The dragon worships the buddha liminality, community, centre and periphery in a borderland

THE DRAGON WORSHIPS THE BUDDHA: COMMUNITY,
LIMINALITY, CENTRE AND PERIPHERY IN A
BORDERLAND

JAY CHEONG HAN WEN

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2011


THE DRAGON WORSHIPS THE BUDDHA: COMMUNITY,
LIMINALITY, CENTRE AND PERIPHERY IN A
BORDERLAND

JAY CHEONG HAN WEN
(B.A. [Hons], NUS)

A THESIS SUBMITTED
FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS
DEPARTMENT OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
2011


i
DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the thesis is my original work and it has been written by me in its entirety. I
have duly acknowledged all the sources of information which have been used in the thesis.
This thesis has also not been submitted for any degree in any university previously.

_

________________
Jay Cheong Han Wen
29 June 2012


ii
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my friends and my graduate classmates – both local and foreign – for their
support and for allowing me to observe their lived experiences, and for agreeing to answer my
many questions; in particular, to local folks such as Phi Daeng, Paa X and many others who live
in the wonderful land of the naga. I am also grateful for the relentless guidance and care of my
supervisor, Dr. Irving Johnson, as well as the support of other academics such as A/P Goh Beng
Lan, Dr. Pattana Kitiarsa, Dr. Benjamin Wong, Dr. Michael Montesano and Dr Stan Tan Boon
Hwee; I am forever indebted to them in ways more than academia would have been able to
define. I am greatly indebted to my parents and siblings for their support and concern, and lastly,
to the new friendships forged and the unwavering ‘support’ of Beer Singha, thank you.


iii

Table of Contents
Declaration Page ............................................................................................................................ i
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... iii
Summary ....................................................................................................................................... iv

Chapter 1 .........................................................................................................................................1
Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................................... 21

Chapter 3 ...................................................................................................................................... 40
Chapter 4 ...................................................................................................................................... 50
Chapter 5 ...................................................................................................................................... 64

Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 71

Appendix 1A ................................................................................................................................ 83
Appendix 1B ................................................................................................................................ 87


iv

Summary

My thesis is a modest attempt not to uncover the causes of strange naga fireballs that occur at
Phon Phisai every year almost with clockwork precision; it is a brief ethnographic write-up of
the lives behind these fireballs. I attempt to illuminate the every-day happenings, the
perspectives of the locals of Phon Phisai, the various competing discourses and communal
politics, the ideas that flow from place to place, and the flexibility of identities vis-à-vis charting
a middle ground between three categories of theoretical considerations. Can we use a single
event, the naga fireballs, as an anthropological lens to discuss liminality both at a spatial and
ideological level? My stories about this event, about the people of Phon Phisai will answer this
central theoretical consideration.


1

Chapter One – Introduction

My Naga adventure started with a brief encounter with the critically acclaimed movie “sip haa

kham duen sip et” (Mekong Full Moon Party) back in 2004. I was not only moved by the
emotive performances of the actors, I was also in awe of these mysterious fireballs. After some
brief research and clarification, I realized that these fireballs were empirically real. In other
words, there was no lack of eyewitness accounts of these peculiar pinkish balls that would rise
from the dark Mekong waters along the Nong Khai province at various positions. To add fuel to
fire, these fireballs will rise only at the awk pan saa, which is the end of the Buddhist Lent every
year. This amazement had indeed set in my heart an incepting fire – the urge to find out more
about these enigmatic fireballs.

This thesis is about using the naga fireballs as a social event with religious and cultural
connotations to trace the multiple meanings and significances of everyday life in a small town of
Phon Phisai in Northeast Thailand. Theoretically, I will be using Victor Turner’s theoretical
concept of liminality as a framework to understand liminal events within liminal spaces – in
particular a borderland such as Phon Phisai that is situated at the crossroad of Thailand and Laos.
In addition, the significance of this event hinges on the element of mystique within the
borderland, whereby older renditions of the event (by older generations), which might be nonconsequential and trivial, are being treated in modern terms of local politics and tourism. For
many, the mystique also lies in the fact that the actual cause of the fireballs are not known for
certain; till today the reasons behind the emergence of these naga fireballs are still on the debate
table.


