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The death of a Northern Thai hermit: A case study of religious transition and schism in a Buddhist community

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

Paul T. Cohen
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Abstract

This article examines the life and death of Phra Pho Pan, a charismatic hermit of northern Thailand whose Buddhist beliefs and utopian philosophy reflect the dissident holy man (ton bun) tradition of Lanna Buddhism and, in particular, that of the renowned forest monks Khruba Siwichai and Khruba Khao Pi. Phra Pho Pan's death in 2016 has led to a radical shift in the religious affiliation of his hermitage. I argue that a major agent of this transformation has been a female hermit and spirit medium whose own religious quest reflects the more independent and assertive role of women in the Thai religious domain, but one which is conservative and aligned with Thai nationalism. I also consider the dissension that has arisen between key supporters and opponents of this realignment and dramatically made visible in ceremonies commemorating Phra Pho Pan's death.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 154 - 178
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2019 

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Footnotes

He would like to thank the two anonymous reviewers for their well-informed and helpful comments and suggestions.

References

1 ‘Khuba’ in the Northern Thai (Kam Muang) dialect.

2 Justin McDaniel argues that manuscripts travelled between northern Thailand and Laos and that Luang Phrabang (as centre of the Lan Xang kingdom) also influenced Lanna (‘Northern Thai’) Buddhism, especially during the nineteenth century. McDaniel, J., ‘Notes on the Lao influence on Northern Thai Buddhist literature’, in The literary heritage of Laos, ed. Nettavong, Kongdeuane, Harald Hundius, Dara Kanlaya, David Wharton and Khantamali Yangnuvong (Vientiane: National University of Laos, 2005), pp. 376–96Google Scholar.

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4 Bowie, Katherine A., ‘Khruba Siwichai: The charismatic saint and the northern sangha’, in Charismatic monks of Lanna Buddhism, ed. Cohen, Paul T. (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2017), pp. 30, 38–43Google Scholar.

5 Jan Nattier, Once upon a future time: Studies in a Buddhist prophecy of decline (Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1991), pp. 8–17.

6 Buddhaghosa's timetable is contained in the Manorathapurani, his commentary on the Pali canonical Anguttaranikaya (ibid., p. 56, n.72).

7 Betty Nguyen, ‘Calamity cosmologies: Buddhist ethics and the creation of a moral community’ (PhD diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014), p. 151.

8 Ibid., pp. 3, 5.

9 Ibid., p. 47.

10 Katherine Bowie argues that the Ordination Act of 1913 and the Military Conscription Act of 1905 (which came into effect in the north in 1914) limited exemptions of novices and monks from military conscription and were major sources of conflict between the Siamese state, the northern sangha and villagers in the north. Bowie, K., ‘Of Buddhism and militarism in northern Thailand: Solving the puzzle of the saint Khruubaa Srivichai’, Journal of Asian Studies 7, 3 (2014): 714Google Scholar.

11 Bowie describes earlier opposition to Siamese intervention by Khruba Sopha (1832–1915) who became head of the Lanna sangha (sangharaja) in circa 1895. She suggests that Sopha was concerned with Bangkok's ‘encroachment on the political independence of the northern sangha’. He was also vehemently opposed to military conscription of novices and monks. Bowie, ‘Khruba Siwichai: The charismatic saint and the northern sangha’, pp. 45–6.

12 Ibid., pp. 27, 28.

13 Kwanchewan Srisawat (Buadaeng), ‘The Karen and the Khruba Khao Pi movement: A historical study of the response to the transformation in northern Thailand’ (Masters’ thesis, Ateneo de Manila University, 1988), p. 128.

14 Khruba Khao Pi, Nangsue sasana 2 hong [Two religious classifications] (Chiang Mai: Ubatiphong, 1951).

15 Charles Keyes defines a bodhisatta (a ‘savior saint’) as ‘the enlightened being who foregoes realization of final attainment of Nibbana in order to spread his compassion to others, thereby helping them along the road to salvation’ by contrast with the arahat (‘mystical saint’) as ‘the being who has successfully realized Nibbana for himself’. Charles F. Keyes, ‘Death of two Buddhist saints in Thailand’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 48, 3–4 (1981): 150.

16 Kwanchewan, ‘The Karen and the Khruba Khao Pi movement’, pp. 131–4.

17 This article is based on my research and writings on Phra Pho Pan over a period of 50 years (including extensive interviews in 2017 and 2018), as well as the work of Shigeharu Tanabe since the mid-1980s.

18 According to McDaniel, ‘Hermits have been part of Buddhist practice in Thailand for centuries’, Justin McDaniel, ‘This Hindu holy man is a Thai Buddhist’, South East Asia Research 21, 2 (2013): 206. Some Lanna chronicles identify hermits as founders of towns, including Haripunchai (now Lamphun). Donald Swearer, ‘Myth, legend and history in the northern Thai chronicles’, Journal of the Siam Society 62, 1 (1974): 71.

