魂のゆくえを訊ねて

――タイ北部コン・ムアン山村における死後観の多様性――

抄録

This paper examines diverse narratives about the soul’s destination after death. These accounts were generated through an amalgamation of improvisation and the negotiation of certain cognitive schemata emanating from religious beliefs. The study entailed interviews conducted between 2007 and 2008 in a mountainous Khon Mueang village in Samoeng District, Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand. The research site was a small hamlet comprising 42 households encompassing approximately 130 villagers; it was labeled TD Village.

Apropos beliefs about the afterlife, Theravada Buddhist cosmology is accepted as the dominant doctrine by Northern Thai people, who are educated by monks via preaching, publications, Buddhist simulations of hell gardens, and mural paintings. This interview-based study queried 34 householders about the soul’s destination after death. The subsequent analysis of their answers yielded five categories as destinations for souls: (1) they go to heaven or hell, (2) they remain in the village, (3) they disintegrate, (4) they travel to the Land of the Spirits (Mueang Phii), and (5) their destination is unknown. These responses incorporated both Buddhist concepts and local spiritual credos.

The villagers acknowledged the authority of Buddhist cosmology but harbored diverse conceptions of the afterlife. These notions changed distinctively based on individual imaginations and the locality. The interviewees formulated a practical version of the afterlife by negotiating between the dominant schema introduced by the religious authority and the knowledge generated through their daily lives and rituals.