Beyond syncretism: Hybridization of popular religion in contemporary Thailand

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 36, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 461-487

  Kitiarsa, Pattana ^a  

^a NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE   (Singapore)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CULTURAL CHANGE; CULTURAL TRADITION; RELIGION;

ASIA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; THAILAND;

EID: 33644604409     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463405000251     Document Type: Article

References (164)

1. The phrase 'parade of supernaturals' is from Stanley J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the spirit cults in Northeast Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 351-66.
2. For studies of these developments, see the following: Marlane Guelden, Thailand - into the spirit world (Singapore: Times Editions, 1995);
3. Peter A. Jackson, 'The enchanting spirit of Thai capitalism: The cult of Luang Phor Khoon and the post-modernization of Thai Buddhism', South East Asia Research (henceforth SEAR), 7, 1 (1999): 5-60
4. Jackson, 'Royal spirits, Chinese gods, and magic monks: Thailand's boom-time religions of prosperity', SEAR, 7, 3 (1999): 245-320
5. Pattana Kitiarsa, 'You may not believe, but never offend the spirits: Spirit-medium cult discourses and the postmodernization of Thai religion' (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1999)
6. and Pattana, 'You may not believe, but never offend the spirits: Spirit-medium cults and popular media in modern Thailand', in Global goes local: Popular culture in Asia, ed. Timothy J. Craig and Richard King (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2002), pp. 160-76.
7. See, for example, Phya Anuman Rajadhon, Life and ritual in old Siam, ed. William J. Gedney (New Haven: HRAF Press, 1961)
8. Yoneo Ishii, Sangha, state, and society: Thai Buddhism in history, tr. Peter Hawks (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986)
9. Craig J. Reynolds, 'The Buddhist monkhood in nine-teenth century Thailand' (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1972)
10. Donald K. Swearer, The Buddhist world of Southeast Asia (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995)
11. Stanley J. Tambiah, World conqueror and world renouncer. A study of Buddhism and polity in Thailand against a historical background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976)
12. Tambiah, The Buddhist saints of the forest and the cult of the amulets (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)
13. J. L. Taylor, Forest monks and the nation-state: An anthropological and historical study in Northeastern Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993)
14. and Kenneth E. Wells, Thai Buddhism: Its rites and activities (New York: AMS Press, 1960).
15. See Phya Anuman Rajadhon, Popular Buddhism in Siam and other essays on Thai studies (Bangkok: Sathirakoses Nagapradipa Foundation, 1986)
16. Anuman, Essays on Thai folklore (Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development and Sathirakoses Nagapradipa Foundation, 1988)
17. William J. Klausner, Reflections on Thai culture, 3rd edn (Bangkok: Siam Society, 1987)
18. Tambiah, Buddhism and the spirit cults;
19. Phra Phaisan Visalo, Phutthasatsana Thai nai anakot. Naewnom lae thangok chak wikrit [Thai Buddhism in the future: Trends and a solution to the crisis] (Bangkok: Sotsri-Saritwong Foundation, 2003)
20. B. J. Terwiel, 'A model for the study of Thai Buddhism', Journal of Asian Studies (henceforth JAS), 35, 3 (1976): 391-403
21. Terwiel, Monks and magic. An analysis of religious ceremonies in Central Thailand, 3rd edn (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1994)
22. Peter A. Jackson, Buddhism, legitimation, and conflict: The political functions of urban Thai Buddhism (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989)
23. and Yukio Hayashi, Practical Buddhism among the Thai-Lao: Religion in the making of the region (Kyoto: Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press, 2003).
24. A. Thomas Kirsch, 'Phu Thai religious syncretism: A case study of Thai religion and society' (Ph.D. diss., Harvard University, 1967)
25. Kirsch, 'Complexity in the Thai religious system: An interpretation', JAS, 36, 2 (1977): 241-66
26. Klausner, Reflections on Thai culture,
27. Terwiel, 'Model for the study';
28. Terwiel, Monks and magic and
29. Swearer, Buddhist world.
30. Frank E. Reynolds, 'Buddhism as universal and as civic religion: Some observations on a recent tour of Buddhist centers in Central Thailand', in Religion and legitimation of power in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, ed. Bardwell L. Smith (Chambersburg, PA: ANIMA Books, 1978), pp. 194-203
31. on 'continuities and transformations' see Tambiah, Buddhism and the spirit cults, pp. 367-77.
