Volume III Part 9 (1/2)
Another cla.s.s of ceremonies may be described as royal, inasmuch as they are religious only in so far as they invoke religion to protect royalty. Such are the anniversaries of the birth and coronation of the king and the Thu? Nam or drinking of the water of allegiance which takes place twice a year. At Bangkok all officials a.s.semble at the Palace and there drink and sprinkle on their heads water in which swords and other weapons have been dipped thus invoking vengeance on themselves should they prove disloyal. Jars of this water are despatched to Governors who superintend the performance of the same ceremony in the provincial capitals. It is only after the water has been drunk that officials receive their half yearly salary. Monks are excused from drinking it but the chief ecclesiastics of Bangkok meet in the Palace temple and perform a service in honour of the occasion.
Besides these public solemnities there are a number of domestic festivals derived from the twelve Sam?skras of the Hindus. Of these only three or four are kept up by the nations of Indo-China, namely the shaving of the first hair of a child a month after birth, the giving of a name, and the piercing of the ears for earrings. This last is observed in Burma and Laos, but not in Siam and Camboja where is subst.i.tuted for it the Kn Chu?k or shaving of the topknot, which is allowed to grow until the eleventh or thirteenth year. This ceremony, which is performed on boys and girls alike, is the most important event in the life of a young Siamese and is celebrated by well-to-do parents with lavish expenditure. Those who are indigent often avail themselves of the royal bounty, for each year a public ceremony is performed in one of the temples of Bangkok at which poor children receive the tonsure gratis. An elaborate description of the tonsure rites has been published by Gerini[231]. They are of considerable interest as showing how closely Buddhist and Brahmanic rites are intertwined in Siamese family life.
Marriages are celebrated with a feast to which monks are invited but are not regarded as religious ceremonies. The dead are usually disposed of by cremation, but are often kept some time, being either embalmed or simply buried and exhumed subsequently. Before cremation the coffin is usually placed within the grounds of a temple. The monks read Suttas over it and it is said[232] that they hold ribbons which enter into the coffin and are supposed to communicate to the corpse the merit acquired by the recitations and prayers.
3
In the preceding pages mention has often been made not only of Brahmanic rites but of Brahman priests[233]. These are still to be found in Bangkok attached to the Court and possibly in other cities.
They dress in white and have preserved many Hindu usages but are said to be poor Sanskrit scholars. Indeed Gerini[234] seems to say that they use Pali in some of their recitations. Their princ.i.p.al duty is to officiate at Court functions, but wealthy families invite them to take part in domestic rites, and also to cast horoscopes and fix lucky days. It is clear that the presence of these Brahmans is no innovation. Brahmanism must have been strong in Siam when it was a province of Camboja, but in both countries gave way before Buddhism.
Many rites, however, connected with securing luck or predicting the future were too firmly established to be abolished, and, as Buddhist monks were unwilling to perform them[235] or not thought very competent, the Brahmans remained and were perhaps reinforced from time to time by new importations, for there are still Brahman colonies in Ligor and other Malay towns. Siamese lawbooks, like those of Burma, seem to be mainly adaptations of Indian Dharma.s.stras.
On a cursory inspection, Siamese Buddhism, especially as seen in villages, seems remarkably free from alien additions. But an examination of ancient buildings, of royal temples in Bangkok and royal ceremonial, suggests on the contrary that it is a mixed faith in which the Brahmanic element is strong. Yet though this element appeals to the superst.i.tion of the Siamese and their love of pageantry, I think that as in Burma it has not invaded the sphere of religion and ethics more than the Pit?akas themselves allow. In art and literature its influence has been considerable. The story of the Ramayana is ill.u.s.trated on the cloister walls of the royal temple at Bangkok and Indian mythology has supplied a mult.i.tude of types to the painter and sculptor; such as Yomma: rt (Yma), Phaya Man (Mra), Phra: In (Indra). These are all deities known to the Pit?akas but the sculptures or images[236] in Siamese temples also include Ganesa, Phra: Narai (Nryana or Vishn?u) riding on the Garuda and Phra: Isun (Siva) riding on a bull. There is a legend that the Buddha and Siva tried which could make himself invisible to the other. At last the Buddha sat on Siva's head and the G.o.d being unable to see him acknowledged his defeat. This story is told to explain a small figure which Siva bears on his head and recalls the legend found in the Pit?akas[237] that the Buddha made himself invisible to Brahm but that Brahm had not the corresponding power. Lingas are still venerated in a few temples, for instance at Wat Ph in Bangkok, but it would appear that the majority (_e.g._ those found at Pra Pratom and Lophburi) are survivals of ancient Brahmanic wors.h.i.+p and have a purely antiquarian importance. The Brahmanic cosmology which makes Mt. Meru the centre of this Universe is generally accepted in ecclesiastical treatises and paintings, though the educated Siamese may smile at it, and when the topknot of a Siamese prince is cut off, part of the ceremony consists in his being received by the king dressed as Siva on the summit of a mound cut in the traditional shape of Mt. Kailsa.
