Manora Ancestral Beings, Possession and Cosmic Rejuvenation in Southern Thailand
Abstract. – The manora rongkru ceremony is a unique institution
that has developed according to social needs of the people
of the mixed community on the eastern banks of Lake Songkhla,
where Buddhists and Muslims live together in closely-knit neighborhoods
and kinship networks. People in southern Thailand
feel that they are part of an imagined community, as they are
all considered descendents of the first manora teachers. The article
argues for the continuing relevance, relative autonomy and
perceived authenticity of ancestor worship in Manooraa ritual
practice and possession for the spiritual needs and aspirations of
the Southern Thai people as major reason for the revitalization
of the Manooraa in the context of modernity and Thai popular
religion.
Alexander Horstmann, a Visiting Professor at the College of
Religious Studies and Senior Advisor of the Multicultural Studies
Program at Mahidol University in Thailand. – Senior Research
Partner at Max Planck Institute for Religious and Ethnic
Diversity in Goettingen, Germany. – After many years of
studying dynamics of religion in Southern Thailand, he began
in 2009 a research project on Karen religions and sacred spaces
of Karen refugees that takes him to the refugee camps in Northwestern
Thailand and to Karen state in Burma (Myanmar). – Recent
publications: ‘‘Sacred Networks and Struggles among the
Karen Baptists across the Thailand-Burma Border.” Moussons
17 (2011); “Living Together: The Transformation of Multi-Religious
Coexistence in Southern Thailand.” Journal of Southeast
Asian Studies 42 (2011). – See also References Cited.
Introduction
The picture of religion in Thailand today is characterized
by a contradictory move: While conventional
Theravada Buddhism seems to have lost much appeal
with the younger generation, Buddhism is also
being revived in new forms. The worship of Buddhist
saints, the booming cult of Buddhist amulets,
and the presence of magic monks show that a reconfigured
Buddhism is able to thrive in particular niches
in modern urban society (Jackson 1999; Taylor
1999, 2008). While the capitalist economy and the
growing nation-state weakened ancestral traditions
and traditional authority in the village, the same
forces also propelled the dramatic expansion, presence,
and visibility of spirit mediums in urban areas
who are possessed by royalty and who speak to clientele
of all classes, including the highest members
of the political elite.1 These urban spirit mediums
coexist and hybridize with revitalized and fragmented
Theravada Buddhism. Although processes
of modernization, rationalization, and globalization
put a lot of pressure on “traditional” society, its institutions
do not disappear, but reappear in new configurations,
satisfying the social needs of modern
people. Rosalind Morris (2000) ties the rise of spirit
possession in contemporary Thailand to the political
economy of a modernist Thai state that has commodified
spirit possession, repackaging it through
its electronic mediation on video and television as
an object of desire and longing. Morris shows that
the process of mediation through new media tech-nologies is crucial for the new configurations of
spirited modernities. I choose the ethnographic example
of the Manora to illustrate the coexistence
and hybridization of spirit mediums with Theravada
Buddhism and Islam and the resilience and revitalization
of spirit beliefs and spirit possession in
southern Thailand.2 Peter Jackson argues that the
modern phase in Thai religion refers to following
a path of doctrinal rationalization accompanied by
organizational centralization and bureaucratization,
whereas the postmodern one is characterized by a
resurgence of supernaturalism and an ef florescence
of religious expression at the margins of state control,
involving a decentralization and localization of
religious authority (Jackson 1999). In other words,
religion can assume many different forms, such as
commodity, political ideology, and marker of identity,
marketing machine, or object of worship, depending
on the spatial and temporal context. These
different forms may exist together or overlap and
contribute to their complexity.
I argue that southerners, like people elsewhere
in Thailand, seek communication with the spirits to
come to terms with the challenges and ailments of
modern life. They hope that the spirits can influence
the direction of their lives in favorable directions.
The communication and interaction with the
spirits is facilitated and enacted by professional
mediums that are possessed by specific deities. The
second reason for the resilience of the spirits, I argue,
is the resistance against the growing orthodoxy
in both Theravada Buddhism and in Islam. While
Theravada Buddhism preaches the awakening from
ignorance through mindfulness, people are more attracted
to the sacredness and power of the Buddhist
saints that they see as the highest spirit in the hierarchy
or parade of spirits. Villagers use Buddhist festivals,
such as the Buddhist festival of the tenth lunar
month (ngan deun sip), to memorize and provide
offerings to the beloved ancestors. Islam is rapidly
globalizing. Muslims become involved in transnational
flows, mobility, and movements and consume
Islamic images that are produced by global media,
such as the internet (Horstmann 2007). However,
Muslim villagers still believe in ancestor spirits.
