faiths and films

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Faiths and Films:

Crisis of Thai Buddhism on the Silver Screen1

Pattana Kitiarsa2

Introduction

In the eyes of scholars and social critics, Thai Buddhism has experienced chaos

and crisis since the 1980s.3Buddhism in contemporary Thailand has become, in Nidhi

Auesriwongses words, an alienated and unwanted surplus (suan koen) in Thai life

and society (2003:5). Its institutional and moral foundations have been considerably

weakened by eroding penetrations of modern consumerism and materialism.

As critics point out, the crisis of Thai Buddhism has manifested in both its

establishments and popular perceptions toward its clergies conducts. The Sangha (theBuddhist official organization) has been questioned for its moral legitimacy and

authority. In his monumental work, Phra Phaisan Wisalo (2003) traces the origin of the

crisis of Thai Buddhism back to key modernist reformations and changes since the early

Bangkok era.4 He argues that Thai Buddhism has been facing difficulties and challenges

from both inside and outside Buddhist institutions. Thai Buddhism has by and large lost

its moral authority, spiritual leadership, and cultural significance in contemporary

Thailand, because its leaders and institutions lost their battlegrounds to the aggressive

and complex forces of modernization and globalization from outside. Moreover, the

Thai Buddhist Sangha has often been criticized for its corruption-stricken

1Paper presented in an interdisciplinary conference on Religion in Contemporary MyanmarBurmese

Buddhism and the Spirit Cult Revisited, organized by the Stanford Center for Buddhist Studies, StanfordUniversity, May 22-23, 2004. An earlier version of this paper was read in the Conference on New

Southeast Asian Cinemas: Where Big Budget Meets No Budget, organized by Asia Research Institute,National University of Singapore, May 3-4, 2004. The author would like to thank Dr. Khoo Gaik Cheng,

the conference organizer, for allowing him to use some of the Thai films and other materials from herprivate collection. She also renders him her critical comment and editorial help over the early drafts. I am

grateful to Thelma Fadgyas for her additional editorial assistance. Any shortcoming or inadequacy

persisted are my sole responsibility.2The author is a former faculty member at Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima,Thailand and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore,

The Shaw Foundation Building, Block AS7, Level 4, 5 Arts Link, Singapore 117570. Email:

[email protected] Keyes (1995); Nidhi Auesriwongse (1999); Phra Phaisan Wisalo (2003); Phra Thepvedhi [P.

Payutto] (1993); Phra Thammapitaka [P. Payutto] (2002); Sanitsuda Ekachai (2001); Sulak Sivaraksa

(1995); Suriya Smutkupt et al (1996); Swearer (1995).4Although many scholars emphasize King Mongkuts reform, which gave birth to Thai modernist or

Protestant Buddhism as the watershed of modern history of Thai religion, I contend that Thai Buddhismsmost severe crisis took place when Ayuthaya fell at the hands of the Burmese army in 1767. Efforts made

by King Taksin and King Rama I were to create new regimes fashioning after Ayutthaya with Buddhismas an ultimate source of the political legitimation. Wyatt (1994) describes King Rama Is immediate

responses to the prolonged socioeconomic, political and religious crisis as the subtle revolution.Reynolds (1976:203-220) sees early Bangkok era as the cosmological transition from the old Siamese

Tribhumi Buddhist cosmography to the new modern one.


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administration and visionless ill-adaptation.5 After reviewing a series of infamous

monks sexual scandal and corruption cases, Keyes (1995) asks: Does the Buddhist

Sangha have a future in modern Thailand?

Furthermore, public faith in the Buddhist monkhood is in a state of decline. As

Swearer (1995:159) points out, The traditional religious festivals that once shaped

community life are gradually losing their meaning. A small percentage of the male

population is being ordained into the Buddhist monkhood. Sanitsuda Ekachai, a noted

journalist with a keen interest in Thai Buddhism, observes: Hypnotised by the new

magic of science, post-war educated Thais have grown up to see Buddhismgiven its

emphasis on merit-making, heaven and hell, and the magic practiced by many monks

as simply superstition, suitable for the elderly (2001:7). In his studies of Thai

popular religiosity in the 1990s, Jackson (1997, 1999a, 1999b) argues that Thai

Buddhism has been undergoing postmodernization characterized by the emergence of

boom-time religions of prosperity commercialized Buddhism (phuttha phanit) and

other phenomena of commercially oriented religiosity.

In addition, Buddhism as a modern social institution and as spiritual guidance

and identity marker has apparently been fragmented with competing interpretations and

practices from various movements and modern agencies. Many studies explore the rise

of urban Buddhist movements such as Dhammakaya, Santi Asoke, and Suan Moke

Movement in the past three decades.6 They consider the rise of these reformist Buddhist

movements as struggles for modern relevance (Suwanna Satha-Anand 1990),

different paths to make sense of modern socioeconomic changes from Buddhist

perspectives, and venues to provide the legitimacy for political power for the growing

urban middle class, especially in the case of Dhammakaya Temple.

In other words, most scholars, social critics, and public opinion in contemporary

Thailand are in consensus in their arguments that Thai Buddhism in the 21 st century has

been serious challenged by what Tanabe and Keyes define as secularization and

disenchantment (2002:8). Its moral authority has become very problematic and

questionable. Doubts are placed against its capability to provide assurances and

resources needed for people to make sense of complex and ever-changing worldly

5Chote Tasaneeyavej, a veteran Thai journalist, comments on series of sexual scandals involving Thai

monks in 1990s that Iron is eroded by its own rust. Likewise, the Sangha is eroded by its own memberswho abuse the yellow robe (cited in Sanitsuda Ekachai 2001:47). See also a comment on Thai Buddhism

in post 1997 economic crisis by Knox (1998).6See Apinya Fuengfusakul (1993:153-183); Heikkila-Horn (1996:93-111); Jackson (1989, 1997);

Suwanna Satha-Anand (1990:395-408).


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matters. In order to rescue Buddhism and make it relevant to the present time (som

samai), Thai Buddhism, they strongly advocate, needs to be reformed and restructured

from top to bottom (Phra Phaisan Wisalo 2003:246-282).

In this paper, I will look beyond the mainstream critics and intellectual thoughts

by re-examining the discourse on Thai Buddhism in crisis from popular film

perspectives. Is Thai Buddhism really in crisis? What is the crisis all about? The

scholars and social critics standpoints toward the contemporary state of Thai Buddhism

will be countered with stories based on a selection of recently-released popular films,

namely,Fun Bar Karaoke (1997), Mekhong Full Moon Party (2002), and Ong Bak:

Muay Thai Warrior(2003). These three films are selected based on rather arbitrary

grounds. I purposefully choose them as case studies of film stories concerning

contemporary Thai life, organized around an apparent theme of popular religious beliefs

and practices. The stories told in these films are well-embedded in, and indicative of,

the ongoing social discourses concerning popular Buddhism and its fate in

contemporary Thailand.

