Informal Northern Thai Group Bulletin

March 04, 2013

1. MINUTES of the 357th Meeting : February 12, 2013 : “Tai Supernaturalism : Recent

Research”. A talk by Susan CONWAY, Research Associate, Center of Southeast Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

1.1. Attendance list. 1.2. The text of the talk. 1.3. Presentation of a Basic List of Sources on yantras in three academic libraries in

Chiang Mai. 2. NEXT INTG MEETING : 358th Meeting : 12 March 2013 : “Mystery and Diversity at

the Plain of Jars, Laos”. A Talk by Lia Genovese, PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

3. FUTURE INTG MEETINGS. 4. FOR THAILAND RESIDENTS AND HALF-RESIDENTS… 5. ANNOUNCEMENT: 12TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THAI STUDIES:

UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. THEME: “THAILAND IN THE WORLD”. A NOTE AND REMINDER FROM PHILIP HIRSCH.

6. INTG CONTACTS. 1. MINUTES of the 357th Meeting : February 12, 2013 : “Tai Supernaturalism : Recent

Research”. A talk by Susan CONWAY, Research Associate, Center of Southeast Asian Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

1.1. PRESENT : Hans Bänziger, Saengdao Bänziger, Diane Barber-Reilly, Mark Barber-Reilly, Daniel Bellamy, James Bogle, John Butt, Martha Butt, Tony Christiaens, Zita Clarke, Gordon Conway, Peter Davey, Robert Dubiel, Pauline Erero, Doug Fraiser, Meg Fraiser, Louis Gabaude, Carol Grodsins, Ivan Hall, Oliver Hardgreave, Celeste Holland, Reinhard Hohler, Han Andre Iluk, Rupert Jackson, Brenda Joyce, Peter Kouwenberg, Flynn Marshall, Jeff McNeill, Narong Pongpandecha, Jacques Op de Laak, Michael Peare, Pensupa Sukhata Jai Inn, Brian Prior, Geoff Punlott, Lorri Punlott, Jim Reed, Ron Renard, Rosakon Siriyuktanont, Yossi Rosenboim, Suriya Smutkupt, Gary Suwannarat, Edwandre Tuyll, Willem van Gogh, Renee Vines, Richard Weatherley, Rebecca Weldon, Tom Westheimer. A total of 47 at least. 1.2. THE 357th Talk : “Tai Supernaturalism : Recent Research” by Susan Conway. Magic is common to all cultures. In some it is widely believed and practiced. In others it is barely perceptible. As a belief system it stands alone or is part of a major religion, such as Theravada Buddhism.

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This lecture focuses on the Tai magical-religious belief systems of the Shan people of Burma (Myanmar) and the Tai of Lan Na (northern Thailand). Most scholarly research focuses on ritual, ritual practices, and the oral transmission of magic power. This lecture concentrates on primarily on ritual material, particularly manuscripts containing prescriptions for creating supernatural power. Villagers speak of these objects in terms of maximising good luck and minimising bad luck and if in a dispute of some kind, making bad luck happen to an adversary. In Western parlance this has been defined as managing risk and immeasurable uncertainty.1

I began this project by building a photographic record of images (illustrations and diagrams) and texts (Pāli incantations, spells and ritual instructions) from manuscripts dedicated to the arts of the supernatural. The manuscripts are from museum and private collections, in Europe, USA and Thailand. The second stage was to take copies of the photographs to show to Shan practicing experts (sala), both monks and laymen including elderly men who no longer practised but could identify some of the magic language. I attended rituals when supernatural formulae were dispensed. Although these sessions may include herbal medicines, I have not included this aspect of the procedures.

Prescribing supernatural formulae is the work of experts called sala in Shan and pho mo or achan (teacher) or pho achan in Lan Na language. The word sala translates as a craftsperson or artisan. The expression mo paeng identifies those who deal in negative power. Lan Na and Shan belief systems have been analysed by many scholars.2 According to monk scholars there are seven basic elements in the Shan and Lan Na Tai belief systems.3 They are: Theravada Buddhist doctrine and practice, healing, sacred objects, spirits, astrology, cosmology and numerology. Experts (sala) working within this belief system, observe precepts and practice meditation. They create formulae for metta and respect, for luck in business, luck in love, general forms of good luck and wish fulfillment. They heal and protect against bad luck and apocalyptic events and a small minority deal in negative power that causes harm.

