Thammasat University students interested in Thai studies, folklore, sociology, art, comparative religion, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 12 June Zoom webinar on The Gendered Allure of Nang Kwak: from statuettes to NFTs in Thailand.
The event, on Wednesday, 12 June 2024 at 2pm Bangkok time, is presented by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hong Kong University (HKU).
The TU Library collection includes several books about different aspects of Thai folklore.
Students are invited to register at this link:
http://hku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-_iKYCSfR7SHQmYD0_f-kA#/registration
For further information or with any questions, please write to
smblai@hku.hk
According to the event webpage:
Abstract:
Nang Kwak, or “The Beckoning Lady,” encapsulates the convergence of commercial aspirations and spiritual devotion in the cultural landscape of Thailand. Amid the dynamic Thai genderscape, this article examines Nang Kwak’s representations, revealing how her allure as a popular deity and emblem of prosperity is reinforced by essentialized female gender tropes of beauty, family devotion, and reassurance (ความสบายใจ). It interweaves analyses of her depictions in lore and sacred objects with insights from interviews with shopkeepers and amulet collectors, interrogating her role within dynamic practices of Thai Buddhism. She is portrayed as a mythical daughter in popular narratives and worshipped as a mother in proximity. Through the cultural production of her likeness in statuettes, amulets, and digital art or Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), these traditional female qualities are amplified, bringing reassurance to and evoking the desires of her devotees. Furthermore, Nang Kwak’s potency is associated with charm or saneh (เสน่ห์), rather than the counterpoint charismatic authority or barami (บารมี) usually attributed to male leaders, deities, or even of the monks that sacralize her image. The fashion and fashioning of Nang Kwak thus complicate sedimented ideas of gender, religion, and power, as her figure becomes the site of cultural reproduction and contestation.
The speaker will be Al Lim, PhD Candidate, Department of Anthropology and School of the Environment, Yale University, New Haven. Connecticut, the United States of America.
There will also be another presentation on the same occasion about “Actors and victims” in the construction of the solar PV landscape in rural China: case studies in Guangdong and Henan.
The event website notes:
This study examines the rapid development of solar photovoltaic (PV) installation in central and eastern China. Existing studies emphasize the state’s role in promoting PV installations in China with subsidies issued between 2013 and 2021 and recoginize its intention of maintaining the contribution of PV manufacturing to China’s economic growth. Drawing on extensive fieldwork, this study investigates the negotiations of key actors at the local level – local government, power supply authorities, PV companies, village cadres, and villagers – to unfold the development after the reduction of national subsidy starting in 2018.
I argue that while developing renewable energy through solar PV technology has become a means of reinforcing state power in China, local societies, driven by vested economic benefits, are actively shaping the construction of rural solar PV landscape by mobilizing land resources and mediating local disputes. By comparing the construction of rural solar PV landscapes in Guangdong and Henan, this study also sheds light on the power dynamics in land leasing and grid connection for PV installation, which may compromise the livelihood of local peasants and their economic benefits of installing PV systems.
The speaker will be Yijun Gai, PhD Candidate, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Hong Kong.
As all students know, Nang Kwak is a Bodhisattva or household goddess of Thai folklore.
She is deemed to bring good fortune, prosperity and attract customers to a business.
Although Nang Kwak is more a figure of popular folklore than a deity, there are Buddhist legends that seek to incorporate her into the Buddhist fold.
Commonly dressed in red Thai style clothing, Nang Kwak is an incarnation of Mae Po Sop, the Thai rice goddess. She is similar to the Hindu goddess Lakshmi.
Nang Kwak is represented as a beautiful woman often wearing a red Thai dress.
She wears a golden crown and is in the sitting or kneeling position.
Her right hand is raised in the Thai way of beckoning a customer, with the palm of the hand curved and pointing downwards.
Her left hand is resting on her side or holds a bag full of gold near her lap.
The present iconography of Nang Kwak is similar to Mae Po Sop, the Siamese rice goddess.
The term iconography refers to the visual images and symbols used in a work of art.
However, unlike Mae Po Sop, Nang Kwak does not wear the harvested rice sheaf on her right shoulder.
The iconography of Nang Kwak is like the Hindu goddess Sri Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, fortune and prosperity.
She has similar elements of the iconography of the Japanese Maneki Neko beckoning cat.
Nang Kwak is a benevolent spirit.
She is deemed to bring luck, especially in the form of money, to the household.
She is the patron deity of merchants and salesmen.
She can be seen in almost every business establishment in Thailand.
Thai people like to have a figurine or cloth poster (called a Pha Yant, or Yantra Cloth) of the goddess in their home or shop, where it is often placed by the shrine.
Many people in Thailand, who travel around to sell their wares, wear amulets with her figure around the neck.
One Buddhist legend presents Nang Kwak as a maiden named Nang Supawadee (or Subhavadi) of a trader family that converted to Buddhism.
According to this legend, in the small town of Michikasandhanakara in province of Sawadtii, there was a married family, Sujidtaprahma and his wife Sumanta, who had a daughter named Supawadee.
They were merchants who sold wares on the markets and lived hand to mouth.
One day, they were discussing their future and decided to expand their business to make more profit and to save for their old age.
They bought a gwian (cart) to travel with and sell their wares to other towns.
They also brought wares from other towns to sell in Sawadtii and Michigaasandhanakara on return.
Sometimes, Supawadee would come along to help them.
One day, as Supawadee was helping her parents to sell wares in a distant town, she heard a sermon by Phra Gumarn Gasaba Thera; she was moved by his sermon and converted to Buddhism.
When Gasaba Thaera saw her faith and devotion, he summoned all his powers of thought and concentration as an Arahant and bestowed blessings of good fortune and luck in salesmanship on Nang Supawadee and her family.
Another Thai legend presents Nang Kwak as the woman who defended a king from a demon in the epic Ramakien, the Thai version of the Hindu epic Ramayana.
She thereafter gained the boon (merit) of fortune and prosperity wherever she was.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)