32. An overview of this scholarship is in Charles F. Keyes, 'Ethnography and anthropological interpretation in the study of Thailand', in The study of Thailand: Analyses of knowledge, approaches, and prospects in anthropology, art history, economics, history, and political science, ed. Eliezer B. Ayal (Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1978), pp. 1-66.
33. See Clifford Geertz, 'Religion as a cultural system', in Anthropological approaches to the study of religion, ed. Michael Banton (London: Tavistock, 1966), pp. 1-46.
34. Anuman Rajadhon, Essays on Thai folklore, pp. 48-9.
35. Kirsch, 'Complexity in the Thai religious system', p. 261.
36. Elsewhere Kirsch suggested that Thai religious syncretism has been apparent since the early days of Sukhothai (Kirsch, 'Modernizing implications of nine-teenth century reforms in the Thai Sangha', in Smith ed., Religion and legitimation of power, pp. 52-65).
37. Drawing mainly from his fieldwork among the Phu Thai in a village then under the local administration of Nakhon Phanom province, Kirsch used his Weberian-Parsonsian approach to outline complex and syncretistic components of the Thai religious system, where 'elements derived from several historically discrete traditions [Theravada Buddhism, Folk Brahmanism, and animism] have combined to form a single distinctive tradition' ('Complexity', p. 241). He also excelled in demonstrating how the three different religious components have functioned and interrelated to one another, with Theravada 'maintain[ing] a paramount position within a complex religious system' (p. 244).
38. Terwiel, Monks and magic, p. 1 (quotation)
39. Terwiel, 'Model for the study, pp. 402-3.
40. On Burma see Melford E. Spiro, Buddhism and society. A great tradition and its Burmese vicissitudes (New York: Harper and Row, 1970).
41. Swearer, Buddhist world, pp. 5-7 (quotations from p. 6).
42. Ishii, Sangha, state, and society, pp. 23-4.
43. Spiro, Buddhism and society, outlines his seminal classifications of Buddhism based on his fieldwork in Burma in the 1960s as follows. 'Buddhism is best viewed as comprising not one, but three separate if interlocking systems: Two soteriological systems (one normative and one non-normative) and one non-soteriological system. Since the latter is primarily concerned with protection from danger, I shall call it apotropaic Buddism. The two soteriological systems may be called nibbanic and kammatic Buddhism, respectively. Since its major concern is with release from the Wheel, or nirvana (nibbana), nibbanic Buddhism is an appropriate term for normative soteriological Buddhism. Non-normative soteriological Buddhism, concerned with improving one's position on the Wheel by improving one's karma (kamma), is appropriately termed kammatic Buddhism' (p. 12).
44. Hayashi, Practical Buddhism.
45. Shigeharu Tanabe and Charles F. Keyes, 'Introduction', in Cultural crisis and social memory. Modernity and identity in Thailand and Laos, ed. Tanabe and Keyes (London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002), pp. 6-25.
46. Kirsch, 'Complexity in the Thai religious system', p. 265. Kirsch used the term 'upgrading' to refer to the centralization and rationalization of Theravada Buddhism by the Thai state and Sangha, to purify or make it more rational by consulting the Tripitaka and other authoritative sources in order to sift out its syncretistic components, namely animism or folk Brahmanism. It also meant that Buddhism would be made a state-sponsored and state-legitimated religion, as distinct from a popular tradition.
47. See, for example, Phra Phaisan Visalo, Phutthasatsana Thai
48. Phra Thepvethi (P. Payutto), Sing saksit, thevarit, patihan [Magical entities, supernatural power and miracles] (Bangkok: Phutthatham Foundation, 1993)
49. Sanitsuda Ekachai. Keeping the faith: Thai Buddhism at the crossroads (Bangkok: Post Books, 2001)
50. Sulak Sivaraksa, Phut kap sai nai sangkhom Thai [Buddhism and magic in Thai society] (Bangkok: Commission on Religion for Development and Santi Pracha Dhamma Institute, 1995)
51. Charles F. Keyes, 'Moral authority of the Sangha and modernity in Thailand: Sexual scandals, sectarian dissent, and political resistance', in Socially engaged Buddhism for the new millennium: Essays in honor of the Ven. Phra Dhammapitaka (Bhikkhu P.A. Payutto) on his 60th birthday anniversary (Bangkok: Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation and Foundation for Children, 1999), pp. 121-47.