Viewing the discourses on Thai Buddhist crisis, set forth by scholars and social

critics, as rather authoritative, rigid, and monological, I argue that, in this selection of

popular films, the contemporary state of Thai Buddhism is narrated and interpreted in

very remarkably different tones. There is virtually no crisis concerning Thai Buddhism

presented or reflected in the films, but a firm faith in Buddhist teachings and principles

with some critical concerns of its agencies and performances in the fast lane of Thai

society.Fun BarKaraoke,Mekhong Full Moon Party, and Ong Baknot only reconfirm

prominent places of popular religion in Thai life, but also remit a message similar to

Milan Kunderas stance on the power of novel: If the novel [Buddhism] should really

disappear, it will do so not because it has exhausted its power but because it exists in a

world grown alien to it (Kundera 1995:92). Thai Buddhism has been momentarily

caught up in the world grown alien to it, while its practitioners and followers alike

have been struggling and succumbing to the crises of modernity, which entails an

irrevocable rupture with a habitus rooted in an unquestioned cosmology (Tanabe and

Keyes 2002:7italic original).

When scholars, critics, and government officials in Thailand criticize that Thai

Buddhism has been deteriorating, they make their judgments mainly based on

doctrinally-defined moral Buddhist standpoints. They rely on the authority of written

texts, especially the Tripitaka and authoritative conventions, while they rarely take into


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account popular versions of Buddhism. What I learn from these three films is that

popular tradition is the most dynamic and meaningful part of Thai religious life. In the

films, especially inFun Bar Karaoke andMekhong Full Moon Party, complexity and

diversity of religious beliefs and practices are repeatedly acknowledged. They are part

of an ordinary culture (Williams [1958]1997:3-14) of the practice of everyday life.

Religion is neither about the sacred nor the profane, but an ordinary juncture of both,

where people are free to talk, tease, discuss, blame, or even commodify it.

Voices concerning the current health and situation of Thai Buddhism are far

more multidimensional, lively, engaged, and open to debates in the stories told in the

popular films. Toward the end, I suggest that popular religion can find films as

alternative sites of discursive practices to discuss what matters most for ordinary people

in contemporary Thailand. Film renders itself as a dialectical medium of representing

social realities and as a venue to reflect popular voices on certain issues. Films as

Dissanayake (1992:3) points out, are cultural practices in which the artistic,

entertainment, industrial, technological, economic, and political dimensions are

inextricably linked (Ibid:1). In the words of a Thai veteran filmmaker, Prince Chatri

Chalerm Yugala (1993), My film is a reflection of what exists.

Filming Thai Popular Religion

In an interview, Prince Chatri Chalerm Yugala, arguably the best-known

filmmaker in contemporary Thailand, believes that the Buddhist concept of karma is the

most crucial point to understand the lives of struggling people, e.g., prostitutes, the

gunmen, HIV patients, taxi drivers, elephant keepers, whom he has filmed over three

decades. You see what happened to them is their own karma, what happened to them

in their last life. And now, if they make merit, in their next life it will be better (cited in

Richardson 1993).

This veteran filmmakers view indicates that, at least, there are some subtle

connections between religious content and films in Thailand. Although he himself has

never produced a film based on explicit Buddhist or other religious stories, grains of

religious beliefs and practices have been actively portrayed in his films. Thai audiences

are familiar with key Buddhist principles and concepts like karma, law of action, or the


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moral authority of Dhamma (Buddhist teachings), in his long list of films in the past

three decades.7

What Prince Chatri Chalerm tells us is that the marriage between religion and

film is not a rare phenomenon in Thailand, even though it has never been obviously

acknowledged. In popular perception, film and Buddhism are seemingly unrelated

subjects. Their existences are defined by a totally different purpose. They belong to two

separate domains: secular and religious. Thai movies are intended primarily for

entertainment. Every detail has to be easy to understand. The story is driven by

conversations or a characters thoughts--often expressing their innermost feelings, ideas

and secrets, observes Anchalee Chaiworaporn (1997), a leading Thai film critic.

However, film as an entertainment media has its grip of power. Its power to tell stories

on the silver screen in a very convincing manner and to reorient people to believe in its

make-believe reality is almost irresistible.

Thailand has witnessed the power of this Western-invented entertainment

technology as early as when film came into an existence in the late nineteenth century.

According to Dome Sukvong (n.d.), a pioneer film archivist who has been playing an

active role in founding and running the National Film Archive, film was introduced to

Thailand soon after it was invented in the West in the late nineteenth century. The first

film shown in Siam was about a play called Parisan Cinematograph in 1897, which

the audience was limited to wealthy aristocrats and businessmen. In its early days, film

was known in the Thai language as phaphayon, rupphayon or hunphayon, which

were sets of terminologies indicating make-believe entities or things enlivened by

certain magical formulas. Of these three terms, phaphayon has emerged in both

official and popular usages, while nang, which derives from traditional Siamese

shadow play, has been adopted widely as the most common colloquial term for cinema,

film, and movie. Since early twentieth century, Siamese, especially those living in

Bangkok, have been familiar with Western cinema (nang farang) or Japanese film

(nang yipun), which were shown both in popular permanent theaters and open-door

makeshift theaters. In his painstaking search to locate the film concerning King

Chulalongkorn during his European tour in late 1890s, Dome reveals that perhaps King

Chulalongkorn was the first Siamese to use the term nang farang, referring to the

7See the list of the films by Prince Chatri Chalerm Yugala at the website:http://www.thaipro.com/cgi-

in/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html
http://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html


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Westerners shadow play, in his letter to Her Majesty the Queen in 1897 (see Dome

Sukvong 1993).

Several studies8trace the history of Thai film through its rise and fall over a

period of century.9Writing a history of Thai film by using Wallersteinian political

economy framework, Boonrak Boonyaketmala (1992:62-98) argues that the rise and fall

of Thai film can be divided into three periods with some distinctive political features.

From 1897 to 1945, film was a core part of European influences as Thailand was their

informal empire. From 1945 to 1976, film once gain was under foreign influences,

especially USA, since Thailand became the US collaborator state. The final period from

1976 to 1992, Thai film fell into a miserable state under the Hollywood domination as

the country had entered the so-called the era of new industrial state. The life and death

of Thai cinema have been closely linked with the modern world system. In his view,

Thai film industry is nothing, but part of international politics of trade and

cultural/ideological control. Films in fact have a role to play whether the country was

under whatever ideological or socioeconomic regimes, such as European colonialism,

communism, or capitalism.

