A Buddhist purification ceremony
This short note by R. J. Farrer, C.M.G., documents a Siamese Buddhist purification ceremony performed at the Residency in Kelantan in August 1918, following a lightning strike to the flagstaff that was interpreted as a spiritual portent (p. 261).
Farrer provides a detailed first-hand account of the ritual’s preparations and execution, including the arrangement of offerings (raw rice, cakes, fruit, grilled fish, crocodile figures cut from coconut leaves), the construction of a nearly mile-long lalang rope threaded with white string, and the application of charmed rice paste to the household in the form of human figures (pp. 261–262). The ceremony involved both Siamese Buddhist priests under the head priest ‘To Raja and a Malay Bomor (magician), whose roles were distinct: the priests conducted formal prayers and a final lustration, while the Bomor performed incantations, prepared bamboo cages containing roasted and raw fowls along with the rice-paste figures for disposal in the river, and carried out boundary rites involving buried sireh vials, coconut nut-crashing, and gunshots (pp. 262–263). The ceremony concluded with the reconveyance of the Residency to its owners via the presentation of a sireh tray to ‘To Raja (p. 263).