The Abhiseka Rite of the Thai Coronation Ritual: A reconsideration in the Buddhist context

Abstract

The Thai coronation ritual has been studied in the recent past by Thai scholars, but in Western scholarship the main source of information is still Quaritch Wales who published his book on Thailand's coronation ritual in the year 1931. A fascination of this ritual lies in the fact that it is an amalgam of progressive modifications of an original Brahmanic ritual; therefore, it refects an aspect of the Thai cultural continuum that has been created by Brahmanic and Buddhist interactions. These interactions, which began in the 5th century BC when the Sakyamuni first preached his religion, are seen everywhere in Southeast Asia in relics and monuments that bear mixed images of the two religions.