¹ Ishii, Yoneo, “A Note on Buddhistic Millenarian Revolts in Northeastern Siam”, in Southeast Asia: Nature, Society and Development, ed. Ichimura, Shinichi (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, Monographs of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, English Series, No. 9, 1976), pp. 67–75Google Scholar; Keyes, Charles F., “Millennialism, Theravada Buddhism, and Thai Society”, Journal of Asian Studies 36,2 (1977): 283–302Google Scholar.

² Nartsupha, Chatthip, “The Ideology of ‘Holy Men’ Revolts in North East Thailand”, in History and Peasant Consciousness in South East Asia, ed. Turton, Andrew and Tanabe, Shigeharu (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, Senri Ethnological Studies, No. 13, 1984), pp. 111-34Google Scholar; Murdoch, John B., “The 1901–1902 ‘Holy Man's’ Rebellion”, Journal of the Siam Society 62,1 (1974): 47–66Google Scholar; Paitoon Mikusol, “Administrative Reforms and National Integration: The Case of the Northeast”, in Regions and National Integration in Thailand 1892–1992, ed. Volker Grabowsky (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1995), pp. 145–53; Tej Bunnag, “Khabot Phu Mi Bun Pak Isan R. S. 121 (The 1901–1902 Holy Man's Rebellion in Northeast Thailand)”, Sangkhomsat Parithat (Journal of the Social Sciences) 5,1 (1967): 78–86.

³ Tanabe, Shigeharu, “Ideological Practice in Peasant Rebellions: Siam at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”, in History and Peasant Consciousness in South East Asia, ed. Turton, Andrew and Tanabe, Shigeharu (Osaka: National Museum of Ethnology, Senri Ethnological Studies, No. 13, 1984), pp. 75–110Google Scholar.

⁴ Swearer, Donald K., “Myth, Legend and History in the Northern Thai Chronicles”, Journal of the Siam Society 62,1 (1974): 67–88Google Scholar.

⁵ Swearer, Donald K. and Premchit, Sommai, “The Relation Between the Religious and Political Orders in Northern Thailand (14th-16th Centuries)”, in Religion and the Legitimation of Power in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, ed. Smith, Bardwell L. (Chambersburg, Pa.: ANIMA, 1978), pp. 20–33Google Scholar.

⁶ Sommai Premchit and Donald K. Swearer, “A Translation of Tamnan Mulasasana Wat Pa Daeng: The Chronicle of the Founding of Buddhism of the Wat Pa Daeng Tradition”, Journal of the Siam Society 65,2 (1977): 73–110.

⁷ Swearer, “Myth, Legend and History”, p. 71.

⁸ Ibid., p. 85.

⁹ Swearer and Sommai, “Religious and Political Orders in Northern Thailand”, p. 21.

¹⁰ Sommai and Swearer, Tamnan Mulasasana Wat Pa Daeng, p. 110.

¹¹ Ratanapanna Thera, The Sheaf of Garlands of the Epochs of the Conqueror. A translation of the Jinakalamalipakaranam by N. A. Jayawickrama (London: Pali Text Society, Translation Series, No. 36, 1968), pp. 92–93.

¹² Ibid., pp. 96–102, 107–108, 111, 120–22, 133–46.

¹³ Saraya, Dhida, Tamnan & Tamnan History; A Study of Local History (Tamnan lae Tamnan Prawatsat kap Kansuka Prawatsat Thong Thin), ed. Vallibhotama, Srisakra, trans. Maneewan Pewnim (Bangkok: Ministry of Education, Office of the National Culture Commission, 1982), pp. 82–83Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Ibid., p. 84.

¹⁵ Ibid., p. 114.

¹⁶ Sukhothai presents special problems in the context of this essay because it did not possess a tamnan tradition. The only primary sources available for the study of Sukhothai are its inscriptions and monuments. The inscriptions are commemorative, they celebrate a ceremony of some kind, the dedication of a monastery, donations to the Buddhist order, the enthronement of a king, or an alliance between local kingdoms. (Piriya Krairiksh, “Towards a Revised History of Sukhothai Art: A Reassessment of me Inscription of King Ram Khamhaeng”, in The Ram Khamhaeng Controversy: Collected Papers, ed. James R. Chamberlain [Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1991], p. 62.) Although the inscriptions contain references to spirits, particularly ancestral and guardian spirits, they do not provide any information on the ascetics or holy men who may have been identified with them in Sukhothai culture. The “divine sprite of that mountain”, for example, received the offerings of the king, who insists that the “right offerings” must be made. Prasert na Nagara and A. B. Griswold, “The Inscription of King Rama Gamhen of Sukhodaya (1292 A.D.)”, p. 276, and “The Pact Between Sukhodaya and Nan”, in Epigraphic and Historical Studies (Bangkok: The Historical Society, 1992), pp. 78, 84–85.

The texts of the Sukhothai inscriptions often appear to be a forerunner of the Jinakalamali. There are similar references to guardian spirits (Prasert and Griswold, “King Lodaiya of Sukhodaya and His Contemporaries”, Epigraphic and Historical Studies, p. 331, and Idem, “The Epigraphy of Mahadharmaraja I of Sukhodaya [part I]”, p. 472) and miraculous relics. (Idem, “The Inscription of Vat Jan Lom [1384 A.D.]”, p. 226; “King Lodaiya”, pp. 330, 352, 396 and 402; “The Inscription of Wat Pra Yun”, pp. 622–23.) The importance of relics in Sukhothai Buddhism is evident (Idem, “Inscription of King Rama Gamhen”, p. 257; “King Lodaiya”, p. 334; and “Epigraphy of Mahadharmaraja I [Part I]”, pp. 437, 449 and 455–56) and, again, appears to be very similar to the early Buddhist history of Lanna Thai. However, references to white-robed ascetics (chiphakhao) are few in number. (Idem, “Inscription 9”, p. 588.) Although Prasert na Nagara and A.B. Griswold's description of Sukhothai Buddhism as a blend of “Theravada Buddhism, Saiva Brahminism, and Tai Animism” (”The Pact Between Sukhodaya and Nan”, p. 78) is undoubtedly correct, the inscriptions primarily celebrate the activities of devout Buddhists who invite guardian spirits, nagas, devas (Idem, “Epigraphy of Mahadharmaraja I, Part I”, pp. 520–21) and others to join in the celebration.

¹⁷ Kasetsiri, Charnvit, The Rise of Ayudhya: A History of Siam in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, East Asian Historical Monographs, 1976), p. 2Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Ibid., p. 5.

¹⁹ Ibid., pp. 5–6, 42.

²⁰ Ibid., p. 47. A khahabodi is a head of a household, a setthi is a man of wealth.

²¹ The Crystal Sands: The Chronicles of Nagara Sri Dharrmaraja, ed. and trans. David K. Wyatt (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, Data Paper, No. 98, 1975).

²² Ibid., pp. 66–73. A footnote on page 67 calls attention to the antiquity of this story, which recurs in Pali texts throughout the region.

²³ Ibid., pp. 88–89.

²⁴ Ibid., pp. 125–28.

²⁵ The Nan Chronicle, ed. and trans. David K. Wyatt (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, Studies on Southeast Asia No. 16, 1994).

²⁶ Ibid., pp. 40–41.

²⁷ Ibid., p. 51.

²⁸ Ibid., pp. 56–57.

²⁹ Ibid., p. 107.

³⁰ The miracles covered on pages 93–94 and 101–102 deal directly with Buddhism; the strange occurrences on pages 97 and 110–11 are described as such — the appearance of ghosts, the temporary drying up of the water in the Mong River, and the perspiration of images during a violent windstorm.

³¹ Charnvit Kasetsiri, “Khabot Phrai Samai Ayutthaya kap Naeo Khwamkhit Phumibun, Phra Si An, Phra Malai” (Peasant Revolts during the Ayutthaya Period and the Ideology of Holy Men, Phra Si An, and Phra Malai) in Warasan Thammasat 9,1 (1979): 53–61.

³² Ibid., pp. 65–68. Wyatt, David K., Thailand: A Short History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1984), pp. 117Google Scholar, 125.

³³ Wood, W.A.R., A History of Siam (Bangkok: Chalermnit, 1959), p. 220Google Scholar.

³⁴ Wood, A History ofSiam, p. 222; Chatthip, “Ideology”, pp. 112–13; Charnvit, “Khabot Phrai...”, pp. 68–70.

