Abstract
The primarily Theravada Buddhist area of mainland Southeast Asia and the primarily Sunni Islamic area of Insular Southeast Asia meet in Southern Thailand. One salient feature of Muslim–Buddhist relations on the west coast in this area is an extraordinarily high rate of intermarriage between Muslims and Buddhists. Muslims and Buddhists convert to the other faith and often convert back. This flexibility hardens, however, in attitudes and behavior towards corpses. The touching (tonrng) of those who are dead or dying seems critically significant in local Muslim–Buddhist relations. I will examine how relationships demonstrated in daily life motivate decisions connected with death. A corpse may necessitate disentangled relationships of daily life. This approach helps clarify the actual dynamics inherent in Muslim–Buddhist co-existence a Thai village.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
National Statistics Office, 2014.
- 2.
The upsurge of violence in Southern Thailand on the eastern coast began in January 2004 and has continued to date: 3500 died from January 2004 to June 2009: (The Nation, 5 June 2009); reported deaths to 2014, over 6000. Even so, no violence has been reported in Satun since 2004. Satun’s distinctiveness has a historical background (Pitsuwan 1985; Satha-Anand 1987; Suwannathat-Pian 1988; Bajunid 1999). While Pattani was an Islamic kingdom, Satun is in a peripheral location, far from Kedah to the South. However, the term “four border provinces,” used officially and in the press, does not distinguish Satun from the other three provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala. Since 2004, some media and academics have used the term “three southern provinces,” excluding Satun when referring to southern Thailand’s problem areas (Satha-Anand 1987; Saleh 2009; Hassarungsee et al., 2008). A NRC (National Reconciliation Committee, appointed by Prime Minister Thaksin in March 2005) report issued in June 2006 also referred to 3 instead of 4 provinces (NRC 2006). In June 2004, Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit proposed the creation of Maha Nakhon Pattani (Pattani Metropolis), which would extend to include Yala and Narathiwat, but not Satun (Funston 2009).
- 3.
My first fieldwork was conducted over 16 months between 1987 and 1988. Three subsequent two-month visits to the same village followed in 1989, 1991 and 1994. I re-visited several times for a short period from 1995 to 2019. Ethnographies are in my 2001 publication.
- 4.
Robert Winzeler, Ethnic Relations in Kelantan (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985), 116–117; Chavivun Prachuabmoh, “Ethnic Relations Among Thai, Thai Muslim and Chinese in South Thailand: Ethnicity and Interpersonal Interaction,” in Ethnicity and Interpersonal Integration, ed. David Y.H. Wu (Maruzen Asia, 1982), 79–80.
- 5.
Numerous Da’wa organizations are currently active, including the Afmadiyya Mission in India, Darul Arqam in Malaysia, Hizbud Da’watil Islamiyya in Iraq, and Jama’at Islami in India and Pakistan. See Muhammad Khalid Masud, “Introduction,” in Travellers in Faith: Studies of the Tablighi Jama’at as a Transnational Movement for Faith Renewal, ed. Muhamad Khalid Masud (Leiden: Brill, 2000), xxvi. In Thailand, the most widespread Da’wa movement is Tablighi Jama’at and this is the most influential in my research village. Rather than specifying this each time, I prefer to use “Da’wa,” the word the villagers commonly use.
- 6.
I counted 12 of 131 male Muslim villagers over 10 years old to be involved in Da’wa activities in 2007.
- 7.
I reported Da’wa’s transformation of the community in “Is a new community emerging? The futurity of the Da’wa movement in a west coast Southern Thai village,” delivered to the panel “Futurity and Practice in Emerging and Transforming Communities,” at the 10th International Conference on Thai Studies, Thaikhadi Institute, Thammasat University, January 9–11, 2008.
- 8.
The celebration occurs twice a year, on the 1st and 15th days of October in the Thai lunar calendar (September in the solar calendar), with the second celebration being larger in scale. On these occasions, villagers prepare a variety of snacks to take to the temple.
- 9.
In standard Thai, “khaek” means “guests” or “dark-skinned visitors” and is considered a pejorative label for Muslim (see also Bajunid, “The Muslims in Thailand; A Review,” 222). Muslims in Satun, however, use khaek to describe themselves without the negative connotations, although they know it is considered insulting outside the village (see also Parks 2009, 12).
- 10.
All villager names in this paper are pseudonyms.
- 11.
Win has six children. The three eldest had already graduated by the time the youngest entered elementary school. Two sons and one daughter were commuting to the same school.
- 12.
Brien K. Parkinson, “Non-Economic Factors in the Economic Retardation of the Rural Malays,” Modern Asian Studies 1, no. 1 (1967): 31–40; Masuo Kuchiba, “Keda no Inasaku Noson Padanraran [Rural Village in Kedha],” in Mare Noson no Kenkyu [The Study on Malay Villages] (in Japanese), eds. Kuchiba Masuo, Yoshihiro Tsubouchi, and Narifumi Maeda (Sobunsha, 1976), 144.
