¹ This paper is based on an earlier academic exercise entitled “Sacred Steps: The Nuuraa as a Magical Practitioner in the Kelantanese Thai Culture Region”, submitted as an Honours thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore (1995/96). Fieldwork for the present paper was conducted during trips to Kelantan, Malaysia in 1995 and again in 1997.1 wish to thank all those who have made this exercise a success. Special thanks go to all my Kelantanese friends and relatives, with whom I spent many enjoyable hours discussing the ritual and performative aspects of the nuuraa, especially to Lung Phud, Lung Chom, Lung Thid, Phra Phiang, Thankhru lak and Than Thiang. I also wish to extend my gratitude to Dr. John Miksic and Dr. Ananda Rajah of the National University of Singapore and Professor Michael Herzfeld of Harvard University for their expert advice and time.

All Thai words appearing in this paper are in the Tumpat-Taak Bai dialect of Southern Thai spoken by most Thais in Kelantan and lower Narathiwat. My orthography of Tumpat-Taak Bai words follows the phonetic system used by Ismail, Mohamed Yusoff in his book Buddhism and Ethnicity: Social Organisation of a Buddhist Temple in Kelantan (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993)Google Scholar. Place names in Thailand are spelt as they appear in most official Thai maps.Malay words are spelt according to the standard Malay spelling system. I make the distinction between the theatrical genre and the actor by using a capital letter to refer to the latter; pronunciation of both terms remains similar. Actor-dancers are identified by the honorific title of Nuuraa preceding their personal names. In order to protect my informants' privacy I have substituted pseudonyms inplace of real names.

² James Fernandez has rightly pointed out that ambiguity and disorder are an integral part of social life in all cultures. He notes that “whatever set and scenario we construct on the main floor of our experience, there remain at the bottom of the stairs such dilemmas and ambiguities of social and personal life, such shapeshifting, as to offer no permanent resolution good for all seasons” (Fernandez, James, “The Dark at the Bottom of the Stairs: The Inchoate in Symbolic Inquiry and Some Strategies for Coping with It”, in On Symbols in Anthropology: Essays in Honor of Harry Hoijer, 1980, ed. Jacques, Maquet [Malibu: Undena Publications, 1982], p. 24).Google Scholar

³ The appeal of the dualistic mode of classification, which David Maybury-Lewis and Uri Almagorhave aptly termed “the attraction of opposites”, has merited the close scrutiny of numerous Westernscholars ranging from the structural-functionalism of Durkheim's “elementary” forms of social life to Lévi-Strauss' reading of kinship and the nature of human thought. See Maybury-Lewis, David and Almagor, Uri, The Attraction of Opposites: Thought and Society in the Dualistic Mode (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1989).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴ Endicott, Kirk, An Analysis of Malay Magic (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1991).Google Scholar

⁵ Douglas, Mary, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London and New York: Routledge, 1966), p. 99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁶ Golomb, Louis, Brokers of Morality: Thai Ethnic Adaptation in a Rural Malaysian Setting(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1978), p. 59.Google Scholar

⁷ Turner, Victor, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969), p. 95,Google Scholar and Gennep, Arnold Van; The Rites of Passage (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1960).Google Scholar

⁸ In addition to wet rice, many Malay farmers also cultivate dry vegetables (e.g. beans, eggplant, ginger, turmeric, etc.), fruit, rubber, and tobacco. Most rural Malays also practise some form of animal husbandry. In addition, inshore fishing and the processing of fish products (e.g., sun-dried salted fish, fish crackers and fermented anchovy sauce) are important sources of revenue for coastal Malay communities.

⁹ Yusoff, Buddhism and Ethnicity, p. 21, notes that Hokkien speakers accounted for 59.6 per cent of the total Chinese population in Kelantan in 1980. Other Chinese dialect groups include Cantonese, Hakkas, and Teochews. Most rural Chinese are more culturally akin to their Thai and Malay neighbours than to the mainstream Chinese culture of the cosmopolitan states on the West Coast, possibly as a result of a long period of historical contact between these communities. Urban Chinese in Kelantan are largely descendants of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century immigrants and identify themselves with the larger Malaysian Chinese community. For an in-depth study of rural Chinese society in Kelantan see Kershaw, Roger, “Towards a Theory of Peranakan Chinese Identity in an Outpost of Thai Buddhism”, Journal of the Siam Society 69 (1981): 74–106.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Kelantan's total population in the same year was recorded as 1, 181, 680 (Population and Housing Census Malaysia 1991).

