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Abstract Rice Rituals, Liminal Identity, and Thai-Ness In ABSTRACT RICE RITUALS, LIMINAL IDENTITY, AND THAI-NESS IN GLOBALIZED NORTHERN THAILAND by Sirithorn Siriwan In Thailand, rice culture reflects three values of Thai identity: seniority, communality, and religion. Each of these three concepts of Thai-ness, therefore, can be found in various stages of the rites of passage and the phases of liminality in rice rituals during the rice season. However, today Thailand has embraced modernity and globalization, and these changes have consumed ancient and local wisdom. When rice culture and rice identity are interrupted, the rice ritual performances cannot construct Thai-ness. Thai identity, therefore, enters a liminal state that neither belongs to the rice field nor the modernized Thailand. With the application of ethnographic approach, anthropological and performance studies concepts, this research explores how rice rituals in Northern Thailand are interrupted by the strong currents of globalization and how rice culture is preserved and performed by the government, individual organizations and Thai artists. RICE RITUALS, LIMINAL IDENTITY, AND THAI-NESS IN GLOBALIZED NORTHERN THAILAND A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Theatre by Sirithorn Siriwan Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2015 Advisor_____________________________________________ (Dr. Ann Elizabeth Armstrong) Reader______________________________________________ (Dr. Paul K. Jackson) Reader______________________________________________ (Dr. Fauzia Ahmed) Reader______________________________________________ (Dr. Kathleen N. Johnson) TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………………………...iii CHAPTER ONE: The Ritual Realms and Concepts of Thai-ness in Thai Riceland…………………………1 CHAPTER TWO: Thailand and Thai-ness: Historicizing Rice Identity through Rice Rituals……………...24 CHAPTER THREE: Globalizing the World…Globalizing the Culture: Thai Identity and Rice Traditions of Farmers in Northern Thailand..…………………...44 EPILOGUE: “To Preserve or Not to Preserve, That’s the Question:” Tradition, Innovation, and Authenticity of Rice Culture in Thailand……………………71 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………..….82 Appendix I: Interview Questions for Lampang……………………………………….....85 Appendix II: Interview Questions for Baan Boonler…………………………………….86 ii Acknowledgement I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Dr. Ann Elizabeth Armstrong for her support, advice, and encouragement guiding me to step out of my comfort zone and to continue my journey as a student, teacher and explorer. My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Howard A. Blanning for his kindness, warmth, care… a shelter and his Roman garden where I had to feed the birds during wintertime. Thank you Dr. Jackson for your trust and cheerful spirit. Whenever we are in troubles, chocolate always helps. Thank you my family in Oxford… Wenya, Carl, Liz, Shuting and my classmates, especially Ashley and Jaime who gave me a beautiful name, Alemay. การเดินทางคร้ังน้ีมีพอ่ แม ่ อ๋อง คอยประคองฉนั ให้เดินหนา้ ตอ่ ความรัก ความหวงั และความห่วงใย เป็นส่ิงสา คญั ที่ทา ใหฉ้ นั มายนื อยจู่ ุดน้ี ขอบคุณชีวิต ขอบคุณครอบครัวผู้ให้ชีวิต ขอบคุณครูบาอาจารยผ์ สู้ อนชีวติ อาจารยน์ ก ครูคา รณ พี่นาด พี่แอ๋ม และพี่นอ้ งพระจนั ทร์เส้ียว และ ขอบคุณเพื่อนผูเ้ติมเตม็ ชีวิต เพื่อนที่คอยอยขู่ า้ งกนั ตลอด รวมถึงพี่ชานนท์และชิป สุดทา้ ยขอบคุณชายที่คอยให้ความช่วยเหลือตลอดมา พี่ ป้า น้า อา ที่บ้านบุญเลอและลาปาง iii Chapter 1 The Ritual Realms and Concepts of Thai-ness in Thai Riceland With my hands and humble soul, Please come and accept my respect. With rice, leaves, and ripe fruits, Candles, and pleasant scents, Please follow these glowing lights. Do not stray from my guidance. I am now following my ancestors’ way. All my humble heart please let me Invite the rice spirit To dwell in this house. And may I please ask you, To bless me with prosperity. Then all my hands will belong to this sacred land. [translated by the author] (Sriprapan 85) -- The Song of Inviting Mae Phosop Growing up in Thai culture, I have been told many stories about the spirit of Rice Goddess or Mae Phosop1 who dwells in every rice seed. My grandparents also wai2 the food every time they ate to pay respect to khao (the rice) for providing them a healthy life. Moreover, my house where I grew up is located next to the rice field. I still remember how my friends and I played in the rice field and built our fortresses with straw. I have seen the process of growing rice; the life of rice has its own colors though out the year. However, newly built houses have been replacing the rice fields around my house. Rice farmers are rarely seen in the paddy field. Due to the change of socio- economic structure in Thailand, globalization and capitalism has interrupted rituals and practices of rice culture especially in the Northern part of the country where rice rituals 1 Mae Phosop: the word Mae means mother and Phosop is her name. Thai people always use the word Mae to call the nature such as Mae Naam as river (Naam means water, so Mae Naam is the mother of water). Therefore, image of Mae Phosop (the mother of rice) is portrayed as a mother that nurtures all life, especially for people in Asian agrarian countries. 