Holding a tam boon ceremony (making
merit by offering food to monks) in one's own home is something
with which every Thai Buddhist is familiar. The ceremony needs
careful planning about a month ahead. The householder must visit
the temple of his choice to make sure the monks and the abbot
will be free to come on the chosen day - which for the average
breadwinner must usually be a Saturday or Sunday.
Each monk must have a cushion to lean against while
chanting, and a mat to sit on. If the temple can supply these, the householder
must pick them up the day before the ceremony and return them afterwards.
Failing that, some Thai families have their own set of nine monks' cushions
and mats which can be borrowed by friends.
The housewife must plan all the food for
the monks, which must of course be of the highest quality, varied,
and abundant in quantity. Several different dishes will have
to be cooked early in the day, and dessert and mountains of fresh
fruit must be provided as well as soft drink, cigarettes, and
a set of flowers, candle and joss-sticks for each monk. They
are also given envelopes with money for their day-to-day needs.
Cooking all this food and doing all the
arrangements is too much for one person, and the housewife calls
on female friends and relations to help.
The day before the ceremony, all the furniture is
moved out of the living-room and the cushions and mat prearranged neatly
along the walls and floor. The household's main Buddha image is set
up on an altar by the door, immediately to the right of where the abbot
will sit. Large yellow candles in holders are placed on either side
of the image along with flowers. A bowl filled with water to be consecrated
during the ceremony is placed on the floor so as to be within the abbot's
reach. (The bowl may be of glass, crystal or metal, with the exception
of gold or silver as it is not appropriate for monks to touch silver
or gold. Sometimes a monk's alms-bowl is used.)
The sacred white cord called sai sin
keeps out evil spirits and protects everyone and everything inside
it, so it must be draped round the entire outer wall of the compound
or garden. This is usually done by agile teenagers who may have
to pass the cord over branches of trees or across tall bushes
as they unreel it from its large spool.
The sai sin is passed into the room
where the ceremony will be held, draped across the Buddha image's
right hand, and then passed out again and on round the garden
until the premises are completely encircled. Then it is brought
back into the room again, to the Buddha image and from there
the spool is placed on the abbot's mat.
The householder must pick up the monks
on the day, at about 10 a.m. He may hire a minibus or a couple
of small pick-up trucks to do this. All the family and their
guests must be seated in the room by the time the monks arrive
at the house.
The monks take their places, and the ceremony
begins with the householder prostrating himself before the abbot
and then lighting the two large candles on the altar. He then
lights three joss-sticks.
The abbot passes the reel of sai sin
cord to the monk sitting next to him, and from there it passes
from hand to hand until all the monks are holding the white thread.
The abbot then lights a white candle and fixes it firmly across
the rim of the bowl. As the melted wax drips into the bowl during
the chanting, the water inside becomes consecrated. This holy
water is called nam mon.
The Pali chanting begins with the abbot reciting
a few short passages which the householder must repeat after him. Then
all nine monks take up the chanting, which continues, deep and sonorous,
for 30 to 40 minutes, while the family and guests sit with palms joined
in a wai.
By now it is time to offer the food which
has been so carefully and lovingly prepared. The monks' meal
must start not later than 11 a.m. to allow them enough time to
eat in comfort and be finished before mid-day, after which all
Buddhist monks are forbidden to eat. Everyone lends a hand in
serving the monks.
When the monks have eaten their fill and
relaxed, the dishes are cleared away and there follows a final
five-minute period of chanting. During this, the householder
pours clean water over his own out stretched forefinger into
a small collecting vessel, wishing that the benefit of the food
given to the monks may pass on to the spirits of the dead. (This
water-pouring is called gruat nam.)
Finally, the abbot blesses everyone, including
the house itself, by splashing holy water from the bowl.
After the monks have left, the householder
quietly pours the water from the small vessel onto the ground
at the root of a large tree, making another wish as he does so.
The sai sin draped round the garden
is left for the wind to blow away during the next month or so.
-----------------------
Information
from: "Thai
Ways" by Denis Segaller.
This is a great book for anyone who wants
to learn about the Thai culture. I use it very often to answer
questions about Thai culture that people asked me.