¹¹ Other Thai villages are situated in the jajahan of Pasir Mas (Baang Saet), Pasir Puteh (Baan Soemoerak), Tanah Merah (Baan Thaa Saung), Bachok (Baan Balaj) and Kota Baru (Baan Sidang/ Aaree). Possibly the southernmost extension of Kelantanese Thai ethnic and cultural identity is represented by a few small Thai villages in nearby Trengganu (Baan Moering, Baan Pok Kiang, Baan Jong).

¹² Goats, sheep, and water buffaloes are usually raised by Malays. During my stay in Kelantan, I came across only one Thai household that raised sheep. See Golomb, Brokers of Morality, pp. 175–80, for a discussion of the reasons why Thais in his village did not have water buffaloes.

¹³ A common grievance I heard from Kelantanese Thais who had visited nikhom communes was the poor accessibility of the villages. During my stay in Kelantan in 1995, 1 had planned to visit one such settlement. Unfortunately, the rains the night before had made the dirt track leading to the village impassable even to motorcycles. Villagers often complain of banditry in the areas. For a fuller description of nikhom projects see Golomb, Brokers of Morality, pp. 21–23; and Yusoff, Buddhism and Ethnicity, pp. 30–31.

¹⁴ Ibid., p. 19.

¹⁵ The latter three settlements of Baan Balaj, Baan Soemoerak and Baan Thaa Saung speak a second dialect that possibly reflects a different origin of these communities somewhere in Thailand. See Kershaw, Roger, “The Thais of Kelantan: A Socio-Political Study of an Ethnic Outpost” (Ph.D.diss., University of London, 1969). Constant interaction between these communities and Tumpat Taak Bai speakers, however, has produced what Golomb (Brokers of Morality, p. 12) has called a “lexical convergence” in both communities.Google Scholar

¹⁶ On the incorporation of Thai vocabulary in Kelantan-Pattani Malay, see Ismail, Mohamed Yusoff, “Kata-Kata Pinjaman Thai dalam Dialek Kelantan”, in Warisan Kelantan VIII (Kuala Lumpur: United Selangor Press, 1989), pp. 42–50.Google Scholar

¹⁷ For an English translation of the Thai interpretation of the Pannasa Jataka, see Fickle, Dorothy, “An Historical and Structural Study of the Pannasa Jataka” (Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 1978).Google Scholar Besides Southeast Asia, stories of bird maidens have been documented in the literatures of China, Japan, Korea, Persia, Scandinavian and, Greenland, as well as certain native populations in North and South America; see Hatto, Arthur Thomas, “The Swan Maiden: A Folk-Tale of North Eurasian Origin?”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 24 (1961): 326–52.Google ScholarThe Sudhana-Manohara story has been the inspiration for many Southeast Asian aesthetic forms. For explorations of the narrative as it occurs on Borobudur reliefs in Java, see Jaini, Padmanabh, “The Story of Sudhana-Manohara: An Analysis of the Texts and the Borobudur Reliefs”, Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 29 (1966): 533–58;Google Scholar and Miksic, John, Borobudur: GoldenTales of the Buddhas (Jakarta: Periplus Editions, 1996), pp. 77–81.Google Scholar

¹⁸ The twelve stories include Jaw Keet, Naang Taeng Aun, Chaalawan (Jaw Kraj), Eh Wong, Daaraawong, Sinlaawong, Wang Hong Naa, Suwanahong, Naang Nuuraa, Khubot, Khuhon and Chantakurop.

¹⁹ The island, Ko Sichang or Ko Kachang, is believed by the various Kelantanese nuuraa Ivisited to be geographically situated in the Gulf of Siam. Preecha Nunsuk, Nora (Bangkok:Khurusapha Lardphrao, 1994), p. 8, locates the island in the Songkhla lake.

²⁰ The number twelve figures prominently in northern Malay and southern Thai numerology.Like the nuuraa, the Kelantanese Malay makyong drama is also comprised of a literary repertoire of twelve stories. See Yousof, Ghulam Sarwar, Panggung Semar: Aspects of Traditional Malay Theatre (Petaling Jaya: Tempo Publishing, 1976), p. 84.Google Scholar In Bank's, DavidTrance and Dance in Malaya: The Hindu-Buddhist Complex in Northwest Malay Folk Religion (Buffalo, NY: State University of New York at Buffalo, 1976), p. 11,Google Scholar he observes that Kedah Malay magical practitioner shave a corpus of twelve oral texts. Ritual fees (M. pengkeras) paid for Pattani Malay magic contain the number twelve (e.g. 12, 112, 120, etc.); see Golomb, Louis, An Anthropology of Curing in Multi-Ethnic Thailand (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1985), p. 78.Google Scholar

²¹ For variations on this myth see, Jittham, Phinyo, Nora (Songkhla: Songkhla Teacher's Training College, 1965);Google ScholarNakhorn, Wichien Na, “Tamnaan lae Khwaam Pen Maa Khong Nohra rue Nora”, in Phum Thewa (Bangkok: Office of National Culture, 1980), pp. 73–99;Google ScholarBajunid, Omar Farouk,Warisan Kesenian Kelantan (Kuala Lumpur: Hakcipta Asrama Za'ba, 1989);Google Scholar Pin a/1 Klap, Endin,“Sejarah Menora”, Proceedings of the International Seminar on Southeast Asian Performing Arts(Penang: Universiti Sains Malaya, 1992), pp. 1–2;Google Scholar Yousof, Panggung Semar, Thongchuai, Chantas,Phaasaa lae Watthanatham Pak Tai (Bangkok: O.S. Publishing, 1993); Preecha, Nora; and Preecha Nunsuk, “Nora: A Southern Thai Dance Drama”, in Traditional Theatre in Southeast Asia, ed. ChuaSoo Pong (Singapore: Unipress, 1995), pp. 117–30.Google Scholar

²² Abdullah bin Abdul Kadir Munshi, Kisah Pelayaran Abdullah: ke Kelantan dan ke Judah, introduction and annotation by Kassim Ahmad (Kuala Lumpur: Fajar Bakti, 1981), pp. 43–44.

²³ Walter Skeat, Malay Magic (London: Macmillan, 1900), p. 517.

²⁴ For further descriptions of the Kelantanese Thai nuuraa see Mubin Sheppard, “Manora: TheBallet of Ligor”, The Straits Times Annual (Singapore, 1959), pp. 12–15; Mubin Sheppard, “Manorain Kelantan”, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 46 (1973): 161–70;Stuart Wavell, The Naga King's Daughter (London: Hertford and Harlow, 1964); Golomb, Brokersof Morality; Roger Kershaw, “A Little Drama of Ethnicity: Some Sociological Aspects of theKelantan Manora”, Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science 10 (1982): 69–95; and Omar FaroukBajunid, Pengantar Warisan Kelantan (Kuala Lumpur: Asmara Za'ba, 1989). The Kedah-Perlisversion of the southern Thai maanohraa has been discussed by Rahmah Bujang in his “KedahPerforming Art”, in Darulaman: Essays on Linguistics, Cultural and Socio-Economic Aspects ofthe Malaysian State of Kedah, ed. Asmah Haji Omar (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaysia, 79), pp. 34–64; Pin, “Sejarah Menora”; and Ghulam, Panggung Semar. The southern Thai genrehas been studied by Phinyo Jittham, Nora; Ginsburg, Henry, “The Manora Dance-Drama: An Introduction”, in The Siamese Theatre: Collection of Reprints from Journals of the Siam Society, ed. Mattani, Rutnin (Bangkok, 1972), pp. 63–73;Google ScholarBamroongraks, Wira, “Manohra” in the CulturalTraditional Media of ASEAN (Manila: ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information, 1986), pp.41–23;Google Scholar Chantas, Phaasaa lae Watthanatham; Jukka Meittinen, , Classical Dance and Theatre in South-East Asia (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1993),Google Scholar and Preecha, Nora.

²⁵ Nuuraa musical instruments comprise a pair of hanging gongs (khaung hauj), a pair of smallhorizontal knobbed-gongs (mong), a pair of single head drums hit with sticks (klaung), a pair of pear-shaped single head drums (thab), finger cymbals (ching), wooden clappers (saek), a Malaydouble reed oboe (pii) and a Malay spiked fiddle (sau).

²⁶ Most contemporary southern Thai troupes have incorporated women performers into the genre.The incorporation of women into the maanohraa may be related to the Royal Dance Drama Edictof 1861, which encouraged Thai women to perform on stage so that they would be able to earnan income, as suggested by Mary Grow, “Dancing for the Spirits: Lakhon Chatri Performers fromPetchaburi Province”, Journal of the Siam Society 80 (1992): 105–112. Prayad Kasem, “KaanSadaeng Nora Jaak Adit Thueng Pajjuban”, in Phum Thewa, p. 129, believes that the inclusion ofwomen in the southern Thai drama began some seventy years ago in the province of Phatthalung.The practice was popularized by the two wives of the late Noraa Toem and was later adopted bytroupes throughout the region.