2
There are three central questions to this thesis. Can we use the naga fireballs as an
anthropological lens to understand larger issues of liminality and the purported “marginalization”
of the Isaan region? Can the concept of liminality be used in tandem with community and
centre/periphery to explain the underlying processes of the naga fireballs? More importantly,
why do the naga fireballs matter? I argue that the naga fireballs matter because they can be used
as unique anthropological lens to understand liminality at both spatial and ideological plane, as
well as gain a deeper level of understanding of Phon Phisai because of its added “mystical”
dimension. They are important because they provide the essential “moment” of liminality with

an even deeper level of uncertainty because people are perennially second-guessing the
authenticity of the fireballs. In other words, it creates liminality, within liminality.

These sacred fireballs, locally known as bang fay phaya nak, occur annually along parts of the
Mekong River that run along Northeastern Thailand (commonly known as the Isaan region) and
the People’s Democratic Republic of Lao (or Laos). These mysterious fireballs rise from the
Mekong River into the air above the water surface. They are smokeless and soundless; rising 20
to 30 metres in a straight line to the air then disappear without a trace. Their sizes vary from a
thumb-size to an egg size. The number of fireballs also varies, starting from around 6pm to as
late as 9 or 10pm. The hotspots of these fireballs include the areas of Phon Phisai, Pak Khad,
Sang Khom, Sri Chiang Mai, and Bung Kan districts in Nong Khai province. The fireballs are
also allegedly found in other locations such as ponds and streams near the Mekong River.

Out of these locations, Phon Phisai seems to be the one with the most number of fireballs
recorded in recent history. These reddish-pink fireballs, allegedly, would rise from the Mekong


3
River when night falls. Legend has it that a “mythical serpent or dragon” known as the Naga (or
Naak in Thai) is the one that is responsible for producing these fireballs (Cohen 2007). For many
years, these naga fireballs would appear almost like clockwork at the end of the Buddhist Lent
period – known as the awk pan sa. The background of the word naga can be summed up in a
word – new. The Naga, as pointed out by Ngaosrivathana, “is a relatively new word adopted as a
symbol of Buddhist high culture” (Ngaosrivathana 2010: 5). The word seems to be preceded by
an older word ngeuak, which indicates a mythical water creature. This creature takes on a
fundamental meaning of “crocodile” in the Lan Na kingdom in Northern Thailand, and has
changed over the years – from water snake to dragon and mermaid in other neighbouring Thai,
Burmese and Southern China areas (Ngaosrivathana 2010). Even though some scholars believe
that the word naga does have some connections with the Chinese character ngao (

鲛) – sea

dragon – it is fair enough to observe that the relationship between naga and waters (regardless of
river or sea) are intimately linked in various cultural groups that are all located along the Mekong
River.

My thesis examines the naga fireballs event as an anthropological lens to study liminality at both
spatial and ideological levels. It attempts to move away from more prevalent scholarship of the
event as tourism and/or commodification of religious events (See Cohen 2007) and I tell a more
ethnographic background of the event, using the fireballs as a vantage point, to discuss liminality.
From this vantage point, other theoretical considerations such as community, as well as centre
and periphery at borderlands will also be surfaced as day-to-day perspectives of the locals, the
communal politics involved, the competing discourses of the origins of the fireballs and the ways
the local media portray the fireballs are ethnographically charted in this thesis.


4
As I walked along the crowded Mekong River in Phon Phisai Town – approximately 700
kilometres from Bangkok – sentiments ranging from ecstasy to indifference filled the air with an
undeniable aura of frenzied shouting, wild gesticulations, pockets of silence, as well as loud
cheering. It was very much a case of deja-vu, as it was merely a year ago that I witnessed the
magical fireballs along the Mekong River at Phon Phisai. However, there was much difference in
this trip; I was better prepared and had a place to stay in the town to conduct a more extensive
fieldwork. In other words, I was hoping to achieve a considerable level of “lived experience” that
I consider being pertinent for any research of an area studies nature.

