STUDY OF “KONG SAN KAMOEI” THE RITUAL OFFERINGS TO ANCESTOR SPIRITS OF THAI-KUI PEOPLE IN SURIN PROVINCE Yasothara Siripaprapagon1 and Suriya Klangrit2 ABSTRACT Thai-Kui people lived in Surin Province is one of culture group who believes in ancestor spirits. The belief was transferred from the past until nowadays from a family by ritual. The people give high priority to this ritual as it is the way to pay respect to their roots. This ritual was called “San Kamoei” in the local language. There are ritual offerings provided in the ritual as symbols of respect to communicate with ancestor spirits. The ancestor spirits were believed to protect and bring prosperity to family members. So, the alive family members must respect and worship to the spirit. The worship will be held on important occasions. San Kamoei ceremony shows Thai-Kui identity which had been preserved by ritual to worship their ancestors. So, this is an important ceremony which outstanding inability to connect with spirit. Keywords: Kong San Kamoei, Ritual, Ancestor, Thai-Kui people, Surin Province INTRODUCTION There are many ceremonies which are held by Thai-Kui people in Surin province accorded to each area. The background reviewed; there are many rituals and gods in Brahmanism-Hinduism. Each god has several postures to run different duties presented in scripture. Even in Buddhism, there are also ritual and beliefs presented in Buddhist scripture such as body part astronomy,dream astronomy, figure astronomy, fire worship, triple circumambulation, fire worship by throwing husk, fire worship by throwing bran, fire worship by throwing white rice, fire worship by adding butter, fire worship by adding oil, fire worship by chant incantations, blood sacrifice, places astrologer, field astrology, chanting an incantation , astrologer, teak mystic symbol to protect house, snake astrologer, poison astrologer, scorpion astrologer, illness curer for rat biting, bird voice astrologer, crow voice astrologer, age astrologer(Sutta Pitaka Digha-nikāya (Thai). But those rituals were forbidden to monks by Buddha. All those beliefs came through the belief system of Thai Buddhist based on the belief of ghost which long lasting and influenced Thai way of life so it becomes to be a culture of ghost or ancestor spirit such as Phi Pu Ya, Phi Fa, Phi Muang, Phi Baan, Phi Chao Thi Chao Thang and Phi Pa Kam(Wichaporn Sangmanee,1993,p.31-32). This assimilation of belief became to be one of Thai pattern. So, it can say that Buddhism related to Thai belief and many beliefs related to ghosts and mediumship (Wirat Nipawan. 1990: 20). There is also one of belief of Thai-Kui people called San Kamoei (Yasothara S. 2013,p.25). In the ritual, there are “offerings” that must be provided. Each offering has included meaning, doctrines, and beliefs. Thai-Kui people practice this ritual to communicate with their ancestors' spirits to inform important subjects and ask for their wishing. The ancestor spirits were believed as a supernatural power who can bring good and bad. The origin of belief may be presented in the ritual components which we never notice before. Thus, this study, the researcher has collected fundamental data that the next researcher can use for further study to know and understand deeply in each belief and ritual. Thai-Kui people had been settled in the South Isaan area included Surin, Buriram, Srisaket, Ubonratchathani and Yasothorn provinces (Banchong Sodadee, 2014: 1). The people practice and keep their traditions, beliefs, and rituals especially belief in the power of spirits, devils, and mysteries for thousand years ago until nowadays. The beliefs are presented in modernization social which full of convenience utensils. But, the belief of supernatural power still present obviously and became to be rituals, process, components and its pattern (Yasothara S., 2018: 2-3). “Phi” is one of the human beliefs which had been found from the past. It is an invisible object but powerful, effected and plays an important role for the believed people. Moreover, the belief of “Phi” is also found in other traditional groups in Surin province such as Thai-Laos and Thai-Khmer people. The belief is expressed in the ways of each group. Therefore, this study of Thai-Kui people in Surin province is expected to find their unique in the belief (Yasothara S. 2017: 3-5). For Thai-Kui people, “Phi” is a spirit who had lived as a human before they moved in, invisible but powerful to bring good and bad to people. Therefore, people worship the spirit with expected safe for themselves, family and community. “Phi” is believed to dwell in various places such as big trees, sanctuaries, historic sites, rivers and anthills for years. By this belief, it became the idea to build a guardian spirit’s shrines or San Pu Ta for the spirit (Krissanan S. 2018: 3-4). Thai-Kui people believe that there are many kinds of spirits but can be grouped into 2 types included good and bad spirits. So, “Phi” of this group of people is an interesting subject to study. The cultural root of Thai-Kui people on the belief in “Phi” The meaning of culture can be said as beauty (Banchong Sodadee, 2014: 15) or the accumulation and inherited of creativity and wisdom (Dictionary of Royal Academy, 2011). Culture can be both visible and invisible subjects. Thai-Kui people had been livING in