Tai Dam People’s Concept of Reciprocal Goodness: Wisdom of Relation between Man and Spirit and Man and Man

Abstract

This academic article is written up to present a concept of Tai Dam (Lao Song) people in Thailand pertaining to the Household Spirit, and the relation of reciprocal goodness between Lineages and their household spirit and between host and rite-performing Male or female priest, relatives and neighbors who come to join the function.
The findings of study show that Tai Dam lineages in Thailand have believed in the household spirit as their own refute along with Buddhist Three Refutes. The household spirit in the Tai Dam lineages’ perspective has been divided into two kinds, that is, janghai (bad-habited) household spirit and maijanhai (good-habited) household spirit. Between the household spirit and its lineages, there will be a reciprocal relation according to their duties : the household spirit will perform a duty of protecting and helping its lineages to follow Tai Dam traditions well and to spent a good and happy life. The lineages, in turn, believing that the household spirit has done its duty to them, should perform their following three duties toward the household spirit well : 1) a duty of telling the household spirit through the Nongkor and Kue rites, 2) a duty of feeding the household spirit through the Pardser, Pardtong and Senhern rites, and 3) a duty of helping the household spirit through the Senteng rite. The rites, performed by the Tai Dam lineages for their household spirit, will reflect three important Tai Dam wisdoms of creating the relation of reciprocal goodness to each other: reciprocal goodness between 1) the lineages and their household spirit as the relation between man and spirit, 2) the host and the rite-performing male or female priest as the relation between man and man, and 3) the host and the relatives and neighbors who come to join the junction as the relation between man and man.