³⁵ Ramsay, Ansil J., “Modernization and Reactionary Rebellions in Northern Siam”, Journal of Asian Studies 38,2 (1979): 283-97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

³⁶ An anonymous reader has questioned my description of the Phrae rebellion as “secular”, noting the leaders did use holy water. I am not sure how the use of holy water should be interpreted in this context.

The Water of Allegiance was an important part of Thai state ritual. According to H.G. Wales, Quaritch, Siamese State Ceremonies (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1931), pp. 193-98Google Scholar, both Buddhist and Brahmanic means were used in the preparation of the water. Buddhist monks chanted and a sacred thread surrounded the containers holding the water. Brahmans dipped royal weapons into the water, and it was a Brahman who read the text of the Oath. The text, in Wales’ translation, appeals t o both the Buddha and the guardian deities to ensure the kingdom's security and prosperity. However it refers only to the deities for the enforcement of the provisions of the oath. It ends entreating the Buddha to reward the officials, “let us abound with goods, glorious and limitless possessions …”

In some instances, such as those at Phrae and the actions of Ai Saeng and Ai Sua (below), I feel that the ritual was copied for political purposes, not magical ones. It was a way of declaring the political legitimacy of the revolt. In other cases, as in the Chiang Mai case that follows, the water was clearly given magical properties that were expected to protect supporters from physical harm.

For comments on the current controversies over the place of holy water in Buddhism see Olson, Grant A., “Cries over Spilled Holy Water: ‘Complex’ Responses to a Traditional Thai Religious Practice”, in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 22,1 (1991): 75–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

One of the ideas that I want to convey here is that concepts of the supernatural as well as attitudes towards it change over time. Olson, p. 76, fh. 4, refers to an unpublished paper by Sunait Chutintaranond, “The Political Control of Ayudhya Kings Through Magical Rituals” (International Association of Historians of Asia, 1983) in which Sunait refers to “the terror of magical ritual”. Whatever the fear of magic had been during the Ayutthaya period, I doubt that central officials in the late nineteenth century shared that fear. I suspect mat by this time they saw the ceremony primarily as an opportunity to see the king and to meet with other officials.

³⁷ Tanabe, “Ideological Practice in Peasant Rebellions”, pp. 94–101.

³⁸ Keyes, “Millennialism”; Kirsch, Thomas A., “Complexity in the Thai Religious System: An Interpretation”, Journal of Asian Studies 36,2 (1977): 241–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Tambiah, S.J., Buddhism and the Spirit Cults of Northeast Thailand (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970)Google Scholar.

³⁹ Taylor, J.L., Forest Monks and the Nation-State: An Anthropological and Historical Study in Northeastern Thailand (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 10–13Google Scholar, 95.

⁴⁰ Kamala Tiyavanich, “The Wandering Forest Monks in Thailand, 1900–1992: Ajan Mun's Lineage” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1993), p. 53.

⁴¹ Taylor, Forest Monks and the Nation-State, p. 18.

⁴² Ibid., p. 36.

⁴³ Ibid., pp. 45–48.

⁴⁴ Ibid., p. 13.

⁴⁵ Ibid., pp. 45–48, 66, 80, 82, 92, 110, 116, 123, 126 and 132–33.

⁴⁶ Ibid., fn. p. 273.

⁴⁷ Ibid., pp. 55–56, 111.

⁴⁸ Ibid., p. 164. The importance of magic in nineteenth-century Lao villages appears to have been even greater than in twentieth-century Thai settlements. By the late twentieth century, magic in most Thai areas had clearly been domesticated as is noted by Terwiel:

The most important activities which are reputed to generate magical power are the uttering of sacred words and meditation. Both monks and laymen can perform these activities. The monk's power is generally considered to be stronger, but he is limited in his application because of his superior ritual position. A monk should not lower himself to supplicate the unseen powers. That is why monks can consecrate a bowl of water at a marriage ceremony, but a lay ritual specialist is needed to present the couple to the ancestors. Lay experts raise their hands when asking a favor from one of the powers around them, but when a monk addresses the power from his exalted position he makes certain not to raise his hands.