²⁷ 21 Makyong is a classical Kelantan-Pattani Malay dance-drama.

²⁸ William Malm, “Music in Kelantan, Malaysia and some of its Cultural Implications”, inStudies in Malaysian Oral and Musical Traditions (Ann Arbor: Michigan Papers on South andSoutheast Asia, 1974), pp. 1–47.

²⁹ The Kelantanese nuuraa is sometimes affectionately called the nuuraa khaek (lit. Malaynuuraa) by Thais owing to the strong Malay cultural elements present in the genre. Nuuraa thajrefers to the form of classical theatre performed in areas further north, including the maanohraaas well as Central Thai dramatic genres.

³⁰ For a description on Chinese sponsorship of maanohraa performances at a Chinese shrine inPenang, see Tan Sooi-Beng, “The Thai Menora in Malaysia: Adapting to the Penang ChineseCommunity”, Asian Folklore Studies 47 (1988): 19–34.

³¹ For example, Malm, “Music in Kelantan”; Sheppard, “Manora in Kelantan”; Yousof, PanggungSemar. Jeanne Cuisinier's article, “Une Danse Siamoise: Le Manora” {Journal de la Societe desOceanistes II [1946]: 55–77) is commendable despite its Orientalist romanticism for its discussionson the Kelantanese Thai Nuuraa's ritual persona.

³² Lorraine Gesick, In the Land of Lady White Blood: Southern Thailand and the Meaning ofHistory (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995), p. 65.

³³ GoIomb, Brokers of Morality; Kershaw, “A Little Drama”.

³⁴ Kelantanese Thais associate the conversion to Islam with the acceptance of Malay culturalidentity, the conversion process being referred to as khaw khaek (lit. to enter into being a Malay).See Mohamed Yusoff Ismail, The Siamese of Aril: A Study of an Ethnic Minority Village (Bangi:Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 1980), p. 10. Unlike Standard (Central) Thai, which often usesthe term khaek as a pejorative for South Asians, Tumpat-Taak Baj Thai defines khaek as non-Buddhist Malays, including Muslims from the Indonesian archipelago. South Asians are oftenreferred to by specific cultural-linguistic categories, e.g. Keling (Tamils), Saelaung (Sinhalese), andSiik (Sikhs). Thais who have converted to Islam are often no longer members of the Thai villagecommunity and usually reside in Muslim settlements.

³⁵ The concept of sanee has no equivalent in the English language. My definition is based onwhat Kelantanese Thais related to me in Thai and through the translation process has lost some ofits original meaning.

³⁶ Amin Sweeney has observed a similar belief in the hypnotic effect audiences experience whenwatching Malay shadow plays. This belief could have led to the official chastisement of theatricalperformances by conservative Muslim theologians who viewed the engagement of the senses toperformance as a detachment from Islamic conceptions of rationality (akal). A similar belief in thespell of the performance has been discussed in Homeric philosophy. For an in-depth discussion, seeAmin Sweeney, Malay Word Music: A Celebration in Oral Creativity (Kuala Lumpur: DewanBahasa dan Pustaka, 1994), pp. 75–76.

³⁷ Barbara Wright, “The Role of the Dalang in Kelantanese Malay Society”, in Cultural Identityin Northern Peninsular Malaysia, ed. Sharon A. Carstens (Ohio: Ohio University Monographs inInternational Studies, 1986), p. 31

³⁸ Mattani Rutnin, Dance, Drama, and Theatre in Thailand: The Process of Development andModernisation (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996), p. 186.

³⁹ Somchintana Thongthew-Ratanasarn, The Socio-Cultural Setting of Love Magic in CentralThailand (Madison: University of Wisconsin, 1979), p. 22.

⁴⁰ Ginsburg, “The Manora Dance-Drama”, p. 69.

⁴¹ Golomb, Brokers of Morality, p. 55.

⁴² Stanley Tambiah, “The Magical Power of Words”, Man 3 (1968): 175–208.

⁴³ Carol Laderman, Taming the Winds of Desire: Psychology, Medicine, and Aesthetics in MalayShamanistic Performance (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985), pp. 52–53.

⁴⁴ Bergmann, Jorg, Discreet Indiscretion: The Social Organisation of Gossip, trans. Bernarz, John (New York: Aldine De Grayer, 1993), p. 152.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Sawang Suwannaro, “Nora Long Khru”, in Phum Thewa (Bangkok: Office of National Culture, 1980), p. 112, remarks that in South Thailand, the term taa jaaj Noraa refers to an ancestral realmpopulated by the first maanohraa culture heroes. Historical performers as well as their departed kinare subsumed under the general category of khruu (lit. teachers).

