Written by Bambi Thammongkol
Illustrated by Katie Noble
At home, three separate altars stand in our prayer room. One has various renditions of the Buddha: silver, bronze, marble, gold-cast, fat, skinny, sitting, standing, lying down. The second has Hindu gods, Chinese Deities, my hometown’s guardian angel, and even a statue of the late monarch. The third has framed photographs of my ancestors, which goes back to my great-great-grandfather.
Every fortnight, my mum would buy new Jasmine wreaths and fruits to replace the old ones that have withered and rotted. Together, we chant Buddhist prayers on birthdays, new years, before long journeys, and when we simply feel like doing so.
I kneel with the offerings we brought, reciting words that have echoed through generations.What stands before me is an eclectic collection, relics from varied origins. Perhaps, this display captures our shared impulses as humans–our faith or spiritual longing which comes to manifest itself in different faces.
Although Thailand is labelled as a Buddhist nation, the landscape of popular religion is far more intricate. Spirit houses, found outside buildings, offer residence to guardian angels and are a refuge to wandering spirits. Temples host statues of Brahma and Ganesha alongside the Buddha, while fortune-tellers sit beside monks.
Scholars have rejected the concept of syncretism–the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions–due to its normative nature which assumes “purity” to any religion, the mixing thus connotes impure dilution of the practices. In Holy Things: The Genealogy of the Sacred in Thai Religion McGovern argues that the range of practices does not conflict but co-exists as local animism as well as Hindu influences are already embedded in the Buddhist cosmology. He cites the translation of the Bible by 19th-century missionaries as shifting the spiritual practice. The word “holy” was translated into สิ่งศักดิ์สิทธิ์ (Sing Saksit) or sacred thing which in its pre-colonial meaning leans towards magical powers rather than religious sanctity. The interchangeability of the ‘holy’ and the ‘sacred’ blurred distinctions of God, spirits, and divinities into the same categorisation. Buddha gets drawn into this envisionment of holiness through the association of Buddhism as a recognised “religion” like Christianity. Perhaps the question is not whether faith has been altered but whether it has ever truly been static.
In a Cosmopolitan capitalist climate, religious practice may come across as overtly transactional. Partly due to the understanding of Sing Saksit in processing powers to grant its practitioners mundane wishes. To pass the exam, find love, get promoted, lose weight, win the lotto– or my childhood favourite: world peace. Practices now revolve around the premise of which McGovern describes as: a “cash-on-delivery” system where offerings are promised to specific shrines, images, or statues if their prayers have been fulfilled. The path to enlightenment is paved and life’s fulfilment is promised through donations to certain institutions. Merit-making is a core practice in Buddhism which is traditionally seen as a quiet expression of faith and community service, and is believed to influence your future reincarnation. Today, the perspective on merit-making has become more short-term, akin to generating returns on investments.
Nidhi Eoseewong’s collection of essays titled พระ-พุทธ-ศาสนา-ไทย ตายแล้ว? (Death of Thai Buddhism?) critiqued the modern practice. However, he also points out the empirical fact that at its core, religious faith centres around the act of participation and community, for one to understand their conditions in relation to their environment. Taking from this framework, Religion is part of the mundane, and the mundane cannot escape capitalism's grasp. Kitiarsa’s Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand states: “The more Thailand modernises and the economy rationalises, more people are displaced socially and geographically”. In this alienation, to belong is to subsequently be of the consumption class. The commercialisation of faith reflects popular economic concerns which manifest in the “betwixt and between” spaces such as religion. Prosperity oriented goals in religious pursuits address where we want to be.
It is easy to feel nihilistic about the malleability of religion. After all, there is no instant solution. We cannot simply shout “Down with the system!” and then go back to our pilgrimage to enlightenment within a day–I fear. However, Kitiarsa affirms that this cannot be reduced to a symptom of cultural collapse rather it is another popular expression of religio-cultural symbolism and ritual.
My prayer room stands as both a relic and a living space, a testament to faith’s resilience, not in its static preservation but in its continual reinvention. On our knees, we all bow. How many minds had hoped? Whether it’d be for a safe migration into a new land, a fruitful harvest, a healthy newborn or for someone to like the story I posted on instagram. Generations have knelt, prayed, and sought connections, regardless of how our way of life has changed, our spiritual practice reshaped. From luxury branded amulets, to prying lottery predictions, and ostentatious philanthropic affairs. Cloaked by the pursuit of prosperity, this is not the distortion of faith but a glimpse into human nature. At its core, the desire remains the same: to belong somewhere and to be supported by someone or something.
Once upon a time bought in a local market by a vendor who grew the flowers themselves, my mum’s jasmine wreaths now come purchased from the supermarket following lengthy supply chains–but the act of devotion remains. And in that space, between old prayers and new hopes–faith endures.
Bibliography:
McGovern, Nathan. Holy Things: The Genealogy of the Sacred in Thai Religion. New York, NY: Oxford Academic, 2024. Online edition, June 13, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780197759912.001.0001.
Kitiarsa, Pattana. "Beyond Syncretism: Hybridization of Popular Religion in Contemporary Thailand." Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (October 2005): 461–87. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022463405000251.
Eoseewong, Nidhi. “พระ-พุทธ-ศาสนา-ไทย ตายแล้ว? : รวมบทความว่าด้วยพระพุทธศาสนาไทย ในมุมมองนิธิ เอียวศรีวงศ์ “ (Is Buddhism Dead? : Collection of Articles on Thai Buddhism from the Perspective of Nidhi Eoseewong). Bangkok: Jumping Fish Books, 2022.
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