Hamilton (1994:141-161), on the other hand, takes a closer look on the role of

the Thai state in the film industry. She suggests that the Thai power elites concepts of

the role of film derive directly from an attempt to assert and maintain a curious

repressive-modernist control over the political/social consciousness of a society plunged

headlong into a postmodernist global economy (Hamilton 1994:142). Instead of

discussing a large modern world system as Boonrak does, she points out three social

segments which compose the deep structure underlying the conflicts of the Thai film

industry, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s: namely, the conservative power

elite, the Western-oriented bourgeoisie, and rural/provincial people. The struggles

among these segments are actually the struggles to represent Thailand in the film

industry.10

8See Amporn Jirattikorn (2003); Anchalee Chaiworaporn (n.d.; 2002); Boonrak Boonyaketmala (1992:62-

98); Dome Sukwong (n.d.; 1993); Hamilton (1994); Knee (2000; 2003).9For a comprehensive timeline of the history of Thai film, seehttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?

url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html10

There are also other studies which provide informative accounts of Thai films and their illustrative

features in different periods. Anchalee Chaiworaporn (n.d.; 2002) outlines the birth and growth of Thai

cinema from its early days in 1897 up to the present. Series of articles both in Thai and Englishlanguages, which are available in the Thai Film Foundation website,l deal with various aspects of Thai

films, such as the movie houses (rong nang) (Dome Sukvong), Thai films as mirrors of Thai society(1973-1986) (Anchalee Chaiworaporn), the heydays of Thai film industry (1927-1946) (Phanu Ari), Thai

pornographic films and the post-1973 political freedom (Wimonrat Arunrotesuriya) or Thai films in
http://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.htmlhttp://www.thaipro.com/cgi-bin/jump.pl?url=http://people.cornell.edu/pages/ter3/thaifilm/tfindex.html


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Religious issues or religious aspects of Thai life are not among the dominant

contents in Thai film stories. Religion certainly cannot be classified as a genre in Thai

films. Sutthakorn Santithawat (n.d.) writes about the overall situations of Thai films in

the 1980s and 1990s and classifies them into five major genres: drama(nang chewit),

comedy (nang talok), action (nang bu); horror(nang phi); andpornography(nang po).11

Religious beliefs and practices, especially popular Buddhism, mightappear in almost all

of these genres, but they are more often featured in the horror movies, which involve

rituals concerning spirits, monks, or spirit doctors/exorcists.

Most religious content and themes in Thai films predominantly belong to

popular rather than doctrinal Buddhism. Out of these Thai movie genres, there are at

least four possible ways, where religious content is incorporated into Thai film stories.

They include (1) stories based on the life history of Buddha; (2) stories about famous

monks and their prominent sacred biographies; (3) stories of popular spirits/ghosts; and

(4) stories concerning superstition and supernaturalism. Popular ghost stories,

famous/legendary magical monks, and some superstitious laymen are among examples

of religious subjects represented in Thai films. Some recently released films,

Aungulimala (Ong Kuliman)(2003) and My Story: Luang Pho Khun Paritsuttho

(2003) could be examples of popular films based on the Buddhist legend of a Brahmin-

turned-Buddhist monk and a biography of a contemporary famous magical monk from

Northeastern Thailand. There are also a number of movies released in 1970s and 1980s

with an emphasis on dramatic love stories of a young man emerging from a boy living

in a Buddhist temple and a well-to-do woman such asLuang Ta (1980). Finally, there is

a large number of Thai films on ghost stories and other supernatural power. Superstition

and magical power are frequently featured in the films likeKraithong(2001),Khun

Phaen: Legend of the War Lord(2002);Mae Bia (2001);Nang Nak(1999);Pra Apai

Mani (2001); and Three[Arom Athan Akhat] (2002).12

1980s and 1990s (Sutthakorn Santithawat). More published works also depict the contemporary state of

Thai movies, which some authors claim as a new golden age for Thai movies (Cummings n.d.; see also

Min 2004:56-57). Of many published works on recently-released Thai films and current situations ofThailands film industry, Amporn Jirattikorn (2003), Anchalee Chaiworaporn (2002), and Knee (2000,

2003) have stood out, discussing cultural and ideological messages and other complex discoursesrepresented in the widely-hailed new waves of Thai films.11In the website Thaiworldview.com http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htm, perhaps the largestcollection of Thai films available on the internet (184 titles), Thai films are classified into 9 genres,

including, action, comedy, crime, drama, fantasy, history, horror, romance and thriller.12See more examples of Thai films with religious contents, especially horror and fantasy movies in

http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htm
http://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htmhttp://www.thaiworldview.com/tv/cinema.htm


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Bangkok Superstition and Its Pre-1997 Economic Crash Insanity13

Fun Bar Karaoke (1997) does not represent the film stories discussing

the crisis of Thai Buddhism per se, but it certainly depicts the religiosity of ordinary

urban dwellers in contemporary Thailand. Pen-ek Ratanaruangs14debut feature film

could resemble many academic research projects on the sociology of religion in

cosmopolitan Bangkok settings and urban centers elsewhere. His film addresses a

question set forth by generations of sociologists and anthropologists of religion: how

primordial religious forms, e.g., superstition, and rational modernity, could co-exist and

blend themselves into the extremely chaotic and noisy Bangkok prior to the 1997

economic crisis. Pen-ek himself sees his film project as a social study of the city of

Bangkok and its inhabitants with an emphasis on their syncretistic religiosity and

modern life constraints:

Physically, Bangkok is like any other cosmopolitan city in the world. It is

full of tall modern buildings. Streets are full of cars. There is a Seven-Eleven or a

McDonalds at every corner. Middle-class and upper-class people wear Armani or

Paul Smith. In other words, it is very westernized. However, people still go to

fortune tellers every week, asking them what to do with their lives. When we have

important projects, we give food to monks hoping to turn luck our way. We still

believe in ghosts and spirits. The intention of this film is to study how these two

extremes co-exist. When the film was completed, I felt that a study of this topic

could turn out to become nothing but a satire. (cited in Wenner 1997)

Whether or not it is a satire as Pen-ek intends,Fun Bar Karaokes storyline

shows how Thai superstition has persisted in the postmodernizing Bangkok realities

through the life of a typical middle-class Bangkok family struggling at the downturn of

the late 1990s bubble economy. Pu, a young lady working with an advertising agency,

lives with her playboy and karaoke bar-going father. Lately she has been having a

strange dream (fan ba) about her dead mother, who, in Pus dream, has kept building a

house model. Despite living in a complex postmodern environment and working in ahighly dynamic business sector, Pu is a traditional Thai girl, a family-oriented dutiful

daughter, and an old-fashioned superstitious person. The dream keeps coming back to

13Knee (2003:102-122) provides an extraordinarily insightful reading of the films by Pen-ek Ratanaruang,

Fun Bar Karaoke (1997), 6ixtynin9 (Ruang Talok 69, 1999), andMon Rak Transistor(Transistor Love

Story, 2001). Focusing on the gender meanings of the Thai economic crisis, he argues that these threefilms depict the gendered resonances of Thailands turn-of-millennium cultural and economic upheavals,

while also addressing the place of Thai tradition to these upheavals (Knee 2003:102).14For his biofilmography, Tom Pannet (Pen-ek Ratanaruang) was born in 1962 in Bangkok, Thailand. He

studied art history and philosophy at the Pratt Institute in New York City. After graduation, he worked asa graphic designer at Designframe Incorporated in New York for 3 years before returning to Thailand. In

Thailand he worked for an advertising agency until 1993 when he started directing televisioncommercials. In his next life, he would like to be a professional soccer player or a fortune teller.Fun Bar

Karaoke is his debut feature film (Wenner 1997)


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haunt her whether she is asleep or awake and she simply can not steer her mind away

from it. With assistance from Pum, her only friend, who is a daughter to a fortune-teller

and works as a 7-11 store clerk, Pu decides to seek advice concerning her mysterious

dream from Pums father. The fortune-teller tells Pu that if the dream continues, her

father will soon die when the house is finished. His advice makes Pu sick with worry

about her fathers fate.