A quiet and sleepy town by normal standards throughout the year, the town’s radical
transformation during these Naga festivities is no mean feat. Meanwhile, I tried my best to
observe the surroundings and navigate my way through a narrow corridor filled with food and
souvenir stalls amidst the fading sunset. Anxious parents were sitting on makeshift-styled mats

(apparently they were innovatively recycled from obsolete advertising posters) sold by local
entrepreneurs, while accompanying their curious children in anticipation of the annual Naga
fireballs.

I entered a small café taking a brief respite from the crowd with my professor. We both sat at a
corner of the café enjoying some snacks as well as icy cold Beer Singha. At the same time, it was
the “live” telecast of a football match from the English Premier League. “Not bad for a small
town in Northeastern Thailand,” I thought to myself. There were many locals, as well as
foreigners – Westerners – who were drinking, chatting and eating merrily. My academic journey
had begun, as I sipped my cold beer and enjoyed the fried chicken nuggets.


5
A Short Introduction to the Naga

While I was busily munching my hot dog and sipping a glass of cool coconut drink, I could hear
various touts selling a wide range of (suspiciously pirated) VCDs containing origin stories and
various myths of the naga and its fireballs. There are various myths concerning the naga in
Southeast Asia. The naga (known to the Thai/Lao as the naak) is certainly no stranger to
Southeast Asians, as there are Hindi and Buddhist roots about its existence. It was supposedly an
ancient Hindu hooded snake with multiple heads. Some Hindu texts feature the naga as “coiling
up to support the god Vishnu” (Jumsai 1997). In Thai and Lao images, the naga is known as the
Muchalinda and he forms a protective covering over the Buddha, the Enlightened One (Jumsai
1997). In Buddhist folklores, the naga is a devout worshipper of the Buddha and pays his
respects to Buddha. Hence, these naga fireballs are said to be paying respects to the Lord Buddha
and displaying their delight while Buddha returns from Heaven to Earth after visiting His mother
(Somsin and Ganjanakhundee 2002).

In particular, the people living along the Mekong River would be very familiar with the notion of
the Naga. As aptly argued by Ngaosrivathana:

People of the Mekong region are conspicuously reminded of the naga’s versatility and
pervasive presence in one of the quintessential Buddhist ceremonies: the white-clothed
ordinand, thought to personify a naga who will become a monk. All ordinands are given the
“naga” name because when Lord Buddha was alive, a naga wanted to be ordained as a monk.
This naga transformed himself into a human being and the Buddha let him retain this form
so that he could enter monkhood. One day the naga fell asleep and the spell wore off
resulting in the Buddha asking the naga to leave the monkhood. In response, the naga asked


6
the Buddha if in future pre-ordination rites a man being ordained as a monk could be called
“naga” in remembrance of the naga faith in Lord Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha accepted
this request. (Ngaosrivathana 2010: 3)

Hence, in Isaan and Lao tradition, a man who is about to be ordained as a monk would be given
the title of naak, prior to his official monkhood.

On the other hand, there are also various urban legends that are equally, if not more interesting
than the traditional myths. The famous photograph of the American soldiers (presumably sailors)
holding onto a large serpent-like fish that spans almost five metres long is an ubiquitous sight in
Nong Khai province during this time of the year. Various souvenir shops are also selling naga
related products – from VCDs to T-shirts. I heard from one of the vendors at the Indochina
Market that there used to be a store that prides itself on selling only naga related products. In
addition, others have told me that naga sightings were commonplace, especially of those who
claim to have seen them when they were young children playing along the Mekong River.
Certainly, one cannot help but notice the peculiar and eerie legend of Kham Chanot; allegedly a
naga city filled with “naga people” and even has a “naga portal” that operates as a transport
tunnel for naga people to travel to-and-fro.

