A Ritual Manual of Healing: The Body-Balance of the Four Elements and the Four Key Factors of Manuscript Production and Usage

Abstract

The article presents a Northern Thai manuscript titled Withi bucha that thang si (‘How to pay homage to the four physical elements’). The text has been used as a master version in traditional healing rituals. It is analysed what roles different parts of the text play in these ritual by applying four key factors (production, use, setting, patterns) as heuristic tool. The manuscript is textually dominated by a main prayer named okāsa reflecting the twofold communication between the spiritual sphere and the human sphere based on the local belief system encompassing Buddhism and spirit cults. Three hybrid modes related to the manuscript are identified: hybrid content, hybrid use, and hybrid communication, structurally comprising oral parts for recitation and non-oral parts for silent reading.