Spirit Medium: A Reduction of Roles and the Change of Power in KU Ban Moei Worshipping Ceremony in Nong Song Hong District, Khon Kaen Province

Abstract

In Ban Moei community, Nong Song Hong district, Khon Kaen province, there has been a custom that has continued long time called Boon Ku. It is ritual worship of auspicious spirits and ghosts of ancestors at an ancient named “Ku Ban Moei”. This custom is an integration of religious beliefs between Buddhism, Brahmanism, and Thai folk (spirit medium) with the purpose to foretell the fortune of the community and rainfall through the rite before the agricultural season. This paper aims to study the transformation of Spirit Medium's role in the Boon Ku ritual. This is qualitative research on folklore. Along with documentary research, data were collected through in-depth interviews and oral form. Five key informants, including community leaders. ritual leader and village philosopher.

The study found that role of the female medium no longer existed. Because it could not be merged with Buddhism which is the mainstream religion of the community, with the dynamic in modernized capitalism as an external factor has also caused a medium to be only a belief of a specific group of people and the dynamic has disappeared from the Boon Ku ceremony.