InFun Bar Karaoke, the female gender is connected with dream, mystery,

superstition and home-nurturing tradition against the backdrop of Bangkok materialism

and modernism. Women possess complex, paradoxical qualities as a rescuer and a

mysterious destroyer. The spirit of Pus mother is building a house, which she herself

had dreamt about when she was alive. Dressed in black with cigarettes, always looking

sorrowful and lonely, the spirit wishes to spend her life after death with her husband in

her dream house. It means that in one way or another, Pus father will soon die so that

he can reunite with his wife in their never-fulfilled real-life romance. Keep advice from

the fortune-teller seriously, Pu realizes that only her magical tricks can save her fathers

life from this mysterious tragedy. Through Pus recurring dreams of her mother, the

film situates Pus mother with tradition, home, and parental responsibility [T]he

maternal is linked not only with dream, but with ethereal and non-earthly realms more

broadly, indeed suggesting an alignment between the feminine and things mystical,

immaterial, and spiritual (Knee 2003:105).

The male gender, on the other hand, is linked closely with extremely mundane

activities, which can be considered as seriously de-meritorious from a Thai Buddhist

perspective. Men like Pus Father, Noi, and his boss enjoy themselves with obtaining or

exercising their masculine power by making money in the stock market, being hired as a

gunman, or having pleasure smoking, drinking, or womanizing. Like most nouveau

riche Thai, who are mostly from a Sino-Thai background and widely addressed assia,15

Pus father is among the prime examples of Thai de-meritorious persons in boom-time

Bangkok. He has made easy money from the stock market and real-estate speculation

during the boom era. After the death of his wife, he returns to his single, playboy days.

The difference this time is that he has no parental obligation because his daughter has

already grown up or perhaps he is simply ignores his family responsibilities. With

unlimited amounts of cash at his disposal, he visits karaoke bars regularly, having fun

15Further analysis on the emergence of Sino-Thais in contemporary Thailands economy and politics, see

Ockey (1999) and Pasuk Phongpaichit and Sungsidh Piriyarangsun (1992)


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drinking, smoking, and fooling around with girls. Singing and performing karaoke

allows him to gain access to freedom to express his inner voice as a lonely man, while

releasing him from the prison of his own daily frustration and anxiety. His fate takes a

dangerous turn when he meets Yok, a chaophos16 mistress through his fun-loving

friend. Although Pus father possesses expensive and most auspicious Buddha amulets

as advertised by the amulet dealer, supernatural power fails to save him from the life-

threatening misfortunes by the chaophos cronies. The law ofkarma shows its obvious

force against Pus Father. He suffers the consequences of his own fun-loving behaviour

as well as his neglect of his paternal responsibility at home.

Why doesnt Noi suffer from his karma as a sadistic gunman and his other

criminal activities? This is an apparently self-contradict point in the film. One way to

understand Nois fate is to look at him as a racially mixed person ( luk krueng) and as a

mentally abnormal young man. He is perhaps a product of a short reunion between

American soldier and a Thai woman. He works as a gunman for the chaopho.Neither

superstition, nor flashy Bangkok night life could influence Noi. What fascinates him

most is saving money he earned from his job and learning English (from tapes) with the

hope of travelling to the USA. He is a regular customer at the 7-11 Store, where Pu

hangs out with Pum. Noi has a crush on Pu, but is too shy to ask her out. In Noi, there

are many otherwise impossible mixtures; a money-conscious crook yet teaching himself

English, which is considered an asset for modern professions, a sadistic gangster yet

nave at womanizing. He can easily and cold-bloodedly kill, yet his tough manhood

hopelessly vanishes whenever he appears before the girl he loves. In the Thai cultural

context, being born to a foreign father or mother, or raised outside Thailand could be an

understandable excuse for not being a culturally-conformed Buddhist or traditionalist.

Nois unusual mercilessness and sadism as a gunman is a personal symptom of a young

man being abandoned from normal parental guidance or familiar relationship during his

childhood.

What doesFun Bar Karaoke contribute to the understanding of the current state

of Thai Buddhism and urban religiosity? Apparently it has nothing to do with doctrinal

or established Buddhism. However,Fun Bar Karaoke vividly recaptures real-time

possibilities of everyday urban religious beliefs and practices among Bangkok dwellers

16Chaopho, literally godfather, refers to the Thai mafia who could manipulate the states power andexercise his agency in various economic and political domains. His power and influence lie in his

economic wealth, control, and well-maintained connection with established power structure. Togetherwith nakleng(bandit or strong man), chaopho represents macho types of Thai masculinity in Thai popular

and political culture (see Ockey 1999:1033-1058).


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and elsewhere in Thailand when the countrys economy was on the verge of socio-

economic turmoil. While critics and scholars constantly cry foul on the extreme

popularity of prosperity cults and the rise of the commercialization of Buddhism

(Jackson 1999b, 1999b; Pattana Kitiarsa 2002:160-176), this film confronts them with a

stunning story. It illustrates how superstition works through the portraits of a family and

a group of people deeply in psychological and spiritual crisis. A young working woman

follows the fortune-tellers advice concerning her unusual dream. Her father does not

know how to deal with his lustful urge and material greed amid chaos and turbulence,

symbolized through the scenes of notorious traffic jam, his heavy drinking and smoking

while singing karaoke, and lovemaking with hired bar girls. An unusual hit-man who

has no sense of moral guilt from his paid job to murder other people, devotes himself to

worshipping money and America. He is ready to do whatever necessary to actualize his

dream.17

Superstition has occupied its stronghold in the Thai mentality and penetrates the

tissues of their daily life, especially through female agency. Dialogue between Pu, Pum,

and an old lady customer illustrate this point. Pum reads outloud a horoscope column,

popular in the Thai daily press, to Pu which predicts varieties of personal romance,

work, health, and luck. When Pum makes fun of her reading, an old lady customer

overhears this. Disgusted, she does not hesitate to give Pum a warning shot with a

popular Thai expression that reflects the superstitious roots in Thai popular culture. The

old lady warns Pum that, you cannot make fun of it. If you do not believe, you cant

ever offend supernatural beings (mai chuea ya lop lu).

The masterly, yet playful, treatment of linguistic signs in the Thai-English

switch of the films title by its director and production team is very notable. Except for a

fixed meaning of Japanese-invented Karaoke in some degree, the Thai terms Fan

(dream) and Ba (crazy, mad, or insane) are displaced or doubled by Fun and Bar

in English. In this act of trans-linguistic double-entendre (Knee 2003:107), the

original Thai term (Fan Ba, crazy or mysterious dream) is disassembled, transformed,

and reconstructed into a new set of signified and signifier --Fun and Bar. In its Thai

version,Fan Ba connotes a far different meaning from Fun and Karaoke Bar in English.

Pen-eks intention is to play with the free-floating or arbitrary nature of signs to acquire

trans-linguistic meanings of words.

17In other words,Fun Bar Karaoke among other things portrays that superstition [is] alive & well in

Bangkok (Bangkok Post. February 5, 2002).