In terms of healing, remedies are based on a premise that if a condition does not get better of its own accord, in a reasonable period of time, it is spirits, and negative planetary forces that are at work. The remedy is a supernatural formulae composed of yantra (Sanskrit) also called an, meaning a figurative illustration or a magic diagram. The second component is an incantation or “spell” called gāthā (Pāli/Sanskrit) or khatha (Tai), devised to empower the yantra. The third component is a text of instructions stating how, when and where yantra and gāthā should be activated. Not all gāthā are written, some are learnt by rote. Some supernatural formulae contain a high proportion of illustrations and diagrams while others are almost entirely devoted to text.

Supernatural texts are written in a variety of Tai scripts, and in Burmese, central Thai (Siamese) and Khom (Khmer). Two or more scripts are often present in a formula. This compendium of scripts is an indication of the many ethnic groups living in the region. Interesting observations have been made about the use of Pāli language in spirit rituals. In the 1960s, the anthropologist and Lan Na scholar Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda described a guardian spirit ritual that he observed on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. Chanting in Pāli, he observed was, for those present, a form of protection against spirits that according to legend craved human

1 Knight, Frank, Uncertainty and Profit (Boston, MA, Hart, Schaffner & Marx; Houghton Mifflin Co., 1921), quoted at the ANRC and RCSD Workshop ‘Human Security and Religious Certainty in Southeast Asia’, Chiang Mai, Thailand (15th-17th January 2010). 2 See: Papers presented at the Conference on Shan Buddhism, The SOAS Centre for Buddhist Studies, 8-9th December 2007 : Dhammasami, Khammai : "Growing, but as a Sideline: An Overview of Modern Shan Monastic Education" ; Senpan, Pannavamsa : "Recital of the Tham Vessantara-Jataka: a Socio-cultural Phenomenon in Kengtung, Eastern Shan State, Myanmar" ; Sheravanichkul, Arthid: "Pu Khwan Khao worship of Tai Yai in Yunnan: fertility and Buddhist felicity" ; Karlsson, Klemens: "Tai Khun Buddhism and Ethnic-Religious Identity" ; Jirattikorn, Amporn: "Shan Noises, Burmese Sound: Crafting Selves through Pop Music" ; Tannenbaum, Nicola: "Being Shan on the Thai Side of the Border: Continuities and Transformations in Shan Culture and Identity in Maehongson, Thailand". See also : Eberhardt, Nancy : Imagining the Course of Life: Self-transformation in a Shan Buddhist Community (Honolulu, HI, University of Hawaii Press, 2006); Kraisri Nimmanahaeminda: "The Lawa Guardian Spirits of Chiangmai", Journal of the Siam Society, 55, 1967, pp. 185-225; Sai Kham Mong : The History and Development of the Shan Scripts (Chiang Mai, Silkworm Books, 2004); Spiro, Melford E. : Burmese Supernaturalism (Prentice Hall, 1967) ; Terwiel, Barend Jan : Monks and Magic (Curzon Press, 1975 ; 2nd ed., 1979 ; 3rd. ed., 1994 ; 4th revised ed., 2012 by NIAS Press, Copenhagen). 3 This list was assembled with the help of Phra Khru Wimonsilapakij of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Wat Phra Kaeo, Chiang Rai

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flesh.4 Sommai Premchit and Amphay Doré watched a spirit ceremony in which a lay expert (sala) invoked the spirits and spoke on their behalf in local language (kham mueang) and Pāli for Buddhist texts.5

In the manuscripts shown below, letters are the tool for creating illustrations, each contorted by shortening or elongating them into mystical shapes, the words forming incantations or magic spells.

The example illustrated below is made from Burmese letters that form the words of a Pāli incantation. The drawing is known as "Jewelled wall" and is an incantation of great force. The letters are lengthened and compressed to form an anthropomorphic shape with a wide, flat base stacked into six tiers, tapering at the top to a shape that resembles the head of an insect.

