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Thai Protestants and Local Supernaturalism: Changing Configurations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2011

Edwin Zehner
Edwin Zehner
Affiliation:
Northern Illinois University
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Abstract

Although nineteenth-century Protestant missionaries in Siam tried to debunk local spirit beliefs and witchcraft accounts, they and their actions were perceived in terms of local supernaturalist frameworks. Late twentieth-century Thai Christians, supernaturalists themselves, have reclassified local spirit activity through their own Christian frameworks, using local vocabularies of spirit phenomena but retaining master categories of interpretation and practice drawn from North American evangelicalism. This practice puts Thai Protestant churches in a direct dialogue with their cultural contexts and leaves them positioned to benefit from Thailand's increasing religious pluralism.

Type
Symposium: Protestants and Tradition in Southeast Asia
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 2 , September 1996 , pp. 293 - 319
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1996

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References

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4 As, for example, in McGilvary, Daniel, A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lao: An Autobiography, ed. Bradley, Cornelius Beach (New York: Fleming H. Revell, 1912)Google Scholar.

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6 Ibid., pp. 16–17; Hanks, Lucien M., “The Yuan or Northern Thai”, in Highlanders of Thailand, ed. McKinnon, John and Bhruksasri, Wanat (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1986), pp. 101–111Google Scholar.

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8 Ibid., pp. 13–18. The group seems to have had some Asian assistants, including a Chinese and a Burman who helped translate the Bible, but Smith's account does not say whether they came with the mission or were hired in Siam.

9 Ibid., p. 18.

10 Ibid., p. 21; see also Kho, Samuel, 150 Years of Thankfulness: A History of the Maitrichit Chinese Baptist Church (1837–1987) (Bangkok, 1987), p. 6Google Scholar, who terms it the first Tiechiu (Swatow dialect) church in the Far East; 1984 (Prasit Phong-udom, Prawatsat Sapha Khritsajak nai Prathet Thai, Nuaingan Jotmaihet Sapha Khritsajak nai Prathet Thai, 1984) [Phong-udom, Prasit, History of the Church of Christ in Thailand (Bangkok and Chiangmai: Archives Division of the Church of Christ in Thailand, 1984)], p. 2Google Scholar, who calls it the first Chinese church in East Asia. The name Maitrichit, or Friendly Heart, has no theological significance; Maitrichit, like many Thai churches, is named after its location, in this case a street address.

11 Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 23, 42.

12 Ibid., p. 46; Kho, 150 Years of Thankfulness, pp. lOff.

13 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 23.

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16 Bradley, Siam Then, p. 49; Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 24; Wyatt, David K., Thailand: A Short History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), p. 177Google Scholar.

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18 Ibid., pp. 24–26, 42.

19 For more on these missionaries, see Bradley, Siam Then; Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 23–26, 41–42; also Lord, Donald C., Mo Bradley and Thailand (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1969)Google Scholar.

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21 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 25; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 7.

22 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 58; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 5.

23 Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 64–65; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 8.

24 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 170 shows the Laos Mission having 6,649 members in 1920.

25 Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 92, 228. Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, contains an excellent summary of the Presbyterian Mission's early years.

26 The phrase was used as the title of a popular account of the early mission: (Maen Phong-udom, Maen Tae) [It's Really True] (Chiangmai: Paung Printers, 1981). See also McGilvary, A Half Century Among the Siamese, pp. 96–99; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 10–11.

27 For details, see Keyes, Charles F., “Buddhist Politics and Their Revolutionary Origins in Thailand”, International Political Science Review 10 (1989): 121–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kirsch, A. Thomas, “Modernizing Implications of Nineteenth Century Reforms in the Thai Sangha”, in Religion and Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, ed. Smith, Bardwell L. (Chambersburg, PA: Anima Books, 1978), pp. 52–65Google Scholar.

28 Wyatt, Thailand, p. 177.

29 On the views of Mongkut and his circle, see Alabaster, Henry, The Modern Buddhist, Being the Views of a Siamese Minister of State on His Own and Other Religions (London: Triibner and Company, 1870)Google Scholar, and The Wheel of the Law: Buddhism Illustrated from Siamese Sources (London: Trübner and Company, 1871)Google Scholar; also Reynolds, Craig J., “Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History, with Special Reference to Nineteenth-Century Culture Change”, Journal of Asian Studies 35 (1976): 203–220CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 10–12, and Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 66–67.