What can we learn from these strange and mystical fireballs? I had decided not to follow the
conventional way of understanding it by investigating its real causes. To be honest, I was not
very interested to find out if the fireballs were caused by natural methane combustion or an
elaborate man-made hoax bent on stretching the tourist dollar to the maximum. There were two
contending debates with regard to the causes of these mysterious fireballs. The first is natural –


7
that the naga fireballs are no more than a natural phenomenon. One fervent proponent of this
school of thought is a Nong Khai doctor, Manas Kanoksin, who has spent many years trying to
prove his theory that the fireballs are a natural phenomenon caused by pockets of methane gas
that are being released from the rich deposits of the Mekong River. Once the methane reaches
the surface of the river, it would react with oxygen to combust spontaneously to create these
fireballs.

As to why the naga fireballs happen only within the Buddhist Lent period, his hypothesis is that
the Buddhist Lent full moon coincides with the period when the earth is passing closest to the
sun. The gravity of the sun, with a higher degree of UV radiation, increases the volatility of the
gases at ground level that could have contributed to the spontaneous combustion of methane and
oxygen.

However, the other contending school of thought presented much more scientific skepticism.
Professor Montri Boonsaneur, who teaches geological technology at Khon Kaen University and
was in charge of an underwater survey prior to construction of the nearby Thai-Lao Friendship
Bridge, says that it is almost impossible that bubbles of methane could form in the river's rocky
bed. Most importantly, the combustion of methane normally takes place at a much higher
temperature – a feat that no room temperature would be able to perform. Hence, he insisted that
it could not be a natural phenomenon. Though he did not directly suggest that the naga fireballs
are man-made, it seems to be that his ideas are inclining towards this man-made belief.
(Gagliardi 2002)

8
“Look! There goes a fireball!” exclaimed an excited parent. I looked towards the middle of the
dark river and scrutinized the area intensely. Reddish pink dots were rising from the middle of
the river; and once they reached a considerable height, they vanished without a trace of smoke
and sound. These fireballs had attracted little attention in the past. However, they had become
important from the state’s perspective in spurring tourism, and it is now being promoted as a
major provincial religious festival. Some have argued that its popularity has risen to new heights
since the screening of a Thai movie – Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002). Furthermore, the
number of tourists – albeit most of them are domestic – is known to hit up to 400,000 during this
period (Cohen 2007).

The naga festival week is an annual event spanning one whole week on the tourism calendar of
the Tourism Authority of Thailand. There would be various naga festival spots – where hawkers
will be setting up stalls selling an assortment of foodstuffs. There will also be “live”
performances by popular Thai bands. The centre of attraction is of course, the beer garden tents.
These tents, with their attractive beer promoters, will be cajoling prospective locals and tourists
to drink to their hearts’ fill. At certain spots, such as the one at Nong Khai city, where more
hotels and foreign tourists are found, the festivities would even include an attractive laser show
coupled with exotic dancers performing the naga legend.

Some Theoretical Considerations

Now, what are theoretical considerations? Let me explicate the first theoretical concept of
“liminality”. It is in fact a broad scholastic term that “refer[s] to in-between situations and


9
conditions that are characterized by the dislocation of established structures, the reversal of

hierarchies, and uncertainty regarding the continuity of tradition and future outcomes” (Turner
1982; Thomassen 2009: 51). In addition, it is useful as a scholastic as well as a heuristic device
when studying “events or situations that involve the dissolution of order, but which are also
formative of institutions and structures.” (Szakolczai 2009: 141)

The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily
ambiguous'. (Turner 1969: 81) To a certain extent, identities of people become ambivalent and
may even be dissolved, bringing about disorientation. This is not necessarily bad as it might
churn out new perspectives and we can use the naga fireballs to analyze the “liminal identities”
of the folks in Phon Phisai. Turner speculates that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of
withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a “period of
scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs - one where normal limits to
thought, self-understanding, and behavior are undone. In such situations, “the very structure of
society [is] temporarily suspended” (Szakolczai 2009: 142).

