Visitors to Buddhist festivals in Thailand are often struck by the presence of scantily clad dancing girls who, along with highly amplified bands, provide evening entertainment. This ribald behavior has come to the attention of the Queen. She has voiced concern over televised “lewd dancing” at a Buddhist festival in Nong Khai. According to the report in The Nation, the dancing featured “coyote dancers” in “provocative dresses and dancing with sexually explicit moves.” The Nation reports that “Her Majesty the Queen has issued a command cautioning over television images of female dancers in provocative dresses at a Buddhist charity session.” Her Majesty is quoted as saying:
Buddhists in general should always bear in mind what is good for the image of the country… Any shows or performances organised in association with any Buddhist festival should be held with respect for Lord Buddha and Buddhism.
The royal alarm is very understandable. On the face of it, this sort of lewd behavior hardly seems consistent with Buddhist piety. But there is, I think, something a bit more subtle going on. There is a considerable anthropological literature on the role of sexual imagery in Buddhist ritual. But there is one specific point I want to make here. Buddhist festivals are exceptional times in which certain sacred values are marked off from the mundane concerns of day-to-day life. The sacred sphere of the festival is set apart from the mundane world of the day-to-day by a range of techniques – special forms of dress, offerings, prayers, sermons, food, decoration and, of course, the provision of entertainment. This entertainment plays a crucial role in intensifying the effervescence of the sacred occasion. Scantily dressed dancing girls, given their exceptional nature, play a part in marking Buddhist festivals as times of exceptional, and sacred, assembly.
Of course there are innovations in the way this separation from the world of day-to-day pursuits is expressed (though to my untrained eye coyote dancing looks like fairly standard gyration) but it would be a mistake to think that the sacred and the lewd are a new combination. Consider this passage from Richard Davis’ classic account of northern Thai ritual (Muang Metaphysics) where he quotes from the songs that accompany the New Year rocket festival (warning, some readers may find the language offensive):
We’re not just sots showing off, so why don’t you ladies break off a tree limb and place it on the dike close-by here to sit on? Careful not to open your legs and leave those soft private parts exposed. Now don’t get the idea that we’re just drunk and saucy. We just want all you people to keep your legs together nicely. Some people just leave their cunts bare and pouting. The one with the coconut breasts says I’m handsome. She’s afraid they’re going to lift her dress and sqeeze it, those bawdy drunkards. Lord, they are a shameful bunch. And where do you live, little sister with the low strut, coming to watch the fireworks as if you were a queen? Whose little girl are you? Your big brothers have taken a liking to you and your broad bright smile. I’ve a mind to bend your neck over and give you a kiss. I only dislike breasts that droop like bee’s nests. But you, sitting there like that – Lord, I’d like to give you a hug. Great round breastrs and dark nipples. Let these reckless fellows give you a feel, inside and out. Squeeze and feel those big nipples as rough as elephan’t hide. … This is the bawdiest New Year yet. Spines bent back like lizards on the spit, brassieres barely covering the nipples. Small and trim-waisted with breasts like watermelons. (123)
Coyote dancing seems almost modest in comparison!
13 responses so far ↓
1 chris white // Oct 31, 2006 at 11:56 am
I saw the report but could not find any of the images or TV footage to comment on. Is that photo you published from Nong Khai?
2 Andrew Walker // Oct 31, 2006 at 11:57 am
The photo is from my own research in northern Thailand.
3 Vichai N // Oct 31, 2006 at 12:38 pm
Andrew W – Have you abandoned your village research project about Thaksin Shinawatra, his Isan followers, and the Khmer voodoo powers Thaksin wields on the poor?
Thaksin giving handouts + black magic totally enthralled the Isans to Thaksin Shinawatra. That is my theory and it is up to you Andrew to disprove it.
4 Buddhist // Oct 31, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Who the heck is gonna go to make merit (e.g., give donations) if there aren’t any dancing girls and worldly entertainment? I’m saying this as a realist – if you take away the entertainment, the only people who will go and make donations will be old people and folks who have done some major sinning. Oh, and the royal family of course. Their generous patronage of kathin ceremonies nationwide is well documented.