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I argue that the most central idea for this movie is Ba (literally, crazy, mad, or

insane). Although Pen-ek and his production transliterate it into Bar in English, which

acquires a totally different meaning and connotation, its original Thai word has rendered

its authoritative voice dictating the whole story. This adjectival term tells us that people

living in Bangkok and overall Thai society on the verge of the 1997 economic crash

were caught in the unconscious state of insanity. In one way or another, people are

mad, frustrated and busy living their surreal life. Spiritual and moral aspects of their life

were particularly weak. They were mad at making money, hysterical about their

luxurious lifestyle and anxious and aimless in their fast-paced daily lives. Left without

any clues as to the direction of their lives with their overheating economy in the final

stage of melting down, everything seemed out of control. Bangkok traffics were heavily

jammed and the government had run out of ideas for effective solutions. Underground

crime and their operators were on the rise, as was corruption in both private and public

sectors. In short, Bangkok was in the midst of madness and its population, struggling to

find ways out to release enormous tension and survive the suffocating forces. Using

dream and karaoke as metaphors, the film shows everybody desperately seeking

material as well as spiritual solutions to their life constraints. They yearn for assurance

and sanctuary to help make sense of existence in a very confusing social world.

Translated into Thai Buddhist terms, life as seen inFun Bar Karaoke is

swimming in a boundless sea of suffering (thuk, in Thai and dukha, in Pali). People

suffer as consequences of their own past and present life actions (karma). With certain

insane dreams in an unusually extreme socioeconomic environment, people lose their

vision and destiny and hopelessly get stuck in their immediate worldly life guided by

lust, greed, and resentment. They are prisoners of their own insane dreams (fan ba). The

scene which leads Pus father back to Yok for the last time and his eventual beat up by

the chaopho and his cronies, fittingly exemplifies the cycle of suffering endured by

people living in the pre-1997 crash Bangkok. Spiritually, he was too weak to resist his

lustful urge and the powerful seduction of the karaoke bar. The moment he pulls up his

car at the bars parking lot and enters the bar through the rainfall is the moment when

his fate is decided. The cycle of suffering and karma has made a complete self-orbit. He

could have regretted his decision for the rest of his whole life.

Thai Buddhism and Its Defenders


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Ong Bak(2003) is essentially an ultra nationalistic film, telling a story of both

authentic and imagined Thai masculine national identities or Thainess and their

internationally-acclaimed defender in the name of anciently genuineMuay Thai (Thai

boxing). Prachya Pinkaews18 intention to glorifyMuay Thai and some other authentic

Thai martial arts (i.e., traditional fencing) is the central theme in this film.19

In Ong Bak, Prachya intends to dialogue with his audience on at least two

counts. First, to the international martial arts world,Muay Thai is second to none when

it is treasured and practised up to its maximum capability and perfection. It is far

superior to most, if not all, of much advertised martial arts disciplines in the

international market. And second, he reminds his Thai audiences and, simultaneously,

shows their international counterparts,Muay Thai as Thailands true national heritage,

which has been culturally woven into delicate tissues of the countrys national tri-

pillars: nation, religion (read Buddhism), and monarchy.Muay Thai, especially during

its old glorious days, is not just a male pastime; its true existence is to protect the pillars

of Thainess against intruding enemies (see Pattana Kitiarsa 2003; Vail 1998:75-95). In

this case, the film chooses to depict howMuay Thai has become a bodily lethal weapon

to defend Buddhism, as it is symbolized in a famous Buddha statue from Ban Nong

Pradu, a fictitious rural village located somewhere in Northeastern Thailand. The film

also glorifies aspects of supposedly harmonious continuities of local traditions and

village Buddhist institution.

The film storybegins when the head of a revered Buddha statue, called Ong

Bak, was beheaded and stolen by urbanite thieves from the worship hall of Ban Nong

Pradus temple. Bunting or Ting, a skillfulMuay Thaipractitioner and son of this poor

village, volunteers to bring back the villages most valuable asset. He eventually uses

hisMuay Thai skills to win Georges support to his endeavors to recover the Buddha

statues head. He also relies on his physical and mental strength, plus never-say-no

18For a brief bio-data, which is provided for the International Film Festival, Rotterdam 2004, Prachya

Pinkaew studied architecture and in the early 1990s started making music videos. As a director andproducer he is widely known as a master in translating Hollywood formulas to the local Thai variety. His

film credits includeRong Ta Lab Plab/The New Shoes (1993),Kerd Eek Tee Tong Mee Ther/RomanticBlues (1994), Ong-bak: Muay Thai Warrior(2003) (see,

http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/person/85547.html).19

An international film reviewer notes that Ong Bakis propaganda for Muay Thai, a style

recognizable to anyone who has ever watched Thai kickboxing. Elbows, knees, shins and forearms all

come into play in fights that value flexibility as much as ferocity. In the films central set piece, Boontinguses Muay Thai to defeat a wide variety of foreign devilsincluding a brutal western solider, a wild-

legged Japanese gangster and an insane Australianto get the information he needs to find the manresponsible for selling Thailands religious treasures to the highest bidder (Whitney 2003).
http://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/person/85547.htmlhttp://www.filmfestivalrotterdam.com/en/person/85547.html


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fighting spirit to fight the city crooks and finally is able to overcome them all. The head

ofOng Bakis returned to its headless body at Ban Nong Pradus temple hall. Once

again the villagers are able to celebrate their annual festival with their religious faith and

pride in their village Buddhist symbols intact. Their glorious son/boxer has emerged as

a rescuer not only to their village Buddhism, but also a guardian hero to Thailands

national identities and pride in their imagined communities (Anderson 1991).

The film polarizes the countryside and the cosmopolitan Bangkok. Tings

adventurous journey and attention-gettingMuay Thai fights serve as moving mediators

between these two markedly different and contrasting worlds. Ban Nong Pradu

represents an extremely and ideally traditional community. It is the place where its

members have possessed unshakeable faith in their Buddhist institution and moral

leadership. Tradition in the form of Buddhist ceremonies and festivals is their cultural

foundation. Although villagers have endured their lives in poverty and hardship, the

sense of unity and togetherness in their community appears to be strong. In such

environments, popular Buddhist-based ancientMuay Thai knowledge and skills have

been taught and nurtured. In other words, the movie intends to display Ban Nong Pradu

as an ideal Buddhist land, where devout villagers and their traditional ways of life are

posed as authentically fixed images of Thainess. This impoverished land has provided

Thailand and the world not only migrant labor forces (see Mills 1999), but also physical

and spiritual guardians in the form of Thai boxer-heroes to ward off both external and

internal threats to the existence of Thai national identities (see Pattana Kitiarsa 2003).

Some external threats can be seen in foreign tourists and martial arts practitioners, while

internal bad omens are represented by existing social ills, e.g., underground gangster,

drug, gambling, prostitution, and corruption.

Bangkok is the complete opposite to the idyllic Ban Nong Pradu. It is the

cosmopolitan city and center of Thai modern universe. However, Bangkok as displayed

in this film is not the capital city of angels as indicated in its Thai name, but of devils

and crooks. It resembles a typical troubling cosmopolitan city, which could be found in

any third world country. The famous tourist center of Khao San Road is indeed the

center of criminal and illegal activities, ranging from human cockfight, gambling, drugs,

prostitution, and antique treasure smuggling.

In moral and spiritual senses, Ban Nong Pradu and Bangkok symbolize two

contrasting idealized extremes in the Thai cosmology, namely, traditional heaven and

modern hell, respectively. Daily lives of Thai people in the post-1997 economic crash


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have commuted and transported back and forth, in and out, between these two realms.