I use liminality as a central theoretical concept in my thesis as it has both spatial and temporal
dimensions, and can be readily applied to a wide range of subjects including individuals,
communities and large societies and/or nation-states. Liminal spaces inevitably create liminal
events. In my thesis, I adopt the idea that the liminality of the naga fireballs is at a “moment”, in
which “a whole [community] face[s] a sudden event - sudden invasion, natural disaster, a plague
– where social distinctions and normal hierarchy disappear” (Thomassen 2009: 16). In my case,
the fireballs create a liminal space where the community, even with some bitter differences,


10
comes together as one to celebrate the workings of the Great Naga in paying his respects to the
Lord Buddha.

However, according to Turner, all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great
intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it. The individual

may return to his or her existing social structures, or such liminal communities develop their own
internal social structure, which Turner coins it as "normative communitas" (Turner 1969). Here,
using the fireballs as an anthropological lens, I would suggest that even with their internal social
structures, these communities might still be “in-between places” as they are still “liminal” in the
spatial sense. It is in light of this that I expand the theoretical considerations to include the ideas
of community in a broader-than-Turner (communitas) sense, as well as the idea of centre and
periphery in borderlands.

Many scholastic studies purport to understand religious events using certain anthropological
concepts such as “communities”. Max Weber, acclaimed sociologist, discusses community in
terms of social relations in which the relationships can be “based on a subjective feeling of the
parties, whether affectual or traditional, that they belong together” (Weber 1978: 40). In some
studies, questions involving “how sentiments of belonging are forged and maintained in
constantly rearticulated political, economic and social arrangements” are useful in acquiring
insights of particular communities (High 2009: 89). In fact, the most famous of communities
would be the one that is “imagined” to be at the level of a nation-state (Anderson 1991).


11
Community involves a great deal of the drawing and delineation of boundaries. Anderson (1991)
and Thongchai (1994) in particular have argued passionately about political boundaries as
productions of state imaginations influenced by either media or national elites. It is mindful to
note that within a bounded community (Barth 1968) social norms can necessarily create a certain
sense of belonging that also hinges on social relations within the community (or even from one
community to another) (Leach 1954). In particular, Thongchai’s “geo-body” is illuminating in
pointing out those boundaries, especially those that have “mapped Siam”, are very much a
product of Western colonialism. This concept is also useful, as we have to conceptualize the
Northeastern part of Thailand as also a physical state product of the Anglo-Siamese Treaty. As
we move towards the era of printed media and even “Internet” media, it would also be useful to
refer to Anderson’s seminal work on “imagined communities” whereby he argues that the power

of drawing territories is derived from the power of the state to disseminate “printed capitalism”.

In addition, Leach’s analysis of identity formations in the highlands of Burma (1964) is also
useful for us as a theoretical foundation in analyzing identities within communities. These
identities, as shown by Leach, would “oscillate” and change in tandem with prevailing
circumstances. One would also find it appropriate to consider works of Bhabha (2006) that
discusses how nations are being “narrated”. These identities, regardless of their changing natures,
also need to work within imagined national boundaries as discussed by Chatterjee (1986),
Gellner (1983), Balakrishnan (1996) and Smith (1971) that are disseminators of state and
territory information. Furthermore, scholars such as Appadurai (1996 & 2001), Cribb and
Narangoa (2004), Gupta and Ferguson (1992), Tanube and Keyes (2002) have also raised


12
questions of identities, sovereignty and state-loyalty from the social and “bottom-up”
perspectives.

