Protest, Tree Ordination, and the Changing Context of Political Ritual

Author(s): Nicola Tannenbaum

Source: Ethnology , Spring, 2000, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Spring, 2000), pp. 109-127
Published by: University of Pittsburgh- Of the Commonwealth System of Higher
Education

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3773838

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Ethnology

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND THE CHANGING
CONTEXT OF POLITICAL RITUAL1
f
E Nicola Tannenbaum
t^ Lehigh University

This article discusses a successful political protest in a village in northwestern Thailand

and the community's tree ordination to further protect its forest from development. The
protest and tree ordination are signs of the increasingly complex relationships that are
changing the communitySs relative political, religiousS and economic autonomy and tying
different actors in the community into the wider political framework in ways that were
not possible before. (Political protest, tree ordination, Thailand, political ritual, Shan)

In August 1996, the people of Thongmakhsan, a small Shan community in

northwestern Thailand, organized a successfil protest against the opening of a gravel
pit near their village that would have contaminated the village's water supply. The
ability to stage such a protest was dependent on historically particular c1rcumstances:
the national political situation in Thailand, the younger generation's willingness to
conifront authority, the support of most of the older generation, and divisions within
the local elite so that at least one faction was actively supporting the protest. The
protest was followed by a tree ordination ceremony to help protect the newly
established community forest. Trees are zordainedt by inviting monks to chant and
tying yellow robes around them. Since most lowland Thai are Buddhists and people
respect monks, ordaining trees (making them into "monksX complete with yellow
robes) would cause people to treat the trees as if they were real monks and not harm
them. While the protest pitted the villagers against the local and provincial
government, the tree ordination recreated its relationship with political authorities.
Tree ordinations are politically and ecolog1cally correct, at least for some segments
of the national polity; at the King's request, tree ordinations were part of the
celebration of the fihieth anniversary of his reign (Agence France Presse 1997;
Bangkok Post 1997).
Following an account of the protest against the gravel pit and the national and
local contexts that made it possible, this essay discusses tree ordinations in Thailand
and how they have changed from protests led by environmentalist monks to acts that
the King supports. With this as background, an account of the tree ordination in
Thongmakhsan shows how it connects people to larger politicalS economic, and social
networksO The protest and tree ordination are signs of the increasingly complex
relationships that are changing the community's relative political, religious and
economic autonomy and ty1ng different actors in the community into the wider
political framework in ways that were not possible before.

109
ETHNOLOGY VOIA 39 no. 2, Spring 2000, pp. 109-27.
ETHNOLOGY, c/o Deparanent of Anthropology, The University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA 15260 USA
Copyright 2000 The University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved.

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1 10 ETHNOLOGY

THE PROTEST

When I returned to Thongmakhsan in the summer of 1998, Noy Nan, the

in whose home I stayed, brought out a box of photos to show me what had been
going on in the village while J was gone. These showed three important events: the
ceremony organized by the abbot in the third lunar month when the villagers made
and burned a chedi (stupa) of fragrant wood in the temple compound; the protest they
staged at the provincial office in Maehongson Town; and the tree ordination, which
was connected to the protest. Since I did not observe any of these events, I rely on
the villagers' reports fbr the following account.
Plans were made for the gravel pit long before the villagers were aware of them.
In the summer of 1996, people in the village were working on a government-
sponsored project to improve the major canal behind the village. The money for this
project came from the subdistrict council (tambol council; see below). During this
period, a businessman had found a place to mine gravel near Huay Khan, a small
valley with a stream in the mountains north and west of the village. The businessman
was hiring refilgees from the Shan State to clear the area and erect cement pillars.
People became aware of what was going on but were not sure what the work was
for. Some of them were curious and went to look at the cleared area to try to
determine what was happening. This was not easy. Eventually someone on the
subdistrict council gave them a report with the plans for the gravel pit. Apparently
the subdistrict headman, the subdistrict council, and the Thongmakhsan headman had
all given permission for the businessman to clear the area to make a gravel pit. The
village headman claimed to have the villagers' approval. Aecording to the people
who organized the protest, however, the headman had never said anything about the
project. I was not able to ask the headman about this.
The gravel pit would be in the area of the stream that provided running water for
the village. People were concerned that working the gravel pit would pollute the
water making it undrinkable. Other issues were the dust raised from grinding the
gravel and the traffic associated with the project. Said one woman, '4We wouldn't be
able to live with the dust, with the bad water.n But not everyone was against the
project. The village headman was a strong supporter of it, although some of his
immediate relatives were not. Still others favored it because the gravel pit would
provide wage labor, at least for-the short run. Since 1988, villagers were not allowed
to clear hill fields to grow dry rices and those without irrigated land faced the
problem of earning enough money to buy rice. The political situation in Burma had
increased the number of Shan refugees in the community, and these refugees and
other landless people were all potentlal wage laborers.
The villagers unhappy about the gravel pit project organized a series of meetings,
first among themselves and then with the rest of the villages to come to some kind
of decision about the project. These meetings were stormy, but ultimately those
concerned with stopping the project dominated. Said Noy Nan, zIf there weren't
more people against the project than there were for it, we would not have succeed-

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL lll

ed. After this, the villagers held another meeting where the president of the
provincial council explained that the decision had already been made and there was
nothing they could do since the village headman had given permission for it. This
meeting received national news coverage.
Since the meeting with the president failed to resolve the issue, the villagers
decided to stage a protest at the provincial ofElces. Prior to doing this, they circulated
a petition against the project which received over 200 signatures, achieving this
number in a village with approximately 65 households and about 250 legal adult
residents. They made posters and drew maps showing the proposed project's location
and how it would affect their water supply and the surrounding forests. The protest
was held on August 18, 1996. The villagers rented three minibuses and between 70
and 80 villagers went to protest at the provincial off1ces. They chose August 18
because that was when the provincial council was meeting and they would have a
large audience, including the media. The governor and other council members came
out to speak to them and the villagers spoke articulately and politely about their
problems with project. The gravel pit project never went any further. The two-year
period to develop it has passed. What exactly caused the project to be canceled,
whether the government withdrew permission or the company decided it was not
worth the trouble, is uncertain.

THE CONTEXT OF THE PROTEST

The National Scene

The protest worked because of a serendipitous arrangement of actors and political

climate. In a bloody coup in October 1976, the military retook control of the
government that it had lost due to a similarly bloody student-led uprising in 1973.
Prior to the military takeover, there had been considerable unrest: some fomented by
right-wing groups who preferred military rule and some by farmers and workers
agitating for better prices, wages, and working conditions. Farmers and workers
acted at considerable risk to themselves; a well-known farm organizer died under
mysterious circumstances (Bowie 1997). As the military consolidated its power,
social and political unrest was blamed on communists, and anticommunist education
campaigns reached villages in Maehongson. To protest was to risk being labeled a
communist and to be in danger of arrest or assassination.
In 1977, at the instigation of the district ofElcer and against the wishes of the
community, the headman of Thongmakhsan organized a village watch to protect the
community from dangerous (that is, communist) outsiders2 (Durrenberger 1977).
Villagers also participated in the village scout movement (see Bowie 1997 for a
discussion of this movement). In 1984, they received trainlng as a national defense
village. However, by 1988, the communist scare was over. One village woman said,
zCommunists? I've heard about them but never seen one. I don't want to hear
anything more about them."

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1 12 ETHNOLOGY

Since a coup in 1932, Thailand has, theoretically, been a constitutional

monarchy; however the periods of constitutional democracy have been interspersed
with long periods of military dictatorship. One period of democracy, 1973 to 1976,
was followed by military control. In the late 1970s a parliamentary democracy was
re-established, although it was buffeted by corruption scandals and coup attempts. In
1991 responding to complaints about corruption and inefficiency, the military
succeeded in taking over the government again.
In May 1992 the military government called in troops to defend Bangkok against
internal dissent. These troops froIn the outlying regions were told they were
defending the capital from communists. This uprising, like the earlier one, included
a broad range of people, but the first one was characterized as a student coup, while
this one was seen as a middle-class or business protest. These protesters used videos,
faxes, and cell phones to co-ordinate their actions and to provide information for the
international news media, which presented this uprising as if most of the protesters
were middle class. The violence against primarily middle-class demonstrators led to
the King's involvement and the re-establishment of a parliamentary democracy
(Hewison 1997). This view resonates with the idea that the middle class, rather than
students or the poor, is the appropriate group to lead political and environmental
actions (Hirsch 1997; see below). Nonetheless, it distorts the actual composition of
the protesters (see Callahan 1998; Hewison 1997; Hirsch 1997).
While the military-owned television stations censored this news, people in
Maehongson Town could watch some of it on TV. However, given the mountains
and reception problems, the only station available in Thongmakhsan is military
owned Professors at the local university in Chiang Mai, concerned that villagers
were not learning about these events, sent a video with me so the villagers could also
see what had been happening. This top-down guidance ef even grassroots movements
is widespread and people with more knowledges power, andlor money are seen as
the appropriate people to lead. This fits with the idea of who are the appropriate
agents and actors on the political scene (see Singhadej 1991 for an example of how
bottom-up development is led top-down; for critical analyses of this practice see Rigg
1991; Jonsson 1997; and Hirsch and Warren 1998). Democracy became a catch
word, and there were efforts to promote free and fair elections and to limit
corruption and vote-buying. While the emphasis on democracy was not new, this wa
a much more popular movement. People could buy democracy postcards and sign
pledges to not sell their votes (Callahan 1998).
The government had been highly centralized, with most authority held in
Bangkok and with government offilcials at the distrlct level and above appointed by
the Ministry of the Interior (Wyatt 1969). Initially people elected the village
headman, usually from a short list put forward by the district ofElcer. The district
ofElcer appointed one of the village headmen in the subdistrict to be the subdistrict
headman. More recently, the subdistrict headman has heen elected by all the villagers
(Pas-Ong 1998). Although there have been sulrdistrict councils since the 1930s, they
have not always been active. Periodically the national government has provided these

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL 113

councils with funds for village projects and Thongmakhsan has benefited from these;
the recent improvement of the canal was one such project. The subdistrict council
consists of the village headmen, the subdistrict headman, and two representatives
from each village in the subdistrict (see Missingham 1997 for a discussion of the role
of a tambol council in the northeast). One of the consequences of the 1992
democracy movement has been the reinvigoration of these subdistrict councils and
the establishment of provincial councils (Pas-Ong 1998).
On the national level, protests became acceptable. Many nongovernmental
organizations became adept users of the media and staged protests and demonstrations
that people in the outlying regions could watch on national news (Ockey 1997). In
the past protests were seen an indication of communist sympathies; now, at least
some people's involvement in local issues are seen in a democratic light (Hirsch
1997; Callahan 1998).

Local Government

Villages are the smallest administrative unit in Thailand; Thongmakhsan was

recognized as a separate administrative unit in 1973. Villages are clustered together
into a subdistrict with a subdistrict head (kamnan); Thongmakhsan is part of the Huay
Pha subdistrict. Subdistricts are joined into districts (amphur) but the district offilcial
(nay amphur) is appointed from Bangkok; Thongmakhsan is part of the capital district
(amphlcr muong). Districts are joined into the province; Amphur Muong is one of
four districts in Maehongson Province. There is a provincial council with representa-
tives from all the districts. The council functions as a legislative branch and executive
board. Until 1997, the provincial governor was the chief executive of the council, but
now the representatives can elect their leader (Pas-Ong 1998).
Thongmakhsan has had only one official headman since it became a legally
recognized community. Prior to that time the village headman wasS officially, an
assistant to the headman in Huay Pha, a community three kilometers south of
Thongmakhsan. This headman was a well-respected older villager; his leadership
skills were local and he did not read or write Central Thai, the language used in
official communications. The headman who replaced him was born in a larger village
near the provincial capital and married into Thongmakhsan. He has good Thai
language and cultural skills and has been able to use them to take care of both the
villagers and himself (Durrenberger and Tannenbaum 1983). Although there has been
no move to replace the Thongmakhsan headman, he does not have the support of all
the villagers and they are no longer dependent on him for connections to off1cials.
[Iuay Pha is the administrative center for the communities in the Huay Pha
subdistrict, and its headman was automatically the subdistrict headman. While
kamnans are now elected from among the village headmen of the subdistrict? the
Huay Pha headman continues to win the election. In 1995, the old kamnan reached
the mandatory retirement age of 60 and the villagers elected a new headman, who
subsequently was also elected as the kamnan. The new kamnan is one of the

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1 14 ETHNOLOGY

wealthiest people in the subdistrict; mostly because he is a shrewd cattle trader,

although being related to the most influential families in the community helps. He is
in some ways a traditional big man; he has sponsored the ordination of boys? rents
out his irrigated fields to these godsons, and supports an entourage of followers
(Hanks 1966, 1975). He has connections with power brokers in Chiang Mai and
Bangkok, and he approved the businessman's plan to excavate a gravel pit near
Thongmakhsan.
The Thongmakhsan headman and the new kamnan are two traditional politicians.
While they do not engage in violence against those who disagree with them, the
threat of sanctions remains. One of the organizers of the protest said that the kamnan
told her he knew who she was and how she was involved a statement she perceived
as threatening. Although the threat of violence is muted, these leaders fit the
stereotype of the thug, strongman-nak leng (Sharp and Hanks 1978; Trocki 1987;
Ockey 1997). Like nak leng they draw on their connections to more powerful people
to promote their own interests and take care of their followers and dependents. The
new kamnan does a good job of this for his godsons, for instance. The assumption
here is that if the leaders' interests are looked after, then those of his followers are
also taken care of. This is consistent with the general political, cultural, and social
organization that assumes hierarchy is natural.3
While the gravel pit would have had negative consequences in Thongmakhsan,
it would not have affected the Thongmakhsan headman's water supply since his
household gets its water from a nearby stream. Consequently, the effect of the gravel
pit was not an issue and other concerns may have entered into his decision; this is
the kindest interpretation that the anti-gravel-pit people made of his actions. How the
kamnan saw the gravel pit or how it would have affected his livelihood is unknown.
Huay Pha is not a homogeneous community; there is greater wealth differentia-
tion and more factionalism there than in Thongmakhsan. While the kamnan is the
clear leaderS one of his younger cousins is his main competitor. Their grandfather
had been the headman and kamnan in his time. The current kamnan is descended
from one of the older children; his father died while he was young and he had to
make his way on his ownS without the help of relatives. His younger cousin is the
son of the village schoolmaster and the old kamnan's daughter. They worked hard
to make sure their children had Thai educations, even though this meant sending the
children to live with relatives in Bangkok. The cousin has a college degree and has
worked for development agencies and now works at the agricultural co-operative.
He is one of the subdistrict representatives to the provincial council.
The conflict between the kamnan and his cousin can be seen as a conflict between
an older, personalized form of politics and a new, democratic mode. The current
kamnan and the Thongmakhsan headman are indeed traditional politicians. The
provincial council representative is an educated wmodern" politician and represents
the people who elected him. There is some truth to this, at least in the personal styles
of all three men and the ways in which they perform and talk about their positions.

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL
115

The kamnan has greater resources and better connections; at least with the
trading, business class in Maehongson and elsewhere. The younger cousin and his
siblings have to rely more on other resources and rhetorics; primarily environmental-
ism and the celebration of Shan culture. They are establishing a Shan museum in
memory of their mother. Their oldest brother, a general in the army, is active in
promoting Shan traditions and has sponsored Shan drumming and dancing
competitions in the subdistrict. Despite differences in their resources and rhetorics,
the cousins are both members of the local elite and share similar views about
leadership and directed development.
While the provincial council representative may have objected to the environmen-
tal damage of the gravel pit and the damage it would do to the peopleSs way of life,
the competition with his cousin played a part here. Nonetheless, his support was
important for the protest's success. Aware of the importance of publicity and media
attention, he advised the Thongmakhsan people to hold the protest on August 18 at
the provincial offices in Maehongson Town, knowing that was when the provincial
council was to meet. He also provided some financial support for the hiring of the
minibuses to transport people to the meeting. The protest leaders also had some
support from others in the subdistrict council, one of whom provided the draft of the
gravel pit plan.
Local politics and the rise of a younger generation of politicians with ditferent
political frameworks and agendas helped defeat the subdistrict head's plan, in spite
of the approval of the village headman and the subdistrict council.

Ehongmakhsan

Villagers have become more comfortable dealing and interacting with government
ofElcials. In the immediate past, the headman was the broker in dealing with the
government and government officials. His job was to mediate between the
government and villagers; in practice, this often meant feeding the occasional visiting
off1cials chicken and liquor and hoping they soon would leave without much fuss
(Durrenberger 1981; Tannenbaum 1999).
During the past decade or so, there has been a qualitative change in government
official-villager interactions. Some of this is a consequence of the growth of the
national government as it expands into the outlying regions. The extension of
government ofElcials and services has continued regardless of whether the national
government was controlled by military or civilians. The move to decentralize and
democratize the government only increases the degree of interaction. With an
increase in government programs, training programs for young adults, village health
volunteers, livestock health care volunteers, etc., contact between government
officials and villagers bypassed the headman. Adding to this mix is an increase in the
education level, employment outside the village, and increased contact with people
from elsewhere (Tannenbaum 1999).

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1 16 ETHNOLOGY

Within Thongmakhsan, the protest included some of the better-off households and
many of the younger, better-educated adults, including the daughter of the headman
who had worked for a nongovernmental organization (NGO). Other leaders included
two men from northeastern Thailand; one had married into the village and the other
was the adult-education teacher. Although the protest, at least initially, included one
of the headman's daughters, the division of people for and against the protest
followed village faction lines. Most of the people related to or dependent on the
headman for access to irrigated fields or other help were against the protest. Those
who thought it was the time for the headman to retire, had disagreements with the
headman's family, or resented his past actions were in favor of the protest.
People in Thongmakhsan were willing to engage in the protest because they were
no longer dependent on the headman for services from other government ofElcials and
they had a wider range of experience which led them to think a protest might
succeed. Reports of protests show up regularly on television news and people in
Thongmakhsan could watch the protests and learn about how they were organized
and whether they succeeded. And the level of external involvement in Thongmakhsan
has radically increased. The village now has workshops directed toward women and
young adults to teach them skills so they need not move to the cities. While these
courses and workshops may not achieve their stated goals of keeping people in
villages or providing locally relevant and useful skills, they do affect how villagers
see themselves and their relationships with people from other villages and with
government ofElcials. Young people who attend these courses have a wider network
of acquaintances than before. The formal structure of workshops stresses the Thai
nature of the events, making the occasion Thai and joining the participants as Thai,
although they might be Shan or members of other local minority groups such as
Karen or Hmong. People who attend these workshops may develop relationships with
government officials, especially those who provide ongoing training such as village
health and livestock workers.
With this broader range of knowledge and experience, people in Thongmakhsan
had both the skills and the conEldence to organize against the local political structure.
However, young adults, even with political skills, would not have been able to
successfully organize and co-ordinate the protest if there had not been substantial
support from older, well-respected villagers.

TREE ORDINATIONS

While the protest pitted vlllagers against the local, subdistrict, and provincial
authorities who had all approved the project, the tree ordination allied the villagers
with the King and the national government as well as local and international
nongovernmental organizations interested in environmental protection. Tree
ordinations, environmentalism, and sustainable development are now part of the
rhetoric and practice of Thai intelligentsia, development workers, and politicians. In
the past, tree ordinations organized by monks were part of a larger protest against

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL 117

modernization, capitalism, and development that were seen as destroying traditional

values and ways of life.
Involving monks in social movements to develop society has a long history in
modern Thailand, starting with the use of monks as teachers and continuing through
the Buddhist missionary and development programs of the early 1980s (Wyatt 1969;
Suksamran 1982). These programs were aimed at achieving national goals of
education development, and modernization. Missionary monks were sent to convert
uplanders to Buddhism to limit the influence of Christianity and Christian missionar-
ies. Other monks were sent to bring development to poor rural villagers who were
already Buddhist. All of these were seen as ways of improving the quality of life of
marginal peoples and making them more Thai, and thus preventing political unrest
(Suksamran 1982, 1993; Jackson 1989; Gohlert 1991). But the response to
industrialization and Western ideas, goods, and values was not always positive. Social
activists saw modernization and development as a problem rather than a solution.
Sulak Sivaraksa, an outspoken social critic, is one of the articulators of this position
(Swearer 1996; Sulak 1998). He and others base their social activism partially on the
ideas of the monk Buddhadasa. He is considered to be an outstanding Buddhist
thinker and practitioner whose teachings have remade Buddhism by stressing its
connections with all living beings and serves as a charter for the Buddhist ecology
movement (Harris 1995).
The social activists came to see Western consumer culture as a major problem
in Thailand. Westernization was associated with greed and increasing competition
among poor villagers for resources, thereby destroying Thai cultural values and the
environment with them. Consumption and the desire for Western goods were also
seen as motivating poor villagers to sell their daughters into prostitution (Jeffrey
1998). One consequence of this concern was the community culture movement that
focused on the value of village wisdom (phu mEi panya chao baan) to create
community and solve problems; there was no need to rely on outside sources of
knowledge and Western technical solutions (Nartsupha 1991). This is part of a larger
discussion about the nature of Thainess, modernlty, and progress. The discourse is
built around two opposing but interconnected perspectives: urban areas are modern
and progressive, while villagers and village life are backwards and uncivilized or,
alternatively villagers and village life are the true repositories of Thai values that are
threatened by the corruption and decay inherent in urban industrial lifestyles (Ekavid
1990; Thai National Culture Center 1990; Ekachai 1990; Seri 1986, 1988; Sulak
1985, 1992; O'Connor 1989). Each view implies a commitment to different political
and ideological agendas. While the opposition of rural virtue to urban decadence is
neither new nor unique to Thailand, rural areas as a domain of virtue is new in Thai
discourse. Previously village life was seldom seen as idyllic or attractive and wruralt
meant backwards (O'Connor 1989).
Most of the literature on tree ordination focuses on the monks who started this
strategy and have been the key organizers in forest-conservation movements
(Darlington 1998; Taylor 1993a, 1993b, 1994; Phongphit 1988; Ekachai 1994;

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1 18 ETHNOLOGY

Renard 1994). Socially active monks concerned with increasing rural poverty and
ecological degradation sought to solve these problems through Buddhist development.
Initially most of these activities took place in the northeast (Isan), the poorest region
of Thailand. One of the reasons for rural poverty was that the increasing reliance on
cash crops and fertilizerss insecticides, and herbicides created a self-defeating cycle.
As more lands were cleared for cash crops, the general quality of the environment
declined; trees became scarce, water sources dried up, and cash-crop yields were
smaller, so people needed to buy fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides, andlor clear
larger gardens. Although some monks tried more material development programs,
many came to realize that they needed to develop people's understandings based on
the Buddhist ideas of impermanence and suffering so that they would come to
recognize the problems identiE1ed with wanting material things and greed. Monks
worked to develop villagers' understandings of Buddhism through teaching and
meditation practice. With this as a foundation, they began projects that focused on
local knowledge and co-operation, such as rice banks and community gardens. These
projects also emphasized producing for self-sufficiency so that households would no
longer have to rely on cash crops requiring expensive and environmentally disruptive
inputs. Another aspect was improving the environment through planting trees in the
temple grounds and protecting existing forests (Payulpitack 1992; Taylor 1993a;
Phongphit 1988; Ekachai 1994).
Tree ordinations may have their origins in the tree planting associated with the
bicentennial of the Chakri dynasty in 1982 (Harris l995:n. 32). Trees have been
ordained throughout Thailand as a way ()f protecting community forests and
identifying local actions with larger ecological issues (Hayami 1997). Tree
ordinations have occurred in places where there are disputes between lowlanders an
uplanders over land-use rights; here the ordinations 1dentify the lowlanders as
Buddhist and proper residents of Thailand who protect its resourcesS and the
uplanders as non-Buddhists who use resources inappropriately and are not necessarily
proper residents of Thailand (Renard 1994; Kaye 1990; lonsson 1996, 1997, 1998,
In press). Tree ordinations were also part of the protests against the construction of
the Yadana gas pipeline that would bring cheap natural gas from Burma into Thailand
but would entail cutting through standing forests (Janchitfah 1997).
Forest protection ran afoul of the Royal Forestry Department's programs of
commercial logging and tree plantations (Hayami 1997). Monks advocating saving
the forests and ordaining trees were seen as threats to national development and
national security. Many monks were accused of being communists4 (Phongphit
1988:102 118). Phra Pajak, an activist monk in Northeastern Thailand, is a well-
known case. In the early 1990s, he objected to the government's plan to relocate
people out of degraded forests to clear the way for eucalyptus plantations. At issue
was the way forest land is deE1ned, what types of human use were permitted in
forests, and the status of longtime residents on what had now been declared degraded
forests. The villagers to be resettled were to be given land in other degraded forest
areas declared vacant but in fact occupied by similarly poor villagers. One tactic was

