Susan M. DARLINGTON

President, Deep Springs College

As the impacts of deforestation and the expansion of commercial agriculture impact the natural environment of Northern Thailand, Buddhist monks respond in many ways. Best known for performing tree ordinations, a few activist monks also do long-life rituals for rivers and other waterways. Suep chata, or “long-life ceremonies,” are usually performed for humans who are old, ill, or physically or mentally threatened. Conducting the ceremony for rivers, often followed by the establishment of fish sanctuaries, plays on both the interdependence of water and humans and concepts of sacredness related to various beings connected with water, including nagas, deities, and a handful of fish species.

Long-life ceremonies are conducted by Buddhist monks but draw on beliefs and symbols found in Buddhism, Brahmanism, and indigenous belief systems from the region. Water animals and deities are not explicitly invoked in the adapted ritual, but part of its effectiveness lies in the implications of both protecting and being protected by these divine beings. The mutual relationship built through the ritual emphasizes the sanctity of natural beings, in this case aquatic beings, and their value for contemporary human society.

This paper will examine the intersections between spiritual concepts of water beings, the long-life ceremony, and the challenges of environmental degradation through a case study of the Nan River in Northern Thailand based on anthropological field research conducted since 1991.

Keywords: Buddhism, Environmentalism, Thailand, Rivers, Rituals

***

Susan Darlington is an anthropologist of engaged Buddhism with a focus on environmental issues. Her book, The Ordination of a Tree: The Thai Buddhist Environmental Movement (SUNY Press 2012), is based on over two decades of research in northern Thailand. She is currently the president of Deep Springs College in the eastern desert mountains of California, USA.