For example, they believe that the ancestor spirits
visit them after Ramadan and they offer their communal
meal to them after prayer. Lambek calls this
coexistential expression of religion “polyphony”
(2000: 70). Villagers in both religions thus “navigate”
among the various claims that either ancestralpower or modern religion makes upon them and in
which they are not in a position to make a decision
in favor of one or the other. With Lambek, I would
argue for a reflexive position that recognizes the
needs of people belonging to religions whose canon
has developed a negative stance on spirits. While
Buddhism removes itself from the ghostly realm,
villagers are interested in building congenial relationships
between humans and spirits (pi). Beliefs
create a bridge between the living and their own ancestors.
Pi ta yai (spirits of the grand-grandparents
or ancestral spirits) refer to the good and benevolent
ancestors who stay in the heavenly realm, not
yet reborn, to protect the living, watch over them,
and to provide assistance to the good people or punishments
to the bad. Not all dead have the privilege
to receive ancestor status and only very powerful
people who accumulated a lot of merit, like Buddhist
saints or Muslim kings, can receive the status
of great ancestors. People who committed a lot of
sin in their lives are degraded to the status of hungry
ghosts. There is a large variety of offerings to
the ancestor spirits, ranging from simple family reunions
to the elaborate Manora Rongkru three-day
long vow ceremony.3
The Ancestral Vow Ceremony Manora Rongkru
(Nora Rongkru)
One central form of interaction and technique of
communication with the spirits in southern Thailand
is the ancestral ceremony Manora, also called by
the southern people in the short form Nora, in which
designated spirit mediums or even members of the
community become possessed by the great grandparent’s
(ta yai) ancestral spirits. Manora or Nora is
used to designate the dancer of the genre as well as
the art form itself (Jungwiwattanaporn 2006: 377).
While the word nora reflects its Buddhist-Indian
jataka origin, it is important to note that the Suthon-
Manora dramatic plot is almost absent in the actual
performance of Nora, which depicts a folk story,
containing the creation of myth (Ginsburg 1972). In
this myth, existing in a variety of local narratives,
the “Lady of White (hence sacred) Blood” is a princess
who is put on a bamboo raft in the ocean from
the palace for being incestuously pregnant while doing
Nora dance training with her brother and who is
saved by a peasant couple. Lady White Blood gives
birth to a son, Si Sata, and, to make a living, teacheshim how to dance Manora. Si Sata is the first teacher
of the Manora dance and performance genre. Out
of gratitude, Lady White Blood donated gold she
found in the forest to Ta Kura temple, where it was
used to model a Buddha figure (see Gesick 1995).4
In the climax of the Nora Rongkru vow-fulfilment
ceremony, the ancestral spirits of the dead transcend
to the medium’s bodies and possess them. So possessed,
the living are able to laugh and cry with the
loved, lost ones and receive the wisdom and advice
from the ancestral spirits.
In the grand Manora ceremony, entertainment,
performance, art form, ancestral tradition, creation
epos, and spirit possession all intermingle. This is
because the Manora master, called nairong Manora
(short form: nairong), a bird-winged shaman and
dancer, uses the skilful dance and verse to call the
Manora ancestors (Nunsuk 1980). The grand Manora
ancestors are the first teachers of the arts and are
commonly venerated by the southern villagers who
host vow ceremonies in order to placate the powerful
deities. The nairong Manora embodies the wisdom
and knowledge of the first teachers venerated
as mythological figures. He possesses supernaturalpower that he taps by calling the great ancestors for
miraculous healing and for exorcising black magic
(sayasart).5
Nora Rongkru literally means “Manora-Stage-
Teacher”: The dances performed by the possessed
spirit mediums are also called vow-dances.6 The cycle
of a full vow ceremony, called Nora Rongkru
(short form) lasts for three whole days and takes
place on a make-shift stage that is constructed only
for the duration of the ceremony and dismantled
after
its closure. In this long vow ceremony, the nairong
Manora invites Nora as well as non-Nora ancestor
spirits to descend from the heavenly realm
to witness the ceremony and to