- 13.
A.M.R. Burr, “Buddhism, Islam and Spirit Beliefs and Practices and Their Social Correlates in Two Southern Thai Coastal Fishing Villages” (PhD dissertation, University of London, 1974), 94.
- 14.
Burr, “Buddhism, Islam and Spirit Beliefs and Practices and Their Social Correlates,” 95; Masaki Onozawa, “Minami Tai Musurimu shakai no tsūka girei to kodomo kan [The Rites of Passage and Perspectives on Children in Southern Thailand],” in Kodomo bunka no genzō [Culture of Children] (in Japanese), ed. Iwata Keiji (NHK, 1985), 421.
- 15.
Keyes emphasized the importance of merit transference to social groups. See Charles F. Keyes, “Merit-Transference in the Kammic Theory of Popular Theravāda Buddhism,” in Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry, eds. Charles F. Keyes and Errol Valentine Daniel (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 283.
- 16.
Othman bin Salim, et al., Kamusu Dewan Edisi Baru (Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1989), 58.
- 17.
Masaki Nakazawa, who performed fieldwork in Kedah for several years from 1987, suggested this to me on 28 February 1997. Kuchiba’s informants said the souls of ancestors came back at kenduri aruwah (Kuchiba, “Keda no Inasaku Noson Padanraran [Rural Village in Kedha],” 132).
- 18.
Burr, “Buddhism, Islam and Spirit Beliefs and Practices and Their Social Correlates,” 96.
- 19.
Buddhists do not hold that conversion constitutes religious sin.
- 20.
I have previously analyzed this incident from the perspective of social memory in a Muslim–Buddhist co-resident area. See Ryoko Nishii, “Social Memory as It Emerges: A Consideration of the Death of a Young Convert on the West Coast in Southern Thailand,” in Cultural Crisis and Social Memory, eds. Shigeharu Tanabe and Charles F. Keyes (London: Routledge Curzon, 2002).
- 21.
In the four border provinces there are Islamic Courts to which Muslims have the right to petition a kadi [judge] concerning marital and property matters.
- 22.
The 1983 act legislating national ID cards, phraratchabanyat batpracamtua prachachon pho. so. 2526 (1983. ratchakitcanuneksa lem 100 tornthi 62 long wanthi 20 mesayon 2526, krungthep: samnaklekhathikankhanaratmontri samnaknayokrathamontri.) was revised in 1999 to require recording religious affiliation (phraratchabanyat batpracamtua prachachon (chabap thi 2) pho. so. 2542 (1999. ratchakitcanuneksa lem 116 tornthi 11 long wanthi 2 minakhom 2542, krungthep: samnaklekhathikankhanaratmontri samnaknayokrathamontri).
- 23.
Sometimes Buddhists of Chinese descent in this area—like Li—bury their dead, but in the Buddhist manner.
- 24.
While cremation is most usual for Buddhists in Thailand, burial used to be common among Chinese Buddhists and here, where I did my fieldwork, I did record a few instances of Buddhist burial.
- 25.
Walter Benjamin, Fukusei Gijustu Jidai no Geijustu [Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit] (in Japanese) (Tokyo: Kinokuniya Shoten, 1965), 50.
- 26.
Marilyn Strathern, “Parts and Wholes: Refiguring Relationship in a Post-plural World,” in Conceptualizing Society, ed. Adam Kuper (London: Routledge, 1992), 81.
- 27.
Strathern, “Parts and Wholes: Refiguring Relationship in a Post-plural World,” 83–84.
- 28.
Robert Hertz, “Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la mort,” L’Année sociologique 10 (1907): 48–137.
References
Benjamin, Walter. Fukusei Gijustu Jidai no Geijustu [Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kinokuniya Shoten, 1965.
Bourdieu, Pierre. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.
Burr, Angela M.R. “Buddhism, Islam and Spirit Beliefs and Practices and Their Social Correlates in Two Southern Thai Coastal Fishing Villages.” PhD dissertation, University of London, 1974.
Farouk Bajunid, Omar. “The Muslims in Thailand; A Review.” Southeast Asian Studies 37, no. 2 (1999): 210–234.
Funston, John. “Governance in the South: Is Decentralization an Option?” In Divided Over Thaksin: Thailand’s Coup and Problematic Transition, edited by John Funston, 124–134. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2009.
Hassarungsee, Ranee, Chittpapat Batphrakhon, and Ekkarin Tuansiri. Building Peace and People’s Security in Southeast Asia: Case Study on the Three Southern Provinces of Thailand. Social Agenda Working Group, Social Research Institute, Chulalongkorn University, 2008.
Hertz, Robert. “Contribution à une étude sur la représentation collective de la mort.” L’Année sociologique 10, (1907): 48–137.