31 Details of the execution and its aftermath appear in Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, p. 11; Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 67ff; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 12–20.

32 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 170.

33 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 71; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 31.

34 McGilvary, A Half Century Among the Siamese, pp. 171–73.

35 Ibid., pp. 203–206, 266–70; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 33.

36 Compare Spiro, Melford E., Burmese Supernaturalism (Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1967), pp. 24–28Google Scholar.

37 Reported in McGilvary, A Half Century Among the Siamese, p. 206.

38 Ibid., pp. 266–70.

39 Fordham, Graham, “Protestant Christianity and the Transformation of Northern Thai Culture: Ritual Practice, Belief, and Kinship” (Ph.D. diss., Department of Anthropology, University of Adelaide, 1991)Google Scholar provides more material on nineteenth-century conversions in Northern Thailand.

40 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 16.

41 Keyes, Thailand, p. 51.

42 McGilvary, A Half Century Among the Siamese, p. 194.

43 This cultural struggle between centre and north persists to the present. One episode, in which Central Thai authorities tried during the 1920s and 1930s to suppress a charismatic Northern Thai monk, is recounted in Keyes, Charles F., “Death of Two Buddhist Saints in Thailand”, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 48, 3–4 (1982): 149–80Google Scholar, and in Keyes, “Buddhist Politics and Their Revolutionary Origins in Thailand”, pp. 123ff, 129. Later, during a 1943 tour of Northern Thailand, then Prime Minister Phibunsongkhram intemperately charged, “It can be said that Buddhismhas disappeared from this northern part of Thailand. First of all, Buddhism has become a different religion. Even the manner of addressing monks is different [or “wrong”], the chants are different [“wrong”], the people who are monks do not inspire respect….” Worst of all, “more than 50 per cent of the northerners are Christians”. (Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, p. 96, my translation.) Phibun's statistics were inaccurate, but his remarks illustrate how Central Thai chauvinism had persisted through the years.

44 See McGilvary, A Half Century Among the Siamese, p. 207; Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 72; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 28, 29.

45 Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 72–73; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 28–29.

46 McGilvary, A Half Century Among the Siamese, p. 217.

47 Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, pp. 11–12; Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 72–73.

48 Wyatt, Thailand, p. 201.

49 See Charles F. Keyes, Thailand, pp. 55, 56, 59; Tanabe, Shigeharu, “Ideological Practice in Peasant Rebellions: Siam at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, in History and Peasant Consciousness in South East Asia, ed. Turton, Andrew and Tanabe, Shigeharu (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, 1984), pp. 75–110Google Scholar.

50 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 25–26, 170; Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 84. By contrast, the missions in Bangkok had published Central Thai scriptures soon after beginning work.

51 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 25.

52 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 25.

53 For more on the intellectual climate of the early Bangkok period, see Wyatt, David K., “The ‘Subtle Revolution’ of King Rama I of Siam”, in Moral Order and the Question of Change: Essays on Southeast Asian Thought, ed. Wyatt, David K. and Woodside, Alexander (New Haven: Yale University, 1982), pp. 9–52Google Scholar.

54 Membership figures for Northern Thailand through 1920 are from Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 170.

55 Calculation based on Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 99, 188–94, and Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 170.

56 For discussion of the epidemic and related issues, see Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 138–41; Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 138–43.

57 Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 92, 194, 197.

58 Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, pp. 49–50.

59 Wyatt, Thailand, pp. 252–60, discusses political developments of the period. Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, pp. 89–102, and Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 201–202, 207, 214, 217, discuss their impact on the Protestant community.

60 Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, p. 100.

61 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 213. The lowest wartime estimates were made from abroad or after the fact, on bases that are not clear. CCT leaders, though perhaps to save face, admitted only a two per cent wartime loss, notes Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, pp. 97–98.

62 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 213.

63 Ibid., pp. 217, 265.

64 The 1940 figure is from Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 188ff. The 1988 figure is my count of the foreign organizations listed under the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand (EFT) or the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT) in Update Christian Directory, 1988–1989 (Bangkok: Update Interdenomination [sic] Limited Partnership). Some social service organizations should probably be subtracted from this count, while Southern Baptists, Seventh Day Adventists, and independents should be added.