Surin province for a hundred years but the exact time was not indicated. Their root of culture is a belief in supernatural powers, “Phi”, which can be divided as follows 1) guardian spirits for family 2) spirits in houses or workplaces for protection and 3) spirits in other places which can be both good and bad spirits. This belief relates to the people way of life from birth until death. Culture is presupposition based on inhabitation and coexistence and then inherits to generations. So, “Phi” of Thai-Kui people is a pattern of cultural relationship, inhabitation, and coexistence, which became to be a cultural base of the group finally. THE BELIEF OF “PHI” OF THAI-KUI PEOPLE The belief of “Phi” is a traditional belief system of Thai-Kui people. The result of this study was integrated by their culture and tradition based on the ghost’s belief and Brahmanism. The belief can be divided into 3 specific aspects included 1) it became from traditional conceptual thinking of ghost (pure spirits) (Yasothara S. 2017: 5-6) (Yasothara S. 2017: 5-6) 2) the ritual derived from belief are followed by its pattern, procedure and components and 3) it is a combination of traditional belief and Brahmanism which spread to this ar1.a with spirit’s belief and ritual. The belief can be found by their local language as follow 1. Ya Jui Priam is Phi or Pu Ta who believed to protect the village or place peaceful and prosperous (Banchong Sodadee, 2014: 31-32). Thai-Kui people worship (San) A-Ya Jui 2 times a year included the 3rd of the waxing moon on the 3rd lunar month and the 6th day of waxing moon on the 6th lunar month. 2. Ya Jui Dung is a guardian spirit who protects house and family’s member. The worship for Ya Jui Dung will be held on special occasions of a family such as marriage ceremony, blessing ceremony and the ceremony to exorcize destiny. This spirit is respected as an ancestor spirit. 3. San A-Ya Jui is a ritual to worship spirits which believed to protect the group of people. The offerings will be prepared at the Pu Ta shrine to provide to the spirits. THE PURPOSES OF PAPER The purposes of the paper are studying the belief of the ritual towards ancestor spirit and the worship component in the Kong San Kamoei ritual of Thai-Kui people in Surin Province. SCOPE OF THE PAPER The context of this study was scoped from the related published academic documents on rituals, beliefs, culture, and tradition which focused on the belief and ritual of Thai-Kui people’s on ancestor’s spirit worship. The study area of this study is Baan Kraphoe, Thatoom District and Surin Province. Criteria of study area selection, there is still a strong belief and practice in the ritual till nowadays. There are many Thai-Kui who are the ritual conductors and ritualists. And, the identity of the ritual has been preserved well in the area. Scopes of key informants, the informants were selected by propulsive selection. The informants included 5 ritual conductors, 5 philosophers, 5 monks and 5 ordinary people in the study area. THE RITUAL OFFERINGS TO ANCESTOR SPIRITS OF THE THAI-KUI PEOPLE IN SURIN PROVINCE : THE BELIEF TOWARDS ANCESTOR SPIRIT OF THAI-KUI PEOPLE Belief is the main aspect that influenced and originated ritual, procedure, component and the ceremonial process followed the traditional culture of the people in each area. Moreover, it can also be used as a common denominator for simultaneous action such as belief in ancestor spirit which people who practice the worship were believed to get prosperous. The ritual which brings people successfully will determine some patterns and people will practice some patterns according to their belief and culture (Isaraporn,1994). Belief may influence from invisible power, supernatural power, ancestor’s spirits or spirits of passed away heroes in the region. When the fear of those powers happened, thus, the worship was originated. Then, the worship has been transferred and practiced until nowadays (Siriporn,1992 .p.372). The traditional belief of Thai-Kui people was developed from supernatural power and mysterious power of spirit called Phi or ghost (Wilasinee S, 2000.p. 23). THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CULTURE AND TRADITION The belief of Phi which becomes to be an identity tradition of Thai-Kui people can be divided as follow 1. The way of life, Thai-Kui’s way of life is influenced and relied on “Phi” especially on agriculture such as water from rain and good productivity. People respect and also accept Phi into their other part of living as encouragement and reliable sacred items (Boonsa Klangrit , 20 June 2018). Phi is believed as a spirit which stated by natural and has supernatural power. So, Phi can bring people good and bad effects. By this belief, Phi will be worshiped with an expectation of help and protection. 