In 1983 Charles Keyes wrote “the evidence from monastery libraries in Laos and Thailand reveals that what constitutes the Theravādin dhamma for people in these areas includes only a small portion of the total Tipiṭaka…Moreover, the collection of texts available to the people in the associated community are not exactly the same as those found in another temple.” What Charles Keyes observed in 1983 can be confirmed today with even the most cursory inventory of the major monastic, royal and governmental manuscript libraries of Laos and Thailand. Generally, the most popular texts were the ānisam’sa (Lao/Thai: anisong) which are blessings used in ritual and magical ceremonies, paritta (incantations for protection), xalong (ceremonial instructions for both lay and religious ceremonies), apocryphal jātaka (non-canonical birth-stories of the Buddha), stories drawn from the Dhammapada-atthakathā, kammavācā (ritual instructions and rules), local epics (including the Xieng Mieng cycle of stories, Thao Hung Thao Juang, Xin Sai, Om Lom Daeng Kiao), excerpts from the Visuddhimagga and Maṅgaladīpanī, grammatica (excerpts from the Padarūpasiddhi, Kaccāyanavyākaran’a, and local grammatical handbooks), and tamnan (relic, image and temple histories).
As a graduate student I was trained in Indic philology and grammar –- in reading Sanskrit and Pali canonical and commentarial texts to supplement my vernacular skills. However, working in monasteries in Southeast Asia, I realized that my study of the semantics of Pali texts was only partially useful. In studying Pali and Sanskrit I had been studying “language” not “languaging.” The difference is great. As Becker writes, “a language is a system of rules or structures, which…relates meanings and sounds, both of which are outside of it. A language is essentially a dictionary and a grammar. Languaging, on the other hand, is context shaping. Languaging both shapes and is shaped by context. It is a kind of attunement between a person and a context. Languaging can be understood as taking old texts from memory and reshaping them into present contexts…It is done at the level of particularity.” This is what the students and the teachers in Southeast Asia are often doing; they were languaging Pali. They were not learning the Pali language. Certainly Pali has been an important language in the study of Theravada Buddhism (let’s put aside the major problems with the term “Theravada” for now) for 2,500 years, but it should not be seen as more important than local vernaculars.
Most books on Buddhism state that Pali is the signature language of the Theravada lineage of Buddhism. However, it is important to observe that Pali canonical texts are most often in the minority in Southeast manuscript collections not only in Laos and Thailand, but also in Cambodia and Burma. There is little evidence that Pali was widely used as a language of composition in Southeast Asia except for a few exceptions. The general impression that Pali is essential for the study of Theravada Buddhism started in the mid-nineteenth century. Western scholars of Theravada Buddhism, as well as royal and Sangha reformers in Thailand and Sri Lanka emphasized the importance of Pali. There certainly has been an increase in the study of Pali especially due the reforms of King Mongkut and Prince Wachirayan in Thailand which have had some ramifications in Cambodia and Laos. However, despite these reforms, even now less than five percent of monks in Thailand and less in Laos and Cambodia (there are no confirmed statistics for Burma) take higher Pali examinations. Therefore, the signature language of Theravada Buddhism, remains largely unstudied.
This should not, however, be seen as a sign of loss. Pali is alive and well ritually in Southeast Asian liturgical and magical practices. It is used in the blessing of water, houses, water buffaloes, children, and amulets. Short Pali incantations are composed anew for shrines and dedications. Pali is heard chanted in several different styles (22 major styles) throughout the region. For a student of Buddhism then, learning Pali is extremely important even if it isn’t for reading texts for semantic understanding. Without understanding the importance of Pali ritually, we miss why Pali stays relevant in Southeast Asia. When thinking about language and religion therefore, it would be wise to ask ourselves what we mean when we say Pali. Do we mean a living language that is used conversationally? A language used for composition of texts and correspondence? A language of jurisprudence? A ritual language for invoking protection, blessing objects and people, and cursing?
Justin McDaniel is an Associate Professor at the University of California – Riverside. He is also the author of Gathering Leaves and Lifting Words: Intertextuality and Buddhist Monastic Education in Laos and Northern Thailand (2008) and the moderator of the Thailand-Laos-Cambodia listserv.
14 responses so far ↓
1 Hla Oo // Sep 30, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Pali as a ritual or, more precise, religious language is truly well and alive in today Burma as it has been for a thousand of years. Only problem is, save the learned monks, most Burmese lay people do not really understand the meaning of most words in Pali except for a few main words. So how do they use it as an effective religious language?