The incantation is prescribed as a form of protection and is learnt by rote. Its purpose is to deflect negative power. When physically threatened, the victim whispers the words of the incantation into the top of a closed fist then opens it and directs the flat palm towards the attacker.

4 Nimmaenhaeminda (BE 2527, 1967). 5 Sommai Premchit & Doré, A., The Lan Na Twelve-Month Traditions, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai University, 1992.

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Animals make up a proportion of these types of drawings. The tiger is recognised for attributes of stealth, speed, and physical force that men try to capture. In this image taken from a manuscript belonging to an expert (sala) in Mae Hong Son province, the tiger is in profile with thirty lotus-shaped protuberances emanating from the mouth, head, claws. A protective incantation surrounds the image. It was described by the sala as an extremely powerful magic spell used with Shan or Tai Yai letters and symbols.6

The following illustration is a sketch from a monk’s notebook, drawn using red and blue biros. The tiger pounces with teeth bared and claws extended. The body contains a magic spell and an incantation encircles it.

This image and the text was copied from an old tattoo manuscript.

Supernatural formulae also contain diagrams, usually formatted in grids containing letters, syllables and phrases that represent codes for incantations and spells. Numbers are calibrated from planetary systems, numerology, and Buddhist cosmology. Monks and lay sala invoke the power of Buddhism and the spirits.7

An example of a cosmological diagram incorporating the cardinal directions comes from a manuscript in the collection of the Horniman Museum.8 (Ref. nn 12674, 154-155).

The four squares at the top are divided into nine equal-sized squares each containing magic letters and numbers written in Shan or Tai Yai and Burmese script. Although they can be translated, the code itself is a mystery. The square in the top left contains the number eleven, the syllable “th” and the number five, in the second line a six, the letter “v” and an unidentified letter. The third line contains numbers three and one repeated twice and a four. Similar sets of letters and numbers occur in the other squares. The numbers one to seven, representing the seven days of the week, are written in a line above each diagram. Four narrow columns attached to the squares symbolise the cardinal directions, sequentially starting in the left with North. Each column contains a protective Pāli incantation written in Burmese script and an incantation in Tham Lan Na script. The instructions written below the diagram are in Tham

Lan Na script. Diagrams of this type were etched on wood and fixed in boundary walls as protective markers, sited in the cardinal directions.9 Pāli incantations and magic spells in kham mueang were chanted at the time they were installed. 6 Gaysorn and Kan-na Rubnamtham, Mae Hong Son Province (fieldwork January 2010). 7 In Lan Na, the guardians are Gandharakkhito, Surajato, Jayabhumo and Sulakkhito. 8 The Horniman Museum and Gardens, 100 London Rd, Forest Hill, London, SE23.

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Although illustrations and diagrams contain elements of Hindu, Chinese and Buddhist belief systems they have been adapted and in some cases reinvented to suit local Tai belief systems. This is evident in the choice of script and iconography and the aesthetic and spiritual value ascribed to local ritual materials. It is transferable but restricted knowledge. The material culture of the supernatural is one way of expressing ethnic and cultural identity. Power belongs to experts (sala) who are keepers of the knowledge and followers of established precepts.

1.3. A Basic List of Sources about the Talk and the magic diagrams or “yantra” available in three academic libraries in Chiang Mai (Separate document : “Yantra” in Chiang Mai libraries – A basic search). Chiang Mai residents who want to expand their knowledge and look for tools about most of the topics presented in our INTG talks can now enjoy academic resources on three sites : 1) Chiang Mai University offers not only a Central library but as many libraries as Faculties and Institutes. 2) Payap University offers also a main library with unique holdings on Archives for the Protestant missions

in the North, Linguistics and Christian theology. 3) The École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) or The French School of Asian Studies has now a

new library with not only sources in French on Indochina and Asia but also with many holdings in English and Thai on Anthropology, Archaeology, History and Buddhism. However, their electronic catalog is not yet complete.

On the occasion of Dr. Susan Conway’s talk, I have tried to make basic searches for sources about her talk and the magic diagrams or “yantra”. The searches, limited to sources in European languages, were made in Chiang Mai University Library and Payap University Library websites. For the EFEO Library and what still remains in my personal library, I have used my own database. You will find the result of the searches in a separate attached PDF document: « Yantra » in Chiang Mai Academic Libraries – A Basic Search. The various sites hold actually more than is offered here. If interested, please do more detailed searches on the net or ask for help from the librarians. L.G.