2. The belief of Phi, Thai-Kui people believe that Phi has the power of treatment for irregular illness. The powerful spirit or Phi will be invited to treat people such as in Galmore ritual. Phi is also believed to protect people who have believed and respected them. Moreover, Phi responded to the human auspicious need. 3. Brahmanism based, the belief of Thai-Kui people is a mixture of Phi or spirit’s belief and Brahmanism which doesn’t reject the local belief. Phi or spirits state in places, find somewhere to rebirth or even dwell to their favorite places. This mixture belief showed by many ways such as worship or ceremony. Phi or spirits are presented in many forms such as god, angel or invisible power. With this mixture belief, the traditional belief has been stronger accepted and becomes to be a belief system. The influence and role of “Phi” The influence of belief in “Phi” of Thai-Kui people originated from their fear of supernatural power and invisible objects. These powers drove people in many ways such as living, traveling, safety, habitation, auspicious asking and agricultural promotion. Agricultural fruitful is one of the important issues for this group. And, “Phi” is believed as a spirit that can bring them peacefully. The influence of belief is reflected by a physical expression such as rituals and worship in order to pay respect and provide offerings to spirits (Phra Samroeng Kowitho, 20 June 2018). The role of “Phi” to Thai-Kui people found by participated observation is the role related to people such as role in their ritual as follow 1. Marriage must be informed to ancestor spirits (Yasothara Siripaprapakon, 20 June 2018) 2. The spirit retrieving ceremony is practiced to treat people who ill and cannot find its cause by modern medicine. The ceremony is aimed to console the illness people’s “Kwan” and to ask an ancestor’s spirit for help (Ya Meekeaw, 20 June 2018) 3. The ordination ceremony for family’s member must be informed guardian’s spirits in order to bless all member auspicious and cherish the merit (Thongda Klangrit, 21 June 2018) 4. The annual spirit worship which found in Galmore ritual. The ritual is aimed to worship the ancestor’s spirits by inviting them to join the ceremony through a human medium. This ritual is practiced annually and provided spirits dancing and offerings (Yasothara Siripaprapakon, 20 June 2018). THE RITUAL PRACTICE Some rituals may have a mixture of religion and superstition, or are composed of both beliefs and practices (Somporn K.,1983 p.47)To practice worship or ritual, models or patterns (Royal I. D,1999.p.788) of the ritual will create special power in order to empower and colour people living (Richard L,1999.p. 206). It is a form of mental and behavioral(Denny,1999.p.29)The ancestor’s spirit worship is a traditional ritual of Thai-Kui people which aimed to provide food to the ancestor’s spirits. This ritual has been practiced continuously from ancient times. San Kamoei ritual of Thai-Kui people was believed and practiced from the past and remains nowadays. This can be proved by old people who believed in this ritual (Chansi Tathong, April 28, 2017). Chansi Tathong said about the reason to practice the San Kamoei ritual that it is aimed to communicate with the ancestor’s spirit to ask for protection and peaceful life. In the ritual, the ancestor’s spirit will be invited from the family’s members to take offerings with their peaceful expectations. And, it is also aimed to ask for forgiveness and protection from an ancestor’s power. SAN KAMOEI RITUAL WILL BE PRACTICED IN IMPORTANT OCCASION ONLY 1. In the wedding ceremony, San Kamoei will be held in Thai-Kui wedding to inform ancestor spirit that their 2.young people have an auspicious ceremony. So, the ancestor will come and bless them to have a peaceful life In house warming ceremony, Thai-Kui people believed that house warming is means starting a new life. So, worship to ancestor spirit, sacred item or guardian spirit necessary. In annual worship, Thai-Kui people have their own culture to worship sacred items annually to ask for fruitful agriculture and water. In career successful occasion, when the young generation success in their career or get well respect from people, Thai-Kui people believed that these were supported from ancestor spirit. So, they worship them to inform their success and ask for a blessing. In illness treatment, if there are some of the family members ill and cannot find any cause and cannot treat by science medicine, Thai-Kui people will worship the ancestor spirit to ask for treatment. In offering ceremony for the sacred item which protects the family. There are ceremonies to worship the ancestor spirit guardian spirit to bring auspicious to the family. This is the belief of Thai-Kui people on San Kamoei ritual which inherited from ancestor and spirit power which influenced their way of living as Geertz study (Geertz, 1963 .p. 6) Geertz has studied symbolism emphasized on human behavior decoding. He tried to explain human behaviors expressed by language and action. Human thinking works naturally free from body acting with a thinking process and reason. Thinking system controls human behaviors in 2 ways, language, and action. Humans must encode their thinking into their speech or action to express their thinking to others. Humans will decode speech or action from others to understand too. So, the sender and receiver who understand each other must know or stay in the same culture or environment. The interpret system for behavior is a symbolic system which means there are several steps for decoding. The representation and object may not highly relate to each other, it is an independent representative. Thus, the symbolic system is originated from the human thinking system which is an abstract system deeply. All human behaviors are a symbolic system. The symbols