สำนักราชบัณฑิตยสภา

The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 30 No. 3 Jul.-Sep. 2005 738 SPIRITUALITY IN ART : BUDDHIST VALUES IN THAILAND number of such scandals.* However, the nature of merit-making through genuine practices is perceived as highly sacred in Thailand. Thai peo- ple believe that, to be prosperous and happy in the future, it is necessary to make merit in the present; “merit- making” is perceived as making a good and right distribution of a por- tion of what one possesses to ensure that one can receive merit in the fu- ture life. The direct way of making merit includes Buddhist practices such as meditation, making food offerings to monks, going to temples to chant and pray to Buddha and staying on the Buddha’s path. (See figure 2 for a merit-making scene with people queuing up to offer food during food offering session.) In addition, the concept of making merit has been expanded to those making donations through charity works and by distributing personal possessions to disadvantaged people. As a result of the interviews with artists, it appears that there are a large number of who believe that their production of art is equivalent to making merit. They agreed that the creation of the aesthetic in art is much the same as the creation of virtue, that in turn can be compared with the concept of merit-making. As one artist asserted: My artistic creation is focused on the aesthetic quality of my works, where I think this sort of aesthetic is equivalent to right attitude; hence, this action is in a way making merit (Prinya, 1999). The opinions of Chalermchai Kositpipat and Panya Vijinthana- sarn are united in that their artworks are a direct contribution to Buddhism and thus merit-making is part of the end result. I dedicated my artworks to Buddhism and it is to Buddhism, too, that I devoted myself. Therefore, my artistic practice serves as merit making. (Chalermchai, 1999) I was also told by several art- ists that they had been making dona- tions to charities from part of their sales proceeds. (interviews with the artists, 1999) Thai people generally go to tem- ples to make offerings to monks, on the occasion of their birthdays, on taking new jobs, and whenever life’s circumstances demand it. People have their loved ones cremated at temples, and monks control the cre- * Nowadays, merit-making also involves a donation of money to Buddhist monks individually and to temples as a way of supporting the religion. Money therefore is used for maintaining and improving temples and their facilities. Figure 2 The offering of food takes place each morning. Thai Buddhist laypersons bring food for monks. This is one way of making merit in Buddhism. Customarily, Thai people consider special occasions such as New Yearûs Day as a perfect time for alms-giving (tak-bat) in order to receive a blessing from monks.