Terwiel, B.J., Monks and Magic: An Analysis of Religious Ceremonies in Central Thailand (London: Curzon, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series, No. 24, 1975), p. 275Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Ibid., p. 111. Also see Kamala, “Wandering Forest Monks”, pp. 380–85.

⁵⁰ Boulanger, Paul Le, Historie du Laos Franqaise: Essai d'une ttude chronologique des principautés Laotiennes (Paris: Librarie Plon, 1934)Google Scholar; Viravong, Maha Sila, History of Laos (New York: Paragon, 1964)Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Le Boulanger, Historie du Laos Franqaise, pp. 35–36.

⁵² Ibid.

⁵³ Ibid., pp. 13–20, 36–38, 55 and 90.

⁵⁴ The That Phanom Chronicle: A Shrine History and Its Interpretation, ed. and trans. James B. Pruess (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University, Southeast Asia Program, Data Paper, No. 104, 1976), p. 2.

⁵⁵ Ibid., p. 70.

⁵⁶ Taylor, Forest Monks, p. 80. Kamala, “Wandering Forest Monks”, p. 67, notes a preference for remote villages.

⁵⁷ Aymonier, Étienne, Voyage dans Le Laos (Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1895, 2 Vols.), vol. 1, pp. 141, 150–51, 173–78Google Scholar.

⁵⁸ Taylor, Forest Monks, p. 46. Kamala, “Wandering Forest Monks”, p. 74, writes that the Thai tradition was based on the custom of Wat Saket in Bangkok.

⁵⁹ Georges Condominas, “Phiban Cults in Rural Laos”, in Change and Persistence in Thai Society, Essays in Honor ofLauriston Sharp, ed. G. William Skinner and A. Thomas Kirsch (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1975), pp. 252–73; Georges Condominas, “Notes sur le bouddhisme populaire en milieu royal lao”, in Aspects du bouddhisme lao, Bulletin des Amis du Royaume Lao 9 (1973): 27–120; Charles Archaimbault, Structures Religieuses Lao (Rites et Mythes) (Vientiane: Editions Vithagna, Collection “Documents pour le Laos”, 1973).

⁶⁰ CMH R.3 (Chotmaihet Ratchakan, thi Sam Documents of the Third Reign, held by the Thai National Archives), 1206/139.

⁶¹ Chatthip Nartsupha and Achan Pranut Sapsarn obtained their account of the revolt from a local resident who had heard about it from other people on the area. Chatthip, “Ideology of ‘Holy Men’ Revolts”, pp. 115–16. This report, based on oral history, raises questions about the possibility of other, limited, small-scale rebellions having occurred elsewhere in the Northeast during this period.

⁶² Bernard Bourotte, History of the Mountain People of Southern Indochina up to 1945 (USAID translation of “Essai d'historie des populations montagnards du Sud Indochinois jusqu'i 1945”), Bulletin de la Sociite des etudes indochinoises, n.s., 30 (1955): 1–116, p. 16.

⁶³ Mom ‘Amarawong Wichit (M.R.W. Pathom Khanet) Phongsawadan Huamuang Monthon Isan (The Chronicle of the Townships of Monthon Isan) in Prachum Phongsawadan Chabab Ho Samut Haeng Chat (Collected Chronicles, National Library Edition), pt. 4, v. 2 (Bangkok: Rung Ruang Rat, 1964), pp. 168–69. Toem Wiphakphotchanakit, Prawatsat Isan (History of Isan) (Bangkok: Samakhom Sangkhomsat Haeng Prathet Thai, 1970), vol. 1, pp. 73–74.

⁶⁴ Chatthip, “Ideology”, p. 114.

⁶⁵ Amarawong, Isan, pp. 179–80; Toem, Prawatsat Isan, vol. 1, pp. 79–81.

⁶⁶ Chatthip, “Ideology”, p. 114.

⁶⁷ Amarawong, Isan, pp. 179–281; Chatthip, “Ideology”, p. 115; Toem, Prawasat Isan, vol. 1, p. 81.

⁶⁸ Chao Phraya Thiphakorawong, Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Rattanakosin Ratchakan thi 1–4 (The Royal Chronicle of the Ratanakosin Era, Reigns 1–4) (Bangkok: Khurusapha, 1961), vol. 2, p. 69.

