A RITUAL TO COMMUNICATE WITH GOD OF THAI-KHMERGROUP : A CASE STUDY OF JOALMAMAUDRITUAL, MUANG DISTRICT, SURIN PROVINCE, THAILAND

บทคัดย่อ

The ritual to communicate with god of Thai – Khmer group, JoalMamuad, was believed as the way to connect to supernatural power, god or spirits. The Thai-Khmer had belief and practiced this ritual since long time ago from generation. This study was aimed to study belief of Thai-Khmer peopleon their god and spirits based on their traditional belief and to study their rituals in order to connect to their god. The result of study was found that the ritual was practiced and believed by Thai Khmer people long years but no evident showed the exact time of beginning. This area was influenced from Brahmanism and Hinduism since 1500 years ago and they have believed in spirituality before that. The evidences of Brahmanism and Hinduism were sanctuaries, religious building and idols which were over thousand years old. Those objects were indicated that they were built to worship their gods.The ritual to communicate with god of Thai Khmer was JoalMamuad ritual. The propose of ritual was to invite respected spirits or god to imbed in human body. Then, people can ask for their problem solution, fortune, illness treatment and protection. Thai Khmer people have believed indeity from the past. So, the ritual has been arranged in order to communicate with spiritual dimension. The components of ritual wereofferings, good smell objects, flowers, light and music. People who took part in the ritual would clean their body and dress up with nice dresses, then, all components will be offered together with music and chanting. After the deity came to imbed or take mediumship in human, the selected human will dances accorded with music. All presented in this ritual, JoalMamuad, was one of Thai Khmer people belief in order to communicate with their sacred.