Why is the community of Phon Phisai so academically interesting? This is because of the liminal
element involved. As much as the naga fireballs reveal the liminality of Phon Phisai both
spatially and ideologically, it is difficult, in line with Turner’s argument, to argue that a “fixed
community” does not exist. Humans do not like to live in uncertainty; insofar as they might be
liminal, they do create boundaries and demarcate themselves as a community, consciously or
subconsciously. It is here in Phon Phisai that we can see a community that exists within
borderland spaces contains spaces of “liberation of human capacities of cognition, affect, volition,
creativity, etc. from the normative constraints incumbent upon occupying a sequence of social
statuses” (Turner 1982: 44). For many other scholars, such as Cole and Wolf (1974), Heyman
(1991), Kearney (1991) and Sahlins (1989), identities and borderlands also represent a
microcosmic view of historical and social formations of these locales and their people. Other
scholars such as Zdzisaw (1993), Chou (2010), Delang (2002), Barme (1993) and Yaeger (1996)
have also argued about identities created and its attachment to place and locality, using Thai as

well as non-Thai case studies as examples.

As argued by Ishikawa, border zones “are an excellent arena for examining the genesis of
transnationalism and its relation to the state” (Ishikawa 2010: 5). This borderland is also an
important academic telescope to examine a “liminal” (Turner 1982) and “uneven” (Wolf 1999)
space and how people transform this space into a meaningful place (Relph 1976) through
“everyday resistances” against the state (Scott 2009).


13
Lastly, I wish to use the concepts of “centre and periphery” to locate the last corner of the
theoretical considerations in my thesis. It can also be seen as an extension of liminality and
borderlands. As argued by Horstmann:

“Increasingly important are ideas about boundaries and territoriality are particularly
important in the contemporary world, where social groups aim continually to define and
redefine the relations between social and physical space. People on the fringe of the nationstate – by their very existence – question its monopoly of identification and help to transform
concepts of nationalism that are otherwise taken for granted.” (Horstmann and Wadley 2009:
Introduction)

These concepts can also bring about “more dynamic concepts of identity and community”.
Contestation of identities become more intense within these communities situated at the
borderlands as the liminality exists in both spatial and ideological planes; and perhaps, a more indepth understanding is necessary through more informal and qualitative studies of the people
behind the naga festival, instead of more “social scientific number-crunching studies”. Is the
Isaan region being marginalized? Even though scholars are arguing that the marginal spaces are
heavily influenced by the centre, I would suggest that the “margin” is in fact, in its bid to
“centre” itself; just as Phon Phisai might be centering itself to the bigger Thailand stage as a
whole. And using the naga fireballs as a case study, we can see that the Isaan periphery is
“centering itself too.”

The common theoretical ground – between liminality, community and centre/periphery – that I
am proposing, is pretty much encapsulated within the works of Johnson (forthcoming 2012),


14
Meyer and Geschiere (1999) and Low and Lawrence-Zúñiga (2003); that liminality, even when it
exists both in spatial and ideological terms, are also grounded deeply in situatedness. In other
words, social meanings have to be concrete at some point in time and space so that they will
develop geographically into a place. Moreover, globalization has not radically transformed such
fluid borderlands; they have merely accelerated the processes of interactions and flows.
Identities are still being created and they are still unstable and changing. Studying Phon Phisai
solely as a place without the fireballs would be to examine liminality at a much more superficial
level, which is why the fireballs do matter.

Literature Review and Its Challenges

The rain began to stop. I slowly walked through the television cameras and started to head back
to a café where I frequented a lot for its cheap beers. As I approached the middle of the sheltered
market, I saw a familiar signage reminding Thai and Lao people that only they are only allowed
to perform cross-border market shopping without the use of passports on Tuesdays and
Saturdays. This reminded me of works done by scholars on more specific naga histories and
stories, such as Ngaosrivathana (2010) on the Lao and Northeastern Thai side, as well as Cohen
(2009) who have covered extensively on the postmodern nature of tourism in Nong Khai and
Phon Phisai.