They solve that by interspersing Pali with closely translated Burmese. In any religious sermon the Pali word or sentence or verse is immediately followed by an equivalent Burmese word or sentence or verse, respectively. Following is a typical example from “Dha-ra-nah Parate”, a common prayer in Burma for one’s protection from various dangers.
Buddha-nan, Gautama Buddha’s
Zee-wi-ta-tha, life’s
Andra-yaw, Dangers.
Kay-na-si, Someone
Kar-tone, can
Na-thakka, not bring upon.
Ta-htar, As well
May, I shall be
Haw-tuu, free from dangers.
Here is another example from “Ah-bain-na Thote”, a common prayer for reminding the impermanence of one’s life.
Ah-han, I am
Zaya-da-maw, going to be old
Ah-mhi, it is.
Za-yan, that old age
Ah-nah-tee-taw, I cannot prevent.
Egg-Ti, So
Ah-bain-nan, every day and night
Pis-sa-way-kheet-ta-ban, think of it.
(Please forgive me if my English approximation of Pali words are not correct.)
2 Moe Aung // Oct 1, 2008 at 4:43 am
Everyday Burmese is impossible without Pali words or Pali derivatives, definitely more so than it is in the case of English without French and Latin words. It is however not widely used or learned as a language in its own right, chanting Suttas and Mantras notwithstanding, since only learned monks can converse in it. Burmese universities have had students majoring in Pali though I’m not sure if it’s still the case.
On the other hand the Buddhist Canon as we know it in Burma is entirely in Pali though the script is Burmese as inscribed on parabeik kammavaca and on marble at Kuthodaw Pagoda in Mandalay. You study it together with anet, the Burmese translation.
3 suthi mayteekoon // Oct 1, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Professor McDaniel is to be thanked for his perceptive remarks. When we deal with two or three languages in contact, it should be wise to make some allowance for varying interpretations. What is expressed through a language at philosophical level is naturally open to means of deciphering that in the final analysis should comply with what is in practice at a particular locality. The main point is that we should wish others well in the conduct of life, so that we shall be capable of toleration of differences.
Incidentally, I like the word “monastery” better than the word “temple” in reference to “wat” วัด.
4 jonfernquest // Oct 1, 2008 at 11:20 pm
This sort of topic is very interesting. Please write more.
Burmese historical chronicles like U Kala’s Mahayazawingyi borrow
heavily from Pali literature.
Especially the early Indian kings (Nandas, Susunaga, Chandragupta,
Asoka) taken from sources such as the Mahavamsa Tika and
Lokapannatti cosmology and Rajaniti [aphorisms of royal
advice]. I am working on this:
http://jonfernquest.googlepages.com/IndianKingsUKala.pdf
My favorite passage that I came across recently:
Andhatamaṃ tadā hoti, yaṃ kodho sahate naraṃ.
‘‘Yaṃ kuddho uparodheti, sukaraṃ viya dukkaraṃ;
Pacchā so vigate kodhe, aggidaḍḍhova tappati.
‘‘Dummaṅkuyaṃ padasseti [sadasseti (sī.), paṭhamaṃ dasseti
(syā.)], dhūmaṃ dhūmīva pāvako;
A man conquered by anger is in a mass of darkness.
He takes pleasure in bad deeds as if they were good,
but later, when his anger is gone,
he suffers as if burned with fire.
He is spoiled, blotted out,
like fire enveloped in smoke.
5 Moe Aung // Oct 2, 2008 at 2:59 am
Monastery is kyaung and temple is paya in Burmese and quite separate. In Pali I guess it’s vihara for monastery and ceti or guha for temple. Just my tuppence worth as a lay person and not an academic or anyone who’s learnt Pali in any formal way.
6 Tom Borchert // Oct 2, 2008 at 3:25 am
Justin’s comments about Pali and its continuing importance are well taken, and point to the ways that various groups of people have sought to place translation (and hence meaning) at the heart of how Pali has functioned (and functions) in Southeast Asia. It’s not that translation and meaning are unimportant, but they are only one part of the story of how Pali has been used over the centuries, both in its ritual use and its “languaging” use.
There are two other points that I want to make in relation to his comments. First, maybe the way to put it is that Pali is a language of power. That is, it is a language through which power has flowed and continues to flow. But not all forms of power use the language, or this language in the same way in the current moment. Thus, in order to understand the value of Pali at any given moment in any particular place, it is necessary to understand the kinds of power that it actualizes.