2 Wai is an act and gesture to pay respect in Thai culture. People will use the gesture to greet, apologize, and thank someone. It is a gesture of a slight bow and palms pressing together in prayer-liked expression. The level of hands may vary by the age of the person. The higher position of hands suggests the younger age and the lower level is for the older ones. Wai is used in many countries, including India as they call it Namaste. 1 have become merely a fading tradition. The roots of Thai-ness that tie with those traditional values will be gone as well. When Thai identity has changed, how can Thai people call themselves Thai? But the main questions are that: “what makes Thai people Thai?” or even “what does Thai identity really mean?” Identity means the characteristic(s) that people in a particular community or society have in common. In Gunn’s History and Cultural Theory, he points out two types of identity: national identity and class and social identity. The first one is how a particular nation defines its citizens as the ethnic group that has their own culture. Second term refers to the identity created by hierarchical system and power relations of people in the group. Therefore, simply as it is Thai identity can be defined in the literal meaning as the Thai citizenship of the people who are born, live and practice (perform) Thai cultures, including languages, religions, beliefs, and social norms, and one of the important signifier of Thai-ness – the National Anthem. The concept of nationalism was reinforced during the time of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram in 1950s. However, what is more important than the definition of Thai- ness is how this identity is constructed … what makes Thai people “Thai”. In the old days, rituals and traditions used to be the essence of the community, because they would bring people together in the same place where everyone would help one another to conduct the ceremonies and other activities, since Buddhism that has been the heart of Thai culture for centuries. For example, my grandmother, whose ancestry is of Burmese and Thai, would bring me to the Burmese Buddhist temples to join the community. We dressed in Burmese costumes, offered food to the monks, and prayed with Burmese-Thai descendants in my hometown. Therefore, the sense of communality in Thai society, which is one concept constructing Thai identity, used to be very strong. Rice rituals, by the same token, are the events conducted to gather people altogether in rice community in which they exchange their labor, laughter, and culture in the paddy field. Furthermore, in the past farmers had to rely on natural resources; rituals are to show gratitude and respect of the farmers towards nature and the spirits of the rice fields. In the ritualistic moment of religious events, when everyone was in the temple sharing and creating the liminal space, a performative identity has been formed under the realm of ritual in which, I argue, reinforces three concepts of Thai identity which are seniority, 2 communality and religious beliefs and practices. During the ritual performance, the participants all shared the one status – the performers of the event. Rice rituals, therefore, construct an identity of the farmers, because they share their status as children of the rice field, subjects of the nature, communal members and Buddhists. These concepts of Thai- ness and the structure of Thai identity in agrarian society, I propose, are constituted through rice rituals and rice culture. In this study, I divide the research into three chapters. The first chapter is an overview of Thai rice culture, how it has changed through time, and why this research will be an important piece that fills the gap of cultural studies that focuses especially on rice rituals and identity of Northern Thai people. The second chapter will provide historical context of Thailand, Thai-ness and the life of rice with the use of historiographical approach to analyze how the concepts of Thai identity are constituted through culture and history. Thirdly, I mainly focus on how globalization affects rice culture in Northern Thailand along with the case studies from Lampang and Mae Hong Son province in which rice farmers are now struggling against the currents of globalization and modernization. Lastly, an epilogue section will explore the notion of cultural preservation in Thailand. I raise a question whether the process of “preserving” the culture will create alternative ways for young generation to learn about the rice traditions without making them only inactive cultural displays. Thus, the performance Rice Now directed by Sineenadh Kaitprapai from Crescent Moon Theatre will be an example of Thai artists that reads, interprets and reenacts a theatrical performance that demonstrates the impact of globalization on rice culture. This thesis starts from the disappearance of rice rituals in Lampang, my hometown located in the North of Thailand.
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