minutes and for a 50 Baht ticket. My friends join the Ta Yai Yarn every
year. They also participate in the
ritual of two religions at the cemetery in Ban Tamot, Patthalung, since
my
friend’s grandparents are buried there. My friends are also
interested in
Buddhist saints, amulets, and all kinds of Buddhist relics which he
collects.
He visits a Buddhist nun regularly who resides alone in the wood. They
believe
that the Ta Yai Yarn is especially benevolent to women who worship Mae Simmala, the mother of the Manooraa
and the mother of Southern Thailand.
Young women flock to the Ta Yai Yarn
in order to fulfill a vow to Mae Simmala,
thereby conflating Manooraa Rongkruu
and Theravada Buddhism. Many people are attracted by the Noora
troupes that are being considered the greatest in the region
and the successors of the great Noora
teachers who themselves passed away and are among the great ancestors.
The
participants request a boon and reciprocate by dancing with the
hunter’s mask
in the temple. People come in large families to party, mingle with the
crowds
and visit the many market stalls, selling Buddhist amulets, Manooraa
music, food and drinks.
In
Wat Takae, the “stepping on the red sore” healing ritual is
very prominent. Nai Noora Sompong is widely known for
his delicate dance, for his proximity to the Gods and for his healing
power.
Families come from everywhere to have their infants cured through the Nai Noora’s foot. All kinds of patients come
to have their illnesses or misfortune cured. People come also to
worship the
first teacher of the Manooraa epos, Si
Sata, and stay for hours in the small
pavilion. They come also to consult the spirit medium which sits in
front of
the image of Si Sata and is in a
state of spirit possession.
All
this happens in an old Buddhist temple which is widely open for the Manooraa ceremony. All the hotels in the
surroundings of Wat Takae are fully booked. Some local teachers
describe the Manooraa Rongkruu as a Buddhist art genre
and Si Sata as a Buddhist. The Buddhist
character of the Manooraa Rongkruu is
also underlined in the narrative of the donation of a golden Buddha
image by Mae Simmala to Wat Ta Kura and by the
ordination of young women as nuns for one day.
Perhaps
the most interesting case is the arrival of a group with a veiled
Muslim woman
and a sick baby. Because of her veiling, everybody recognizes her as
modern
Muslima. Some of the Muslim participants may not wear Islamic clothes
and are
not recognizable as Muslims. This woman made a case in showing off her
Islamic
affiliation, but made a desperate move to find a cure for her baby. She
was
received by the Nai Noora who put his
foot on the baby’s face under some drumming. The Muslim woman was
unaware of
the commercialization of the ceremony and deeply uncomfortable in the
crowd.
Finally, she bought the ticket and her right to see the Noora
master for 5 minutes. This case shows that even as a modern Muslima,
the woman hoped to receive a cure from the great ancestor spirits, in
whose
power she clearly believed.
Although
the Manooraa ceremony was performed
in a Buddhist temple, the Manooraa
Rongkruu remained a multi-religious ritual that is open for
Buddhists,
Muslims or any other religion. Nevertheless, the Manooraa
Rongkruu ceremony is appropriated by the local government,
some businesspeople and the Buddhist Sangha. The Manooraa
Rongkruu in the modern era has thus changed into a
hybridized Buddhist one and few items remember its multi-religious
character.
The
relationship between the intimate and the public is thus an important
aspect of
the Manooraa Rongkruu. Even the mass
gatherings in Takae and Takura keep some intimacy that is associated
with the
possession of the spirit medium by the great ancestor spirits. As to
the
private performances where strangers are not allowed (in difference to
the
anonymous crowds arriving in Takae and Takura), the Manooraa
Rongkruu is a combination of the intimate and the public
par excellence. The Manooraa Rongkruu
is intimate as the spirit altar for the ancestors of the house is
intimate; it
is public as the performance is open for relatives, friends and
neighbours. It
would be a-social not to appear for the Manooraa
performance.
In
conclusion
Early
ethnography on the conceptualization of popular religiosity and the Manooraa seem to be caught in a
substantialist and essentialising categorization of ritual in which the
person
is conceptualized as a total, unchanging entity. While structuralist
concepts
have pointed out the importance of exchange of gifts in the
interactions
between healer and patient, they have limited themselves by ignoring
the
transformation of the person under external conditions and the
religious strategies
of the clients and patients to cope with the emotional disturbances
they face,
as well as with issues of modernity. Exchange models that rely on the
reproduction of social relations fail to account for the processes of
individualization of spirituality in a postmodern world. I argue for a
more dynamic
perspective in which the revitalization of the Manooraa
and its changing functions can be explained more convincingly.
To
explain the agency of Thai popular religion, we have to consider the
new
functions of the Manooraa Rongkruu
during the economic boom and economic decline of Thailand in the last few
decades.
Host families sometimes book a Manooraa
Rongkruu full ceremony as a conscious strategy to accumulate merit
and to
enhance social prestige in the community. I would argue that the
decisive
factor in the revitalization of the Manooraa
Rongkruu is the individualistic search of the lower and middle
class for
spiritual experience, performance and fulfillment of their spiritual
needs. To understand
the structuring contribution of Thai popular religiosity and the agency
of the spiritual
seekers it would be helpful to compare the Manooraa
Rongkruu with a wide array of other contemporary religious and
spiritual
practices beyond the mainstream.
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