Other more related works of Northeastern Thailand and especially the role of folklore and
Buddhism were done extensively by Tambiah (1970, 1976 and 1984). Also the history of
(Northeastern) Thailand has also been covered critically by acclaimed Thai historians such as

15
David Wyatt (1984). The trove of studies conducted on Thailand, and in particular Northeastern
Thailand is rich and abundant. On the religious front, scholars such as Cohen (2007) and Kitiarsa
(2008) have also commented on the religious commodifications in Thailand and their intended,
as well as unintended repercussions on religion and tourism.

However, a very big constraint for my research was the lack of academic research on the naga
fireballs that are go beyond being touristic in nature. When I looked through some of the Thai
literature on the naga fireballs, they were mostly concerned with the religious significance in
accordance with Buddhism. Some of these works more specifically highlighted the importance
of keeping the Mekong River clean so as to ensure that there would be fireballs every year. Other
books, mostly non-academic in nature, discuss the naga story in a descriptive manner. There are
some VCDs of mainly documentaries discussing the naga fireballs and its origins. (See
Bibliography on Thai sources and Annex 1). As much as one can infer the purposes of the
creation of such materials, they were not academic literature per se.

Insofar, none has readily taken on a more academic and anthropological study of the fireballs in
tandem with the community of Phon Phisai. This is perhaps one of the most critical obstacles of
my research. Thai sources often provide a rich source of descriptive information about the naga:

ตามตํานานโบราณของชาวหนองคายได้ กล่ าวขานถึง “พราตุกลางนํา” และ
“พญานาค” ไว้ ว่า เมือ พ.ศ. ๑๙ มีพระอรหันต์ ๕ องค์ อัญเชิญพระบรม
สารีริกธาตุฝ่าพระบาทขวาของค์ พระสัมมาสัมพุทธเจ้ า ๙ พระองค์ มา
ประดิษฐานทีเมืองหล้ าหนองคาย (หนองคายปั จจุบัทคุี ้ มวัดธาตุ อ.เมือง


16

หนองคาย โดยมีพระมหาสังขวิชัยเจ้ าเมืองสมัยนันชาวเมืองและพญาสุทโธ
นาคราช (พญานาค) ร่ วมสร้ างอุโมงค์ หนิ บรรจุพระบรมธาตุไว้

According to ancient beliefs of the people of Nong Khai, there were Buddhist relics and the
existence of Naga along the Mekong River. When it was the Buddhist Era Year 19 (524 BCE)
there were five holy monks who took the nine pieces of bone remains of the right leg of Lord
Buddha (which are known as relics) and came to the temple Thaat (Wat Thaat) of Nong
Khai. At that time, Nong Khai was governed by Pra Mahasangkhavichai. The monks,
together with the people of Nong Khai and the Naga, Payasotthonakharaat came together to
build a riverine tunnel along Mekong River to keep the relics inside. (The Faith of the Great
Naga, my translation)

I am not suggesting that tourism studies on the naga fireballs are not important. In fact, Cohen’s
argument of the postmodernization of the naga festival has shed much light on tourism studies in
Phon Phisai; the commercial forces of tourism simply are too important to be ignored. The
contributions of Thai Beverage Company (150,000 Baht), DTAC (40,000 Baht) and Siam City
Cement Company (30,000 Baht), amongst other sponsors, have brought in huge amounts of
revenue to Phon Phisai and other areas in Isaan that have similar festivities, albeit at a much
smaller scale. The tourist numbers of up to 400 000 also brought in tourist dollars. It was
estimated that the “direct contribution to the local economy is between 50 – 100 million Baht”
(Cohen 2007: 176).

Cohen’s work is to propose a postmodern approach of understanding the naga fireball festival as
an economic tool. There would be no necessity to investigate and decide what exactly the origin
of the naga fireballs is because this would preserve the mysticism of the naga fireballs. At the


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same time, it is also unnecessary to determine the authenticity of the naga fireballs as that would
also disrupt the elusiveness and enigma of the naga fireballs. This apparent liminal state of the
fireballs, according to Cohen, should be preserved, as long as it brings in the tourist dollars and
aid the economic development of relatively poor Isaan region (Cohen 2007).

