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An Analytical Study of Manifestation of Jujaka Worship in Thai Society
Researcher : Phra Anutep Khantibalo (Suksri) date : 26/07/2015
Degree : ¾Ø·¸ÈÒʵÃÁËҺѳ±Ôµ(¾Ãоط¸ÈÒʹÒ)
Committee :
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Graduate : 2557
 
Abstract

                   The thesis, “An Analytical Study of Manifestation of Jujaka Worship in Thai Societies” had three main purposes: (1) to study the worship in Buddhism, (2) to study the Jujaka worship in Thai societies, and (3) to analyze the Jajaka worship according to the Buddhist view. This was a qualitative research to collect all data from Tipitaka, other Buddhist books, Buddhist academic paper, related researches and field work with a notice, interview, and the descriptive analysis.

                        A result of this study was found that the worship was found in the Buddha’s age and before the Vedic age when Brahmanism and Hinduism were found in India. This age was animism with a great belief that there was a spirit in the believed thing. Human beings had to worship and sacrifice to the believed spirit in order to make it comfortable without bringing punishment or disaster to human societies. Later, the spirit was worshiped as a god. In the first age, the worship was in the form of the request. Then, Buddhism was found in India and the Buddha tried to reform the wrong belief about the old worship of request, sacrifice and appeal. The Buddha instructed people that there was truth in nature, i.e. a cause and effect. Effect came from a cause and similarly, a cause brought about effect. All things arose according to a principle of cause and effect. They were not under the God’s power. In fact, all things followed the principle of cause and effect, generally called ‘Dhamma’. The Buddha stressed on Dhamma and instructed people to worship it and a person who followed it.

                        Jujaka was a beggar in the Vessantara Jātaka. He was able to give the eloquent speech and analogy until people were kind to give him various things. The Jujaka worship in recent Thai societies was influenced by many beliefs such as the Vessantara history, advertisement, and friends’ thoughts. Some group of Thai people believed that Jujaka gave a man of good luck, economizing, support of Vessantara’s perfect, great effect, charm, and intelligence in rhetoric. This was a main cause of the Jujaka worship in Thailand. The Jujaka’s influence in Thai societies was actually found on mural and sculpture. It did not have the influence on Thai people directly but it had the influence on them indirectly. Jujaka in the mural made people conscious of a physical difference of the human species, Dhamma media, and a facility to grow Vessantara’s meritorious perfect. This Jujaka worship did not influence on the people’s work and ceremonies but it influenced only on small communities such as the Bannongkrathao community, Pitsanulok province and villagers in the Danlanhoy district, Sukhothai province. There was the ceremony of “Jujaka Procession”. It was noted in the fact that this ceremony was the ancient belief taken for many centuries. It was believed that if there was no this ceremony, the village or people in the village faced a great deal of danger and the lack of food. Moreover, Jujaka had influence on people’s mind at the time when people got tired and hopeless about the economic depression by means of requesting the gods for gains and work. The three Jujaka-creating centers believed in creating Jujaka that the creation of Jujaka was different from Buddhism. However, people had the different belief because Buddhism was mixed with Brahmanism and other beliefs. Someone believed in the king of heaven beings, Brahma, an elephant-headed god, or God Shiva. However, there was the best content and the best principle in Buddhism. The other advantage was that it had the power to support people in work and life when they felt lonely, tired, or hopeless in life. This belief was possible because a person’s wisdom was not equal to the other people. After his learned experience, his mind was brought to the Buddha’s teachings. This Jujaka was also a Dhamma-teaching media. For example, Jujaka begging for money had a lot of money but he was not luxurious and he had never disliked his job. This was a way to make people downhearted and undaunted in producing the moral conduct that come with the test of various problems as seen in Jujaka. Finally, this Jujaka creation was really Buddhist commercialism.  

                        The Buddhist view was that according to the Buddhist scriptures, Jujaka ought not to be worshiped because in the Buddhist scriptures, Jujaka was an immoral character, and personification of greed without stopping. Moreover, Jujaka had not good enough to be worshipped in Buddhism. However, he did not produce only immoral action but he still had some good aspects if he was known as a teacher. He had some good aspects such as economy, effort, and intelligence. Thus, the worship of things had to stress on goodness and value of that thing: a human being or a thing. It was necessary to understand clearly the worship and then, a thing could be worshiped systematically and morally. 

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