The human world exists temporarily as a liminally dynamic state somewhere between

these two symbolic realms.

Despite its surreal portrayal of two extreme worlds and its simple action movie

plot, I argue that Ong Bakepitomizes Muay Thai as bodily weapon and as masculine

cultural heritage to transcend and transform both too-obviously idealized, constructed

spaces. In the case of Ting,Muay Thai has carried him through his otherwise impossible

mission.Muay Thai helps erase all cultural capital deficits he certainly possesses as an

unsophisticated young man from the countryside trying to survive in the harsh world of

devils. It elevates him from an ordinary country folk to a prominent status of imagined

national hero in the eyes of his village folks, foreign tourist audiences, and of course,

his real-life patriots and international viewers. It also helps him attain his glory and

heroic role as a defender of Buddhist faith and pride of being Thais. Tony Jas role in

Ong Bakin turn opens up the possibilities of affirming and enhancing the dominant

discourse of masculine heroism in contemporary Thailand.

Buddhism has been threatened in both material and spiritual fronts. Materially,

smuggling and trading of valuable ancient Buddha statues and other religious treasures

as depicted in this film is part of current crimes in Thailand. 20 Morally, such an act

reflects the state of mind and faith in Buddhism by the parties involved, who regard

Buddha statues and other treasures as profitable commodities. Buddhism and other

markers of Thainess, therefore, need to be rescued from greed and lust of complex

forces in contemporary Thailand.

The movie leads us to believe that Thailand needs a hero, especially an ideal

masculine, morally and communally-oriented heroism to save its national identities.

Ting and his extraordinaryMuay Thai talents provide some possible examples of how

the Thai could fight back and stand firm against the merciless attacks of the globalizing

forces. Ting has risked his life to bring back the most invaluable asset to his village. He

also commits himself to the Buddhist ideal for Thai men by temporarily serving the

monkhood toward the end of the story. The story of Ting and his village folks has a

happy ending episode, however, increasing globalizing social problems, like gambling,

drug, prostitution, and underground crime which have been eroding Thai Buddhist-

20For example, in February 2004, the police arrested a gang of thieves with their connection to Bangkok

amulet dealers, who stole ancient Buddha statues and treasures in many temples in Doi Saket, Hod, MaeRim, San Sai, and Saraphi Districts Chiang Mai Province (Lang Bang Gang Chok Phra [Cleansing a

Robbery Gang Stealing Buddha Statues].Khom Chad Luek. February 25, 2004.).


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based cultural values, still remain unresolved and continue to beg for further effective

solutions.

Multiple Voices and Contesting Terrains of Popular Buddhism

Mekhong Full Moon Party [Sip-ha Kham Duean Sip-et] effectively transforms

the mysteriousBung Fai Phaya Nak [Naga Fireballs] into multidimensional and

intertextual fields of discourses on a traditional Thai-Laos belief. The film story is based

on the real-life mysterious Naga Fireballs, which has taken place for generations in the

Mekhong stream running through Phonphisai District, Nong Khai Province,

Northeastern Thailand. Lai (2003) points out that this movie is highly regarded for its

joyous dialogue with ones own folk traditions and accessible representation of Thai-

Laotian mythologies to the international audiences. The film is like a rich ethnographic

document, laying out a broad spectrum of beliefs, argumentation, modes of praxis and

managerial operations around the issue of whether the fireballsare indeed the work of

serpent-god. 21

Miracle, natural, or manmade, this is exactly the starting point of the film. Jira

Malikul22 and his production team demonstrate the complexities and diversities of

beliefs and perspectives people have when they come to view the Naga Fireballs.

Looking beyond the oversimplified polarization concerning the event (a work of nature

or a hoax), Jira personally sees the Naga Fireballs Phenomenon, as it is called by the

locals, as an event of contesting discourses. In his post-production interview, he

comments that thousands of people from all over the country get together along the

river bank on the full moon night of the End of Buddhist Lent interacting and discussing

their own beliefs and ideas regarding a common subject. Everyone has his or her own

version of the Naga Fireballs. This makes the event so special. It reflects the religious

21An English-language Thai media describes the event that the naga fireballs are an annual occurrence,in which reddish pink balls of lightusually in their thousandsshoot skywards out of the Mekhong

River. It usually occurs every year on the full moon night of the 11th lunar month (Reallife Fireballs a

Damp Squib as Rains Come Down. The Nation 2002). In October 2002, when the movie was firstreleased just days prior the real-life Naga Fireballs as part of their smart marketing strategies, the Nation

reports more than 200,000 people flocked to the usually peaceful town of Phonphisai to witness the event.Obviously, there are a lot more than last year, and that might be due to the movie hype, said Boonthan

Netmuk, a resident of Nam Pe Village, one of the most popular spots for viewing the fireballs. Its allcuriosity whether its a miracle or manmade. They want to see it with their own eyes (Ibid.).22For his bio-filmography, Since graduating from the Faculty of Communication Arts at ChulalongkornUniversity, Jira Malikul has cultivated his reputation as a leading director for music videos and televisioncommercials. He has won critical acclaim for both. He became interested in being a film director when hisHub Ho Hin Bangkok Company, a leading production house of TV commercials in Thailand, had an

interest in joining the mainstream movie market. He took this opportunity to develop a personal project afeature film about a mysterious natural phenomenon takes place annually on the bank of the MekhongRiver in Nong Khai province (Pattara Danutra 2002).


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and overall characters of Thai people, who believe that diverse views and faiths can

coexist with a certain degree of tolerance. (Mekhong Full Moon Party 2002).

In this film, multilayers and multivoices are carefully crafted, interwoven, and

placed behind the storyline. For years, a group of local monks, let by Luang Pho (abbot)

Lo, has established their secret base on the Laos side of the Mekhong to manufacture

the fireballs and set them up annually on the auspicious day at the end of Buddhist Lent.

Rather than being seen as a hoax or a criminal act by most authoritative and modern

rational minds, Luang Pho and his fellow monks firmly believe that their invention of

Naga Fireball tradition is nothing but an integral part of their sacred duties as local

Buddhist monks and devout worshippers of the cult of the Naga King, the creator of the

Mekhong and local domains in age-old mythology. They certainly do not view

themselves as myth-makers. Luang Pho repeatedly insists that making the Naga

Fireballs to worship Lord Buddha is meritorious. It is Buddhist monks duties to nurture

and sustain Lord Buddhas religion by planting seeds of Buddhist faith in the publics

mind.

Luang Phos faith and secret behind the Naga Fireballs is tested by Khan, a

young local orphan whom Luang Pho had raised and personally trained to become a

diving expert in placing the Naga Fireballs down in the riverbed. Khan recently returned

from school in Bangkok. Influenced by his modern education and urban experience,

Khan rejects his previously-held myth and faith in the Naga King, taught to him and

inspired by Luang Pho since childhood. Luang Pho is shocked and in despair upon

encountering Khans aggressive rationalization, but decides to keep alive this local

tradition as well as his personal faith in the Naga King, the sacred savior of Buddhism

in the Tripitaka story.

The traditional and modern worlds come into conflict in the opposing positions

adopted by old Luang Pho and young Khan. Possibly regarded as a generational conflict

and clash over their own primordial attachments (Geertz 1966), these opposing

positions are further complicated by the arrival of other authoritative modernist and

rationalist agents.