52. Charles F. Keyes, 'Buddhism fragmented: Thai Buddhism and political order since the 1970s', keynote address for the 7th International Conference on Thai Studies, Amsterdam, July 1999.
53. Bhikkhu Visalo, 'Buddhism for the next century: Toward renewing a moral Thai society', in Socially engaged Buddhism, pp. 235-52.
54. Kirsch, 'Complexity in the Thai religious system', p. 264.
55. Phaisan Visalo, Phutthasatsana Thai, p. 472
56. all translations from the Thai are mine. Studies of the new movements include Apinya Fuengfulsakul, 'Empire of crystal and utopian commune: Two types of contemporary Theravada reform in Thailand', Sojourn, 8, 1 (1993): 153-83
57. Jackson, Buddhism, legitimation, and conflict
58. Keyes, 'Moral authority'
59. J. L. Taylor, 'Embodiment, nation, and religio-politics in Thailand', SEAR, 9, 2 (2001): 129-47
60. and Edwin Zehner, 'Reform symbolism of a Thai middle-class sect: The growth and appeal of the Thammakai movement', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 21, 2 (1990): 402-26.
61. See Jackson, 'Enchanting spirit'
62. Jackson, 'Royal spirits'; the quotation is from Kirsch, 'Complexity in the Thai religious system', p. 262 (emphasis in the original).
63. In addition to the sources already cited, see Peter A. Jackson, 'Withering centre, flourishing margins: Buddhism's changing political roles', in Political change in Thailand: Democracy and participation, ed. Kevin Hewison (London: Routledge, 1997), pp. 75-93
64. Rosalind Morris, In the place of origins: Modernity and its mediums in Northern Thailand (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000)
65. Shigeharu Tanabe, 'Spirits, power, and the discourse of female gender: The Phi Meng cult of Northern Thailand', in Thai constructions of knowledge, ed. Manas Chitakasem and Andrew Turton (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1991), pp. 183-212
66. Tanabe, 'The person in transformation: Body, mind and cultural appropriation', in Tanabe and Keyes ed., Cultural crisis and social memory, pp. 43-67
67. and Susuke Yagi, 'Samnak puu sawan: Rise and oppression of a new religious movement in Thailand' (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1988).
68. Mikhail M. Bakhtin, The dialogic imagination: Four essays, tr. Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), p. 358.
69. Robert J. Young, Colonial desire. Hybridity in theory, culture and race (London: Routledge, 1995), pp. 20 (types of hybridity), 21 (amalgamation); my thanks to Mark Frost for bringing this book to my attention.
70. Quotations from ibid., pp. 21-2.
71. See Michel Foucault, Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings 1972-1977, tr. Colin Gordon et al. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980).
72. Renato Rosaldo, 'Forward', in Nestor Garcia Canclini, Hybrid cultures: Strategies for entering and leaving modernity, tr. Christopher L. Chiappari and Sylvia L. Lopez (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1995).
73. Mitsukuni Yoshida, 'The hybrid tradition', in The hybrid culture: What happened when East and West met, ed. Mitsukuni Yoshida et al. (Hiroshima: Mazda, 1984), p. 11.
74. Garcia Canclini, Hybrid cultures, p. 1
75. Amia Loomba, Colonialism/postcolonialism (London: Routledge, 1998), p. 174.
76. Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia in the Age of Commerce 1450-1680, volume 2: Expansion and crisis (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1993), p. 193
77. Charnvit Kasetsiri, The rise of Ayudhya: A history of Siam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1976).
78. Barbara Watson Andaya,'Statecraft in the reign of Lü Tai of Sukhodaya (ca. 1347-1374)', in Smith ed., Religion and legitimation of power, pp. 2-19;
79. Kirsch, 'Complexity in the Thai religious system'. On the modern period see Thongchai Winichakul, Siam mapped: History of the geo-body of a nation (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994), p. 13.