Like the Nts of Burma, Siam has a spirit population known as Phs[238]. The name is occasionally applied to Indian deities, but the great majority of Phs fall into two cla.s.ses, namely, ghosts of the dead and nature spirits which, though dangerous, do not rise above the position of good or bad fairies. In the first cla.s.s are included the Ph Pre~t, who have the characteristics as well as the name of the Indian Pretas, and also a mult.i.tude of beings who like European ghosts, haunt houses and behave in a mysterious but generally disagreeable manner. The Pham is apparently our nightmare. The ghosts of children dying soon after birth are apt to kill their mothers and in general women are liable to be possessed by Phs. The ghosts of those who have died a violent death are dangerous but it would seem that Siamese magicians know how to utilize them as familiar spirits. The better sort of ghosts are known as Cho Ph and shrines called San Cho are set up in their honour. It does not however appear that there is any hierarchy of Phs like the thirty-seven Nts of Burma.
Among those Phs who are not ghosts of the dead the most important is the Ph ru?en or guardian spirit of each house. Frequently a little shrine is erected for him at the top of a pole. There are also innumerable Phs in the jungle mostly malevolent and capable of appearing either in human form or as a dangerous animal. But the tree spirits are generally benevolent and when their trees are cut down they protect the houses that are made of them.
Thus the Buddhism of Siam, like that of Burma, has a certain admixture of Brahmanism and animism. The Brahmanism is perhaps more striking than in Burma on account of the Court ceremonies: the belief in spirits, though almost universal, seems to be more retiring and less conspicuous. Yet the inscription of Rma Komhng mentioned above a.s.serts emphatically that the prosperity of the Empire depends on due honour being shown to a certain mountain spirit[239].
It is pretty clear that the first introduction of Hinayanist Buddhism into Siam was from Southern Burma and Pegu, but that somewhat later Ceylon was accepted as the standard of orthodoxy. A learned thera who knew the Sinhalese Tipitaka was imported thence, as well as a branch of the Bo-tree. But Siamese patriotism flattered itself by imagining that the national religion was due to personal contact with the Buddha, although not even early legends can be cited in support of such traditions. In 1602 a mark in the rocks, now known as the Phra: Bt, was discovered in the hills north of Ayuthia and identified as a footprint of the Buddha similar to that found on Adam's Peak and in other places. Burma and Ceylon both claim the honour of a visit from the Buddha but the Siamese go further, for it is popularly believed that he died at Praten, a little to the north of Phra Pathom, on a spot marked by a slab of rock under great trees[240]. For this reason when the Government of India presented the king of Siam with the relics found in the Piprava vase, the gift though received with honour, aroused little enthusiasm and was placed in a somewhat secluded shrine[241].
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 188: The princ.i.p.al sources for information about Siamese Buddhism are: _Journal of Siam Society_, 1904, and onwards.
L. Fournereau, _Le Siam Ancien_, 2 vols. 1895 and 1908 in _Annales du Muse Guimet_. Cited here as Fournereau.
Mission Pavie II, _Histoire du Laos, du Cambodge et du Siam_, 1898.
Gerini, _Researches on Ptolemy's Geography of Eastern Asia_, 1909.
Cited here as Gerini, _Ptolemy_.
Gerini, _Chulakantamangala or Tonsure Ceremony_, 1893.
H. Alabaster, _The Wheel of the Law_, 1871.
P.A. Thompson, _Lotus Land_, 1906.
W.A. Graham, _Siam_, 1912.
Pet.i.thuguenin, ”Notes critiques pour servir l'histoire du Siam,”
_B.E.F.E.O._ 1916, No. 3.
Coeds, ”Doc.u.ments sur la Dynastie de Sukhodaya,” _ib._ 1917, No. 2.
Much curious information may be found in the _Directory for Bangkok and Siam_, a most interesting book. I have only the issue for 1907.
I have adopted the conventional European spelling for such words as may be said to have one. For other words I have followed Pallegoix's dictionary (1896) for rendering the vowels and tones in Roman characters, but have departed in some respects from his system of transliterating consonants as I think it unnecessary and misleading to write j and x for sounds which apparently correspond to y and ch as p.r.o.nounced in English.