[Buddha-l] "Soul" and Buddhism

[jkirk]

Thanks for mentioning Stanley Tambiah. Here's a list of his
publications (none of whicn I have read, sad to say) that may
bear on the query raised by Weng Fai:

Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja, 1929-  
Buddhism and the spirit cults in north-east Thailand. Cambridge
University Press, 1970. 

--The Buddhist saints of the forest and the cult of amulets : a
study in charisma, hagiography, sectarianism, and millennial
Buddhism. Cambridge University Press, 1984 

--Magic, science, religion, and the scope of rationality.
Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Joanna 
=======================


Dear Weng Fai,

Popular Buddhism in Thailand use the term vi~n~aan.na (which they
pronounce winyaan) for the non-physical conscious aspect of a
being.
Often the usage has little difference with the Hindu sense of the
word, "soul."

The pioint is that just as Confucianism and Daoism has decisively
shaped Chinese Buddhism, Thai Buddhism is very much influenced by
brahminical Hinduism. Much of Thai Buddhism has gone back to the
Buddha's time, but it is mostly on the opposing side all over
again.

The anthropologist Stanley Tambiah has written something on "The
Buddhist Spirit Cults of NE Thailand".

With metta,

Piya Tan



On Mon, May 25, 2009 at 8:07 AM, Weng-Fai Wong
<wongwf at comp.nus.edu.sg> wrote:
> I was in Malaysia yesterday and, out of curiosity, I picked up
two 
> interesting magazines - one called "Thai monks" and another
called 
> "Thai amulets" - for a bookstore. These are in English and
there are 
> at least
> 3-4 more in Chinese of the same genre - all apparently
published in 
> Malaysia.
>
> On page 2, the second para of an article called "Getting to
know Guman 
> Thong" in "Thai monks", the unspecified author boldly declared:
>
> "A 'soul' is the spiritual part of a human. It is simple and
hidden in 
> one's heart. Some say it is in the brain while some other parts
of the 
> body (sic). It is said that it is kind and full of intelligence
and 
> potential, as what Buddhists call 'Buddhist soul'."
>
> It then went on to expound the origin and wonders of "rearing"
Guman 
> Thong, which it clarify is not a "little ghost". It also
introduces a 
> host of Thai monks all with the title "Luang Phor", all learned
in the 
> Dhamma, able to perform miracles with one believed to be an
arhat at 7.
>
> There is also an introduction to "The Figure of Phra Pitta"
which the 
> article says is one Sangajaya "a monk of great fortune who
lived in 
> the Lord Buddha's time" who was later transformed to "Phra
Kawampati 
> (Pali
> pronunciation) or Phra Kawambodhi (Thai pronunciation)". It
promises 
> magic to those wearing its blessed amulet. The article ends by 
> reminding all "Remember that all Thai amulets of every piece
and every 
> kind must be blessed, without exception, through the
consecration 
> rituals performed by meditative gurus, otherwise they are fake
or 
> ineffective amulets for wearing."
>
> Is there any scholarly study or introduction to this aspect of
Thai 
> Buddhism as well as all these monks involved?
>
> W.F. Wong
>
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