80. Homi K. Bhabha, 'The commitment to theory', New Formations, 5 (1988): 13.
81. Suchada Chakpisut, 'Khon song' [The spirit mediums], Sarakhadi [Feature Magazine], 3, 36 (1988): 82-98
82. Yagi, 'Samnak puu sawan'.
83. For a historical perspective see Pattana, 'You may not believe'.
84. Tej Bunnag, Khabot Ro. So. 121 [The 1903 rebellion] (Bangkok: Foundation for Humanities and Social Sciences Textbooks, 1981).
85. Jagadisa Kashyap, 'Origin and expansion of Buddhism', in The path of the Buddha: Buddhism interpreted by the Buddhists, ed. Kenneth W. Morgan (New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1956), p. 4. The term 'Buddha' means 'Enlightened One'; it is not a proper name, but a title applied to one who has reached the very peak of transcendental wisdom through the practice of the ten great spiritual Perfections through innumerable rebirths over an incomprehensible length of time. In Buddhist mythology, a number of Buddhas are mentioned, such as Gotama, Dipankara and Sumedha.
86. Wo. Cinpradit (pseud.), Amnat luklap khong rang song [The mysterious power of the spirit medium] (Bangkok: Central Library Press, 1995), p. 94.
87. An arahat is 'a saint who has dispelled ignorance and all other fetters that bind a being to the cycle of birth and death; after death he does not take a birth again, he is freed from this bondage' (Kashyap, 'Origins and expansion', p. 9). It is very interesting to note that Wo. Cinpradit seems to be the only writer mentioning Buddhist mythology to legitimize the existence of urban spirit-medium cults and their close association with Buddhism. However, he does not cite a source for his account.
88. Wo. Cinpradit, Amnat luklap, pp. 15-16. The Venerable Ananda was famous for his extraordinary memory and intelligence. He was able to remember Buddha's teachings and was known as Buddha's storekeeper.
89. Wo. Cinpradit, Khumu rang song [Manual for spirit mediums] (Bangkok: Central Library Press, n.d.).
90. Yagi, 'Samnak puu sawan', pp. 13-27
91. see also Maja-Leena Heikkila-Horn, Santi Asoke Buddhism and Thai state reponse (Turku, Finland: Abo Akademi University Press, 1996).
92. Suchada, 'Khon song', p. 91.
93. Interview with Aunt Toi, Khorat, 14 Aug. 1996.
94. Sanitsuda, Keeping the faith, p. 30.
95. Charles F. Keyes, 'Thai religion', in The encyclopedia of religion, vol. XIII (New York: Macmillan, 1987), p. 133.
96. Walter Irvine, 'Decline of village spirit cults and growth of urban spirit mediumship: The persistence of spirit beliefs, the position of women and modernization', Mankind, 14, 4 (1984): 315-24.
97. See also Irvine, 'The Thai Yuan "madman", and the modernising, developing Thai nation, as bounded entities under threat: A study in the replication of a single image' (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1982);
98. and Christine C. Mougne, 'Spirit cults and matrifocality in Northern Thailand: Demographic perspective', Mankind, 14, 4 (1984): 300-7.
99. Yagi, 'Samnak puu sawan', p. 32.
100. Tanabe suggests that displacement among rural-to-urban migrants 'involves a general sense of confusion experienced by a local subject who moves into a new environment, which can induce emotional disorders and psychosomatic disturbances.... For the newcomers to Chiang Mai, the displacement often evokes feelings of anxiety, powerlessness, and insecurity in everyday life' (Tanabe, 'Person in transformation', p. 50).
101. Sumruay Somchit, personal communication, Bangkok, 14 Aug. 1996. 'Bai sri' is originally a Khmer term referring to the rice offerings to spirits in a propitiatory ritual; in its present Thai usage, however, it refers to the soul-tying ritual in general.
102. Chulalongkorn, Phraratchaphithi sipsong duan [The royal ceremonies of the twelve months of the year] (Bangkok: Phrachan Press, 1953).
103. Jutarat Tongpiam, 'Clothes make the medium', Bangkok Post, 22 Feb. 1996.
104. Charles F. Keyes, Thailand: Buddhist kingdom as modern nation-state (Boulder: Westview Press, 1987), p. 133.
105. John Crawfurd, Journal of an embassy to the courts of Siam and Cochin China (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1967 reprint), p. 106.
106. Ibid., p. 119.
107. G. William Skinner, Chinese society in Thailand: An analytical history (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1957), p. 84.
