작성자 : TOD STEVEN, CHAMBERS
작성일자 : 1992년
소속대학교 : NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

초서론 :

From a performance perspective this essay examines urban Thai ritualizations of two events in the sacred biography of the Buddha. In a fieldwork research project conducted in 1988-1989 and 1990, the author studied (1) Buddhist ordination ceremonies which enact the story of the Buddha's Great Renunciation and (2) Thet Maha Chats which celebrate the Vessantara Jataka. Considering both of these rituals as cultural performances and focussing on their dramaturgical dimensions, this research revealed that the Thais' performances are not merely passive presentations but occasions for creativity, reflection, and experimentation. Through ritual play these Thais make up their urban cultural reality. The logic guiding the Thais' particular redactions derives from the conditional division between the laity and the Sangha. The performance-oriented fieldwork approach identified a pervasive consciousness of this monastic-lay boundary in the Thais that the author studied in urban Bangkok. The significance of this boundary consciousness for male behavior enlarges in the light of the conditional and fluid character of Thai monastic life. The drama within ordinations and the Thet Maha Chat ceremonies celebrates an imagined breach of well-defined social divisions. While the Great Renunciation enacts a movement toward permanent liminality, the Thet Maha Chat presents a return from one's renunciation of the world. The semiotics of these ceremonies, as analyzed here, provides an interpretative gloss to the narrative. Both monks and laity express particular 'codes' in their performances. A thorough examination of the Nagthet Maha Chats, monks who specialize in performing the Maha Chat story, illumines the dramaturgical role of these monks who, acting as ritual-clowns, subvert their everyday roles as other worldly monks.