Lets just hope the Queen also doesn’t see any videos about what goes on at Soprano, Forte, or Orbit. If she did, those fine places could go the way of the Sao Cheer Beer (beer waitresses in tight skirts adorned with logos of the beer companies), which have been banned by the junta. Those girls were making an honest living, and over night, their jobs were deemed illegal.
Heck, if the Queen knew what was going on Patpong and what that did to the “good for the image of the country,” we could kiss those places goodbye as well.
5 chris white // Oct 31, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Thanks for the clarification Andrew – perhaps it may be drawing a bit of a long bow to use an image taken from somewhere near Chaing Mai to represent something happening in Nong Khai. Don’t you think? So… we still don’t know what the actual behaviour was that caused offence. I was interested in seeing if it was just another morlum performance – something that you see all over the northeast that included ‘run of the mill’ hang khreuang dances or something new (perhaps ‘coyote dancers’) and ‘lurid’ that really did deserve the Queens attention (I’ll be sure to check them out too if I get the chance).
I’m probably jumping in a bit early here and could really end up with my foot in my mouth. But here goes.
There could be another explanation for the response from the Queen. It also seems to me that whenever there is any type of ‘crisis’ in Thailand it also brings on a massive crisis of identity – a crisis with the concept of ‘Thainess’ itself. There seems to be an assumption that if everybody performed like the ideal ‘Thai’ then there wouldn’t have been a crisis in the first place. I know that, in its legal sense, to be ‘Thai’ is to be a citizen of nation state of Thailand. However, and this has been pointed out by many eminent commentators, culturally ‘Thai’ stresses Siamese (or central Thai or ‘Bangkok’ or what ever you want to call them) cultural values, in terms of very narrow and specified ideas of language, monarchy, religion and state that have been promoted by so called ‘nation’ building ‘leaders’ over the last 100 or so years. And it seems to me that whenever there is a crisis the resultant return to governments of the ‘elite’, ‘strongmen’, ‘dictators’ or ‘Thai democracy’ there is a retreat to, and a renewed promotion of, these very specified ideas of ‘Thainess’. Within this understanding of being ‘Thai’ there is not much room for difference.
Patrick Jory, amongst others has argued that the process of democratisation and political decentralisation that had occurred over the last 15 years or so in Thailand had given birth to a resurgence in ethnic cultures and language. This resurgence was not only evident in so called non Tai ‘minority’ ethnic cultures but could be seen within different Tai groups as well (i.e. the Lao) One of the most visible areas of ethnic Lao cultural reassurance has been in the arts, particularly in music (Rock Sadert – a northeast version of the Warumi Band is a favourite), music performance (I would include morlum and hang khreuang dancing in this category) and flim. (Did anyone see ‘Yam Yasothorn’ last year – suitably subtitled in Thai so that the Bangkok crowd could get it). And I fear that it is this flowering of really viberant cultural production that is going to suffer now that there is a return to an absolute centralised model of power.
I wonder if this performance at Nong Khai and the Queens comments is just the start of the process of winding back difference and diversity within the new ‘democratic’ Thailand.
6 Andrew Walker // Oct 31, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Great comment Chris, and I want to take up some of these issues in relation to the ongoing discussion of “voodoo”. Will post on this soon.
My intention was not to use the picture to illustrate what happened at Nong Khai (though it is a picture from a major Buddhist festival). But what I have seen of “coyote dancing” (on the web) seems very similar to what the girl in the photograph was doing (along with a large group of other dancers).
