The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk

McDaniel, Justin Thomas

doi:10.7312/mcda15376

Cited by 119 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…Such a process is nothing new (Jackson 1999; Pattana 2005; White 2006). A number of Thai Buddhist reforms in the 19th and early 20th centuries attempted to draw a distinction between undesirable sayasaat (magic) and satsanaa (religion), without much success outside elite circles (McDaniel 2011:6). At the same time, new social and economic changes gave rise to new religious practices (e.g., the rise of Chinese spirit mediumship).…”

Section: Occult Economiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Naming chaos: Accident, precariousness, and the spirits of wildness in urban Thai spirit cults

Johnson

2012

American Ethnologist

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Conceptions of wildness (theuan) and accident pervade the Thai informal economy and infuse certain forms of popular religious practice. I look at the propitiation of wilderness spirits in urban Bangkok at shrines that migrant and marginal workers see as sites of hope and danger. I argue that, by naming the potential for accident and death as a spirit with which they can communicate, informal‐economy workers attempt to change the potential for misfortune into its opposite. My study draws on recent work on neoliberal and precarious labor in Europe as well as connections between the occult and the economy.

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Section: Occult Economiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…22 22 Other spirit shrines abound, including those on Sathorn Road, in Wat Mahathat, and another shrine of Lady Takhian associated with the shrine of Mae Nak Phra Khanong at Wat Mahabut (see McDaniel 2011). …”

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confidence: 99%

Naming chaos: Accident, precariousness, and the spirits of wildness in urban Thai spirit cults

Johnson

2012

American Ethnologist

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“…The Thai religious market is comprised of the production, consumption and exchange of charisma (Tambiah 1984;Jackson 1999;McDaniel 2011), merits (Kitiarsa 2008), Buddhist and non-Buddhist goods (Kitiarsa 2005;Kitiarsa 2012;Jackson 1999) and religious tourism. Huntington and Shaw (1951: 18) suggest, "every religion is at least modified by its surroundings, especially those of its birthplace."…”

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confidence: 99%

Ganesa and His Cult in Contemporary Thailand

Agarwal¹,

Jones²

2018

IJAPS

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Ganesa has long been familiar to the people of Thailand but increasingly evident are the Ganesa cults flourishing in Bangkok. In the process, the deity appears to be acquiring new roles and functions. Ganesa now serves in a number of capacities for some; he is a "fixer," a deity of last resort that can help devotees to overcome obstacles in their lives. Not surprisingly, the growing popularity of the deity is reflected in a rapidly expanding trade in Ganesa images and icons, displayed in shopping mall exhibitions in a variety of forms, colours, shapes and sizes. Readily available at most of Bangkok's major retail outlets, Ganesa icons are traded online via social media. This paper attempts to explore this phenomenon, both by examining shifting belief practices associated with Ganesa locally and by looking at how these shifts are reflected in the evolving trade in Ganesa iconography. Considering both together, the authors will demonstrate that Ganesa cult is presently the focal point for a number of people, each with its own unique approach to the deity, powers and representation.

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“…In Thailand, there is a Buddhist tradition of worshipping the relics of renown monks, who, just like awliya of the Islamic world, are known to be capable of astounding miracles. 318 An example is the monk, Somdet To, who was known to be able to heal the sick and close wounds, and many still believe his amulets are also capable of miracle workings, 319 much like Habib Nuh and his keramat grave. This universal tradition-to worship extremely pious and saint-like deceased-which exists in many cultures, could account for why keramat grave worship, especially of the graves of awliya in Singapore, are practised by not only the Muslim community, but also other religious communities such as the Hindu and Buddhist communities.…”

Section: Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Today, the shrine of Mae Nak is still worshipped. 332 Another example of a good person killed violently-interestingly enough, another woman-is Mahsuri of Langkawi, Malaysia. She was known for her unparalleled beauty and was believed to have died in 1819.…”

Section: Royalty and Community Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

The grave that became a shrine : the lives of keramat graves in Singapore

Husni¹

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Keramat graves may be found in many parts of the Malay world. The Malay word keramat signifies venerated objects. Some of these include Malay or Muslim graves of significant and holy persons, which have become sites of worship or shrines. By focusing on the objectness and lives of these sacred sites, this paper will look at the keramat graves through the lens of art history. It aims to build upon and contribute to earlier studies on keramat graves-which have been mainly focused on ethnographic aspects of keramat grave worship or the lives of the individuals buried at these sites-by providing an art historical perspective on the topic. Just like humans, keramat graves, like any objects, have lives. Borrowing from Richard Davis' and Igor Kopytoff's approaches to examining lives of objects, this thesis will study the lives of keramat graves in Singapore by looking at the different aspects of their lives. It will first show how their forms inform their identity-making, and vice versa. It will then examine the relationships between keramat graves and their locations; focusing on the trees surrounding them, the height on which they were built upon, and their proximity to water. Lastly, it will examine how they change and grow in form, through the accumulation of offerings. In doing so, this research hopes to demonstrate how the form, materiality and objectness of the keramat graves grant them some agency upon their lives and how they are approached by worshippers from numerous religious and cultural background. This thesis hopes to show that keramat grave worship in Singapore, while part of a larger tradition of Islamic grave worship, still sets itself apart from the latter tradition through its localisation. It also hopes to provide one possible approach to studying religious spaces that are shared and worshipped by numerous different communities.

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The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk

Cited by 119 publications

References 0 publications

Naming chaos: Accident, precariousness, and the spirits of wildness in urban Thai spirit cults

Naming chaos: Accident, precariousness, and the spirits of wildness in urban Thai spirit cults

Ganesa and His Cult in Contemporary Thailand

The grave that became a shrine : the lives of keramat graves in Singapore

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