Post-Tsunami Recovery in Thailand by Monica Lindberg Falk

Author:Monica Lindberg Falk [Falk, Monica Lindberg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781317690139
Google: 26CQBAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-09-19T02:44:36+00:00

Ordination

As we have seen from several of the survivors’ narratives, ordination as a Buddhist novice, monk, mae chi or chi phram was an important part of Buddhist practice for the survivors after the tsunami. In Thailand it is common that people go to the temples and make vows to ordain. Mina, who we met in earlier chapters, said that she had made a vow that she would be ordained if she found her dead family members. Making a vow is not part of a ritual and it is done individually, and the reason for Mina’s ordination was to send religious merit (bun) to her mother and son. In January 2005, after she had found her mother’s corpse, she received lay ordination as a chi phram. A monk from central Thailand had set up a small Buddhist samnak song close to the temporary shelter and had organized a ten-day ordination retreat for women. Approximately 50 women participated; most of them received chi phram ordination and five received mae chi ordination and shaved off their hair and eyebrows.

During those ten days, Mina said she cried constantly and had difficulty focusing her mind during meditation, but at the same time felt very much at peace. She described how she felt so close to her mother and son that it was as if she could communicate with them. She felt as if she was in a “different world”. She told me that during that period many monks had travelled to the affected areas with their teachings and that made her feel like she was in the “dhamma world” and not in her ordinary existence. She said:

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