JapaneseJapaneseSociety Society ofCulturalof Cultural Anthropology Adapting Popular Religion TheS6ancePractices of Spirit Mediums and their Devotees in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand FuKUURA Kazuo Graduate School of Letters, KYoto UniveTsity This article focuses on the trance seances of two elderly female spirit mediums in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, and their devotees' viewpoints on these s6ances. To shed light on the creatMty and adaptabiiity of the mediums' practice, the article explores the reasons why this local religious phenemenon i$ being revived among the middle and ]owerclasses in the contemporary context of urbanization and consumerism, The seances work to symbolically guarantee the well-being of devotees in their everyday lives in line with both traditional cosmology and ongoing urbanizatjon processes; this tendency reflects the practical needs of this contemporery local society. Given that this kind of adaptation has been observed for a few decades, it is apparent that the mediumship has reactivated its own potential to extend its ritual boundaries and create new repertoires. This demonstrates its intrinsic ability to adapt itself te the social environment ofthe times. Key words: Chiang Mai, spirit medium, devotees, trance seance, adaptability, creativity, centemporary social environment Acknowledgements: I am gratefu1 to Professor MATSUDA Motoji and the anonymous JRCA readers for theircritical readings of earlier versions of this artiele. Jtu)anese Review ofCulturalAnthmpology, vol, 13, 2012 NII-Electronic Library Service JapaneseJapaneseSociety Society of Cultural Anthropology 62 FuKuuRAKazuo As globalization has proceeded, various sorts of revival phenomena and religious revitalizations have been seen in the domain of religion around the world. Thailand, a Theravada Buddhist eountry in Southeast Asia, has been experiencing similar processes in terms of religion. Since the 1970s, the country has eajoyed economic progress by means of national development focusing mainly in the industrial seetor. The country passed through a monetary crisis in 1997 and a coup-d'6tat in 2006, and has since carried out neoliberal, Keynesian, and neo-mercantilist policies (GLAssMAN 2010: 1309'16), ConsequentlM due to the rapid expansion of urbanization and consumerism, new trends in popular religion have emerged; these include a renewed enthusiasm for the veneration of meditation monks, the cult of amulets, Buddhist reform movements, the cult of King Rama Vl and the cult of the goddess Kuan Im CANAN 2003: 127'36). These are eonsidered to be the result of a lack of contemporary relevance in Buddhist dogma, which holds emancipation from worldly attachments as its ultimate purpose, in spite of the fact that more than ninety percent of the population is Buddhist. a mueang, or ancient As traditionalcity'state inthe northern region, Chiang Mai isregarded as the second most important city in Thailand due to its unique culture, which has been nurtured by its histoTy for seven hundred years.i Since the end of the twentieth century the city has been infiuenced by the influx of Bangkok capital, as well as increased investments and speculations on real estate. Land prices have soared; more and more concrete buildings, such as condominiums, have been constructed; famous shopping centers have established branches; and large'scale infrastructure improvements have been conducted by the government (DuONGCHAN 2007: 88'94 and 269-308). The majority of the labor force in the city area is engaged in the second and the third sectors, while the peri'urban area, where agriculture had been a significant means of subsistence, is elosely connected with the urbanization processes. For example, in a discussion abeut the social changes of four villages situated in the peri-urban and mountainous areas firom 1966 to 2006, BRuNEAu (2011) points out that, as aecess was greatly improved and feeder roads were mostly paved, the importance of agriculture decreased and work in small enterprises inside the vi11ages, as well as factory work outside the vi11ages, increased. Nowadays, regardless of residential location, basic infrastructure developments have been made, including water supplM electricitM landline, and paved roads. In addition, it is natural for the local people from every walk of life to utilize liquefied petroleum gas, motorbike, private ca4 mobile phone, or Internet. In 2009, the population of Chiang Mai city numbered 142,970, while that of Chiang Mai district was 238,460 and that of Chiang Mai province was 1,632,548.2 In the midst of such social changes, are religious there phenomena peculiar to Chiang Mai i In this article, Thai words are transeribed into English by using the Royal Thai General System of Transcription, published by the Royal Institute of Thailand. Though, when the northern Thai pronunciatien prevails in the usage of werds, transliteration is fulfMed according to the sound. 