Some community members believed that the value of PLMs should be recognised and their place in the community understood. The monk Kruba Kanjanaaranyavasri Mahatein, who was a writer, editor and collector of PLMs, created the TakTham tradition (CLP) to encourage recognition of the importance of PLMs and cooperation in the community (CLP, CLA, CMOM & CMOF1).
This tradition includes preservation and making merit in order that the community continue to take care of PLMs. Promotional activities are a new approach recently added to the tradition by literate people. A monk at Wat Sungmen has opened the monastery as part of a growing industry which researchers have termed the “Tak Tham tradition model” and the “monastery tourism model”.
4.6.4.1 Tak Tham t radition model
An effective way of preserving PLMs is promotion through community participation. One person stated:
When PLMs in the small temple were borrowed by the bigger temple, sometimes they weren’t returned, and they disappeared. Within the wisdom of the previous abbot was the TakTham tradition that integrated with local beliefs and allowed the community to become participants. He wanted all community members of every age and gender to know about PLMs. (CLP)
The TakTham tradition ceased 300 years ago but has been resurrected in the last decade. In the past, before the recovery of the tradition, PLMs at Wat Sungmen were kept only in the monastery library, but when TakTham worship was revived, the condition of the PLMs was checked every month by bringing them out into the sunlight (CLP). One person stated that the idea of this tradition belonged to the previous abbot at Wat Sungmen. He said the origin of the TakTham tradition was as follows:
Kruba Kanjanaaranyavasri Mahatein believed that Sungmen people could conserve PLMs. He created a Ho Trai [monastery library] to store PLMs. He thought about
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conservation guidelines to protect against the disappearance of knowledge objects. He predicted that future abbots who held authority would harm PLMs. For example, a prelate who had a higher position than the abbot might borrow and not return them.
Because of the small size of the temple, the abbot would not dare to reclaim them. As a result, some PLMs would be lost. Therefore, he had the idea that the more you keep, the more disappear. Dissemination to let people know as much as possible was the root of his thinking and then he linked this to the tradition and belief in letting local people participate. He created a tradition called TakTham, with the distinctive point being to have all ages and genders within the community as the core target. (CLP)
Kruba Kanjanaaranyavasri Mahatein did not trust individual abbots, largely as he felt it unwise to grant them the authority to look after PLMs because different people have different views and mores, so he created the TakTham tradition, with its main focus on the community, to help maintain and foster collaboration. Underlining this tradition, one participant supported the idea of community worship because when everybody experienced this then the other aims would be achieved, such as motivation, faith and empathy with PLMs, and community participation would automatically occur (CEB). The following section details TakTham ceremony promotional activities and how these are managed by community members and experts in the way of the tradition.
i) TakTham ceremony
One interviewee explained that TakTham worship was a process of preservation, with one of the activities in the ceremony involving the taking of PLMs into the sunlight (CLA) (see Section 4.5.3.2 for more detail). Another person outlined the objective of the worship as being to demonstrate how PLMs might be preserved for the community and to encourage community members to participate in taking care of PLMs (CLP).
One participant explained this in detail:
TakTham involves checking the condition of the returned PLMs, those borrowed by other monasteries, to see whether they have been damaged or not. If they are damaged, we rewrite or repair them. For other PLMs which have not been borrowed, they suffer from humidity in the rainy season, so monks and community members take them out into the sun and check the condition of each PLM. When they find one which is damaged due to age or insects, they repair, rewrite or reproduce it, and the new manuscript is brought to TanTham for worship. (CLP)
This finding delineates the PLM care process. It begins with their being taken out into the sunlight and their condition appraised. If damage is found, repair or reproduction of the affected PLMs is undertaken, which also allows community members to make merit.
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A field note taken at Wat Sungmen during the TakTham event which took place between 2nd and 4th January 2015 illustrates how the tradition is maintained. The exhibition board demonstrates how the TakTham tradition operated 100 years ago at Lunag Prabang, Laos (Figure 4.58(a)). The original tradition started with checking the condition of the PLMs and selecting damaged ones for repair. After this, walking clockwise with the PLMs three times around the chapel (“Ubosatha”), a procedure called triple circumambulation, became common (Figure 4.49). Later, taking PLMs out into the morning sunlight also became part of the ritual (Figure 4.47). Then, offering the PLMs to the monastery and giving a sermon were incorporated into the practice (Figure 4.50). Finally, bringing the objects back to the monastery library became the last part of the ceremony (Figure 4.51).
Figure 4.47:Taking palm leaf manuscripts into the morning sunlight around a pagoda
ii) TanTham ceremony
TanTham is an important ceremony held at Wat Sungmen. In observation, the monks gave a sermon before the PLMs. One person explained that this was a ceremony to gain merit for the writers and creators of PLMs (CLA). Moreover, during the “TakTham Festival: Unseen Thailand, Unseen World” at Wat Sungmen, the ceremony was dedicated to the age of Buddhism, one that will continue for 5,000 years. From observation of the exhibition (Figure 4.58(b)), today the TanTham ceremony at Wat Sungmen has added more elements of worship by introducing a long-life ceremony. The belief is that the success of the ceremony will help individuals, their relatives and their hometowns to enjoy longevity, prosperity and unity. The ceremony uses holy threads to link the Buddha’s statue to the monks and the people. While the monks pray, a holy thread is used to connect their goodness to the worshippers. Local people put ceremonial threads around their heads and on the PLMs (Figure 4.50), and pay attention to making merit with holy objects in the TanTham tradition. Monks praying over PLMs is a meaningful form of worship in the TanTham ceremony. There are three objectives: forgiveness before the ancient manuscripts; assigning merit to writers and creators; and granting merit to the souls of the holders or donors of PLMs.
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TanTham is a traditional ceremony representing merit. All prayers relating to PLMs are linked to creating virtue. There are many ways for Buddhists to worship in the TanTham ceremony, including chanting, sermons, triple circumambulation and alms-giving. PLMs, merit and holiness are realised as one meaning, which is considered the central aspect of people’s involvement.
Worshippers believe that the manuscripts are holy objects which are symbols of the Buddha's teachings. Consequently, people involved in any action related to worshipping the manuscripts are considered to have gained merit. Therefore, community people are attracted to participate in every step of the ceremony and in all the activities. This point addresses the significant factor that merit motivates villagers interest in PLMs.
Figure 4.48: Hands pressed together across the chest as a sign of respect when holding palm leaf manuscripts and making a prayer before the triple circumambulation, Wat Sungmen, Phare
(a) Triple circumambulation led by abbot and monks
(b) Triple circumambulation followed by local people and visitors of all ages and genders,
without shoes
Figure 4.49:Triple circumambulation led by monks, followed by people making their salutation to the triple gem (“Ratanattaya Vandana”), a term for the three holy gems, the Buddha Gem, Dharma Gem and
Sangha Gem
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Figure 4.50: TanTham ceremony, making merit by offering palm leaf manuscripts to the monastery and dedicating them to writers, ancestors and the Buddha, Wat Sungmen, Phare
Figure 4.51: Bringing palm leaf manuscripts back to the monastery library, Wat Sungmen, Phare
iii) Promotional activitiesmanaged by community members
Comparison of the original version of the TakTham tradition and the present tradition at Wat Sungmen, as shown by the exhibition boards (Figure 4.58(a) & (b)) and through participant observation, reveals the emergence of three activities which promote PLMs and encourage people to engage with them: the PLM procession (Figure 4.52), the writing of LannaTham script (Figure 4.53), and academic seminars (Figure 4.54). All have stimulated community members to realise the importance of PLMs and to seek to become literate in the Lanna language. These three practices mean that community members are now more likely to participate in events related to PLMs.
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a) Establishing processions as PLM events
Observation and photography show that both men and women across almost all age groups participated in this event. Also, monks and novices joined in the parade, thus enhancing the value of PLMs (Figure 4.52(a) & (e)). Most held PLMs (Figure 4.52(a), (b) & (e)). Some, particularly the girls, held oblations containing popped rice, flowers, joss-sticks and candles to pay homage to the Buddha's teachings in the PLMs, and the boys carried holy Lanna decorations such as ancient fans (Figure 4.52(c)). Another group of children held a large PLM wrapper (Figure 4.52(d)). Animals also took part in the event: two elephants carried monks holding PLMs, and a horse had on its back a number of PLMs to show how the manuscripts were transported in the past (Figure 4.52(e)). There was not only a marching parade but also a performance. A group of local people did a folk dance and played folk music along the way to the monastery in order to entertain the participants (Figure 4.52(f)). At the end of the procession, there was Lanna traditional dancing (“Fon Leb”) performed by women, and a “Klong Sabadchai” performance by men (Figure 4.52(g)). These performances, as shown below, were used to entertain visitors to the monastery festival, which has now become a famous cultural show. The TakTham festival is promoted by the community as a unique event entitled “Unseen Thailand, Unseen World”.
(a) Novices holding PLMs
(b) Old and adult women in white costumes paying respect to PLMs
(c) Girls and boys in Lanna traditional dress