9 Wood relates to the Year of the Tiger and the Year of the Rabbit. It is defined as scented, dry, hard, or mountain wood.

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2. NEXT INTG MEETING : 358th Meeting : March 12, 2013, Alliance Française, 7:30

p.m. : “Mystery and Diversity at the Plain of Jars, Laos”. A Talk by Lia Genovese, PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

More than two thousand years after they were manufactured by skilled masons, the megalithic jars of Xieng Khouang Province are still shrouded in mystery. Little is known about the makers of these jars, the purpose for which they were created and what rituals, if any, were associated with them. Dating of the jars has also attracted a range of theories. Several theories have been proposed about the function of the jars. Were they containers for the distillation of the body after death, prior to secondary burial, or did they perform a ceremonial or commemorative function? The recessed inner rim, carved just below the lip of some jars, has prompted suggestions that it was intended to support a “lid”, in the shape of a stone disc often found near the jars. These two theories – jars as containers and the recessed inner rim as support for a “lid” – have been linked but are difficult to reconcile with the limited quantity of stone discs found at most sites. Furthermore, stone discs are also found in the immediate vicinity of jars not carved with a recessed inner rim. At some sites, non-local blocks of stone are spread among jars of a different rock, while elsewhere jars carved from granite surround a single jar carved from sandstone. Abandoned jars, both fully carved and in the process of being sculpted, are found at sandstone quarries, but sources of granite have eluded geological surveys. Recent findings hint at potential connections between faraway sites. In the northwest of the province, two massive sandstone jars have been carved with two openings - one at the mouth and another at the base. Is there a connection with an abandoned jar, 50km away, which the mason had also attempted to carve with two openings? These are the only three known examples of urns carved with double openings. Jars buried up to their neck, as at Song Méng, continue to fascinate researchers. The French archaeologist Madeleine Colani (1866-1943) suggested the practice may be linked to the occult, an early theory which has not received support. Colani also reported buried urns at ‘Eleven Jars’, a site 80km distant from Song Méng. For the population of Xieng Khouang, the jars are unequivocally gigantic cups for the fermented wine drank in a seven-month celebration, after a benevolent Khmer king liberated the province from an oppressive foreign ruler in the seventh century. This legend is often accompanied by another myth, that the jars were fashioned not from rock, but by a boiled mixture of buffalo skin, brown sugar, sand and gravel. At 2012, the number of known sites stands at 74 but as more sites are discovered, it is the diversity in jar shape and decorations that attract increasing interest, dispelling the notion that the Plain of Jars is a vast necropolis populated by uniformly-shaped urns randomly scattered over the slopes of hills in a remote corner of Laos. Please join me for a presentation that will show stone artefacts from some of the most remote sites in Xieng Khouang and for an opportunity also to discuss aspects of my theories in my forthcoming doctoral thesis.

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BIO-DATA Lia Genovese is a PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. In September 2013 she will submit her thesis titled ‘Redefining the Plain of Jars of Laos’. Her interest for the magnificent Plain of Jars was sparked while working as a volunteer in the Culture Unit of UNESCO Bangkok in 2007-8. Email: <trinacria_1955@yahoo.co.uk> Publications Genovese, L. 2011. ‘Madeleine Colani and the Deprat Scandal at the Geological Survey of Indochina’, Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 99, pp. 269-290. http://www.siam-society.org/OJS/index.php/JSS/article/view/285/JSS_099_0q_Genovese_MadeleineColaniAndDepratScandal.pdf Genovese, L. 2012. The Plain of Jars: Mysterious and Imperilled http://ghn.globalheritagefund.com/uploads/documents/document_2006.pdf Genovese, L. 2013 [Forthcoming]. The Plain of Jars of Laos - A Researcher’s Journey and Perspective (provisional title). Chapter in the revised edition of Land of the White Parasols and the Million Elephants - A Journey Through the Jungles of Indo-China, to be published in 2013 simultaneously in the UK and USA. 3. FUTURE INTG MEETINGS (7:30 p.m. at the Alliance Française, Chiang Mai) 358th Meeting : 12 March 2013 : “Mystery and Diversity at the Plain of Jars, Laos”. A Talk by Lia Genovese, PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London.

