當代泰國華人之「民俗佛教」信仰與 文化研究 - 以九皇齋節儀式為例="Folk-Buddhism" Beliefs and Cultural Studies of Contemporary Thai-Chinese: A Case of "The Nine Emperor Gods Festival" Ceremony
泰國華人=Thai-Chinese; 文化認同=Cultural Identity; 華人信仰=Beliefs of the Chinese; 民俗佛教=Folk-Buddhism; 經懺佛事=Repentance and Buddhist Services; 九皇齋節=The Nine Emperor Gods Festival
Since about the 13th century, there have been Chinese coming to Thailand, the Nanyang region. During the subsequent immigration process, Buddhist beliefs and culture played a key role in the assimilation of the Chinese. Thai Buddhism was originally Theravada Buddhism, yet the introduction of Chinese folk culture and the establishment of Chinese Sangha groups have integrated and fused together to form “Folk-Buddhism” 民俗佛教. In this article, the concept of “folk-Buddhism” is defined as a unique form of Thai-Chinese Buddhism that is a mixture of orthodox Buddhism and folk culture, that is, a general Chinese Buddhist belief pattern in which Thai-Chinese integrates Buddhism and folk beliefs into one.The main approaches and content of dissemination of Folk Buddhism is the “Repentance and Buddhist Services” 經懺佛事, which pursues the afterlife happiness for the followers and the transcendence to the upper realms for the dead. From the ideological standpoint of orthodox Buddhism and “Humanistic Buddhism” 人間佛教, this is exactly the reform target that Chinese Buddhism needs to "disenchant" since the late Qing Dynasty. Objectively speaking, “Repentance and Buddhist Services” meets the basic folk belief demand of the Chinese who maintain the identity of the Chinese community in Thailand with the common belief system and customs. In particular, “The Nine Emperor Gods Festival” 九皇齋節, which is based on the Beidou 北斗 belief, conveys a common value norm to the Chinese in terms of ceremonical events, cultural connotations, and social functions, and cultivates their identity and national sense of belonging with greater effectiveness. Based on the influence of Buddhist culture and folk beliefs on the Chinese, this paper adopts “HTF” (i.e. “history,” “text” and “fieldwork”) research methods and attempts to explore the religious vitality of Chinese society and the reconstruction of Chinese cultural identity by combining the history of Chinese society in Thailand, Buddhist and Taoist text and fieldworks.
