Admirers of Thai culture will be delighted by a newly acquired book at the Thammasat University Libraries. Tai Magic: Arts of the Supernatural in the Shan States and Lan Na is by Susan Conway. Currently a research associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Dr. Conway has written a number of informative books already in the TU Libraries collection. They include Silken Threads Lacquer Thrones: Lan Na Court Textiles; The Shan: Culture, Arts and Crafts; and Thai Textiles. Tai Magic discusses manuscripts, textiles and talismans involved with supernatural themes. Dr. Conway explains how good and evil spirits are illustrated, and diagrams and spells are designed to provide good luck and protection or the reverse. To research the subject, Dr. Conway spent four years in the Shan States and northern Thailand. The Bangkok Post praised the book for its examination of images on paper, cloth or tattooed into people’s skin. Instead of studying rituals and amulets, already described by previous scholars, she focuses on imagery, following in the lines of her earlier study of textiles. In Thailand, she concentrates especially on the Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son regions. Where do the pictures, words and numbers found on magic images derive from? Some are clearly from Buddhism, Hinduism and spirit belief. As The Bangkok Post notes:

The most unusual and fascinating part of Conway’s study concerns designs drawn on mulberry paper to combat various kinds of misfortune. The designs are inserted in votive candles, or dipped in oil and then burnt. The residue is sometimes diluted and either applied as a paste or drunk. In the designs, the Buddha is rare and Hindu gods even rarer. The pictures are mostly animals, scenes from folk belief, and occasionally legendary monks, especially Phra Siwali. The designs are crowded with numerals in magic combinations and mantra texts in a confusion of different languages and scripts, often little known and understood today. These devices seem to be direct appeals to the spirits who govern well-being, good fortune and the future.

A 2013 article in Chiang Mai Citylife describes Dr. Conway’s encounters near the Thai-Burmese border with magic monks, or salas (experts), as they are called by the Shan people:

This sala is just one of many magic monks that reside in the remote villages of Northern Thailand and Shan State. Magic is commonly practiced among the village people, either as a belief system on its own or as an unsanctioned part of the larger Theravada Buddhist religion. Much has been written about the rituals and ceremonies, but what has gone largely unstudied is the material that is used, such as the supernatural scripts, talismans and magic textiles. It was this informational void coupled with a deep sense of curiosity that ultimately led Conway to meet this magic man more than five years ago… To the villagers, she found, magic is a necessity: the key to good luck in business, love and life. As such, due to the current climate of poverty and insecurity among the village people, there is a high demand for the monks and their skills. “This is not just a historical tradition, this is a living tradition,” she says. “I had no idea.”

In villages in Mae Hong Son province, people depend on monks as doctors and magic as medicine, Conway revealed:

Magic men work closely with the refugees and they do fantastic work. They are thinking about psychological care, not just physical, so that people don’t get so depressed about their conditions. I think that’s beneficial within the conditions of the Shan villages.

People make appointments to see the magic monks, much as they would to see more conventional doctors. Photocopies are made of popular magic formulas to make them more easily distributed. Dr. Conway mentions that the magic monks meditate, like traditional Buddhist monks, but also claim more unusual powers. Each village has at least one magic monk, although they work discreetly. Dr. Conway adds:

But if you’re a villager, you know the magic man. Everybody in the village knows the magic man… I hope this book will make Westerners realize how interesting this culture is. It will dispel the myth that it’s all about bad magic. It actually isn’t. There are a lot of monks who use magic for positive power.

Thailand and Magic

As all Thais know, a great deal of lore exists in Thailand about black magic spells. These may be associated with the belief in ghosts in Thai culture, such as Pret, part of Buddhist mythology. A hungry ghost that is unusually tall and thin with a tiny mouth, Pret is associated with Phi Dip Chin, originally part of Chinese beliefs in Thailand. Other ghosts believed by some to be present in Thailand include Chao Kam Nai Wen, Krahang, Krasue, Mae Nak, Nang Takian, Nang Tani, Phi Hua Khat, Phi Phraya, Phi Pop, Phi Song Nang, Phi Tai Hong, Phi Tai Thong Klom, Phi Thale, Phi Kong Koi, Kuman Thong, Rak-Yom, Phi Tabo, Phi Ka, Phi Tai Ha, and many others. Some of these spirits are scary and a few are decidedly dangerous. Yet others, such as Mae Sue, are described as more protective, especially caring about newborn babies and toddlers. With so many ghosts to potentially see and encounter, no wonder believers are concerned, especially since at the very least, some bad memories may results. Even if they are only visited by Phi Phong, a spirit noted for its terrible smell, this can clearly be upsetting. An article from 2010 in New Dawn Magazine observed:

Whilst it is possible for [evil] spirits to be exorcised, Buddhism chooses to deal with their interfering presence in another way; the correct approach for a Buddhist to cause these spirits to cease meddling in the affairs of their human victims is to preach to them, thus converting the spirits involved to a more benign nature. There are certain canonical texts which serve this purpose of protection, which can also be recited at specific times in order to avert misfortune. These texts are known as the phraa parit.

As a sign of further international academic interest in this theme, earlier this year at the Webster University Cha-Am/Hua Hin campus, the Dutch-Australian anthropologist Professor Barend Jan Terwiel, emeritus chair of the study of languages and cultures of Thailand and Laos at the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg, Germany, gave an Introduction to Thai Magic as a guest lecturer. Last year, at the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra, a presentation on Spirits of power in 21st Century Thailand was given by Professor Peter A. Jackson, a specialist in Thai history and cultural studies in the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons).