Religion / Animistic Believes Part 1
While the above quoted text may summarize Buddhism as Buddhist priests may teach it to ordinary Thais, it doesn’t yet give a complete picture of the state of religious beliefs in Thailand. As was mentioned above, Buddhism is an extremely tolerant religion and in principle it allows the integration of any other religion to a much further extend than other religions do the same. In the case of Thailand, the everyday set of religious beliefs incorporates a fair share of animistic traditions. And while in the Western connotation, any form of animism is considered a mark of a primitive society, Thais in general don’t at all hide their animistic beliefs but practice them openly, and not just in remote villages but in between the skyscrapers of modern Bangkok as well. And they even defend animistic beliefs as part of their cultural heritage.
In the Bangkok Post of July 5, 1991, Sanitsuda Ekachai (her features in the Bangkok Post are among the best in Thai journalism) referred to a research project, Tracing Thai Beliefs, conducted by Professor Dr. Suwanna Satha-anand and Asst. Professor Nuengnoi Bunyanetr of the Thai Studies Institute of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
Sanitsuda Ekachai cited Dr. Suwanna pointing out that "the Thai cosmic order... is characterized by such words as chaatphop (lifetimes), phromlikit (fate), choke (luck), duang (astrological power), phee (supernatural powers and spirits). kam (karma, action in previous lifetimes), sawan and narok (heaven and hell)... According to Thai cosmology, what happens to us in the present life - which is within the continuum of lifetimes - is determined not only by our actions in previous lives but also by external powers and supernatural forces which are beyond human being’s control."
And Sanitsuda Ekachai quotes Dr. Suwanna verbatim with the assessment that "they [believes in supernatural powers] are not edged out by consumerism. On the contrary, they co-exist very well as you can see around yourself."
Sanitsuda Ekachai looked around herself, and what she found was: "In this ever more over-heated city, there is a Mercedes Benz dealer who looks to the comfort of the resident genius loci by keeping the spirithouse inside the coolly air-conditioned showroom." She also notes that in Thailand, "coup-plotters still consult fortune-tellers for the most opportune time for their actions. The same goes for investors planning big projects, couples contemplating marriage, parents-to-be facing a Caesarian birth, wives hoping to see off mistresses, mistresses hoping to confound wives."
Animistic beliefs are nothing extraordinary in East Asia. The Chinese, for example, easily rival the Thais in their beliefs in spirits, dragons and a vast assortment of gods. Carol Clewlow and Robert Storey wrote in their travel guide on Hong Kong: "Chinese religion is polytheistic, having many divinities. Every Chinese house has its kitchen or house god, and trades have their gods too. Students worship Wan Chung, the defied scholar. Shopkeepers pray to Tsai Shin, god of riches... In Chinese it [geomancy] is called feng shui - literally wind water - the art (or science if you prefer) of manipulating or judging the environment. If you want to build a house or find a suitable site for a grave then you call in a geomancer. Without feng shui an apartment block cannot be built, highways cannot be laid, telephone poles cannot be erected and trees cannot be chopped down... Businesses that are failing may call in a geomancer. Sometimes the solution is to move the door or a window... Construction of Hong Kong’s underground Mass Transit Railway began with an invocation by a group of Taoist priests who paid respect to the spirits of the earth whose domain was about to be violated."
How matter-of-factly Hong Kong Chinese businessmen, even those of European origin, take into account the multiple spirits, good and bad, when making business decisions, has been captured by James Clavell in his novel Noble House. On pages 80 and 81, Clavell’s hero, Tai-Pan Ian Dunross, accompanies an attractive female American business executive, Casey Tcholok, into his company headquarters:
"He guided her in, pressed 20, the top button, noticing absently that she wore no perfume or jewelry, just a thin gold chain around her neck.
‘Why’s the front door at an angle??she asked.
‘Sorry??
‘The front entrance seems to be on a slight tilt - it’s not quite straight - I was wondering why.?
‘You’re very observant. The answer is fung sui. When the building was put up four years ago, somehow or other we forgot to consult our house fung sui man. He’s like an astrologer, a man who specializes in heaven, earth, water currents, and devils, that sort of thing, and makes sure you’re building on the Earth Dragon’s back and not on his head.?
‘What??
‘Oh yes. You see every building in the whole of China’s on some part of the Earth Dragon. To be on his back’s perfect, but if you’re on his head it’s very bad, and terrible if you’re on his eyeball. Anyway, when we did get around to asking, our fung sui man said we were on the Dragon’s back - thank God, otherwise we’d’ve had to move - but that devils were getting in the door and this was what was causing all the trouble. He advised me to reposition the door, and so, under his direction we changed the angle and now the devils are all deflected.?
She laughed. ‘Now tell me the real reason.?
‘Fung sui. We had very bad joss here - bad luck - rotten in fact until the door was changed.?His face hardened momentarily then the shadow passed. ‘The moment we changed the angle, everything became good again.?
‘You’re telling me you believe that? Devils and dragons??
‘I believe none of it. But you learn the hard way when you’re in China that it’s best to act a little Chinese.?quot;
In Thailand, according to the Traveller’s Guide to Thailand, published not just by anybody but by the Tourism Authority of Thailand, notes on one of the kingdom’s festivals, the Ploughing Ceremony: "The Ploughing Ceremony is of Brahman origin and the auspicious day and hour are still set by the Brahman astrologers." And as the Thai newspaper Nation reported in a review of the year 1972, it was on an auspicious time given by the royal astrologer when Prince Vajiralongkorn, the eldest son of King Bhumiphol was invested as Crown Prince on December 1, 1972, exactly at 12:23.
In Thailand just as in Hong Kong, spirits are matters to be taken into consideration just as the British take into consideration the weather. One always has to be prepared for capers. However, with concern to spirits, Thais as well as the Chinese are more inclined than the British with concern to the weather, to attempt to influence the supernatural powers, today as much as a hundred or two hundred years ago.
Citing ethics professor Dr. Suwanna Satha-anand, Sanitsuda Ekachai pointed out that in Thailand, the use of black magic "has become a tool in our consumerist society to ensure success in business and whatnot."
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