Subjata 2018

A sub jata ceremony is a life-extension event.  It usually follows some ominous portent, such as a serious illness or series of potentially life-threatening occurrences that could indicate danger to the person or household (or community [see:www.kendobson.asia/blog/subjata from 3 years ago]).  Although the ceremony is often part of a house blessing or major birthday where there has been no cause for alarm.  A sub jata is a set of ceremonies that are hoped to satisfy or pacify supernatural forces and to adjust the forces that energize life.  This photographic essay is just about the main ceremony in which a chapter of priests is invited to chant while merit from doing that is transferred to the subject(s) in whose behalf the sub jata is being conducted.
​
Lon and Sri are members of our family, Pramote’s next older brother and his wife.  They have two married daughters, and two grandchildren.  Lon has been experiencing medical issues and so the family encouraged them to do a sub jata.  The ceremony was conducted on Saturday, June 16, 2018; it was at the family home, to be as close to the presumed super-natural cause of the disturbance that has disrupted Lon’s life, as possible. 

1. The ceremony began with lighting candles and incense in honor of the “Triple Gems” and the passing of cotton string through the hands of the chapter of priests.
2. A chapter of 5 priests was assembled, for this auspicious occasion.
3. The senior priest has a reputation as a specially gifted master of ceremonies dealing with super-natural forces.
4. Sri (flowers in her hair and dressed in her best) and Lon invited other members of the family to join them in being connected by sacred string to the Buddha and his monks.
5. They sat under a traditional tripod loaded with symbols of a full and abundant life.
6. The chapter of priests chanted a number of stanzas, toward the end of which the senior priest symbolically combined fire, earth, air and water to create naam mon – water for blessing.
7. Chanting stanzas of sacred Buddhist truth is a powerful way to make merit.  Merit offsets de-meritorious actions and influences.  When that was done, the chapter of priests had completed what was their main task in this ceremony.  They were then presented buckets of traditional gifts along with envelopes (containing money).
8. The lay leader of the village, a former priest, then read aloud a sub jata chant to make it clear to spirits and people alike that everyone hoped the realignment of spiritual forces and the rebalancing of karmic forces had been satisfactory.
9. The priests then concluded with a final set of chants, not very different than for any Buddhist service.  Fans in front of the face symbolize total impartiality in disseminating blessings and sacred instruction.
10. As the priests chant their final blessing, the laity pour water to symbolize the transference of the blessings.  This, I understand, is a particularly Northern Thai tradition.
11. The crowd outside greatly outnumbered those who could be accommodated in the family’s small sitting room.  Lunch was on the way.
12. The chapter of priests was served first.  In fact, one of the final chants by the laity is to ask the priests for the meritorious honor of providing them a meal.  It would be the monks main meal and final solid food of the day.

I believe a sub jata is to re-align spiritual forces in the life of the person or family for whom the ceremony is being held.  If a malign super-natural entity, such as a demonic spirit or a distraught ghost, was suspected to have targeted Lon a tawnextraction ceremony would have been more likely.  It should be mentioned that a sub jata has very little in common with the Christian sacrament of “extreme unction” or “last anointing”.  The main difference, I take it, is that the subject in a sub jata is not considered to be in extreme condition.

Northern Thai Buddhism is a complex mix of philosophical Buddhist teaching, re-enactment of the events in which the Lord Buddha dispensed sacred teaching to his disciples and the laity, symbolic divine-human encounter creating sacred time and space in our midst, acknowledgement of the eternal power and reality of nature, and honoring super-natural entities that have influence.

Philosophical Buddhist purists continue to insist that this is an unfortunate and unnecessary mix and that Buddhism would be far better without it.  Those academic voices hardly resound in the valley where our villages are nestled.  From my perspective as a resident foreigner, however, I believe that insofar as philosophical Buddhism has fertile ground to grow it will be as Buddhist priests continue to respond to the existential concerns and fears of the people.  Those concerns are the gateway to anything else, theological or philosophical.
​
From the perspective of Lon and everyone in our large family and surrounding communities, it is always all about sub jata – the alignment of life forces.