The Enchanting Spirit of Thai Capitalism

Abstract

Thailand's decade-long economic boom, which came to a sudden end in July 1997, created a mood of national confidence that influenced all aspects of social, cultural, and religious life. At the height of the growth euphoria in the mid-1990s, the aged abbot of a remote rural monastery emerged as the country's most prominent religious figure. Luang Phor (Reverend Father) Khoon Parisuttho, abbot of Wat Ban Rai monastery, is widely believed to possess supernatural abilities and has become the focus of a national cult which emphasizes the acquisition of wealth and power. In this article the author analyses the diverse media, economic, and political influences that transformed Luang Phor Khoon into a national cult figure and which placed this ostensibly world-renouncing ascetic at the centre of a ‘prosperity religion’ that emphasizes wealth more than salvation. He considers the limitations of current approaches to the study of Thai religiosity and suggests the need for an alternative, semiotic analysis which views Thai capitalism as a signifying system. In conclusion, he contrasts competing interpretations of the Luang Phor Khoon ‘phenomenon’. Does this cult demonstrate the destructive capacity of capitalism to co-opt and debase Asian cultures, as claimed by some Thai critics, or should it be viewed as an example of Thai cultural adaptability whereby an alien capitalist way of life has been indigenized by being understood within a Thai symbolic frame?