2 http:llchiangrnai.nso.go.thlnsotprojectltablelfilesichmai!O-src-Ol1255XOOOtchmai-O`src-Ol-2552-OOOT40000100.xls, "city;' accessed May 19, 2012. A prDvince normally consists of several districts, The status of or municipality (thesaban nakhon), is bestowed en important eity centers by the government under special conditions. NII-Electronic Library Service JapaneseJapaneseSociety Society of Cultural Anthropology Adapting Popular Religion 63 that have tendencies characteristic of social stratMcation: for example, there are folk healers who are supported mainly by the newly resurrected middle class in the urban and rural areas (ANAN 2000), lay nuns who mainly come from the lower class and observe eight or ten central Buddhist precepts, including shaved heads and brows (MuEcKE 2004), and spirit mediums, who have their roots in traditional spirit worship and are influential with the middle and lower classes in rural areas.3 Since the end of the twentieth centurM the trance s6ances of spirit mediums have gained popularity as a way to cope with various worries and problems in the everyday lives of local people, This article focuses on the s6ances of two elderly female mediums who have influenced the people in the middle and lower classes by considering the needs of their devotees within the rituals that they perform. When it comes to the discussion of the relationship between social changes, such as globalization and neoliberalism, and religion, there is an influential point of view, which claims that people come to revive religion as a base of resistance, or a way to accumulate wealth, For example, COMAROFF (1985: 260-3) maintains that the nature of today's religious movements is implicitly politieal, and they should be interpreted as resistances of the marginalized of the modern world system. Then, COMARoFF and CommoFF (2001: 19-28) insist that there is a significant increase of renewed occults and religious movements that aim at "conjuring' wealth through magical means, and there is a clear causality between their popularity and the neoliberalism. While these arguments are generally vital, they contain some problems that cannot be ignored. First, it is not always appropriate to regard every religious movement or phenomenon solely as resistances against disparities in societies. Second, when the influence of the global capitalism on religious phenomena is emphasized, there is an overestimation. In fact, while it is more important to elucidate regional characteristics in religious phenomena, it is dithcult to argue that they have a universal feature in common beyond their diversity Thus, when examining the religious practices of northern Thai mediumship, this article pays attention to social realities in context of Thailand in Southeast Asia. In addition, this article also refers to the spirit mediums' ability to catch up with situations, "human LAvlE et al. (1993: 5) call this ability cneativity, whieh they define as activities that transform existing cultural practices in a manner that a community or certain of its members find of value," In this article, the creativity of mediumship is to be paid attention to from broader perspective in order to detect traces it has left in the ongoing practices and its potentiality to meet needs of local communities. Focusing mainly on the adaptability to the social environment that can be glimpsed threugh an examination of trance s6ances, this article elarifies why the spirit mediumship in Chiang Mai, whieh seems at first glance to be merely an indigenous religious phenomenon, has been resurrected in a local society in which urbanization and consumerism have become ordinary parts of life, It specifically considers how these s6ances cope with the local people's everyday worries and problems in the urbanization, After exploring 3 Though, as we will see, these distinctions do not necessarily exclude the possibility that people in various classes will come and ge among the layers of popular religions. NII-Electronic Library Service JapaneseJapaneseSociety Society of Cultural Anthropology M FUKUURAKazuo a general view of the mediumship, this article discusses the cases of two spirit mediums in order to eonsider the differing and overlapping significance of their respective s6ances and the objectives of their devotees. Chiang Mai and Spirit Mediumship Though a biomedical perspective of the human body has infiltrated northern Thai societM to this day it is still believed that there are 32 khwan, or vital spirits, that exist in the human body and govern the 32 major elements of a person's well'being,` as well as one wiayan, or personal