108. Kenneth Perry Landon, The Chinese in Thailand (New York: Russell and Russell, 1941), pp. 107-8.
109. Richard J. Coughlin, Double identity: The Chinese in modern Thailand (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1960), p. 92.
110. Ann Maxwell Hill, 'Tradition, identity and religious eclecticism among Chinese in Thailand', in Alternate identities: The Chinese of contemporary Thailand, ed. Tong Chee Kiong and Chan Kwok Bun (Singapore: Times Academic Press, 2001), p. 300.
111. Trilok Chandra Majupuria, Erawan shrine and Brahma worship in Thailand with reference to India & Nepal (Bangkok: Craftsman Press, 1987), p. 29.
112. The quotation is from ibid., p. 106.
113. See Stephen F. Tobias, 'Buddhism, belonging and detachment - Some paradoxes of Chinese ethnicity in Thailand', JAS, 36, 2 (1977): 303-26.
114. See Jackson, 'Enchanting spirit';
115. Jackson, 'Royal spirits';
116. and Morris, In the place of origins.
117. J. L. Taylor, '(Post-) modernity, remaking tradition and the hybridisation of Thai Buddhism', Anthropological Forum, 9, 2 (1999): 163-87
118. and Taylor, 'Embodiment, nation, and religio-politics in Thailand', SEAR, 9, 2 (2001): 129-47.
119. Jackson, 'Enchanting spirit', p. 49;
120. on 'commercialized religiosity' see Suwanna Satha-anan, Ngoen kap satsana [Money and religion] (Bangkok: Komon Keemthong Foundation, 1994).
121. Wo. Cinpradit, Phithikan waikhru, rup khan, khrop khru [Rituals of paying homage to teachers' spirits and spirit mediums' initiation] (Bangkok: Central Library Press, n.d.)
122. Wo. Cinpradit, Khu mu rang song;
123. see also Anuman Rajadhon, Life and ritual for a discussion of the various types of spirits.
124. Marlane Guelden, based on her fieldwork in Southern Thailand, identifies spirit mediums like my informants as 'home-based professional spirit mediums', indicating that they open their spirit shrines and provide services at home, symbolizing their female-gendered domestic religious realm; Guelden, 'Celestial discourse: Female spirit mediums channel gendered communication in modernizing Southern Thailand' (unpublished manuscript).
125. Stewart E. Guthrie, Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 191.
126. Majupuria, Erawan shrine, pp. 21 (quotation) and 6 (thewada).
127. Ishii, Sangha, state, and society, p. 29.
128. 'Forest monks' and 'magic monks' are not exactly the same, but the two categories closely overlap. The first term primarily refers to forest-dwelling monks (aranyawasi), as distinct from city/ village-dwelling monks (khamawasi). They are generally regarded for their strict meditation training and practice and are believed to have acquired a high quality of mind perfection (barami) and to possess supernatural knowledge and skills such as invulnerability. Some of them have become practitioners of magic or supernaturalism, and with the rapid commercialization of Thai Buddhism in recent decades, many are now considered as 'magic monks' (kechi achan), a term which in its current usage simply refers to any monk involved in the use of magic for commercial purposes.
129. See Jackson, 'Royal spirits'.
130. Wanlapha Khwanyun, 'Latthi phithi bucha Somdet To Wat Rakhang' [The cult worshipping Somdet To Wat Rakhang], Sinlapa Watthanatham [Art and Culture] (henceforth S M, 15, 4 (1994): 160.
131. For Luang Pu To's biography see Yot phra kan Tripitaka [The best collection of mantras from the Tripitaka] (Bangkok: Metta Press, 1995).
132. Interview, Aunt Kham Thong, 14 July 1996.
133. Jiraphat Praphatwitthaya, 'Khwam samphan rawang satsana Phut kap satsana Phram' [The relationship between Buddhism and Brahmanism], SW, 13, 9 (1992): 96-117.
134. Mara refers to 'the embodiment of evil'; Richard B. Davis, Muang metaphysics: A study of Northern Thai myth and ritual (Bangkok: Pandora, 1984), p. 223.
135. Nithi Aeusiwong [Nithi Aeusrivongse], 'Latthi phithi Chao Mae Kwan Im' [The cult of Guanyin], SW, 15, 10 (1994): 79-106.