As much as I respect and agree with Cohen in the socio-economic practical aspect, I do not
necessarily agree with his postmodern approach. This “embrace-all” approach of understanding
an-already liminal event – the naga fireballs – will not deepen our understanding on the dynamic
underlying processes of naga fireballs happening in Phon Phisai. From my opinion, he did not
fully engage the locals; neither did he provide a rich ethnographic account of the lives and
perspectives behind the fireballs. As such, in order to understand the local perspectives and
beliefs, it is necessary to seek more information from more locals to fully bring out the liminality
of the fireballs and Phon Phisai.

Some Methodological Concerns

Whether you are a local or a domestic tourist who have travelled far from Bangkok or Hatyai,
you might be disappointed by the fact that there might not be a single naga fireball at all. Fireball
sightings are random and entirely dependent on good fortune. In the midst of looking for these
mysterious fireballs, I have also endeavoured to adopt a less-structured research methodology in
a bid to understand this unique phenomenon. Furthermore, using it as a case study to analyze
bigger theoretical grounds would demand large-scale predictions of social trends; this is out of
the scope of this thesis.


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As such, the theoretical underpinning of social anthropological research known as participant
observation is adopted in this thesis. Jorgensen (1989) and Friedrichs (1975) have both discussed
at length about the methodologies and some of its limitations of such research endeavours. My
research involves a great deal of immersion into the community within the town of Phon Phisai
and naturally, with that entails a high level of bias and influence. I conceive my study as a
contextualized piece of work; as Geertz has argued in The Interpretations of Culture (1970), the
difficulties in obtaining accurate information from informants is a problem in the inherent
complexity of the social order.

In terms of the specifics of the research, less structured interviews with a rudimentary
questionnaire is used. Due to the limitations of time constraints, I was only living in Phon Phisai
for approximately 35 days. The initial 10 days were used to getting to know people, a key figure
would be Phi Daeng, who would turn out to be my most useful informants. Fortunately, my
proficiency of the Thai language is sufficient to conduct these interviews in the Thai language
with the aid of a MP3 recorder. I am also thankful to Dr Pattana Kitiarsa for helping me to find a
suitable place of accommodation, and with the help of my neighbours, I was able to move around
the town with a bicycle. On some longer trips to places such as Kham Chanot, I had the good
fortune of transport in the form of a pick-up. More often than not, my questions might steer into
seemingly controversial areas, and due to the initial 10 days of ice breaking, I was able to ask
questions with regard to Buddhism and faith without offending many people. Thick descriptions
were acquired and most of my informants and respondents were very accommodating. My local
friends have also kindly granted me their permission to observe and write about them in this
thesis. In order to protect their privacy and adhere to the ethics of social science research, I have


19
drawn reference to them with the use of pseudonyms. I do not proclaim to represent a dominant
social trend in Thai society; I am merely telling the stories of a small group of people living in a
small town in Northeastern Thailand.

Chapter Organization

Chapter Two will purport to illustrate liminality through two aspects – the geographical
landscape of the area being a borderland and the shifting ideological identities of being a
member of Phon Phisai, and to a larger extent, the Isaan region. It uses the naga fireballs as lens
to understand liminal people who are also living in such “in-between” spaces.

Chapter Three will pay attention to the community aspect of the naga fireballs and how it brings
about an internal structure after the liminality dissolves. Also, the social history of the myth of

the naga, the fireballs, as well as the festival itself will be discussed at length. Naga evidences,
such as naga fossils, will also be discussed as empirical “constructions” to “create and imagine”
a communal historical naga tradition (Hobsbawn 1983). Such fixations of production of naga
myths and histories, I argue, have been cleverly adapted by the community to provide some
internal structure and certainty to a liminal life.

Chapter Four will focus on the tension between centre and periphery. What do the naga fireballs
illuminate us? They tell us a rich story of competing discourses, of local politics, of media
influence and how these forces and tales present to us the other less told story – that the margin
and the peripheral is also trying to align and put itself visible to the national audience as well.