The String Thing

[chiangmaibruce]

Hi all. The rituals I am talking about include northern marriage, visting the monk, and song nam phra. I searched out some threads on this topic that were a few years old but seek further clarification.

Those threads seem to confirm that the sai sin rituals are not really a formal part of buddhism, just something the Thais have tied on. Some even suggested that sai sin rituals could be against the laws of Bhuddism. Anyway we just had the local people go around and tie on every house and street in the village, and as village farang I did my bit up on a ladder. I asked the Mrs if there was a name for this event, which occurs once a year here ... she said 'song nam phra', but on further research, that is the name of a ritual (normally associated with songkran) and not the name of an annual event. She said our local event was associated with the annual birthday of our local chedi ... and sure enough we gave the old boy a good wetting down in the evening ... so I assume all villages have such an event ... but presumably on different days of the year (?) Is there a special name for this event of tying in/on all the houses in the village? Can anyone add any further light on this practise? Thanks

[sabaijai]

Here are a couple of threads on the same topic:

The tradition comes from tribal Tai animism. It predates Buddhism in Southeast Asia but over the centuries became integrated into Thai Buddhism along with other animist and Brahmanist ritual/iconography.

[lungmi]

Here are a couple of threads on the same topic:

http://www.thaivisa....__1#entry810060

http://www.thaivisa....ge__hl__bai+sii

The tradition comes from tribal Tai animism. It predates Buddhism in Southeast Asia but over the centuries became integrated into Thai Buddhism along with other animist and Brahmanist ritual/iconography.

I heart from an Akkha friend that it is a "soul string" to avoid that the "soul" get lost, to maintain the connection to the tribe.

[sabaijai]

Yes, as covered in the other threads, that is also what the Thais believe. Whether 'soul' is a correct translation for khwan is debatable, since the original Tai tribal belief is that one's body contains 32 of them.

[khaowong1]

Yes, as covered in the other threads, that is also what the Thais believe. Whether 'soul' is a correct translation for khwan is debatable, since the original Tai tribal belief is that one's body contains 32 of them.

[lungmi]

Today my wife took me to the birthday celebration o4 an old (94 years) highly venerated monk.

It was a "string thing" I never saw before.

Around 500 lay people and about 30 monks were connected by a string network, buildings and even cars included.

Then the end of all the strings was fixed on the Head of Luang Pho Kubai, the .Center of Giving and Receiving. Powerfull Pali Chanting followed.