⁶⁹ Ibid.

⁷⁰ Chatthip, “Ideology”, p. 115.

⁷¹ CMH R. 4. 1227/203, 1228/224.

⁷² The various references to Wat Saket by Taylor, Kamala, and nineteenth-century documents suggest that it would be worthwhile for someone to undertake a study of this monastery and its role in Thai and Lao religious history.

⁷³ Phra Khru Niam's declaration that he was a thewada suggests that he sought unusual, and legitimate, supernatural powers. A thewada is a benign spirit, of higher status than the typical phi. McFarland identifies the thewada with Brahminism, placing them above humans. George Bradley McFarland, M.D. Thai-English Dictionary (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1956), p. 423. A holy man who claims to be a thewada is making a very powerful and unusual statement. Phra Khru Niam's claim to be a son of a former official of Vientiane is also of interest. Chatthip, “Ideology”, pp. 111–12, writes that many of the holy men who headed rebellions in the Northeast, particularly those of 1901–1902, 1924, and 1936, sought to reestablish Vientiane as the capital for all of the Lao. The document, CMH R. 4, 1222/238, recording the progress of Phra Khru Niam, is, to my best knowledge, the earliest to reveal the importance of Vientiane to the Lao population in the northeast. This does raise a question of historical consciousness among a peasant population. What was their recollection of their past history? Why was the memory of Vientiane more important than that of Champassak? C. Archaimbault would say that Vientiane was the center; its ruling family was legitimate, while that of Champassak was not (”Religious Structures in Laos”, Journal of the Siam Society 52,1 [1964]: 57–74).

However we can note that Vientiane was showing signs of revival by 1845 (CMH R.3, 1209/115). If Vientiane was being resettled during the 1840s, the Lao must have been aware of this. Furthermore, the rulers of Vientiane could have appeared as good monarchs who stood up to the Thai, whereas Champassak — in a peasant's view — was subordinate and unable to protect local peasants from corv6e and taxation.

The French developed Vientiane as their administrative center in Laos, in the process restoring some of its earlier prestige. But this raises another question. Why was Vientiane in 1924 and 1946 still perceived as Lao and not as French?

⁷⁴ CMH R. 4, 1222/238.

⁷⁵ Tej, “Khabot Phu Mi Bun”, Ishii, “Buddhistic Millenarian Revolts”, Toem, Prawatsat Isan, pp. 106–107. Murdoch, “The 1901–1902 ‘Holy Man’ Rebellion”, pp. 55–60.

⁷⁶ Bourotte writes that, “The general unrest was effectively prolonged by the spate of messiahs, who included, in this order: In 1880, a French warrant officer who deserted and settled in Kon Hering.

In 1890, Kham and Khun, two Laotians claimed they could fly. Out of admiration for such extraordinary powers, the Moi showered them with gifts of chickens and pigs. When an Annamite challenged Kham to fly onto the verandah of a house on piles, the imposture was unmasked.

In 1901, an Annamite cretin had a temple built in his honor and dedicated to him at Dak Uang. Father Vialleton destroyed his prestige.

In 1908, a tame civet-cat from Robert's post was proclaimed a messiah. That same year, the Bahnar and Jarai paid homage to a self-styled ya who claimed to have instigated the revolt of the shorn hair in the plains of Central Annam.” Bourotte, History of the Mountain People, p. 103. He also describes four more incidents.

⁷⁷ Chatthip, “Ideology”, pp. 119–23.

⁷⁸ Discussed by Charles Keyes in his article, “Millennialism, Theravada Buddhism, and Thai Society”.

⁷⁹ Paitoon, “Administrative Reforms”, p. 153; Hans U. Luther, “Regional Identity versus National Integration — Contemporary Patterns of Modernization in Northeastern Thailand”, pp. 185, 190, and Charles F. Keyes, “Hegemony and Resistance in Northeastern Thailand”, pp. 157–62, 167, in Regions and National Integration in Thailand 1892–1992, ed. Volker Grabowsky (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1995).

⁸⁰ Jackson, Peter A., Buddhadasa: A Buddhist Thinker for the Modern World (Bangkok: The Siam Society, 1988), p. 56Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Jackson, Buddhadasa.