The Body at Death: Muslim-Buddhist Relations in a Southern Thai Village

• In Event: Buddhist-Muslim Interactions in South and Southeast Asia

Abstract

According to Thai government statistics for religion in 2011, Muslims comprise 5% minority in population that is more than 95% Buddhist. Three in four of these Muslims live in southern Thailand Two broad groupings can be discerned: Malay-speaking Muslims on the east coast where Islamic political movements are most active; and the Thai-speaking Muslims in Satun on the west coast where political problems involving Muslims are rare. This tendency is more conspicuous after conflicts were renewed in January 2004 on the east coast.

This paper treats Muslim- Buddhist relationship in a village in Satun inhabited by both Muslims and Buddhists. About 20% of marriages in the area are unions between Muslims and Buddhists. In inter-religious marriages, one of the partners has to convert: “Husband and wife must be of the same religion.” In this situation, the differences of religions are focused on the moment on death. Death imposes a separation between Buddhists and Muslims that does not ordinarily occur in daily life. The issue most often mentioned is whether a child can touch (torng) a deceased parent’s body, since Buddhists are prohibited from touching a Muslim’s body after the religious washing that prepares the body for burial instead of Buddhist cremation. Muslims and Buddhists differ sharply in the way in which they treat the corpse. My purpose in this paper is to focus on the difference between the rigidity of religious difference in death and the flexibility in everyday social interaction to illuminate the dynamics of Muslim-Buddhist relationships.

Author

• Ryoko Nishii, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies