Indian Logic Forum

tantidharo

A Bangkok-based German writer friend of mine has again revealed something devious in the ThaisвЂ”as rooted in their "bigoted and ill-begotten" sense national identity. His remarks are in light of a recent article published in the The Nation exposing yet another "preposterous" claim of how a cultural product deriving from India is all of a sudden supposed to be the intellectual property of Thailand. Bizarrely, however, it is mainly in grievance to the Japanese that the government of Thailand has mounted its campaign for a certain alleged 200 year old tradition of yoga called "Rusie Dutton" to be included in the UNESCO Memory of the World (MOW) Programme in 2009.

Now speaking, if I may, as a specialist in the area of Siamese Yoga, I would earnestly advise the government of Thailand to radically revise its position on this matter. I mean, why in the hell would you even wish to claim such a cultural miscarriage as the "intellectual property" of Thailand? What is the logic! Stick to your revulsion of all things Hindu and simply denounce these shenanigans as such.

Actually, this row exposes "preposterousness" on a number of fronts.

[Nice to have my very own propiretary archive. Perhaps I should register under several more names.]

Plamen · Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 9:51 pm Post subject:

This seems to be a Yoga preparation to or derivation from Thai Chi.

tantidharo · Last edited by tantidharo on Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:42 am; edited 1 time in total

[The more refined version is being published as Transgressive Thai Tantra.]

Plamen,

Thank your for your post. Kindly note that the rusie under discussion here is but 'another' alternative to the more accepted spelling of the Thai word reusi as ultimately derived from Sanskrit rishi but likely by way Old Khmer rosei.

The importation of the Indic rishi as cultural product into Southeast Asia has been a longstanding interest of mine. It commenced as early as fourth-century pre-Khmer Funan, as referenced in the temple name Vat Maharosei. From then it took on varied forms of stereotyping. Note the common squatting version (here, bottom right corner) near the feet of Goddess Uma at Vat Phu Sanctuary, southern Laos.

If you take a look at "the sritantra project" gallery (here forward) you can get some idea of its rather more signature Indic hatha traits. I imagine that before the 12th century introduction of Singhalese Buddhism to the region of mainland Southeast Asia the Rishi was a prominent asceto-cultural hero. In the case of the earlier pre-Thai periodвЂ”say, up to a good 200 years agoвЂ”there probably existed a natural, free flowing and shared set of ascetic symbols reflecting a native Siamese disposition toward an integrated bhikkhu-sannyasa-yogi/rishi culture. But with "the passing of the Sangha Act in 1902" all of that was viciously put to an end (see my essay The Khmer Contribution) and the rishi became the target of a ruthless institutionalized smear campaign.

Nowadays things are weirdly mixed up and the Thais more inclined to offer plastic cups of whiskey to their concrete rishi statuary. This probably shows that the Thais are more animists, or paЕ›upati-Е›aivites at best. So in essence, they are not Indic-Buddhists at all. What you plainly have among the modern Thais is a religious tradition that, without the slightest gumption or indignity, offers to its corps of saintly elite the cooked up or often raw bits of slaughtered animals, in addition to a stunning range of herbal intoxicants. It's actually a kind of unarticulated vama marga, or transgressive 'left-hand' tantra.

tantidharo · Posted: Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:41 am Post subject:

In his celebrated study on Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand, social anthropologist S.J. Tambiah transliterated the term as rЕ«Д“sД« (1970: 69).

Tambiah, Stanley Jeyaraja 1970. Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-East Thailand. Cambridge University Press.

Plamen · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 6:32 am Post subject:

Thank you, to me the term sounded first like the Japanese roshi (иЂЃеё«, rЕЌshi). Smile

tantidharo · Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:56 pm Post subject: And what about Dutton?

That's actually quite interesting. I wonder if the Chinese were trying to encrypt something. But aren't you interested to know what's behind the second part of the subject "Rusie Dutton"?

troy

tantidharo · Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:53 am Post subject: Japanese roshi = Chinese lao shi

tantidharo

I have worked the second part of this exchange into a brief blog article,
Cultural Encryption (what happened to the rishi?).
http://bauddhamata.blogspot.com/2007/03/cultural-encryption-what-happened-to.html

Plamen · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 6:29 am Post subject: Re: And what about Dutton?

tantidharo · Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2007 2:41 pm Post subject: dutton = dhutanga

Dutton is apparently a recent alternative spelling for the already stretched transliteration of the morphed tudong, the hitherto standardized Thai corruption of the Pali dhutanga (ascetic practice). But as tudong is in Thai such a standardized spellingвЂ”due largely to a stunning international careerвЂ”I find it odd that the Japanese would suddenly shift to another spelling. Might it be in want of mitigating cultural thievery, to disburden the term of prior accretion, or a daring stab at linking otherwise ill-assorted Romanization systems? Yes, rusie dutton means rishi dhutanga. But what in tarnations does rishi dhutanga mean?