359th Meeting : 9 April 2013 : “Tai Khuen culture, Burmanization and the 600th Anniversary of Songkran in Keng Tung”. A Talk by Klemens Karlsson, Head of the Department of Publication Infrastructure at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm Sweden.

360th Meeting : 13 May 2013 : A Talk on community legal services in the Region by Wendy Morrish, Director of the Community Legal Education Initiative. [To be confirmed]

361st Meeting : 11 June 2013 : “Coping with HIV in Adolescence: the Situation in Thailand”. A Talk by Dr. Sophie Le Cœur, Institut National d’Études Démographiques (INED) & Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France + Program for HIV Prevention and Treatment, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 4. FOR THAILAND RESIDENTS AND HALF-RESIDENTS Those who happen to go regularly to the Chiang Mai Immigration Office near the Airport for various amusing operations might be interested in voicing their wishes through a petition addressed to the Thai Government. Here is the link: http://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/demand-government-to-support-chiang-mai-immigration-office In principle, one should not be afraid to be jailed or, better, led to the border the next morning after joining the petition because you enjoy a full green light by Police Colonel Prachak Awaiyawanont himself, superintendent of Chiang Mai, Lamphun and Lampang Immigration. See his interview at: http://www.chiangmainews.com/ecmn/viewfa.php?id=3724

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5. 12TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THAI STUDIES: UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA. THEME: “THAILAND IN THE WORLD”. A NOTE AND REMINDER FROM PHILIP HIRSCH The University of Sydney will host the Twelfth International Conference on Thai Studies (ICTS12) on

April 22-24, 2014. This is a reminder that proposals for panels were due by the end of February 2013. Full details of the conference, and the online forms for panel and paper proposals and for registration are available at: www.sydney.edu.au/thaistudies2014

Since 1981, ICTS has been held every three years at different universities in and outside Thailand. This

will be the first ICTS to be held in a city outside Thailand that has a significant Thai population, and this will help define the over-arching theme of the conference. Thailand in the World also anticipates the ASEAN Community in 2015, recognizes the globalization of the Thai economy, and follows a longstanding interest of ICTS in the broader world of Tai cultures beyond Thailand’s borders. As previously, the conference will be also open to a wide range of themes in the field of Thai Studies. We look forward to seeing you in Sydney in 2014! Philip Hirsch ICTS12 Organising Committee Chair Philip Hirsch | Professor of Human Geography | Director, Mekong Research Group (AMRC) School of Geosciences THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY Rm 472, Madsen F09 | The University of Sydney | NSW | 2006 | Australia T +61 2 9351 3355 | F +61 2 9351 3644 E philip.hirsch@sydney.edu.au | W www.usyd.edu.au/mekong/people/staff/philip_hirsch.shtml 6. INTG CONTACTS : Convenor - Secretary - Website 1) Convenor : Rebecca Weldon : e-mail : < rebecca.weldon@gmail.com>. Mobile : 087 193 67 67. 2) Secretary : Louis Gabaude : e-mail : <gabaudel@yahoo.com>. Mobile : 087 188 50 99. 3) INTG Website : http ://www.intgcm.thehostserver.com

Thank you for printing the following pages and posting it/them on any board you can

Informal Northern Thai Group (INTG) 28 years of Talks!

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Mystery and Diversity

At The

Plain of Jars, Laos

A Talk by Lia Genovese

Tuesday 12 March 2013 : 19:30 At the ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE – Chiang Mai

138, Charoen Prathet Road, Opposite Wat Chaimongkhon & EFEO

Informal Northern Thai Group (INTG) 28 years of Talks!

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Tai Khuen Culture,

Burmanization and Songkran

in Keng Tung

A Talk by Klemens Karlsson Tuesday 9 April 2013 : 19:30

At the ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE – Chiang Mai

138, Charoen Prathet Road, Opposite Wat Chaimongkhon & EFEO