<i>Molam Phifa</i> in Northeast Thailand

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to describe in concrete terms, the Molam Phifa as a practitioner of khong haksa, or the spiritual power to avoid affliction, an indigenous notion that has not been studied before, and thus to it approach the reality of practical religion in rural northeastern Thailand. The data collection was conducted in the region where one of the Molam Phifas lived, using mainly questionaries and in-depth interviews for 5 months in 1994.Literally, Molam Phifa is a specialist in singing songs for Phifa (the Supreme Being) which is part of Thai-Lao peasant culture. Among the villagers, Molam Phifa is known as a ritual specialist, especially performing healing rituals by singing and dancing and Phifa possession of her body. It is reported that most of Molam Phifa are females and each has her own group of believers, gaining recruits who are cured in the healing rituals. Moreover, there are collective rituals held twice a year, when many believers gather at the Molam Phifa's house to make offerings to Phifa.For the villagers, khong haksa is a notion of spiritual power against the evil or calamity which causes illness, and it subsumes the concepts of Buddhism and spirit belief, including various kind of things perceived as spiritual power, such as Phifa, tham, etc. In relation to Buddhism, there are not only many discourses from Buddhism, but believing and making offerings to khong haksa is also perceived as merit-making behavior.Since the indigenous knowledge of Molam Phifa has innumerable diversity, it is necessary to consider the historical perspective of the area where it has developed. After examination the historical process of the village formation, it was found that when the villagers were faced the socio-cultural changes caused from “modernization, ” many had to change their occupations, which required them to go out of the village sphere. In this case, Molam Phifas served them, unfettered by village boundaries and kinship structure, by using their spiritual power different from the power of village guardian spirits or ancestral spirits which have their own spheres of protective power. In other words, this case study shows the process of becoming the center of the religious practice by reorganizing various religious factors in a local way, though lived in a village where the Buddhist temple was not the center of religious practice. This case also shows that khong haksa, or the indigenous notion of power, has been developed and succeeded, especially in Northeast Thailand, by high mobility of the population and a flexible kinship network, and recognized by the people as the supernatural power to protect kinship and social networks beyond village society or kinship groups. Consequently, the indigenous notion of power, like khong haksa, could be the key factor of dynamic construction and integration of Buddhism and spirit cults at the practice level.