19 Shigeharu Tanabe, Nung lueang nung dam; Tamnan khong phu nam chao na haeng Lannathai [Wearing yellow, wearing black: A study of a Lannathai peasant leader] (Bangkok: Sangsan, 2004 [1986]), p. 122.

20 ‘Noi’ is an honorific for a male who has been ordained in the past as a Buddhist novice (samanen).

21 Paul T. Cohen, ‘The politics of economic development in northern Thailand, 1967–1978’ (PhD diss., University of London, 1981), p. 253.

22 Paul T. Cohen, ‘The sovereignty of dhamma and economic development: Buddhist social ethics in rural Thailand’, Journal of the Siam Society 72, 1–2 (1984): 197–211.

23 Tanabe, Nung lueang nung dam, pp. 127–30.

24 Cohen, ‘The sovereignty of dhamma’, p. 27.

25 For details on this scheme see Paul T. Cohen, ‘The New Heavenly Village: Utopianism and capitalist transformation in northern Thailand’, in Cultural crisis and Thai capitalist transformation, Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Thai Studies, 14–27 Oct. 1996 (Chiang Mai: Chiang Mai University, 1996), pp. 53–4.

26 Sapphanyu means ‘omniscient’ and Phra Sapphanyu is a term sometimes used for the Buddha. Every ruler of Chiang Mai before his coronation had to pay homage to the Buddha image called Phra Sapphanyu Daet Muang at Wat Chiang Yuen in Chiang Mai city.

27 A large and elaborate golden Chedi Chulamani was constructed in 2012 at Doi Sapphanyu and funded by a wealthy Bangkok family.

28 A form of temporary ordination for females that does not require the shaving of the head. Monica Lindberg Falk, Making fields of merit: Buddhist female asceticism and gendered orders in Thailand (Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2007), p. 62.

29 Tanabe, Nung lueang nung dam, p. 102.

30 Due in part to his fame as a ton bun that enabled him in 1934 and 1935 to mobilise thousands of devotees to build the road to this temple at the top of Doi (Mount) Suthep that overlooks Chiang Mai city.

31 According to the current abbot, Phra Achan Uthai, the temple-hall (wihan) was completed in 1994, after Phra Pho Pan had left.

32 Shigeharu Tanabe, ‘Autochthony and the Inthakhin cult of Chiang Mai’, in Civility and savagery: Social identity in Tai states, ed. Andrew Turton (Richmond: Curzon, 2000), p. 302.

33 Kwanchewan, ‘The Karen and the Khruba Khao Pi movement’, p. 29.

34 Some of his meditation practices were quite unconventional; for example, running around a site (wing chong krom), such as a pagoda, many times prior to meditation. See Shigeharu Tanabe, ‘Resistance through meditation: Hermits of King's Mountain in northern Thailand’, in Scholarship and engagement in mainland Southeast Asia: A festschrift in honor of Achan Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, ed. Oscar Salemink (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2016), p. 118.

35 The meaning of ‘yogi’ in this religious context is that of a lay female ascetic, not a practitioner of yoga.

36 The bai sri su khwan is a ritual for calling the soul of a person or persons as a form of blessing, usually at major life-cycle events (e.g. births, marriages, ordinations). It requires offerings in the shape of Mount Meru made of banana leaves.

37 She only met Phra Pan once at Doi Sapphanyu when he came to remove a Buddha image for installation at King's Mountain.

38 For details of this rite see Shigeharu Tanabe, ‘Hermits of King's Mountain: A Buddhist utopian movement in northern Thailand’, in Communities of potential: Social assemblages in Thailand and beyond, ed. Shigeharu Tanabe (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2016), p. 30.

39 The pagoda was originally named Chedi Sri Lanna but the name was changed to Chedi Mahachakraphat in early 2015. The inspiration for the construction of Chedi Sri Lanna followed a visit to King's Mountain by Khruba Wong (Khruba Chaiwongsa Phatthana), a prominent disciple of Khruba Siwichai who worked closely with Khruba Khao Pi and founded Wat Phra Phuttha Bat Huai Tom in Li district, Lamphun province. Khruba Wong placed five stones at the place, representing the five Buddhas, and made a wish (athitthan) that a chedi would be built here. The five Buddhas of the ‘good aeon’ (bhadrakalpa) are Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kasyapa, Sakyamuni and Maitreya (Pali: Metteyya) (Nattier, Once upon a future time, p. 21).

