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The interplay among mantras, human, and yarns: patterns and linguistic concepts of language use in Isaan's blessing ceremony

นายสายัญ ศรีอ่อน

Sayan Sri-on

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The purpose of this research is to study the interplay among words used in the ceremony, concepts of blessing cotton yarns as a link between people, and strategies for building kwan and morale in the blessing ceremony through the mantras when tying the wrist yarn; and to study belief of the holy sprit reflected through words used in the blessing ceremony from 15 types of blessing yarn mantras in Sawing Boonjerm's book and from blessing yarn mantras among ordinary people obtained from Sutra's interviews. The study found that 1.) as for the structure, the blessing yarn mantras always begin with Pali spells and refer to holy spirits such as tiratana, gods in Hinduism, or Praya Thaen. In the middle of the mantras, there are always claims that the cotton yarns used in the ceremony are highly spiritual given by Lord Buddha or gods and accompanied with different didactic remarks depending on types of mantras; 2.) no didactic remarks are found in the blessing yarn mantras for high ranked monks/ general monks/ sramaneras/ and teachers. Only praises are found; 3.) Pali spells have influence in blessing yarn mantras as they are believed to be holy. The blessing ceremony and the mantras have long been used to boost the morale of people in rural areas. They still have the role in this new technology and industry era; 4.) the ceremony is a link that connect people in the society systematically. Even though the beliefs in certain rituals cannot be proved scientifically, interestingly some rituals such as Isaan's blessing ceremony have long been practiced extensively by people in the society. It is also found that such ceremony is in line with many milestones of people's life since their birth based on local beliefs well intertwined with some religious beliefs. 

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mantras, yarns, sutra, Brahmin, Praya Thaen, Earth Godess, Umadevi, Visakha