THAI BUDDHIST COSMOLOGY AND ITS INFLUENCE IN SINGAPORE

Thai monks and their talismans have become increasingly popular among Singaporean Chinese, particularly through the setting up of Buddhist residences and enterprises which have proliferated since the 1980's. The popularity Thai monks and their talismans is associated with the idea that the power of Thai monks and talismans is greater than the power of ritual specialists and talismans in the Chinese religious context. This ethnographic study sets out to show that the distinctiveness of Thai Buddhist cosmology among Singaporean Chinese lies in the idea that Thailand is conceived as the centre of ritual power. This power is represented chiefly in eminent miracle-performing monks and their talismanic products. However, my informants believe that the power of Thai monks and talismans can either be benevolent or malevolent, depending on the moral intent of the monk. Thus, they are concerned about seeking out "good" Thai monks and talismans while avoiding the "black magic" of "evil" Thai monks and talismans. "Benevolence" or "malevolence" exist as conceptual categories relatively defined by my informants who tend towards articulation of either "freedom" or of "power" as their focus of discourse. The increased popularity of Thai talismans might have arisen as a result of a sense of powerlessness of people living in the rapidly modernizing nation-state of Singapore. The power of Thai monks and their talismans is seen by the powerless as an alternative source of power which can be transferred for-Self. Power in the Thai religious context is thought to be animistically transferrable for-Self. The transferrability of power in the Thai context occurs on two levels: the micro-level of rituals performed by peripheral, suffering Thai monks (and the use of their talismanic products), and the macro-level of pilgrimages to Thailand which may be interpreted as a "wild" locality peripheral to the "civilized” nation state of Singapore. The study also attempts at a theoretical discussion of the notion of “charisma" of certain Thai monks. The role of voluntary suffering in the charismatization process is analysed phenomenologically in the context of existence in the modern nation-state. Following Tambiah (1984), I interpret the charisma of Thai monks as being objectified in the form of talismans. These talismans are circulated as gifts and/or commodities between Thailand and Singapore. While orthodox Scriptural tenets downplay monetary and material interests, it is ironic that talismans are subjected to crass exchange as commodities. Indeed the trade is a booming business in Thailand and, on a smaller scale though in increasing proportions, in Singapore.

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• SHIRLEY YEE MENG SAM