65 Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 222–23, lists all missions entering between 1940 and 1979.

66 Figures for 1980 come from Table 5 of the 1980 census. The low figure for 1990 comes from Key Statistics of Thailand 1992 (Special Edition), p. 135. The high figure comes from Key Statistics of Thailand 1992 [regular edition], p. 57. Figures reported in the 1990 census, Table 6, would have put membership growth for the decade at 20.4 per cent. All four sources were published by the National Statistical Office, Office of the Prime Minister, Bangkok, but drew data from various other offices.

67 Kammerer, Cornelia Ann, “Customs and Christian Conversion among Akha Highlanders of Burma and Thailand”, American Ethnologist 17, 2 (1990): 277–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wood, George, “Thailand Church Growth Survey” (unpublished ms., file of the author)Google Scholar, passim.

68 Social origins prior to 1980 are based on impressions of church and mission leaders; I know of no supporting survey data. Social origins for the 1980s based partly on Naphawan, Khaumun Kansamruat Saphap Khritsajak nai Krungthep Mahanakhaun, Krung Thep: Khanakammakan Songsoem Kanprakat Khaung Khritsajak nai Kau Thau Mau lae Munnithi Suphanimit Haeng Prathet Thai] [ Naphawan, Phairot, Data from the Survey of the State of the (Protestant) Churches in Greater Bangkok (Bangkok: Committee to Promote Evangelism of Churches in Bangkok and World Vision Foundation of Thailand), 1986]Google Scholar.

69 See, for example, Vandergeest, Peter, “Constructing Thailand: Regulation, Everyday Resistance, and Citizenship”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 35, 1 (1993): 133–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

70 Charles F. Keyes, “Political Crisis and Militant Buddhism in Contemporary Thailand”, Religion and Legitimation of Power, ed. Smith, pp. 147–64.

71 Swearer, Donald K., “Introduction” to Dhammic Socialism, by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development, 1986), pp. 13–43Google Scholar; Tambiah, Stanley J., World Conqueror and World Renouncer: A Study of Buddhism and Polity in Thailand Against a Historical Background (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976), pp. 411–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Jackson, Peter A., Buddhadasa: A Buddhist Thinker for the Modern World (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1988)Google Scholar.

72 Olson, Grant, “A Person-Centered Ethnography of Thai Buddhism: The Life of Phra Rajavaramuni (Prayudh Payutto)” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1989)Google Scholar; Payutto, Phra Prayudh, Buddhadhamma: Natural Laws and Values for Life, tr. and ed. Olson, Grant (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995)Google Scholar.

73 Tambiah, Stanley J., The Buddhist Saints of the Forest and the Cult of Amulets: A Study in Charisma, Hagiography, Sectarianism, and Millennial Buddhism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taylor, J.L., “From Wandering to Domestication: The Thai-Lao Forest Monastic Tradition” (Ph.D. diss., Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 1990)Google Scholar; Taylor, J.L., Forest Monks and the Nation-State: An Anthropological and Historical Study in Northeastern Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993)Google Scholar.

74 Anonymous, (Samphat Phra Phayaum Kanyano: Jao Awat Wat Suan Kaeo) [Interview with Phra Phayaum, Abbot of Suan Kaeo Monastery], Sayam Rat Sapda Wijan (22–28 Feb. 1987): 54–55.

75 On the broader issue of the increasing diversity in Thai Buddhism, see Swearer, Buddhist World of Southeast Asia; also Jackson, Peter A., Buddhism, Legitimation, and Conflict: The Political Functions of Urban Thai Buddhism (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

76 Based on interviews conducted in 1990.

77 I stretch the decade slightly, as the Laos Mission ordained its first Northern Thai pastor in 1889; Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 95.

78 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, pp. 94–105; see also Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, pp. 29–36, 40–45, who discusses this event along with several related issues.

79 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 123.

80 (Wijan Tantirangsi, Prawat Khritsajak Si Phimonlatham) [Tantirangsi, Wijan, History of the Sri Phimonlatham Church, Phetburi (Bangkok: student research paper completed and filed at Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary 1989)], pp. 1–2Google Scholar; (Julin Toktaeng, Kan Phraetham Kueng Sattawat Raek Thi 20) [Toktaeng, Julin, Christian Work in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (Bangkok: Suphanit Stationery and Printing, 1984)], pp, 29–30Google Scholar.

81 (110 Pi Khritsajak Thi Saung Sapha Khritsajak nai Prathet Thai lae Phithi Thawai Akhan Kho Anusaun) [110th Anniversary of the Second Church, Church of Christ in Thailand, and Dedication Service for the Cole Memorial Building (Bangkok: Second Church, 1988)], pp. 23–24Google Scholar; Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, p. 8.

82 Swanson, Khrischak Muang Nua, p. 85; Julin, Kan Phraetham Kueng Sattawat Raek Thi 20, p. 52.

83 The only detailed account I have seen of this controversy is Prasit, Prawatsat Khritsajak, pp. 82–88. Sung's visits to Thailand are also described in Lyall, Leslie T., John Sung (London: China Inland Mission, 1961)Google Scholar, and in Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 195–96. A rare first-hand account of a Sung meeting, albeit a memoir published and probably written decades later, appears in Julin, Kan Phraetham Kueng Sattawat Raek Thi 20, pp. 104ff.

84 Julin, Kan Phraetham Kueng Sattawat Raek Thi 20, pp. 30–31.

85 This point is often denied by Thai leaders, who may claim that even obviously derivative teachings were formulated independently through divinely-inspired study of the Bible. Several such claims appear in Boyd, Carolyn, The Apostle of Hope: The Dr. Kriengsak Story (Chichester: Sovereign World, 1991)Google Scholar, which focuses on the leader of what was then Bangkok's largest congregation. Such claims are common in Anglophone Pentecostalism, but in many cases the “independent” discoveries stem from the shared interpretive habits that were applied to Bible study. North American evangelicalism continues to be the primary source of these frameworks, even (perhaps especially) among the Asian charismatic churches that most strongly affirm their independence.

86 For more on Mongkut's reforms, see Keyes, “Buddhist Politics”; Kirsch, “Modernizing Implications”; Reynolds, “Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History”; Tambiah, World Conqueror, pp. 208–219, 405–406.

87 Landon, Kenneth Perry, Siam in Transition: A Brief Survey of Cultural Trends in the Five Years Since the Revolution of 1932 (New York: Greenwood Press, 1968Google Scholar; originally published 1939), pp. 207–224. Cf. Sri Lankan developments in Gombrich, Richard, Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo (London: Routledge, 1988), pp. 181ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

88 For discussion of the developments in Thailand, see Landon, Siam in Transition; also Tambiah, World Conqueror, pp. 401ff; Swearer, Buddhist World of Southeast Asia. The term “Protestant Buddhism” comes from Gombrich's study of developments in Sri Lanka: see Gombrich, Theravada Buddhism, pp. 172–97; also Gombrich, Richard and Obeyesekere, Gananath, Buddhism Transformed: Religious Change in Sri Lanka (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988)Google Scholar.

89 Keyes, Charles F., “Ethnography and Anthropological Interpretation in the Study of Thailand”, The Study of Thailand: Analyses of Knowledge, Approaches, and Prospects in Anthropology, Art History, Economics, History, and Political Science, ed. Ayal, Eliezer B. (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Center for International Studies, Southeast Asia Program, 1978), p. 36Google Scholar.

90 For details of some of these practices, see Golomb, Louis, An Anthropology of Curing in Multiethnic Thailand (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985)Google Scholar; Tambiah, The Buddhist Saints of the Forest.

91 See, for example, Faupel, D. William, “Whither Pentecostalism? 22nd Presidential Address, Society for Pentecostal Studies”, Pneuma 15, 1 (Spring 1993): 21ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

92 See, for example, Dayton, Donald, Theological Roots of Pentecostalism (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1987)Google Scholar.

93 Smith, Siamese Gold, p. 89.

94 Ibid., p. 112.

95 Details come from sermons and interviews.

96 Source is an off-the-record interview with the pastor.

97 Meeting was observed personally.

98 Meeting was observed personally.

99 I was sent one of the letters. The author requested confidentiality, and I preserve it here. Parallel notions were widespread among missionaries.

100 I was present at the meeting.

101 The association of spirits with woods and quiet is widely reported, although I met many urban residents who considered night-time encounters with spirits a distinct and frightening possibility.

102 Though this procedure was not mentioned when the announcement was initially made, it was widely reported by church members.

103 The latter association is widely reported by both Christian and non-Christian informants.

104 The term jao phau has lately been expanded to include those human guardians, the mafiastyle “godfathers”. See Ockey, Jim, “Chaopho: Capital Accumulation and Social Welfare in Thailand”, Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8, 1 (1993): 49Google Scholar.

105 For fuller descriptions of these terms and their referents, see Rajadhon, Phya Amiman, Popular Buddhism in Siam and Other Essays on Thai Studies (Bangkok: Thai Inter-Religious Commission for Development and Sathirakoses Nagapradipa Foundation, 1986), pp. 99–127Google Scholar; also Tambiah, , Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-east Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 312–26Google Scholar.

106 Each detail listed has appeared in locally reported cases of suspected possession.

107 The parallel passage in Luke 11: 24–26 may also be cited. Although the Luke passage does not specifically mention empty houses, most of my informants read it as meaning the same as the Matthew passage.

108 I was told of the fall the day it happened, and I noticed the new dent in the pavement soon after. I was also present at the meeting where the man testified.

109 An example of the many miracle stories associated with amulets is (Pramuan Itthikun, “Aphinihan Khaung Luang Phau Wat Paknam”) [Pramuan Itthikun, “Meritorious Power of Luang Phau Wat Paknam (Phra Mangaladebmuni, former abbot of Wat Paknam)”], printed for distribution on the occasion of the royal kathin offerings at Wat Paknam, Phasi Charoen, Bangkok, 29 Oct. 1978; more stories (only coincidentally involving the same monk) appear in [Fai Wichakan, Wat Phrathammakai, “Phra Khaungkhwan Wat Paknam”, nai rueang Luang Phau Wat Paknam (Krung Thep: Munnithi Thammakai) [Instructional Division, Phra Dhammakaya Temple, “The Wat Paknam Amulets”, In Luang Phau Wat Paknam (Bangkok: Dhammakaya Foundation, 1988)], pp. 23–33Google Scholar. For broader discussion of amulets, and of their production and use, see Tambiah, Buddhist Saints of the Forest, pp. 195ff.

110 The term “power encounter”, which perhaps originates in Tippett, Alan R., Verdict Theology in Missionary Theory, 2nd ed. (Pasadena, Cal.: William Carey Library, 1973 [1969]), pp. 88–91Google Scholar, is now popular among evangelicals. Recent usages include Kraft, Charles, Christianity in Culture: A Study in Dynamic Biblical Theologizing in Cross-Cultural Perspective (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1979), p. 243Google Scholar; Smith, Siamese Gold, pp. 89–90; Wimber, John and Springer, Kevin, Power Evangelism (New York: Harper and Row, 1986)Google Scholar.

111 Reference is to the Phra Dhammakaya Temple, an ostensibly Theravada organization which rejects the standard Theravada interpretation (dhammakaya as the body of the Buddha's teachings) in favour of this essentially Mahayana reading (cf. Harvey, Peter, An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History, and Practices [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990], pp. 125–28Google Scholar, and Williams, Paul, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations [London: Routledge, 1989], pp. 167–84Google Scholar), though even at this temple first-visit visions of the thammakai are rare. At least one of the informants cited was taking Thammakai instruction at the time of her first church visit. For discussion of this movement, see Zehner, Edwin, “Reform Symbolism of a Thai Middle-Class Sect: The Growth and Appeal of the Thammakai Movement”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 21, 2 (Sep. 1990): 402–426 esp. 413–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

112 Reynolds, “Buddhist Cosmography in Thai History”, p. 207.

113 Phya Anuman Rahjadhon, p. 99; Chulalongkorn University (ed.), The Inscription of King Ramkamhaeng the Great (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University, 1984), p. 22Google Scholar.

114 The term “replacement” is from Kammerer, “Customs and Christian Conversion”, p. 287.

115 For discussion of reference group theory and its relation to religious conversion issues, see Hefner, Robert W., “Introduction: World Building and the Rationality of Conversion”, in Conversion to Christianity: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives on a Great Transformation, ed. Hefner, Robert W. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), pp. 25ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.