136. Ibid., p. 85.
137. Phonpiya Khwanbunchan, 'Latthi phithi Chao Mae Kwan Im' [The cult of Guanyin] (B.A. thesis, Silapakorn University, 1994). Since Theravada no longer has female ordination, several Thai women have chosen to be ordained as Mahayana bhikkuni.
138. Morris, In the place of origins, p. 164.
139. Nithi Aeusiwong [Nithi Aeusrivongse], 'Latthi phithi Sadet Pho Ro. Ha' [The cult of King Rama V], SW, 14, 10 (1993): 83.
140. Interview, Aunt Sai, 14 June 1995.
141. Swearer, Buddhist world, p. 104.
142. Mahalap, Poet pratu tamnak song [Inside the spirit shrines] (Bangkok: Than Tawan Books, 1995). King Chulalongkorn is widely known in the cult as 'father' (Sadet Pho or Pa), which indicates how closely the Thai regard their great king and how influential he was, and still is, on popular thinking and religious tradition.
143. On Thao Suranari see Charles F. Keyes, 'National heroine or local spirit? The struggle over memory in the case of Thao Suranari of Nakhon Ratchasima', in Tanabe and Keyes ed., Cultural crisis and social memory, pp. 113-36
144. and Suriya Smutkupt et al., Song chao khao phi: Watthakam lae wikhrit khong khwamthansamai nai sangkhom Thai [Spirit-medium cult discourses and crises of modernity in Thailand] (Bangkok: Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhon Anthropology Center, 1996).
145. The Northern Thai figures are discussed in Rosalind Morris, 'The empress's new clothes: Dressing and redressing modernity in northern Thai spirit mediumship', in The transformative power of cloth in Southeast Asia, ed. Lynne Milgram and Penny Van Esterik (Montreal: Canadian Asian Studies Association, 1994), pp. 53-74
146. Morris, In the place of origins
147. Shalardchai Ramitanondh, Phi chaonai [Spirits of the lords] (Bangkok: Phayab Offset Print, 1984).
148. Keyes, 'National heroine';
149. see Saipin Kaew-ngamprasert, Kanmuang nai anusawari Thao Suranari [Politics in the Thao Suranari Monument] (Bangkok: Matichon Press, 1995).
150. Interview, Aunt Toi, 45, 14 Aug. 1996.
151. Phleng Khorat is a genre of folksong which features pairs of male and female singers exchanging impromptu compositions. It is believed that this kind of song is Ya Mo's favorite entertainment; when people pay homage to her, a troupe of phleng Khorat singers is usually hired to perform. There are troupes for hire available in business compounds around the monument.
152. Rosalind Shaw and Charles Stewart, 'Introduction: Problematizing syncretism', in Syncretism/anti-syncretism: The politics of religious synthesis, ed. Charles Stewart and Rosalind Shaw (London: Routledge, 1994), p. 1.
153. Jackson, 'Enchanting spirit', p. 50.
154. The term 'discipline technologies' is informed by Foucault's notion of the 'technology of power', whereby technology is used as a tool to restrict, control and dominate; it is turned into a means to exercise power and to dictate the will of the subject. See Michel Foucault, Discipline and punishment: The birth of the prison, tr. Alan Sheridan (New York: Vintage Books, 1977)
155. and Foucault, Power/knowledge. In Thai urban spirit-medium cults and popular Buddhism, practitioners utilize new audio-visual devices, fantastic attire and restrictions on their diet, activities and other private behaviour as part of the teaching and ritual process.
156. Richard H. Roberts, 'Introduction: Religion and capitalism - a new convergence?', in Religion and the transformations of capitalism: Comparative approaches, ed. Richard H. Roberts (London: Routledge, 1995), p. 1.
157. Matichon Daily, 23 Dec. 1995.
158. William A. Callahan, Imagining democracy: Reading 'the events of May' in Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998), p. 11.
159. Nestor Garcia Canclini, 'Hybrid cultures, oblique power', in Media and cultural studies: Keyworks, ed. Meenakshi Gigi Durham and Douglas M. Kellner (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), p. 488.
160. Callahan, Imagining democracy, p. 11.
161. Quoted in Sanitsuda, Keeping the faith, p. 36.
162. Young, Colonial desire, p. 27.
163. Quoted in Sanitsuda, Keeping the faith, p. 6.
164. Jackson, 'Royal spirits', p. 248.