40 Tanabe, Nung lueang nung dam, p. 130.

41 According to Tanabe, Pan cited evidence of an inscription in a cave in Mong Ton, Shan State, Myanmar (‘Hermits of King's Mountain’, p. 40, n.11). Ruesi H. (see over) told me that another sign was the large number of ‘Tai’ (i.e. Shan) entering Thailand, as the Shan are very devout Buddhists. Phra Pho Pan had earlier distributed a leaflet proclaiming that the age of the future Buddha had arrived (yuk Ariya Mettrai dai ma thueng laeo), with the implicit message that the dark age of immorality had passed.

42 Charles F. Keyes, ‘Mother or mistress but never a monk: Buddhist notions of female gender in rural Thailand’, American Ethnologist 11, 2 (1984): 223–41.

43 Lindberg Falk, Making fields of merit, p. 23.

44 Rita M. Gross, Buddhism after patriarchy: A feminist history, analysis, and reconstruction of Buddhism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993).

45 Bhikkhuni existed in India and Sri Lanka from the time of Asoka's reign in the third century BCE, until the beginning of the second millennium CE. Steven Collins and Justin McDaniel, ‘Buddhist “nuns” (mae chi) and the teaching of Pali in contemporary Thailand’, Modern Asian Studies 44, 6 (2010): 1382.

46 Lindberg Falk, Making fields of merit, p. 38. Falk focused her research on the Ratburi Samnak Chi in western Thailand established in 1978. She notes that it was then rare for mae chi communities to be outside temples (ibid., p. 15). With reference to the forest monasteries of northeast Thailand James Taylor notes that mae chi or chi phram generally controlled ‘the cooking and domestic chores, as these monasteries had no resident laity’, J.L. Taylor, Forest monks and the nation-state: An anthropological and historical study in northeastern Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), p. 256.

47 Lindberg Falk, Making fields of merit, pp. 38–9.

48 Reiko Ohnuma, Encyclopedia of Buddhism (New York: Mamillan, 2004), p. 303.

49 Katherine Bowie, ‘Polluted identities: Ethnic diversity and the constitution of northern Thai beliefs on gender’, in Southeast Asian historiography, unravelling the myths: Essays in honour of Barend Jan Terweil, ed. Volker Grabowsky (Bangkok: River Books, 2011), pp. 112–27. Apinya Feungfusakul, ‘Identity politics and religious experience: Female movements in Theravada Buddhism in contemporary Thailand’, in Tanabe, Communities of potential, p. 196.

50 Lindberg Falk, Making fields of merit, p. 50.

51 Joanna Cook, Meditation in modern Buddhism: Renunciation and change in Thai monastic life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 1, 4, 6.

52 Marjorie Mueke, ‘Female sexuality in Thai discourses about maechii (“lay nuns”)’, Culture, Health & Sexuality 6, 3 (2004): 227.

53 Cook, Meditation in modern Buddhism, p. 5.

54 Collins and McDaniel, ‘Buddhist “nuns” (mae chi)’, pp. 1380, 1381.

55 Cook, Meditation in modern Buddhism, pp. 49, 55, 60.

56 According to Walter Irvine, Chao Pu (Lord Grandfather) is ‘a man bent and weakened by old age, who walks with difficulty, neither smokes, drinks nor womanizes and who wears the white robes of the Brahmin ritual specialist’. W. 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): 317.

57 Tanabe, ‘Hermits of King's Mountain’, p. 31.

58 Irvine, ‘Decline of village spirit cults’, p. 320.

59 Ibid., pp. 316–17.

60 Rosalind C. Morris, In the place of origins: Modernity and its mediums in northern Thailand (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000), p. 123.

61 Ibid., p. 138.

62 Tanabe, ‘Hermits of King's Mountain’, pp. 34–6.

63 The Pali term cakkavatti means ‘he who wields the wheel’ (Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary (Colombo: Frewin & Co., 1956), p. 34. In Buddhist texts the cakkavatti is idealised as conquering the world not by force but through the wheel of righteousness (Pali: dhammacakka). According to Tambiah, he is represented as ‘the propagator of the Buddhist precepts and as the overseer and guardian of the morals of his subdued tributaries’. 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), p. 46.

64 It is unlikely that the focus on the wheel-turning emperor would have disturbed Phra Pho Pan and elicited his objections as it is Cakkavatti Sankha who rules when the future Buddha is born. However, to Luang Ta Ma the cakkavatti symbolism seems to be focused on its universal, inclusive aspect rather than an association with the utopianism of the future Buddha, Ariya Metteyya.

65 This is not a monastic lineage (parampara) in the strict sense of formal ordination and pupillages (James Taylor, Buddhism and postmodern imaginings in Thailand: The religiosity of urban space [Aldershot: Ashgate, 2008], p. 133). Commenting on the ‘lineage’ of famous monks Justin McDaniel states: ‘Many of these monks did not know one another and did not teach one another systematically. However, by placing them in chronological order by birth, there is a suggestion that they form an actual lineage.’ Justin McDaniel, The lovelorn ghost and the magical monk: Practicing Buddhism in modern Thailand (New York: Columbia University Press, 2011), p. 184.

