Ancestral Sporits, Brahmanical Mediation, and Buddhist Merit: Religious Syncretism in Pubbapetabali Rituals of Si Sa Ket, Thailand

Abstract

This study considers the development of belief and the patterns of religious syncretism in the Pubbapetabali ritual as practised by the Lao, Kuy, Yoe, and Khmer ethnic groups of Si Sa Ket Province, Thailand, comparing Bun Khao Pradap Din, Hua Bun Boek Fa, the veneration of Pu Ta, and Bun San Don Ta. Using a qualitative design, data were collected from documentary sources and fieldwork in four communities through field surveys, observation, and interviews with sixty-two informants in three groups: twelve key informants, thirty ritual practitioners, and twenty general informants. Data were triangulated and analyzed by inductive interpretation, categorization, and cross-case comparison. Three main findings emerged. First, the ritual's development shows religious layering rather than replacement: belief in spirits and ancestors persists, while Brahmanical ritual mediation and Buddhist conceptions of merit, karma, and merit transference have been added alongside it. Second, although the four communities' ritual forms differ, they share a common moral core of gratitude, reciprocity, and the living's obligation to ancestors and benefactors. Third, religious syncretism does not take a single form across communities yet is configured differently according to each community's history, sacred space, ritual officiants, practices, and contemporary conditions. The study suggests continuity through religious layering as an analytic contribution, arguing that ritual continuity depends not on an unchanging form but on communities' capacity to absorb and rearrange shifting religious and social elements, sustaining the relationship with ancestors as the ritual's enduring core of meaning.