Janchitfah, Supara. Violence in the Mist: Reporting on the Presence of Pain in Southern Thailand. Bangkok: Kobfai Publishing Project, 2004.
Keyes, Charles F. “Merit-Transference in the Kammic Theory of Popular Theravāda Buddhism.” In Karma: An Anthropological Inquiry, edited by Charles F. Keys and Errol Valentine Daniel, 261–285. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
Kuchiba, Masuo. “Keda no Inasaku Noson Padanraran [Rural Village in Kedha].” In Mare Noson no Kenkyu [The Study on Malay villages] (in Japanese), edited by Kuchiba Masuo, Yoshihiro Tsubouchi, and Narifumi Maeda, 21–160. Tokyo: Sobunsha, 1976.
Masud, Muhammad Khalid. “Introduction.” In Travellers in Faith: Studies of the Tablighi Jama’at as a Transnational Movement for Faith Renewal, edited by Muhamad Khalid Masud, viii–lx. Leiden: Brill, 2000.
Nishii, Ryoko. Shi o meguru Jissen Shuukyou [Death and Practical Religion: Perspectives on Muslim–Buddhist Relationship in Southern Thailand] (in Japanese). Kyoto: Sekai Shisosha, 2001.
———. “Social Memory as it Emerges: A Consideration of the Death of a Young Convert on the West Coast in Southern Thailand.” In Cultural Crisis and Social Memory, edited by Shigeharu Tanabe and Charles F. Keyes, 231–242. London: Routledge Curzon, 2002.
NRC. Report of National Reconciliation Commission: Overcoming Violence Through the Power of Reconciliation: Executive Summary. Bangkok: The National Reconciliation Commission, 2006.
Onozawa, Masaki. “Minami Tai Musurimu shakai no tsūka girei to kodomo kan [The Rites of Passage and Perspectives on Children in Southern Thailand].” In Kodomo bunka no genzō [Culture of Children] (in Japanese), edited by Iwata Keiji, 404–422. Tokyo: NHK, 1985.
Parkinson, Brien K. “Non-Economic Factors in the Economic Retardation of the Rural Malays.” Modern Asian Studies 1, no. 1 (1967): 31–46.
Parks, Thomas I. “Maintaining Peace in a Neighborhood Torn by Separatism: The Case of Satun Province in Southern Thailand.” Small Wars and Insurgencies 20, no. 1 (2009): 185–202.
Pitsuwan, Surin. Islam and Malay Nationalism: A Case Study of the Malay-Muslims of Southern Thailand. Bangkok: Thai Khadi Research Institute, Thammasat University, 1985.
Prachuabmoh, Chavivun. “Ethnic Relations Among Thai, Thai Muslim and Chinese in South Thailand: Ethnicity and Interpersonal Interaction.” In Ethnicity and Interpersonal Integration, edited by David Y.H. Wu, 63–83. Singapore: Maruzen Asia, 1982.
Saleh, Rattiya. “New Relations: Buddhists and Muslims in the Three Southernmost Provinces.” In Imagined Land? The State and Southern Violence in Thailand, edited by Chaiwat Satha-Anand, 145–164. Fuchu City, Japan: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2009.
Salim, Othman bin, et al. Kamusu Dewan Edisi Baru. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 1989.
Satha-Anand, Chaiwat. Islam and Violence: A Case Study of Violent Events in the Four Southern Provinces, Thailand, 1976–1981 (USF Monographs in Religion and Public Policy). Tampa, FL: University of South Florida, 1987.
———. “Introduction: Imagined Land? The State and Southern Violence in Thailand.” In Imagined Land? The State and Southern Violence in Thailand, edited by Chaiwat Satha-Anand, 1–15. Fuchu City, Japan: Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2009.
Strathern, Marilyn. “Parts and Wholes: Refiguring Relationship in a Post-plural World.” In Conceptualizing Society, edited by Adam Kuper, 75–104. London: Routledge, 1992.
Suwannathat-Pian, Kobkua. Thai-Malay Relations: Traditional Intra-Regional Relations from the Seventeenth to the Early Twentieth Centuries. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988.
Uchibori, Motomitsu. “An Institution Called Death: Toward Its Arche.” In Institutions, edited by Kaori Kawai Kyoto, 39–58. Melbourne: Kyoto University Press, Trans Pacific Press, 2017.
Uchibori, Motomitsu, and Shinji Yamashita. Shi no Jinruigaku [Anthropology of Death] (in Japanese). Tokyo: Kobundo, 1986.
Winzeler, Robert. Ethnic Relations in Kelantan. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nishii, R. (2020). A Corpse Necessitates Disentangled Relationships: Boundary Transgression and Boundary-Making in a Buddhist-Muslim Village in Southern Thailand. In: Frydenlund, I., Jerryson, M. (eds) Buddhist-Muslim Relations in a Theravada World. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9884-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9884-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-32-9883-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-32-9884-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)