A Comparative Study of Beliefs Found in Thai and Myanmar Legends

Abstract

          Legends, collections of stories, are conventional stories that may incorporate supernatural creatures and mythological components, but they are related to districts or individuals. In Thailand and Myanmar, the people have solid trust in myths, and they are superstitious about these beliefs. Henceforth, the objectives of the study are to explore beliefs in Thai legends and Myanmar legends; to identify the types of beliefs and to find out similarities and differences between the types of beliefs in Thai legends and Myanmar legends. In this research, the concept of Kingkeo Attagara (1976), which divides beliefs into 11 types, was used as the conceptual framework. The types of believes found in 308 legends (154 Thai Legends and 154 Myanmar legends) collected from books and interviews were categorized. The 8 types of beliefs were commonly found in both Thai and Myanmar Legends. Among them, the type of belief most found in both Thai and Myanmar Legends was Type 3: beliefs in sacred things. It is hoped that the present study will be valuable for the language students and the individuals who are attempting to broaden their insight on writing and history of the Thai and Myanmar society.