Thai Blessing Ceremony of Kui Ethnic Group in Sisaket Province, Thailand.

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to 1) study the Thai blessing ceremony of a Kui ethnic group in Sisaket province, and 2) study the values of the Thai blessing ceremony of a Kui ethnic group in Sisaket province. The key informants were community leader, ritual leader, religious leader, and cultural leader. The instruments used were in-depth interview, focus group, formal observation, and informal observation, analyzing content and then descriptive writing. It was found that Kui people believed in ancestral ghost and Buddhism mixed together. Kui people have connected ceremony and belief in ancestral ghost together, offering sacrifice to ghost before performing ceremony every time believed that those souls still dwell being closed with their lineages by not neglecting and trying to protect, give good luck, and give security for their lineages. The Thai blessing ceremony of a Kui ethnic group is comforting to stay with oneself and giving ancestral ghost helping protect divided into 3 types as appearance and chance used in performing the ceremony as follows: 1) welcoming back in the period of transition of life; namely performing the ceremony of newborn babies, performing the ceremony of person about to be ordained as a Buddhist priest, performing the ceremony of monks, performing the ceremony of wedding ceremony, wedding ceremony of the image of Buddha in funeral rites and performing ceremony for propitiousness; 2) performing the ceremony in sacrificing to the spirits; namely performing the ceremony of paddy and performing the ceremony of housewarming; and 3) performing the ceremony for patients; namely performing the ceremony of welcoming back and exorcising and morale ceremony. The welcoming ceremony of Kui people has values towards persons and society including body, mind, mood, surrounding and society, value towards persons has ability in confronting problems occurred and caused Kui society having warmth and mental stability for members in society.