Presentation Information
[SY-6-04]Expelling the Invisible: Ritual Healing and the Perception of Poison in Thai Traditional Medicine
*Fumihiko Tsumura (Meijo Univ.(Japan))
Keywords:
Thai traditional medicine,Sensory experience,Materiality of illness
This study focuses on the religious healing practices of traditional medical specialists in Thailand, examining how sensory experience and material imagination intertwine to produce both bodily affliction and recovery in relation to the concept of poison, called phit. In contemporary Northeastern Thailand, where the majority of the population consists of Buddhist Lao people, access to biomedical facilities such as hospitals and clinics is no longer particularly difficult. Nonetheless, a wide range of traditional medical practices, including those involving supernatural elements, continue to be accepted and actively practiced. Alongside officially recognized specialists in herbal medicine and therapeutic massage, ritual healers who wield magical powers—often referred to as mo pao—also play an important role. These practitioners treat illnesses believed to stem from intrusive external agents, such as malevolent spirits or black magic. Specialists of Buddhism or Brahmanism perform religious rituals to address these issues. This study specifically investigates the notion of poison (phit), an intrusive substance perceived by Lao people as a cause of physical disorder, and its treatment by mo pao specialists. Phit may enter the body unnoticed through wounds or be injected via snakebite. In response, mo pao perform ritual healing rituals that involve chanting incantations and blowing breath onto the affected area to expel the poison. Patients not only perceive the presence of poison in their bodies through sensory experience, but also report feeling its removal during the healing process. Through the tangible intersection of their bodies, the perceived poison, and the healer’s breath, individuals undergo both illness and recovery. By elucidating the shared process through which the material and immaterial are sensorially recognized and socially validated, this study reveals the distinctive mechanisms at work in religious healing practices.