Dr. Suwipa Champawan and Dr. Chappana Pin’ngoen
Social Research Institute, Chiang Mai University
This study was designed to gather knowledge from the ritual performances of the Tai Lue, Tai Yuan and Tai Yai by studying palm-leaf manuscripts and local paper-book made of the tree-pulp called “pabsa” concerned with rites and rituals. As well, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions were held with learned locals and those involved with such rituals of the three ethnic groups, ten persons each, for a total of thirty interviewees.
The results of the study show that the daily life of Tai ethnic groups, such as the Tai Lue, Tai Yuan and Tai Yai, in rural areas are associated with the natural environment. They have close interactions with the kinsmen of their ethnic group and have retained the belief about “khwan”. The ceremony of “riak khwan”, or “calling back one’s spirits”, is held when someone is approaching the passage of one’s life in relation to the following situations: after having met with bad luck and preparing for good luck to come; change in social status; suffering a disaster; having an accident; childbirth; when falling severely ill; and for an ill-fated person’s mental resuscitation. The components of such ritual arrangement include the patient, the chapter of monks, the rite practitioner (Thai: mau khwan), the relative, and the offering objects believed to arouse one’s morale and courage subsequent to the ritual performance and generosity of the individual persons within the circle of kinsmen, resulting in betterment of a patient’s mental conditions.
(Presented in the 2017 Chulalongkorn Thai-Tai Heritage Forum: Healing and Herbal Medicine (การรักษาโรคกับการใช้ยาสมุนไพรในวัฒนธรรมไทย-ไท), 22-23 June 2017, Le Meridien Chiang Mai Hotel, Chiang Mai, organized by the Empowering Network for International Thai and ASEAN Studies, Institute of Thai Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Lanna Studies Center, Faculty of humanities ,Chiang Mai University and Thai Language Department, School of Liberal Arts Mae Fah Luang University)