Dr. Norati represents the educated who subscribe to the scientific worldview.

For people like him, science is the ultimate sanctuary and watershed to whatever

humans want to know. Upholding science over local religious tradition, he argues that

the mystery concerning Naga Fireballs is not a religious miracle, but can be uncovered

with his scientific method. He sets up his experiment to collect data concerning the


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geographical and topographical configurations of the Mekhong and its seasonally varied

currents. He holds a firm hypothesis that the Naga Fireballs are part of natural

phenomena particularly specific to this area. He explains that a fireball appears when

submerged methane is sucked from the riverbed by a sporadically freakish lunar

gravitational pull, and ignites when it hits the air (Quenby 2002). In the film, Dr.

Noratis life and personal faith in science are radically tested and transformed by

episodes evolving around the politics of truth behind the Naga Fireballs. In a public

presentation of his research findings, he is made speechless by a question from one of

his local audiences. Doctor, can I ask if you still adhere to the Buddhist faith?

His dialogue with Luang Pho is central and epitomizes the tension between

Eastern and Western worldviews toward truths about nature and the world. Dr. Norati

tells Luang Pho that human beings desire to unlock the secrets of nature in order to

understand them, explain them, and live with them in harmony. He shares with Luang

Pho a common knowledge that the West emphasizes on conquering material and

physical domains with its science and technology, while the East is the master of

spiritual and ethical spheres. In return, Luang Pho gives him some punch lines of

practical philosophy, for example, we humans have never had an exactly equal length

of one second in each of our heart or commit yourself to what you believe in and keep

up your faith in what you have committed yourself to. The latter motto is perhaps

taken from a popular whisky commercial, which reads, Keep walking.

The existence of the Naga Fireballs draws more challenge from another

rationalist mind. Dr. Suraphon from Khon Kaen University takes an empiricist stance in

his endeavors to prove the Naga Fireballs a hoax. He assumes that the Naga Fireballs

are neither miracle nor natural occurrence, but human invention. While Dr. Norati wins

some local support and his findings imply that clean and healthy environments of the

Mekhong are major factors in guaranteeing the sustainable occurrence of Naga

Fireballs, Dr. Suraphons version is apparently corrupt and opportunistic. He was hired

by an owner of tomato sauce factory from the neighboring Tha Bo District to create

some Naga Fireballs in his area as a proof that industrial wastes from his factory do not

pollute Mekhong River. Dr. Suraphon finally learned his lesson from his arrogant and

egoistic experimentation when one of his divers was killed mysteriously in the riverbed.

Perhaps, the nature is telling us something, said Dr. Suraphon after the tragic end of

his scientific experiment. He finally withdrew himself from his aggressive challenge to

nature, but not to the local community of faithful members to the cult of Naga King.


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Local voices have made their own presence through the roles of the school

master (Khru Yai), who decides to stand up against both Dr. Norati and Dr. Suraphon,

who, in his view, have been hurtingPhaya Nak (tham rai phaya nak). His mission

was to defend the right to existence of Naga Fireballs as the towns traditional domains.

To him, people from outside his town, especially arrogant scientists, have no right to

destroy or uproot local beliefs and traditions for the sake of science. Although he

himself has been teaching mathematics and sciences to school children for years, he

puts his local tradition first. Local dignity, integrity, and continuity must prevail against

what he calls scientific aggression and intrusion of the global forces at any causes.

He decides to humiliate them by damaging Dr. Noratis equipments with some pig

dung. He once exclaims to release his frustration before Teacher Alice that Damn it!

How come globalization (lokaphiwat) has reached Nong Khai so soon? When he was

arrested by the police for his criminal act against Dr. Norati, he sarcastically blasts the

police officer, who once was his student, that Nowadays, scientists are exercising their

authority to establish themselves as new Gods for human beings. Khru Yai voices out

that no one really cares about what would actually happen to local people, their ways of

life, and their once peaceful town. Local people do not care for the business of scientific

truths. Their life and their religious tradition are more delicate and complicate than just

dying to know the secrets behind Naga Fireballs. They are definitely not a guinea pig

for scientists or opportunists. Local people are entitled to the right to defend their own

cultural domain.

While most attention is paid to male-dominated truth seekers or defenders,

female characters like Teacher Alice and Aunty Ong tell their sides of the story too.

Here, once again, the film shows that religious belief and faith are traditionally fostered

by women. Teacher Alice represents thousands of ordinary women who emerge and live

as mediators between the traditional and modern worlds or who situate themselves on

both sides of the dispute. She supports her men, meanwhile making sure that traditional

gender cultures continue to be relevant to their ever-changing community. She adapts

well to her multiple roles as daughter of the abbot in control of the Naga Fireballs

secrets, as a school teacher, an elder sister to the young Khan, and a fiance to Dr.

Norati.

Aunty Ongs wit, charm, and total devotion to the worship of Naga Fireballs

somehow stand firm as satirically contrasting evidence to the male-dominated scientific

or political truth-seeking or-defending enterprises. She is an old lady with a bag full of


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local wisdom and how-to practical tricks to solve almost every aspect of daily

problems. Her keen eyes are trained on every small detail around her domestic domain.

She has inherited her practical knowledge from her parents, relatives, and neighbors,

plus her years of direct experience. When it comes to a religious tradition like the case

of the Naga Fireballs, faith and respect matter most. Her character stands as proof that

local villagers too have carried out something equivalent to scientific experiments for

ages. The difference is that local folk knowledge especially that possessed and practiced

by ordinary women, is usually overlooked or gone unnoticed.

Conclusion: Crisis of Buddhism in the Popular Perspectives

Towards the end ofMekhong Full Moon Party, Luang Phos voice not only

confirms that making the Naga Fireballs is meritorious as it has been part of a local

religious homage to Lord Buddha, but also asserts that the Naga Fireballs indeed should

be perceived as a metaphor of human life. In his own words, the Naga Fireballs

symbolize the fireballs of human life (bung faihaeng chewit manut). The fireball

shoots itself up from the bottom of the river, flashes its reddish light skyward for a

moment, then disintegrates and disappears over the dark sky of the Mekhong. Nothing

in life is permanent. This is actually the moment of truth for everyone. Luang Pho

reminds his audiences that human life does not last long. Dont waste it, live it, and

live it mindfully and righteously well.

Luang Phos interpretation of this mysterious Naga Fireballs lends itself as a

common ground to rethink and recapture the crisis of Buddhism in contemporary

Thailand as it is presented inFun Bar Karaoke, Ong Bak, and Mekhong Full Moon

Party. Reading through these three films, I argue that the films offers far complicated

and engaged visions to evaluate the current situations of Thai Buddhism. There are

problems concerning the Buddhist clergy and their organizations as well as social

problems affecting Thai Buddhism, but those problems have hardly been presented as

crisis or serious threats to the existence of Thai Buddhism in these storylines.

These popular films do not deal with the questions: Is Thai Buddhism facing

crisis? or what causes the crisis? or what possible solutions are? Rather, they ask:

what does it mean to be a Buddhist [Thai] in a religiously pluralistic world? (Tanabe

and Keyes 2002:8). Thais have indeed continued to be religious at heart regardless of

the higher degree of modernization, their society has been experiencing lately. Religion,


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whether they are doctrinal or popular Buddhism or supernaturalism, has been a

pervasive and guiding force for the Thais for generations.