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL 119

to organize tree ordinations. Phra Pajak was arrested many times and eventually was
harassed out of the monkhood (Taylor 1993a).
However, the tree ordination in Thongmakhsan has little in common with these
more controversial ordinatlons. Rather than being instigated by monks or environ-
mental activists, it was a homegrown response to the perceived threat to the
community's water supply. By ordaining trees and creating a community forest,
villagers were trying to consolidate their position against the gravel pit and prevent
further commercial development of their forest. A bamboo-shoot hoom increased the
number of people harvesting them in the forest, and the intensified exploitation of
this resource as well as the attendant waste provided added impetus to the tree
ordination and the establishment of a community forest. Local leaders did draw on
the knowledge that tree ordinations and establishing community forests were possible
strategies. There is a network of goverllmental and nongovernmental organizations
and academics involved in these ordinations, and although the people of Thongmakh-
san contacted them for help in planning the ceremony, this ordination was an active
local response, not one led from the outside.

The Thongmakhsan Tree Ordination

In preparation for the ordination, a committee went to visit a Karen village that
had performed an analogous ceremotly dedicating their forest to the Lord of the Land
spirit, since they are not Buddhists. The tree ordination was announced with printed
invitations in Thai detailing the reasons for the ceremony and the schedule of events.
This was somewhat more elaborate than the usual ordination ceremonies in
Thongmakhsan, where printed invitations are rare. Like all invitations to Buddhist
ceremonies, this one listed the sponsors. However, unlike other invitations, this one
detailed the reasons for sponsoring the event.5 The invitation stated that the forest had
been divided into three areas: the watershed, which was to be left alone; an area
where villagers might cut wood for their own use (either as 51rewood or to build their
houses); and an area where they might collect forest products for their own use.
These areas are important because

these areas of the forest are full of llatural re.sources and it i.s a place for plants that people eat-all kinds
of mushroerms, bamboo shoots. and many kinds of medicinal plants. In addition to this, it is also where
all sorts of wild animals live such as wild pig.s, barking deer, bear.s, porcupine.s, wild chickens, monitor
lizards, monkeys, squirrels, and many kinds of bird.S. Thi.s is the importance of the place where the
village of Thongmakhsan get.s water which the villager.s drink and use in farming.
Therefore, the villagers of Thongmakhsan have established the rules for the village forest. These
rules are written down so that everyone will be able to follow the resolution which they agreed to and
so that people within Thongmakhsan and the nearby villages might also know the rules.

The work of organizing the ordination was shared by several committees,

including a consultative one of important lay-people, an organizing committee, a
committee to receive guests, one to prepare food and drink, and, finally, a publicity
committee. The consulting committee included the governor and the heads of some

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120 ETHNOLOGY

governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including th

the Foundation for the Development of Maehongson, the German Thai Highland
Development Committee, representatives from the Organization for the Preservation
cf Traditional CultureS and the Hill Tribe Development Organization. These outside
organizations are lndications of both governmental and nongovernmental support for
tree ordinations. More locally, the committee included the subdistrict council and the
local representative to the provincial council.
Most of the work was done by the local committees made up of villagers.
Leading the orgaIlizing committee were the village headman and one of the assistant
headmens along with three active younger villagerss including one woman who had
recently graduated from college. The food and drink committee came from the village
housewives' group which donated and prepared the food. Younger more educated,
and politically active young people were well represented on these committees. The
active participation of these younger people also makes this ordination festival
different from others where older, more established people are the leading
O ,

partlclpants.
The festival hegan on the night of June lS, 1997, when people were invited to
participate in making a money tree to offer to the Thongmakhsan temple. At 3 p.m.
On June 16, there was a procession to set up the money tree at the school grounds.
At the school there were exhibits and presentations about taking care of the
environment. On June 17, guests were invited to breakfast in the village at 6 a.m.
and then to proceed to the community forest. The ceremony hegan with paying
respect to the spirits of the area, followed by lighting and offering candles to the
Triple Gems (the Buddhaz his teachings, and the monks) and placing them on the
Buddha altar. Before beginning the ordinationz there were presentations about why
people should ordain trees. Then the monks chanted to extend the life of the forest.
After the chantingS the monks and the lay-people fastened orange cloths to some trees
and then the participants were offered lunch. After lunch the ceremony was over.
The provincial governor had been invited to the ceremony but, unable to attend,
he sent the assistant governor. Five temples were invited to participate in the
ceremony and sent monks to Thongmakhsan; Naapaatsaat, the village north of
Thongmakhsan; Huay Pha, the village to the south; Mawk Tsam PeS a large village
in the area; and Wat Hoo Wiang a temple in Maehongson Town where the abbot is
the district-level abbot and is also associated with the Foundation to Develop
Maehongson. An invitation to a temple is also an invitation to the community which
supports the temple, and villagers from these communities came to the ceremony.
More people were involved with and supported the tree ordination than supported the
protest. The tree ordination had official support from the Royal Project for Tree
Ordinations and Village Forests. This royal support made support from the provincial
and local-level government officials automatics if not necessarily enthusiastic.
National and international nongovernmental organizations interested in sustainable
development and preservation of the environment were natural allies