66 In his evaluation of Siamese, European and Persian sources Terweil concludes that it was unlikely that the duel ever took place and, moreover, the Burmese crown prince probably died of a gunshot fired either by Naresuan, a Siamese warrior or a Portuguese mercenary. See Terweil, Barend Jan, ‘What happened at Nong Sarai? Comparing indigenous and European sources for late 16th century Siam’, Journal of the Siam Society 101 (2013): 32–3Google Scholar.

67 Stengs, Irene, Worshipping the great modernizer: King Chulalongkorn, patron saint of the Thai middle class (Singapore: NUS Press, 2009), pp. 103Google Scholar, 245.

68 Sjon Hauser (blog), ‘Naresuan the Great, Thailand's venerated warrior king’, www.sjonhauser.nl/naresuan-the-great.html (last accessed 9 Apr. 2019).

69 www.watthummuangna.com.

70 The rooster statuettes celebrate Naresuan's victory over the Burmese crown prince in a royal cockfight after he was taken hostage to the Burmese court following Ayutthaya's defeat by Burma's army in 1568–69.

71 Jory, Patrick, ‘Luang Pho Thuat and the integration of Patani’, in Thai south and Malay north: Ethnic interaction on the plural peninsula, ed. Montesano, Michael J. and Jory, Patrick (Singapore: NUS Press, 2008), p. 294Google Scholar.

72 Stengs, Worshipping the great modernizer, p. 184.

73 Jory, ‘Luang Pho Thuat’, p. 293. Other famous Thai monks are closely connected to Thai nationalism as protectors of the nation. Luang Pho To (1788–1872) was closely involved in the lives of kings of the Chakri dynasty in the 19th century and was ‘lauded for his defensive and offensive magic, his protection of soldiers, his ability to save the nation from the French, the Germans and the Japanese’ (McDaniel, The lovelorn ghost, p. 25). He also ‘became a hero to many Thai people after the Asian financial crisis of 1997’ (ibid., p. 58). Luang Ta Mahabua (1913–2011) similarly became a ‘national saviour’ after this crisis by organising a campaign for gold donations to boost the government's treasury reserves (Taylor, Buddhism and postmodern imaginings in Thailand, p. 118).

74 This is the largest and best-known Naresuan monument in northern Thailand and is located in Muang Ngai sub-district of Chiang Dao. It is believed that Naresuan rested his troops here and prepared them for battle with the Burmese.

75 According to Phra K.’s estimate, there are 20 branch temples in Thailand, including 11 in northern Thailand.

76 Taylor, Forest monks and the nation-state, p. 24.

77 Tambiah, World conqueror and world renouncer, pp. 211–12.

78 Ibid., p. 215.

79 I visited Wat Pa Thara Phirom in Chiang Dao district twice in 2017. In the temple grounds was a large bronze image of Luang Pu Du in a meditation posture and to his right a standing image of Luang Pho Thuat. In a large temple-hall (wihan) under construction was a huge golden image of the cakkavatti (Khmer style) flanked by images of Luang Pu Du and Luang Pho Thuat.

80 One rai equals 1,600 sq. metres or 0.16 hectares.

81 Some of these hermit images were later relocated to the west of the pagoda in front of Pan's original residence (‘pavilion of the righteous ruler’).

82 The images include those of Luang Pu Du and Phra Pho Pan cast at a ceremony in front of the Chedi Mahachakraphat on 25 Apr. 2017. At Wat Tham Muang Na and the branch temples I have visited the most popular objects on sale were images of Luang Pu Du and white rosaries with an attached amulet of Luang Pu Du, consecrated by Luang Ta Ma.

83 McDaniel, The lovelorn ghost, p. 184.

84 Tanabe, ‘Hermits of King's Mountain’, p. 30.

85 Kumar, Krishan, Utopianism (Buckingham: Open University Press, 1991), p. 73Google Scholar.

86 Tanabe, ‘Resistance through meditation’, p. 124.

87 Ibid.

88 Victor Turner, ‘Social dramas and stories about them’, Critical Inquiry 7, 1 (1980): 150.

89 Ibid., p. 150.

90 Ibid., p. 159.

91 The village boundaries were established by the state land allocation scheme of 1978. Cohen, ‘The politics of economic development in northern Thailand’, p. 267.

92 Turner, Victor, ‘Dramatic ritual/ritual drama: Performative and reflexive anthropology’, Kenyon Review 1, 3 (1979): 83Google Scholar.