Abstract

              The purposes of study of Making Merit Salakaphat of Wat Takfa, Royal  Temple, in Takfa District, Nakhonsawan Province were on three objects : (1) to study of Making Merit Salakaphat in Buddhist Texts and tradition of Making Merit Salakaphat of Wat Takfa, Royal  Temple, in  Takfa District, Nakhonsawan Province, (2) to study of expectation of Making Merit Salakaphat of Buddhists in Thai society dividing by personal factor and (3) to present the conservation of the tradition in Making Merit Salakaphat of Wat Takfa, Royal  Temple, in Takfa District, Nakhonsawan Province. This research applied Survey Research. The instrument of the study was the questionnaires. The sample of the study was 365 people. The analysis of data used Statistical Package for Social Science. The statistics used Frequency, Percentage, Mean, Standard deviation, t-test, and F-test by One Way ANOVA and Least Significant Difference: LSD.

              The results of study are found that: the personal status of person who gave questionnaire age between 25 - 30 year, 49.04 percentages, and the most majority are the male, 69.59 percentages. The education in bachelor's degree level, 30.68 percentages had 112 people and the most majority are general occupation, 26.58 percentages. The expectation of the Buddhists, in the overall view shows that: there are the very expectations in every level, but the topmost expectation is the meritorious action consisting in mental development, the next it is the meritorious action consisting in observing the precepts and the meritorious action consisting in generosity. When separated the side, generosity, meet that it is in very levels, the observing the precepts is in very levels. The comparison of expectation of Buddhist to tradition of Making Merit Salakaphat of Wat Takfa, Royal Temple, in Takfa District, Nakhonsawan Province dividing by personal factor on age, gender, education and occupation, it shows that there are the difference on statistical significance at .05 in every side, except the side of the observing the precepts about occupation was denied the hypothesis on statistical significance at 0.249. Others admit the hypothesis on statistical significance at .05.

              The ways for the conservation and the inheritance of Making Merit Salakaphat should provide Making Merit Salakaphat continuously every year, promote Making Merit Salakaphat in several communication channels to make the people interested in the participation, and give the knowledge to the youth in the history and inheritance of Making Merit Salakaphat in Buddhism continuously.