InFun Bar Karaoke, Pu is an apparent example of how age-old superstition is

made meaningful to the people living in Bangkok in pre-1997 burst of the countrys

bubble economy. She consults the fortune-teller concerning her mysterious dream and

strictly follows his instructions. She visits the Chinese-spirit shrine and gives some

offerings to the spirits. She hard-boils 51 eggs and offers them to propitiate the spirits in

her superstitious campaigns to save her fathers life. She should be regarded as an active

nurturer of traditional religiosity in modern-day Bangkok, who weighs a balancing act

between a masculine modern development and a feminine, traditional continuity.

In Ong Bak, popular or village Buddhism prominently dominates the storyline.

Tings extraordinarily masculine prowess inMuay Thai and his die-hard spirit to bring

back the head of the Buddha statue indeed speaks for his village folks collective faith

and devotion. Buddhism has strong roots in their community. It is urban crooks and

sinful influences from people in Bangkok that threaten to disrupt the existence and

continuity of their religious roots.

InMekong Full Moon Party, faith in local Buddhist beliefs and practices is still

firm despite some powerful challenges from influential scientists and other authoritative

agents. It demonstrates that when it comes to religious matters in contemporary

Thailand, being doubtful and searching for alternative visions of truth is possible, but

ultimately religion as a living or performing tradition is concerned more with keeping

faith and making sense of ones personal or communal life situations.

Jira Malikul, the director ofMekhong Full Moon Party, emphasizes that his film

portrays the tolerant and open-minded characters of the Thai when they enter debates

concerning religious beliefs and practices.23Indeed, all these three movies have shown

some similar points. A certain degree of ethnocultural and religious tolerance and

diversity could be found everywhere in this country. I argue that popular perception

tends to impose a greater degree of dynamic tolerance and coexistence than the stance

adopted by state officials, scholars and critics. BothFun Bar Karaoke andMekhong

Full MoonParty apparently encourage the real-life inclusive syncretism (Swearer

1995) of diverse religious faiths. They also imply that local traditions should be

23In an interview with Pattara Danutra (2002), he emphasizes on the realistic quality ofMekhong Full

Moon Party. Said Jira, as this movie deals with the issue of belief, I want the audiences to believe inthe films realistic components too. This is the major reason why he casts unknown actors and actresses

and features mainly Isan (Thai-Lao) dialect in this film.


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preserved and that people have full authority to determine their pasts and futures. In

Ong Bak,popular Buddhism is even considered a true watershed of Thai wisdom and

resource to counter the foreign and devil intruding otherness.

Instead of discussing the crisis of Buddhism, these three movies address more

complex issues concerning the crisis of modernity. They openly criticize global forces

and their negative impacts on local traditions in the era of post-1997 economic crash. In

the meantime, they also display the assertion of local voices and negotiations of

meaning regarding visions of their own religiosity. They tell stories of Thai modernity

and its destructive agents, whether they are the karaoke bar, gambler, drug dealer,

prostitute, foreign tourist, urbanite crook, or morally insensitive scientist, showing them

as complex forces pushing Thailand away from its spiritual and moral strength and

foundation. By placing popular Buddhism in juxtaposition to the challenges from agents

of evil, these movies confirm that popular Buddhism is alive and well. It is perceived as

a foundational source of morality and spirituality for its adherents and the future of

contemporary Thai society.

It is not very surprising that these three movies repeatedly and heavily condemn

the wrong side of Bangkok as the center of immoral otherness to Thailands national

identity. Looking back at the center from the periphery, Bangkok is an unbelievably

strange and troubling place in both spiritual and material senses in Fun Bar Karaoke. It

is the capital of crooks and underground businesses in Ong Bak. InMekhong Full Moon

Party, it is the city of modern civilization which has transformed the young Khan from

a traditional religious boy into an aggressive rational minded young man, who has

developed a strong faith in modern life and technologies (i.e., mobile telephone, mass

media, science, and cosmopolitan lifestyle).

Putting these three films together and exploring them for some religious

resonances, I contend that the most productive way to understand the Thai crisis of

modernity with an emphasis on current popular situation in Thailand is to elude the

temptation to read them through the lenses of various sets of dichotomies which are

constantly presented in the film stories. Scenes of confrontation and contestation

between the global/local, Thai/foreign, traditional/modern, spiritual/material,

female/male are repeatedly shown. However, I would agree with Knee (2003:107) in his

reading ofFun Bar Karaoke that the it does not pass some absolute judgment against

the modern in favor of tradition. Rather, the film suggests a coexistence and

interpenetration of the two realms, although the latter would appear to be ascendant at


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the expense of the former and Pus movement towards greater maturity and emotional

equilibrium appears to involve her coming to understand the balance between these

polarities. Learning to negotiate and appreciate ones cultural roots through balancing

moves between sets of real-life dichotomies is also experienced by Ting (Ong Bak) and

Khan (Mekhong Full MoonParty).

Voices from young people like Pu, Ting, and Khan demonstrate that the realities

of the crisis of Buddhism in contemporary Thailand are far from one-sided and

authoritarian. This is because popular voices from ordinary people and communities

stage their claims for spaces where they can enter into multidimensional and open-

minded discourses with the multiple parties involved.

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Delhi: MACMILLAN INDIA.

Anderson, Benedict. 1991.Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and

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Apinya Fuengfulsakul. 1993. Empire of Crystal and Utopian Commune: Two Types if

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Filmography

Angulimala[Ong Kuliman]. 2003. Suthep Tannirat, dir. (Details incomplete).

Fun Bar Karaoke. [1997]2001. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, dir. 120 min. Bangkok: Solar

Marketing. [VDO-CD].

Khun Phaen: Legend of the War Lord. 2002. (Details incomplete).

Kraithong. 2001. (Details incomplete).

Luang Ta (The Abbot]. 1980. Permphon Choeiarun, dir.

Mae Bia. 2001. (Details incomplete).

Mekhong Full Moon Party[Sip-ha Kham Duean Sip-et]. [2002]2003. Jira Malikul, dir.

120 min. Bangkok: Mangpong. [DVD].

Mon Rak Transistor[Transistor Love Story]. 2001. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, dir. Bangkok:

Solar Marketing. [VDO-CD].

Nang Nak. 1999. Nonzee Nimibutr, dir. 120 min. Bangkok: Mangpong. [VDO-CD].

Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior. 2003. Prachya Pinkaew, dir. 105 min. Bangkok:

Mangpong. [DVD].

Ruang Khong Ku: Luang Pho Khun Parisuttho [My Sotry: Luang Pho Khun

Parisuttho]. 2003.95 min. Bangkok: United Home Entertainment. [VDO-CD].

6ixtynin9[Ruang Talok 69]. 1999. Pen-ek Ratanaruang, dir. Bangkok: Solar Marketing.

[VDO-CD].

Three[Arom, Athan, Akhat]. 2002. Nonzee Nimibutr, dir. 120 min. Bangkok:

Mangpong. [VDO-CD].

faiths and films

Documents