Second, Justin made a comment a number of years ago at a conference that I think is well worth keeping in mind when thinking about Pali and its uses by people in Southeast Asian history. Pali unites, scripts divide.
7 jonfernquest // Oct 2, 2008 at 3:28 pm
“Languaging, on the other hand, is context shaping. Languaging both shapes and is shaped by context. It is a kind of attunement between a person and a context. Languaging can be understood as taking old texts from memory and reshaping them into present contexts…It is done at the level of particularity.”
Doesn’t the word “localised” (geographically, temporally) capture this notion without the need of coining a new word, and isn’t this rather universal phenomenon, not limited to Southeast Asia?
“Pali is a language of power”
The only reason this isn’t blatantly obvious must be due to the ahistorical way that Buddhism is studied, especially in the west, as a search for timeless universal truths, not contingent, ever-changing, localised sets of beliefs, intimately tied to secular history. Everyone knows who Martin Luther and Cardinal Richelieu were, but Parakramabahu I? (See Michael Charney’s “Powerful Learning” for the 100-year fight over robe wrapping, not actually over that at all)
Andrew Huxley’s notion of limited access to a monastic lineage’s “bookchest” captures one way ion which power was actuated.
“…a language through which power has flowed and continues to flow.”
There is also an implicit localised humanities discipline waiting to be unlocked too, that Steven Collins Pali Imaginaire work outlines. There is a whole discourse on Buddhist kingship much of it located in the Jatakas, as Collin’s chapter six makes clear.
“Pali unites, scripts divide.”
And that is a power-laden political act in itself, obliterating the local.
8 chris baker // Oct 4, 2008 at 12:26 am
This is a lovely, thought-provoking piece. Thanks to Justin for the effort, and NM for the initiative. Here are some immediate reactions. What is Pali in Thailand, beyond the realm of the few monastic scholars?
First, it’s the sound of chanting. The meaning is unknown to most listeners (but perhaps that’s the point). It has a very distinctive sound—I think that is because of the greater frequency of hard consonants (compared to modern spoken Thai), and the replacement of tonal cadence by a kind of gentle lilt. The “foreign-ness” of the sound conveys a kind of specialness.
Second, as the hybrid ‘Pali-Sanskrit’, it’s the language of derivation for names of all kinds. For a long time, this was a privilege of the court. But after Damrong and Chulalongkorn used this technique to Siam-ize placenames in the colonized regions, the practice became freely available. In the past two generations, Indic personal names have boomed in popularity.
Third, it’s available for spoof. When I was working in a Thai company, one standard of the year-end party was a satire on the management delivered as mock-Pali. Asani and Wasan’s Krungthep mahanakhon uses the same idea. TV comics used to do it too, but I haven’t seen it lately.
9 jonfernquest // Oct 4, 2008 at 2:00 pm
“Second, as the hybrid ‘Pali-Sanskrit’, it’s the language of derivation for names of all kinds.”
At the White Lotus booth at last year’s book fair at Sirikit convention center, I met a young female German Sanskrit student who was doing her intern at a Thai language commission whose function was to coin new words based on Sanskrit, or so she told me. Never seen anything written about this.
“it’s the sound of chanting”
Also the basis for Yantras, Mantras, and tattoos which use yantras. Yantras are exhaustively listed in this recent Siam Society arrival:
Filliozat, Jacqueline (2004) “Un Outil de Reference Pour Dechiffrer les Mantras et Yantras dans les manuscripts en Pali de la Peninsule Indochinoise,” in Du corps humain, au carrefour de plusiers savoirs en Inde.
Yantras came up in the online Pali study group at Yahoo Groups when someone asked about Pali calligraphy. Actually, I’m still not sure exactly what Yantras and Mantras are, but Bizot and Lagirarde have certainly written a lot of interesting books that deal with the subject. Skilling sure seems to have thoroughly explored protective chants in two Pali Text Society papers.
Steven Collins work Pali Imaginaire actually makes Pali literature interesting, but the only volume I found was at Chiang Mai Uni library. I donated a copy of Justin’s dissertation to the Siam Society a couple of weeks ago. Pali literature is a research area waiting to happen.
10 Dion Peoples // Oct 5, 2008 at 12:29 pm
I must share this page with others around Thailand. Certainly a benefiting article for my many monastic-friends! Thanks Justin!
