Bangfai Payanak: Science, Belief and Thai Society

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Bangfai PayanakScience, Belief and Thai Society

• Soraj Hongladarom
• Department of Philosophy
• Chulalongkorn University

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Outline of Talk

• My current research on science in Thai culture.
• Bangfai Payanak (Nagas fireballs)
• What does this phenomenon tell us about
  contemporary Thai society? - paradoxes?
  Incongruities?
• Or are the usual conceptual tools adequate?

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Science in Thai Society and Culture

• This project, funded by the TRF, aims at
  understanding the complex interplay between
  modern science and the fabric of Thai culture.
• It came out as a book, published in Thai by the
  Institute for Academic Development.
• It argues for a tighter integration of modern
  science into Thai culture through a development
  of what I call community-based science.

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Science in Thai Culture (2)

• One of the objectives of the work is to find a
  solution on the so-called problem of lack of
  scientificity in Thai people in general. This is
  shown in the high interest paid by the population
  on irrational matters.
• The mainstream thinking seems to be that this
  interest shows that Thai people lag behind their
  Western counterparts and needs to be corrected.

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Irrational Behaviors?

• However, I tend to think that a way should be
  found to accommodate these behaviors and belief
  systems together with those accompanying modern
  science.
• Typical Thai attitude -- keep the useful, discard
  the what is not.
• And is there any explanation for these
  irrational behaviors beside ignorance?

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Bangfai Payanak

• Many people see a large number of fireballs
  rising out of the Mekhond River during the
  Buddhist lent period -- full moon of the 11th
  lunar month (October).
• These are believed to be made by Naga, who lives
  under the Mekhong, to pay homage to the Buddha.
• The event became huge tourist attractions Nong
  Khai.

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Bangfai Payanak

• However, there was a recent controversy after the
  iTV news channel reported a story that the
  fireballs were not made by Naga at all, but were
  in fact flares shot by Laotian soldiers on the
  other side of the river.
• This caused a major stir in Nong Khai and other
  Isan provinces. The protesters claimed that the
  news report threatened the cultural identity of
  the Nong Khai people.

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Bangfai (contd.)

• The protest was such that thousands of Nong Khai
  people rallied in front of the Provincial Hall
  demanding apologies and a retraction from iTV.
• iTV did not back down, but offered an
  explanation, which did not quite satisfy the
  people of Nong Khai.

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• Other media jumped on the issue and criticized
  iTV for not being sensitive enough to the
  cultural identity and the feelings of the people.

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Debate

• The issue has aroused a debate between those who
  claim to be able to found the phenomenon on
  scientific basis, and those who argue that those
  claims are untenable.
• On the former side, Dr. Manas Kanoksin has been
  very famous for his scientific defense of the
  phenomenon. His website is at www.bangfaipayanak.c
  om.

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• Dr. Manas claims that the fireballs are natural
  phenomena they are essentially methane bubbling
  out of the riverbed and spontaneously burst into
  flames during the Buddhist lent period.

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Debate (2)

• However, this claim is resisted by Dr. Montri
  Boonsaneur, who claims that he knows that the
  bangfais are man made, but he does not provide
  any support for his claim publicly, for fear of
  possible backlash against him from those who have
  vested interests in the bangfais.

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What is interesting is that so far there is still
no scientically proven theory that explains the
phenomenon. So what does this tell us about the
Thai epistemic culture?
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Thai Epistemic Culture

• Epistemic culture refers to the sum of
  practices and beliefs that together constitute a
  cultures attitude toward knowledge and its way
  of endorsing or justifying claims, thus elevating
  them to the status of knowledge.

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Epistemic Culture and the Bangfai

• The bangfai incident seems to show that, although
  Thais have studied modern science for more than a
  century, the set of beliefs constitutive of
  modern science still has yet to permeate into the
  cultural fabric.
• But we have to be careful not to lump the Thais
  merely as irrational, for modern science does
  not have a monopoly on rationality.

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Epistemic Culture and the Bangfai

• On the contrary, Nong Khai people seem to be very
  rational, because the belief sustained by their
  version of the bangfai helps boost the regional
  economy significantly.
• So is it possible to justify the maxim Keep the
  useful and discard what threatens identity?
• But doesnt the very fact of the phenomenon
  justify the claim already?

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Science and Culture

• So how should we understand the whole phenomenon?
• We are seeing the self-preserving force of the
  culture and tradition against its attack in form
  of modern scientific belief system.
• What is happening in the Thai context is that the
  two exist together, uneasily, side by side.

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Perhaps one day the issue will be resolved
scientifically. But that would have entailed a
sustained political effort. But how come truth
and politics do involve with each other? One
might argue What is wrong with people becoming
more faithful as a result of the bangfai?
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This is wrong only if we accept that the value of
truth trumps over all other values, such as being
successful in getting some people to become more
moral, or sensitivities to different cultures and
practices.
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Science and Culture

• Philosophers typically dont like the idea that
  something incongruous with each other could exist
  side by side.
• But these philosophers need to revise their way
  of thinking.
• There are two ways of approaching this find a
  deeper common ground, or celebrate the
  differences.
• I would opt for the latter.