Rituals in Thai Society : The Reflection of Diversity of Beliefs

Thepporn Mungthanee

Abstract


Rituals are things that man created according to their beliefs as a tool of communication between the abstracts and the supernatural beings. In a multicultural society, there are varieties of customs and rituals that arose from different beliefs. Thai people have a mixture of beliefs. These different kinds of beliefs have different roles and are expressed through different kinds of symbols. The beliefs in Thai society led to different customs are partly belonged to e local belief of the supernatural.  Part of the rituals derived from the belief in Buddhism and Brahmanism that came in to Thailand at different point in time, t merged with former beliefs and thus, became unique custom of Thailand This study aims to 1) Find the concept concerning rituals and the beliefs of supernatural beings and 2) Study the beliefs as source of rituals in Thailand. A qualitative method is used in this study, and the results are presented in a form of descriptive analysis.

Keywords


Rituals, beliefs, Thai Society, diversity, tradition

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References


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