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The That Phanom Chronicle a Shrine History and Its Interpretation · THE THAT PHANOM CHRONICLE A SHRINE HISTORY AND ITS INTERPRETATION · . THE CORNELL.UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM The Southeast Asia Program was organized at Cornell Univers.ity in the Department of Far Eastern Studies in 1950. It is a teaching and research program of interdisciplinary studies in the humanities, social sciences, and some natural sciences. It deals with Southeast Asia as a region, and with the individual countries of the area: Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Kampuchea (Cambodia), Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. The activities of the Program are carried on both at Cornell and in Southeast Asia. They include an undergraduate and graduate curriculum at Cornell which provides instruction by specialists in Southeast Asian cultural history and present-day affairs and offers intensive training in each of the major languages of the area. The Program sponsors group research projects on Thailand, on Indonesia, on the Philippines, and on linguistic studies of the languages of the area. At the same time, individual staff and students of the Program have done field research in every Southeast Asian country. A list of publications relating to Southeast Asia which may be obtained on prepaid order directly from the Program is given at the end of this volume. Information on Program staff, fellowships, requirements for degrees, and current course offerin�s will be found in an Announcement of the Department of Asian Studies, obtainable from the Director, Southeast Asia Program, 120 Uris Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853. J,J, THE THAT PHANOM CHRONICLE. A SHRINE HISTORY AND ITS INTERPRErATION Edited and Translated by ·James B. Pruess Data Paper: Number 104 Southeast Asia Program Department of Asian Studies Cornell University, Ithaca, New York November 1976 Price: $5.00 iii © CORNELL UNIVERSITY SOUTHEAST ASIA PROGRAM 1976 International Standard Book Number 0-87727-104-6 iv FOREWORD Throughout the Buddhist states of Southeast Asia the landscape is. dotted with monuments purportedly enshrining some corporeal relic of the Buddha, or a footprint he left on some dimly-remembered visit. Every such shrine, in Burma, Thailand, Laos, or Cambodia, is provided with an historical tradition that explains how that relic crune to be present in that place, and who was responsible for enshrining it. The genre of historical writing represented by such traditions has long exercised an important influence on Southeast Asian historiography. James B. Pruess's edition of The That Phanom Chronicle, presented in this volume, gives us an important example of Buddhist historiography. In the course of introducing this work, Pruess also contributes notably to our understanding of the historical consciousness of the Lao and (now) Thai-Lao of the Middle Mekong Valley, for whom the shrine of the Buddha's Breast-bone Relic at That Phanom long has served as a symbol of their identity. The faculty of the Southeast Asia Program is deeply grateful to Dr. Pruess for making available this by-product of his research. David K. Wyatt June 1976 V PREFACE This translation of the That Phanom shrine chronicle is an indirect product of field research on contemporary Theravada Buddhist pilgrimage in Thailand. This research, made possible through a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, was undertaken from September 1971 to August 1972. While the chronicle was a valuable aid in understanding the origins and background of an important pilgrimage center, attention to the text itself (as a representative of contemporary Buddhist literature in Thailand) and the task of translation did not be­ gin until after my doctoral dissertation was completed (cf. "Veneration and Merit-Seeking at Sacred Places: Buddhist Pilgrimage in Contemporary Thailand"; University of Washington, 1974). I would like to thank Dr. Charles F. Keyes for his encouragement and criticism. In addition, I wish to express my gratitude to the venerable Phra Thep Rattanamoli, abbot of Wat Phra That Phanom, both in appreciation of his work as editor of the Thai text, and for his kind­ ness in permitting me to reside at the temple-monastery during part of the research period. J.s B. P. Seattle, Wash. vi CONTENTS PREFACE ...•...• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . �· • • • • • vi • • • NOTE ON TRANSCRIPTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • VJ.J.J. ABBREVIATIONS • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • ix TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1 CHAPTER ONE IN THE TIME OF THE BUDDHA • . • • • • • • • • • • 18 CHAPTER TWO THE LEGEND OF THE BREAST-BONE RELIC • • • • • • • 29 CHAPI'ER THREE THE ASSEMBLY OF THE DEITIES . • • • • • • • • • • • 39 ' CHAPTER FOUR THE PRINCIPALITIES • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 46 CHAPTER FIVE THE FIRST RESTORATIONa . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 55 -- CHAPrER SIX THE LAN CHANG PERIOD • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 63 CHAPTER SEVEN THE SIAMESE PERIODa·a. • • • • • • • •• • • • • • • • 70 CHARTS AND MAPS Map 1 The Setting of the That Phanom Chronicle • • • • • • • • X Table 1 Dates for Events in the That Phanom Chronicle .. • • • • 6 Chart l Relationships between Principal Characters in the That Phanom Chronicle . • . 