Abstract

                                           The purposes of this thematic paper aimed at studying the fire history before the ancient time and studying the Royal Fire in the Thai Society at the present on the development. This thematic paper was the document research by studying from Ti-Pitaka, books, academic documents and researches as concerned and presented the research report as descriptive analysis.

              The results of this study were found that the concept concerning the worship and the practice towards the fire in various periods appeared that the Fire worship before the ancient times. The evidences generally did not clear. The fire worship, however, at the beginning was the worship of Purusha, that is, the pure consciousness that infiltrated all locations, the great things, the ruler of death, by duty, Purusha was the sacrifice and by this method, the fire worship was originated because of the recluses’ practice continuously. While in the period of Veda, The fire sacrifice, at first, was created to pamper the gods and to ask them to give the wishing objects. That they would face the things which they required or not depended on the only god’s compassion and the fire worship in the Buddhist Era was complicated, that is, the sacrifice was committed by killing animals and humans because Buddhism refused such worship and changed by reforming this worship, that is, to cancel the method of sacrifice by using the lives of animals and humans and used the method of deliverance to the creatures without harming oneself and others.

              While the concept concerning the rituals dealing with the Royal Fire that is practiced in the present. The concept and faith of the majority of people originated from Buddhism and mixed together with Bhramist Rituals. It could be seen clearly that The various rituals were the Royal Ceremony and different rituals such as the ceremony of Royal Coronation etc. One of the important ceremony was the Royal Cremation that was the basic ceremony which originated from Bhramism  and showed “Dibbapava” (Divine State) of the King. So the great ceremony must be created in order to be convenient with the dignity of the monarch. The Royal Fire for cremation of the King must be the pure fire obtained from the ray of Sun. In the ancient time, this type of fire was used for the only king, but at the present time, it is used for general people who have done the benefits for the nation and on the other hand, it also supports the status of the King.

Download