Generals swear by Thai spells

Generals swear by Thai spells

Thai-Burma relations

Burmese generals may retain their mistrust of Thailand's intention on their country, as evidenced by their continued compulsory teaching of "hate Thai" history in schools, but that has not stopped them from using incantations originating from the kingdom to ward off their imagined disasters, according to businessmen and monks coming from Kengtung, 160 km north of Maesai, Thailand's northernmost town. 

"The introduction preceding the Uppata Santi Gatha (recited nation-wide since last August under orders from Rangoon) acknowledges that the prayer was imported from Thailand," said S.H.A.N.'s source, a Kengtung-born naturalized Thai citizen who was back from a recent visit to his home town. 

His story was supported by two monks who said they saw copies of the mantra distributed in several Shan towns and villages. 

The first incantations began on 30 August, coinciding with the declaration of Rangoon's seven-point roadmap, 9 hours a day, 9 days a month, reportedly to counter both internal and external reactions to the 30 May massacre in northern Burma. 

According to a Thai booklet distributed in commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the founding of Chiangmai in 1996, the mantra, known as Uppata Santi or Maha Santing Luang, was composed by a revered Buddhist monk, Maha Mangala Silawamsa, during the reign of King Tilokaraj (1442-1489). It has 271 stanzas, each stanza with 4 lines, each line with 8 sacred Pali words. The mantra was taken to Burma during the Burmese occupation that lasted two hundred years from 16th to 18th century. A copy of it, written in Burmese script, was given by Rev Baddanta Dhammananda of Wat Tha Ma-O, a Burmese temple in Lampang, 100 km south of Chiangmai, to be re written in Thai script. (The original was written in northern Thai script, also used in Kengtung, China's Xixuangbanna and Laos by the Laotian clergy.)

The mantra, says the booklet, brings calm and harmony to all evil incidents, defends oneself against inhuman beings and untimely death, subdues one's enemies, graces the king with glory and victory and expels all things that are disagreeable to one. 

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Cover of the booklet distributed during the 700th anniversary of Chiangmai's founding, 1996