which use to explain knowledge from local wisdom embed with philosophy have great benefit for a human. This study aimed to present the importance and meaning of symbols in the ritual by in-depth interviews and participated observation. THE BELIEF OF SAN KAMOEI OF THAI-KUI PEOPLE TOWARDS ANCESTOR SPIRITS The ancestor spirits whom Thai-Kui people pay respect are able to bring them good and bad. The spirits were not mean only grandparents but also protection house spirits such as guardian spirits Phra Mae Thorani (mother earth) which close to humans. People believe that those spirits are true so they pay respect and worship to ask for their prosperous. ETHIC VALUE THROUGH THE RITUAL Ethic value from the San Kamoei ritual was realized and accepted from people from the past. The value can be considered on the behavior of people in society. People who practice this ritual showed their friendship, considerate, giving and spiritual support to each other. Moreover, the structure of this belief can control Thai-Kui people behavior. These are ethic values created from the San Kamaoei ritual. In this study, science means knowledge originated from the ritual. It is a knowledge influenced to behavior, thinking, living and tradition which transferred from ancestor to young generations. This knowledge was called ethics in English. Human behavior reflected their habit. Ethics can be used to determine human value from their behaviors presented from body, speech, and mind. And, the tradition that people need to practice in each society is the way to transfer their local wisdom. VALUE FROM SAN KAMOEI RITUAL Values of San Kamoei ritual was found by interviewing the key informant interviews. The results are as follows; San Kamoei ritual showed people’s gratitude (Kinnaree Samanya, interview, April 20, 2017) The ritual showed the harmony of people in a community, moreover, it also showed Thai-Kui social structure (See Pimthong, interview, January 20, 2017). There is giving and generous planting in this ritual, moreover, it is a chance for family members to build a good relationship with each other (Was Sukserm, interview, January 20, 2017). This ritual is the way to transfer the belief of ancestor spirit worship. It makes an opportunity for family members and relatives to meet, give and support each other (Boonchan Wiyasing, interview, January 20, 2017). The value presented in San Kamoei ritual of Thai-Kui people is the belief and ritual which showed the social structure of Thai-Kui people was practiced to support their stability of spiritual (Kammun Samanya, interview, January 20, 2017) CONCLUSION San Kamoei ritual of Thai-Kui people was practiced and inherited from ancient time. The propose of the ritual was to connect with ancestor spirit, angels and guardian gods to ask for protection and peaceful life. In a family, San Kamoei was practiced to give offerings to the ancestor’s spirit as guardian god. San Kamoei is a social control structure of Thai-Kui people using belief and ritual. They believed in supernatural power and human is also controlled by supernatural power. The power which controls human is their ancestor’s spirit called “Kamoei” in Kui language which means “ghost”. This belief benefits people in the community to earn or create characters as follows, Confidence, Power, Creativity, Harmony, Symbolic, Wisdom, and Spiritual power. Moreover, Culture, tradition, beliefs, and rituals in each group of people especially belief in the power of spirits, devils, and nature have been believed and respected for 1000 years until the present. The expression of belief still can be found nowadays even there are modern ways of life with many convention utensils. The belief became to be rituals followed by its procedure, components, and pattern. The belief of “Phi” of Thai_Kui people can be divided into 3 aspects included 1) it became from traditional conceptual thinking of ghost 2) the ritual derived from belief are followed by its pattern, procedure and components and 3) it is a combination of traditional belief and Brahmanism which spread to this area with the spirit’s belief and ritual. The belief of ghosts is expressed by their local language which use to communicate with ghosts or spirits, their respect, worship and belief in the power of spirits. They believe in spirits and the relationship between people and spirits became to be the identity of the Thai-Kui tradition which affected their way of life. The belief of spirits was based on Brahmanism and the fear of the supernatural power of people. The important relation of “Phi” in this study is its role related to people in this group. The roles which found in ritual included 1) marriage in family must be informed to ancestor spirits 2) the spirit retrieving ceremony is practiced to treat people who ill and cannot find its cause by modern medical, the ceremony is aimed to console the illness people’s “Kwan” and to ask an ancestor’s spirit for help 3) the ordination ceremony for family’s member must be informed guardian’s spirits in order to bless all member auspicious and cherish the merit and 4) the annual spirit worship which found in Galmore ritual, the ritual is aimed to worship ancestor’s spirits by inviting them to join ceremony through human medium. This ritual is practiced annually and provided spirits dancing and offerings.