14 vii NOTE ON TRANSCRIPI'ION Toponyms and proper names written in Indic (Pali and Sanskrit) forms have been transliterated following the "Graphic System" of the Thai Royal Academy. (E.g., Indapatha-Nagara, BraQya Sri Gotapura.) Thai and Lao words have been rendered in a phonetic transcription based on the "General System" of the Thai Royal Academy (for Thai) and the Library of Congress romanization scheme for Lao. (E.g., Khamdaeng, Bung Kan, Chao Ong L9.) The spelling of modern toponyms is in conformity with that of the U.S. Board on Geographic Na.mes. D.K.W. viii ABBREVIATIONS _,.. KN. Sa.mra.n Nangsombiin, Acha.n Maha.· KlonlOJ11 nitha.n: Prd);)at PhutthatOJ11n?in That Phanom [History of the That Phanom Shrine in Verse]. Khon Kaen, n.d. PP Prachum tOJ11oon phrathat, phak thi 1 lae phak thi 2 [Collected Histories of Reliquaries, Parts One a:nd TwoJ. Bangkok: Cremation Volume for na.ng Oep Umaphirom, 1970. PY Phra Deba Ratanamoli [Thep Rat�anamoliJ. Prawat ya Phra That Phanom ' [Short History of the That Phanom Shrine]. Bangkok, 1961. UN Phra Deba Ratanamoli. Urangkhanitha.n: Tamnan Phra That Phanom phitsadan CThe Complet.e History of the That Phanom Breast­ bone Relic]. 8th ed. Bangkok, 1969. First published in 1947. ix THE SETTING OF THE THAT PHANOM CHRONICLE KEY PRINCIFnUTIES MENTICWEO IN lHE CHRONICLE Mod,rn town, SACRED PLACES: cu� NT Th•t Phanom Shrlnf' 5 Buddha', Footprint � BRAHMAQ_AT 2 Cho,ng Chum Shrin• 6 Nongkhc,I Rf'llquc,n,, NQNG HAN 3 Phra Ndrdi Shrln• 7 Ing Hdng Shrinf' NQI ••• • ....f!. Phu Phf'k Shrinf' -r •• • ,i ' ... ® N¢&G HAN 5dkon N.skhon L UAN G AK A- AYOOHYA/ � OVARAVATi? 0Rol- t \ NAGAR Hui-• INOAA THA -NAGARA? TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION I The Shrine of the That Phanom Relic is situated on the west bank of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province in northeastern Thailand. This sacred place attracts hundreds of Buddhist pilgrims from all over the country, and until recently was visited annually by devotees from neighboring Laos as well. The greatest number of pilgrims assembles at the shrine during the seven-day period of the annual festival held in late1 January or early February for purposes of veneration, merit-making, and recreation. Devotees consider the shrine to be sacred because it is a place where the Bud­ dha himself is believed to have made an appearance during his lifetime. A token of this visit, a portion of his physical person, allegedly is preserved at the site. This enshrined object is one of the adamantine bone-relics.which·(according to Bud­ dhist tradition) remained on the funeral pyre after the Buddha's cremation. These relics (which are enshrined in the Theravada Buddhist countries of South and South­ east Asia) are viewed by devotees as representations or "reminders" of the Buddha, as imperfect symbols of the Buddha's spiritual force manifested in the transcendence of this-worldly suffering, and as objects which possess supernatural power. Thus, the site of the That Phanom shrine has been sanctified by a manifestation of the transmundane or supernatural: the appearance of the Being who was·both founder of the religious tradition and its model for salvation. The sacred object which has been enshrined at the site "reminds" the devotee of this Being's passage through the world of mundane existence. Neither the presence of the sacred object nor the Buddha's visit are empiri­ cally verifiable phenomena. Unlike the famous Tooth-Relic that was enshrined at Kandy (Sri Lanka), the Buddha's Relic at That Phanom is not visible to the eyes of the faithful. It is enclosed within the base of a rectilinear brick-and-stucco tower which soars to a height of 57 meters. This reliquary is the focal point for the ritual behavior displayed by devotees at the shrine. The physical structure itself is believed to be suffused with supernatural power derived from the alleged relic which it encloses. This reliquary, which dominates the local landscape, is the most obvious indication of the spot sanctified by the Buddha's visit and the token of this event, the non-visible Relic.s2 1For a description of Theravada Buddhist pilgrimage at the That Phanom shrine, see J. Pruess, "Merit-Seeking in Public: Buddhist Pilgrimage in Northeastern Thai­ land, " Journal of the Siam Society 64: 1 (January 1976). 2on 11 August 1975 ,. the tower which surmounts the reliquary collapsed into rubble after several days of heavy rains. Preparations are underway for the con­ struction of another tower similar in style, financed by Thai government funds and public donations (Bangkok Post,-20 August 1975, p. 3). The relationship between this catastrophe and the unstable political conditions in the region must remain problematic, as the present author does not yet know whether local devotees have interpreted this misfortune as an ill omen for the future of religion and kingdom. An identical event, occurring during an earlier "time of troubles," is mentioned in the sixth chapter (section 14) of this translation.
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