In the interest of space, my proposal is a comment
posted by Max J. Karagnarok at 11:20 AM
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
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the discipline of kickboxing or muay thai as it known in thailand is compared to the buddhist sangha or clrerical system as it exists in contemporary thailand and carves an itinerant path through the country
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1. This summer, I propose to embark on a socio-cultural research project for three to four months in Thailand’s northeast Isaan region. My study will approach two career/life paths available to the young Isaan male: Muay Thai fighting and Buddhist monkhood. Muay Thai, or Thai kickboxing, is Thailand’s national sport, and Buddhism is the country’s national religion. My hope is to see how these paths diverge in practice and intertwine in origin, seeking to understand the ultimate hopes and cultural motivations that drive young Isaan men down these paths in the anthropological framework of a research paper.
Isaan is Thailand’s most impoverished region per capita, serving as a major source of itinerant labor throughout the country. Migration to urban centers is commonplace, and a troubling fact of life in Isaan’s villages. The region, although dependent on agriculture, suffers from a lack of technological infrastructure and difficult environmental circumstances. Many are unable to rely on marginal crop yield and poorly paying industrial jobs. Children often are unable to complete their elementary education because they are forced to generate income for their impoverished families. Both boxing and the monastic life offer access to an education and a culturally valued discipline, unrestricted by the demands of farm labor and withdrawn from everyday society. Boxers and monks enter a new way of life, and they assume new names to reflect their new identity and devotion.
All monks will be able to give insight about the socio-economic struggles that confront their communities because they serve as pillars of a larger Buddhist community. A survey of these interactions will enable me to comprehend the cultural significance of the social agency employed to escape from or alleviate poverty in Isaan, reflected by the Muay Thai boxer. Muay Thai has a deep connection with the Thai military, and many of the larger boxing venues are administered by the military. My study of Buddhist monks will primarily revolve around individuals who utilize an extended monastic commitment as a platform for future endeavors as members of the lay community. These monks leave the monkhood a similar age that the average Muay Thai fighter retires.
Socioeconomic pressure influences life and career decisions throughout the world and its history, but the regimented communities of boxers and monks are integral and unique to Thai society. The cloistered existence of monks and boxers establish divergent cultures in their respective communities built on ideals of humility, respect, and discipline. Many former monks and boxers have assumed prominent roles in Isaan society, and I want to explore the cultural value of their respective formative trainings that may facilitate social advancement. Through interviews and individual histories I hope to understand the comparative cultural capital that can be acquired by upholding the ideals of Muay Thai and Buddhism in Isaan society.
My connection to Southeast Asia has relatively recent roots, but they are already strong and deep. I spent a large part of this past summer teaching English to children aged 8-12 at an elementary school adjacent to the Wat Ampawan temple in Bangkok. My experience in Thailand proved to be the most formative and engaging of my life. I was astounded by the enormous cultural discipline of the children in exercising uniformly profound respect toward teachers. The majority of the teachers at my school were of Isaan origin, and I was introduced to the enormous Isaan influence on Thailand’s popular culture. I am now ready to take my interest in the country’s cultural and social structures to a more meaningful level with preparation and research directing my experience.
My knowledge about the region increases daily as I research Muay Thai, Buddhism’s role in Thai society, the Ramakien (Thailand’s national Buddhist text), and the historical and contemporary construction of the Thai national identity. My studies at Michigan will also serve as valuable foundation to my research. My introduction to Asian cultures has been rigorous, furthering my understanding of Buddhism in discussion of The Ramayana as well as the questions posed by the construction of the Thai nation in Thongchai Winichakul’s Siam Mapped.
I have had other significant experiences in foreign lands, having lived for three months in Spain and traveled in Italy and Germany. My time in Europe was fascinating, but I find the radical otherness of Southeast Asia is infinitely more so. I believe cultural distance to be of great value for the achievement of anthropological insight. My research will provide the experience necessary for my continued development in the field of anthropology and progressive efforts toward rural development in Southeast Asia.
In addition to my research, I hope to spend two or three weeks volunteering on the coast hardest-hit by the tsunami last December. Having finished teaching English in Bangkok last summer, I traveled to Thailand’s southern coastal provinces and stayed in Khao Lak for two weeks, assisting in the construction of homes in village of Bon Sak and the island of Koh Ko Khao with the Mercy Foundation. Fishing communities were devastated by the loss of fleets and homes, and the collapse of tourism compounded the woes of the coastal population. It will take several years to reconstruct the physical infrastructure in the area, and I hope to continue my contribution to the effort.
The wheels that could send me to Thailand are already in motion. I have been in contact with several members of the Khon Kaen University Faculty of the Humanities and Social Sciences, including Mr. Pinyo Pataworn and Dr. Peersit Kamnuansilpa. Khon Kaen, a regional capital in the heart of Isaan and the site of a regional Muay Thai stadium and numerous boxing camps and Buddhist temples, makes it an excellent site to base my study. Mr. Pinyo and Dr. Peersit will facilitate my introduction to the communities I wish to study and help me get settled in Khon Kaen.
I would like to secure a part-time English teaching assignment at Khon Kaen University. This would be personally rewarding, allowing me to help educate others as I educate myself through research, and would put me in contact with contemporaries of my subjects. University students could serve as a perfect foil for my comparative understanding of monks and boxers. I am interested in the paths they have taken to college, and how their career aspirations relate to the Isaan region. Many monks attend university, a perfect venue for my dialogue, and I could also serve as a tutor for the boxers when I visit their camps. The contact afforded by such a position would provide a great resource for my study, and allow me to establish the trust and respect necessary for successful research.
Another contact, Dr. Peter Thomas Vail, could serve as an invaluable resource, guiding both the development of my academic research techniques and the substance of my study. He is currently conducting doctoral linguistic research on the multi-ethnic communities in Isaan, based in the city of Ubon Ratchatani and its university. He already holds a doctorate in anthropology, basing his dissertation on the social and cultural dimensions of boxing in Thailand. I hope to able to consult him during my research as I make excursions into the countryside. Ubon Ratchatani can be reached by bus from Khon Kaen, and I plan on conducting a portion of my research in the area.
2. I entered my teaching assignment in Bangkok last year with little knowledge of the Thai language, but I had achieved a functional conversational fluency by the time I left without formal training. I am about to complete my first term of formal Thai language study under Montatip Krishnamra, and my comprehension of the language has accelerated rapidly. I will continue with formal instruction in the winter term. I hope to achieve a mastery of written and spoken Thai during the course of my proposed study having found cultural immersion to be the most effective method of learning.
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