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL 121

THE CHANGING CONTEXT OF POLITICAL RITUAL

In the past, village religious ceremonies stressed the village as a village and its
political/religious autonomy. The tree ordination, with representatives from the
provincial government, assorted government ministries, and national and international
nongovernmental organizations, suggests an alternative political ritual structure. Shan
communities have three ritual centers: the Buddhist temple, the Lord of the Land
(Tsao Muong) altar, and the heart of the village. Shan villagers build a Buddhist
temple as part of establishing a village. A village sponsors at least one festival a year
and invites other villages to participate. Unlike other areas in Thailand where
individual households host their friends and relatives, the community as a whole is
the host and the guests are fed at the temple. In contrast to temple celebrations where
other villages are invited, the ceremonies associated with the Lord of the Land and
the heart of the village are for village residents only and the community is closed to
outsiders for the duration of the ceremony. While many Tai communities have spirit
owners, these are usually phi baan (village spirits); Shan cadastral spirits are Tsao
Mllong (lords of principalities). Conceptually Shan villages are principalities (muong)
even if the reality is a small cluster of households.
In Thongmakhsan, the feast for the Lord of the Land and the repairing-the-village
ceremony held at the heart of the village are held on the same day. The feast for the
Lord of the Land begins early in the morning. Households with irrigated Elelds offer
a chicken and a bottle of liquor; others jUSt offer a half-bottle of liquor. All
households also offer sweets, incense, candles, and flowers. AiFter the ceremony, the
offered foods are considered blessed and particularly good for people; the liquor is
said to be a medicine and will not cause a hangover. Men take the chickens and make
chicken curry; every household receives some of the curry and the other offered
foods. This is not a communal feast; people take their food home to eat, but every
household receives some of the foods blessed by the Lord of the Land, regardless of
what it offered. While what a household offers marks economic differences, the
consumption of the offerings treats them all as equals.
The ceremony at the heart of the village is to repair the village/repair the country
(mae waan mae muong), identifying the community again as a small principality
Households bring baskets containing milled rice, kindling, water candles, matches,
sand, white string, and a spirit shield (taa liaw) to the tower room associated with
the heart of the village. During the ceremony, monks chant to chase away malign
influences and to make blessed water. After the chanting is flnished, the monks
sprinkle the blessed water onto the participants and the baskets of goods. People take
their baskets home after the ceremony and sprinkle the milled rice in their houses and
the sand in their house compounds to chase out any remaining malign influence from
their living area. The spirit shield is placed over the door, the white string is tied to
it, and it then encircles the house or the house compound. This creates a protective
barrier around the house.

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122 ETHNOLOGY

These two ceremonies create a ritually bounded community of households and

H1elds, residents and livestock. The household-level ceremony uses goods blessed at
the village ceremony, and this marks households as subordinate units that are ritually
dependent on the village. The ceremonies at the heart of the village and the feasting
of the cadastral spirit create villages as autonomous political ritual units. There are
no ceremonies that incorporate the village into any other larger political/ritual units.
While the ritual at the heart of the village includes Buddhist monks and annual
festivals are celebrated at the village's temple, Buddhist practices serve the local by
establishing and defining bounded communities.
The tree ordination ceremony relies on a different logic, one which places
Thongmakhsan Elrmly within the national framework and breaks up the community'
ritual unity and autonomy. Here Buddhism and Buddhist ecology represent the
universal rather than the local aspects of the religion and the tree ordination
ceremony places Thongmakhsan firmly within the larger national Buddhist
community and within the larger regional and national political units.
Tree ordinations began as outside events, led by monks who desired to improve
the quality of the environment as well as the quality of life for their communities.
While this environmental activism initially pitted these monks against the national
policy of industrial development and agriforestry the actions are now politically
mainstream. The King's support for tree ordinations? an aspect of his role as
protector of the religion and the environment? marks these ceremonies as part of t
national political ritual. Provincial government officials attended the ceremony, as d
the subdistrict officials and representatives from international organizations.
The tree ordination ceremony is not the only ceremony which now ritually
incorporates Thongmakhsan in Thailand. When the country celebrated the fiftieth
anniversary of King Bhumiphon's coronation in June 1996, the villagers set up a
Buddha altar at the schoolyard and made offerings to monks in the morning. Every
household of longtime residents of Thongmakhsan was represented at the ceremony;
refugees from the Shan State did not participate in this ceremony. In the evening, the
villagers lined up in front of the TV that was showing the ceremonies in BangkokS
held flowers and popped rice in their handss and sang along with the songs that
celebrated Thailand and the King. Like the tree ordination, this event symbolically
marked the community's incorporation into Thailand. On the village scale it
replicated what was happening in the capital, cities, and other communities. For th
moment, at least the people of Thongmakhsan were united with other Thai as Thai
citizens honoring their monarch.
There are day-to-day parallels of this ritual incorporation into the modern Thai
nation. A school was started in the mid-'60s where most people began to learn Thai,
the national language. Now that the village school is closed because there are fewer
childrens they attend schoc)l in Maehongson TownS where Central Thal language and
rituals are becoming more than just school events (Durrenberger and Tannenbaum
1999). This increased knowledge of and participation in national social and cultural
values goes along with increased involvement with government officials and

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 PROTEST, TREE ORDINATION, AND POLITICAL RITUAL 123

government programs. Together these helped make the protest and the tree ordination
possible.
Political rituals which highlight Thongmakhsan's incorporation in Thailand have
not replaced the ceremonies which emphasize its ritual autonomy. Rather than being
competing political ritual structures, the nationalizing rituals increase the range of
possible political ritual expressions. The rhetoric and rituals of ecology and national
identity provide people with another way of deflning and defending their interests in
the larger political and economic arena. People who participate in political rituals are
making claims about their positions in the social system. The feast for the cadastral
spirit marks economic differentiation with the offerings but also shows, through the
sharing of the offerings, that everyone is equally dependent on the cadastral spirit.
The repairing-the-village/country ceremony makes the village superior to the
households that constitute it. The ritual ofElciants are monks, to whom villagers are
subordinate much as they are to the Lord of the Land. Here, too, everyone is
sprinkled with blessed water and receives blessed goods. During these ceremonies,
differences between rich and poor are muted.
These new political rituals differentially enfranchise villagers; not everyone is
able to draw on these nationalizing images. In Thongmakhsan, poorer villagers, those
without irrigated land, and illegal immigrants do not have the same voice or ability
to take action. Their need for wage labor in order to make a living did not enter into
the protest or the tree ordination. Those who are not citizens cannots by definition,
take part in those ceremonies which celebrate Thai citizenship. While the people
acting on the ideal of democracy, citizen participation, and environmentalism were
not the political leaders in the community, they were ones with the experience,
wealth, and confidence to take on the local powers and use environmental protection
in their own best interests. Unlike the feast for the cadastral spirit or the repairing-
the-village/country rituals that present the village as a community of equals, these
new political rituals emphasize the political and economic differences among
villagers .
Villagers in Maehongson are not the only ones to use these wider frames of
reference to defend their interests. Hayami (1997) shows how Karen make claims to
a traditional Karen way of protecting their environment even though the ways they
make their living no longer reflect this tradition. Similarly, Mien in Phayao Province
hold school festivals with sports and dance competitions and engage in public works
on national Buddhist holidays. Not all political rituals make statements of relative
equality; among Mien, regardless of the time period, the organizers of these events
use them to make statements about their place in the Thai polity and their ability to
position themselves in modern Thai life. Although the claims the sponsors of these
events make are different from those in the recent past, nonetheless Mien have used
political ritual to demonstrate their leadership through their ability to negotiate their
way through difficult political and ritual terrains (Jonsson In press). Like the
better-off villagers in Thongmakhsan, these leaders are able to take advantage of their
ability to position themselves in this new political landscape.

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 124 ETHNOLOGY

While the poor and the noncitizen are o{Xen the losers in the c
political events (see Scott 1985), the winners are not as easy to de
of the eventS the abilities and inclinations of people to activate n
community co-operation or factionalism, other competing leaders
affect the outcomes. It is the play of people, resources, and events that shape the
political landscape.

NOTES

1. This essay draws on research conducted during the summer of 1998. I thank Noy Nan Buala and
the villagers of Thongmakhsan for their assistance.
2. People in Thongmakhsan had seen pictures of communi.sts who were usually bearded men, which
made it difElcult for Paul Durrenberger, the first anthropologist to do research in Thongmakhsan, and
who had a beard at that time, to establish a rapport with them and conduct his research.
3. For a discussion of this in Buddhist terms, see Hanks (1962, 1966, 1975) and Phillips (1965); for
an alternative explanation, see Tannenbaum (1996).
4. Most nongovernmental vrganizations stopped their activities after the 1979 military coup because
of the perception that people who encouraged community activism were communists (Jumbala and
Mitprasat 1997). Earlier, during Sarit's rule in the 1950s, forest monks in the Northeast were accused
of being communists (Tiyavanich 1997:229-39).
50 According to the invitation:

The villagers of Thongmakhsan along with the Royal Tree Ordination, and Village Forest Project have
joined together, in co-operation with the village organization for the protection e f the village forest, to
look after and protect this forest. In accordance with the beliefs and practices of the Buddhist religion
and in order to take care of and protect the natural resources of the forests, the villagers of
Thongmakhsan met and resolved to ordain the village forest:
1. So that the villagers' consciousness will become aware of the need to protect natural resources
around the commumty;
2. So that the villagers will have a place where the environment is protected and which they will
care for;
3. So that the community will come to understand how to carefully use natural resources; and
4. To let the villagers and others in nearby communities know the importance (value) of the forest.

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