Buddha Amulets and the Reflection of Political Ideologies of Thai Elites from 1864-1988
Keywords:
Buddha Amulets, Political Ideology, Thai Elites, Thai PoliticsAbstract
This article study on Buddha amulets as a tool reflecting Thai political elites’ ideologies in each period. The article aims to show that elites in Thai politics propagated their political ideologies through various means, including the utilization of Buddha amulets as a tool to discreetly propagate their ideologies.
This study aims to answer the main question of how Buddha amulets, as a tool, received ideologies from Thai political elites in each period and how they helped display and propagate those ideologies. The time period studied is from the 1864 to 1988. The researcher demonstrates in this study that, although the presence of Buddha amulets seem to be common in the everyday life of the Buddhists and so closely connected with religion that it is hard to realize how they are related to politics, Buddha amulets don’t only possess religious function, but also political function as a tool for Thai political elites, who created them in that particular period, to communicate to the people. This function of Buddha amulets is apparent throughout Thai history. It may also be said that Buddha amulets, especially medallions, emerged almost at the same time they were utilized in politics. One of the reasons is that Thai communication system in the past didn’t have the technology enabling political contact or propagation. Therefore, everyday life things such as Buddha amulets were utilized as a tool to send political messages or spread ideologies of the elites who were in the position of power in each period. Furthermore, it seems like Buddha amulets were a highly effective tool for propagating and planting political ideologies. This is because those in possession of Buddha amulets usually carry them around all the time or otherwise place them on the altar for worship, and when people strongly believe in something, they tend to believe in other aspects attached to those things as well. Moreover, the production cost for Buddha amulets is extremely low, and they can be produced in large numbers compared with other ways of propagation which cost more and are not as effective as embedding the ideologies into Buddha amulets and let people wear or carry them around. As a result, Buddha amulets become an extremely effective tool for propagating ideologies
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