11 Erik Davis // Oct 16, 2008 at 7:14 am
Justin’s opening salvo on Pali in New Mandala’s new 4 Letter Words series is a fantastic beginning, and there are few who are as qualified or clear in their statements about the meaning and use of Pali. Congratulations to New Mandala and to Dr. McDaniel on a fantastic opening.
The idea of ‘languaging,’ which some of the other commenters picked up on, is a fantastic one, which in my own internal dialogue I think of slightly differently, but which is very clearly expressed and useful here.
I think Justin’s point about the power of Pali (in spite of its style and its use in languaging) to unite merge very nicely with Jon Fernquest’s point that part of the power of unification is the obliteration of localities. I am working on something in my own work that follows a similar line of analysis, and see no contradiction here, unless one insists on a moral evaluation in favor of either the universal or the local.
Great job.
12 Leif Jonsson // Oct 17, 2008 at 12:39 pm
This is something about Pali on the northern Thai fringe, or about Sri Lanka in the Chiangmai valley: The term Lawa was used in reference to highland outsiders in Lanna and Shan States. Its longer form is Damilawa , and is said to derive from the Sanskrit Damila, the same term as informed the Buddhist Sri Lankan ethnic term Tamil for their non-Buddhist Others. The root of the term lay in Sinhalese chronicle accounts of the state and its dark-skinned enemies. Thus, along with the localization of Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia came certain aspects of ethnic ranking and prejudice that contributed to rulers’ ability to contextualize in universalistic terms their rule and the peoples that it excluded. Many Chiangmai chronicles used the term Tamilla for Lawa. Some used the term Milangka. Wilangka, a variant on that term, was used among Lawa in reference to their chief who lost out to the lowland forces. Milangka is derived from Milakkha, the Pali language equivalent to the Sankrit Mleccha (“savages”). Pali had replaced Sanskrit as the language of sacred learning in Theravada Buddhist mainland Southeast Asia by the twelfth century (according to Strong’s Uppagut book, pp. 171-185).
13 jonfernquest // Oct 18, 2008 at 1:43 pm
There seem to be at least two ethnonyms: 1. what the group calls itself, and 2. what other groups call them. Negative ethnonyms as where the Lawa were likened to the Tamils or Colas above may have been a norm rather than the exception.
Take for instance, an inscription dated 1375 compares the Siam invasions of Burma to the Chola attacks on Sri Lanka:
“Just as in the Island of Ceylon where the Religion shone, (and where also) the heretics Klan had completely destroyed the land [,] so that the Island of Ceylon could revive and the Religion shine again only through the blessings of Sakra, Brahma, and all the deva and through the effort done by the great king Duṭṭhagamaṇī who was the recipient of the prophecy that he would become the right hand disciple of Maitrya, on Jambudipa where the Religion shone bright, the country of Mranmā was also completely destroyed by the heretic Syaṃ [diṭhi Syaṃ] and yet through the might and wisdom of Siri Tiriphawanāditdyāpawarapaṇitadhammarājā, who is powerful, majestic and shine[s] like sun and moon, who is a great just king, the donor of the golden monastery and who has a great faith in the Religion, (also known as) the great king Tryāphyā, Lord of the White Elephant, the grandson of the great just king Sihasīra, Lord of the White Elephant who ruled over all Mranmā and Syaṃ lands after conquering the 900,000 Khan soldiers, the heretic Syaṃ were suppressed and the Religion shone again so that the monks, the Brahmans and the laity both men and women could observe restraint and charity and work for their own prosperity so that Awa capital of the Mranmā land became as pleasant as the Tavatimsa (7 Feb 1375 ).” (Source: Than Tun, History 1300-1440, Luce, “The Early Syām,” p. 198 n.199, Duroiselle inscription list: L. 682(1-10) S. 737)
Also, how many times have I heard the ethnonym “Ai Man” in Maesai, a word that Tais in Burma use to refer to Burmans, with “Man” probably referring to the “Man Nat” that is “Mara” personification of evil. This ethnonym is commonly used everytime a certain Burmese fortune-teller with a big eye painted on his briefcase enters my mother-in-law’s house and pursues her around the room until he is able to pinch her rear-end after which he gets chased out with a broom stick.
14 Justin // Dec 24, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I wanted to thank everyone for the supportive and thought-provoking comments. I am not sure what the etiquette is with these four-letter words, so I just listened and learned from the comments.
I have written a bit more about Pali and its protective uses and that should come out soon. I hope to post some ideas and questions in the new year and look forward to the comments/criticisms/suggestions.
Happy Holidays.
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