Rituals and Beliefs
When viewing Ban Chiang artifacts in museums it may be noticed that some painted pots were smashed to tiny pieces. Archaeologists have reconstructed these meticulously, like a jigsaw puzzle.
Some very large pots often have the identifying label “child body container”. Some spearheads look like they were bent out of shape. Every pottery doll found appears to be smashed in the head. What do these items indicate?
Evidence from excavation indicates that prehistoric Ban Chiang people had several everyday rituals but what archaeologists have been able to find out about most concerns mortuary practices.
Over one hundred burials showed bodies covered or shrouded with cloth and buried with painted pots, some smashed to bits and scattered over the body. The personal belongings of the deceased, such as axes, spearheads and bracelets were bent out of shape, and necklaces, rings, waist hoops or charms were worn on different parts of the body.
A body of a large hunter, taller than 180 centimetres was decorated with a hairpin and a spearheads made of intricately worked bone. Next to his body were dirt bullets and a tiger fang pendant. All of these were perhaps for him to use in the next world where he would travel after death.
The bodies of babies were put in a wide-mouth jar with incised designs and a cover. This is the convention for burying infant corpses throughout northeast Thailand as well as Indochina in general.
Ban Chiang people did not yet know Buddhism, so their beliefs were in spirits, both good and bad, that are above nature, and in the next world. Evidence of this can be seen in the artifacts found in the burials mentioned.