La riziculture dans les manuscrits de sagesse traditionnelle à Sathing Phra, dans le Sud de la Thaïlande

In Southeast Asia, rice is not only an agricultural product, it is a cultural one, too. Each process related to rice cultivation, including ploughing, harrowing, sowing, and harvesting, includes specific rituals, taboos and offerings which are seen as the conditions to ensuring a fruitful crop. In Southern Thailand, more precisely in Sathing Phra, Songkhla province, these techno-spiritual commandments are contained in specific "books" which are transmitted and copied from one generation to another The versions used now probably come from the Ayutthaya Period (14th- 18th Century). One of these manuscripts shows how rice is at the junction of the material and the spiritual worlds. While some advice results from simple observation of natural processes, most of the prescriptions are grounded on a set of multiple convictions which bear witness to the multicultural past of the Thais. They are based on a belief in vital principles (khwan) and more elaborated cosmologies where nagas, Indian deities and the Buddha internet. Today, modernity and government campaigns, however, deal bad blows to these traditions.Patamadit Ingon. La riziculture dans les manuscrits de sagesse traditionnelle à Sathing Phra, dans le Sud de la Thaïlande. In: Aséanie 4, 1999. pp. 93-123