7 New Mandala » Sufficiency coyote - “getting weird” // Nov 1, 2006 at 9:39 am
[...] Minister for Culture in the Surayud regime, Khunying Khaisri Sriarun, is leading the charge against inappropriate coyote dancing. Khunying Khaisri has impeccable cultural and royal connections. She is reported as being the former President of Silpakorn University, serves as secretary of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Foundation (and sits on the committee of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre) and she is President of Naresuan University and Silpakorn University Councils. She is co-author of a book on the art of Sukhotai. She has responded promptly to the challenges of post-coup cultural renovation. Thai Rat reports on a ban on coyote dancing for girls under 20. Here is a summary of the article: The ban was a response to Her Majesty the Queen’s concern over a popular racy dance by “Coyote Girls” as seen in the news of the celebration of the end of Buddhist Lent in Phonphisai, Nong Khai Province, bordering Laos, where people came to celebrate the Naga fireballs from the Mekong River. Very close to the temple grounds, a local motorcycle shop hired coyote girls to promote its wares. The practice seems inappropriate for this location. Different authorities involved (culture, religious, education, social development, family, women and children) have responded in different ways to reinforce the rules and regulations to prevent this practice. There is a need to protect young girls under 20; to protect the good image of the country; and to prevent crime provoked by sexy dancing. Short-term and long-term measures have been launched to deal with the matter. The local administration and police were ordered to prevent the shows in public places. The Culture and the Education Ministries will enact a Ministerial regulation banning students aged below 20 from working as “Coyote Girls” or “Pretty Girls”. For the long-term solution, the Ministry of Culture will hold meetings and workshops with parents, academics, young people and entrepreneurs, to focus on what are the appropriate behaviors in society. These will lead to the solution in a sustainable manner. The scheme will be promoted as a national agenda. (Thanks to Ai Man for the summary.) [...]
8 New Mandala » Buddhist Studies at Oxford // Nov 2, 2006 at 1:56 am
[...] In one way or another, this has been a big week for the discussion of Buddhist religious expression in Thailand and Burma. [...]
9 New Mandala » Celebrating peripheral power // Nov 13, 2006 at 8:15 pm
[...] So why the mockery of Thaksin’s beliefs? Of course, politician’s habits are fair game, and visiting Burma to consult with an astrologer called ET certainly warrants critical scrutiny. But I wonder if there is more going on here. Regular New Mandala reader Chris White made an interesting observation in relation to the moral panic about “coyote dancing”: [Definitions of what it is to be] culturally ‘Thai’ stress Siamese (or central Thai or ‘Bangkok’ or what ever you want to call them) cultural values, in terms of very narrow and specified ideas of language, monarchy, religion and state that have been promoted by so called ‘nation’ building ‘leaders’ over the last 100 or so years. And it seems to me that whenever there is a crisis the resultant return to governments of the ‘elite’, ‘strongmen’, ‘dictators’ or ‘Thai democracy’ there is a retreat to, and a renewed promotion of, these very specific ideas of ‘Thainess’. Within this understanding of being ‘Thai’ there is not much room for difference. [...]
10 New Mandala » The fear of the rural // Nov 28, 2006 at 5:42 pm
[...] It is often hard for urban Thai perceptions of the rural to strike an appropriate middle ground. On the one hand there is the romantic imagery of honest and hard working agriculturalists living simple and sufficient lives, in harmony with the environment and each other. On the other hand there are images of a money hungry rabble casting aside cultural traditions in pursuit of easy cash and exotic coyote dancers. Both images are politically disempowering. The former suggests that rural folk have little interest in modern politics except in the form of “resistance” when traditional ways are threatened. The later suggests that their interest in politics is exhausted once sufficient money has been paid for their votes. [...]
11 New Mandala » Modern Thai community // Apr 24, 2007 at 5:08 pm
[...] be “preserved” or “revived” by “communities” may be broad and dynamic enough to include coyote dancers, mobile phones and even, god forbid, political [...]
12 Surang Saitip // Apr 10, 2008 at 12:48 pm
It simply proves that most Thais are fake Buddhists. It makes them feel good to wear the tag of Buddhism while they actually practice animism and hedonism. What is worrisome also is the queen’s intervention in anything at her whim. This manner of intervention runs counter to the constitutional monarchy she is under. If she has any complaint, she should address it to the Prime Minister.
13 Sam Anantakit // Apr 10, 2008 at 6:29 pm
These dancers are simply subhuman when they assume the role of coyote (or cayote), which is a kind of wolf. Many literal-minded Thais pronounce the word โคโยตี, another problem of English-Thai correspondence.
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