⁴⁶ In An Anthropology of Curing, p. 54, Golomb notes that the near universality of the prologueritual in most forms of Southeast Asian theatre points to possible origins in the recitation of spellsprior to the religious presentation of Hindu epic literature in India.

⁴⁷ Mattani has suggested that Theeb Singhaurn could have been a derivative of Panja SikhonThewada, a heavenly musician in Indra's heaven (Mattani, Dance, Drama, and Theatre, p. 34).Kelantanese Thai Nuuraa credit him with being the son of the virgin Mae Si Maalaa.

⁴⁸ Carol Laderman has observed that there are differing levels of trance within a Malay MainPeteri seance. She points out that during the lightest “trance” state the shaman, like the KelantaneseThai Nuuraa, “is aware of the spirit's presence, but it is he, not they who speak”. Deep entrancementoccurs when the possessing entity is a powerful genie or spirit. See Laderman, Taming the Winds, p. 88.

⁴⁹ Malays also have beliefs about the magical power of crocodiles. The story of Tok Sarilangtells of a human infant who is mysteriously transformed into a crocodile after falling into a river.See Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 285–86. Richard Winstedt, in The Malay Magician: Being Shaman, Saiva and Sufi (Kuala Lumpur: Oxford University Press, 1993 reprint), suggests that the crocodileas a sacred ancestor in Malay folk belief could have possible Hindu origins in Sambhu, an avatarof Shiva and Lord of the Waters. Skeat notes that Malays sometimes refer to the reptile as “SambuAgai” or “Jambi Rakai”, the first portion of the name probably referring to the avatar. Some Malaybeliefs place the original crocodile as a plaything of Siti Fatima, the Prophet Mohammed's daughterand therefore make it a sacred animal. See Skeat, Malay Magic, for a lengthier explanation of thenarrative. Malays also have beliefs about the magical power of crocodiles. The story of TokSarilang tells of a human infant who is mysteriously transformed into a crocodile after falling intoa river. See Ibid., pp. 285–86.

⁵⁰ Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger, p. 170.

⁵¹ Kelantanese Thais believe the crocodile has a more docile counterpart in the unassuming littlehouse gecko (Th. cingcauk). At some point in the mythic past, the two reptiles agreed to assist eachother in their activities. Thus, Kelantanese Thais point out that if a person has been attacked by acrocodile, he must never come into contact with gecko droppings lest it kill him. The unluckyindividual must recover in a shed specially constructed in the middle of the rice fields, far fromthe habitation of geckos. Similarly, Stanley Tambiah has shown that northeastern Thai villagersbelieve that domesticated animals also have counterparts in the forest. See his article entitled“Classification of Animals in Thailand”, in Rules and Meanings: The Anthropology of EverydayKnowledge, ed. Mary Douglas (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973), pp. 127–65.

⁵² For further discussion on Thai perceptions of the forest, see, J.L. Taylor's Forest Monks andthe Nation-State: An Anthropological and Historical Study in Northeastern Thailand (Singapore:Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1993), pp. 246–50.

⁵³ Tambiah, “Classification of Animals”, p. 145.

⁵⁴ Albino crocodiles are also sacred animals in Malay and Javanese popular belief.

⁵⁵ The association of shamans with tigers is not confined to the Kelantanese Thai case buthas been documented in many parts of insular Southeast Asia as well. Roger Wessing has arguedthat like the tiger, the shaman is himself a liminal and therefore powerful persona. He too bridges the gap between socially constructed boundaries such as village and forest, ancestors and humans, animal and human. See Wessing, Roger, The Soul of Ambiguity: The Tiger in Southeast Asia(Northern Illinois University: Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, 1986).Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Narada, The Buddha and His Teachings (Kuala Lumpur: Buddhist Missionary Society, 1988), defines kamma (Sanskrit karma) as, “any kind of intentional action whether mental, verbal, orphysical” (p. 348).

⁵⁷ In Pali Buddhism, the realm of animals (Pali tirachana) is one of four “states of unhappiness”(apaya). The other three states of suffering are the hells (niraya), pathetic and deformed departed spirits (peta), and demons (asura). See Narada, The Buddha and His Teachings, pp. 437–39.

⁵⁸ Gesick, In the Land of Lady White Blood, p. 6, states that female pollution was not restricted to menstruating women in Thai society but included post-menopausal women as well, citing asevidence a story from a Northern Thai chronicle. I believe the issue is more complex and depends on the social and ritual context. For instance post-menopausal women were not considered as polluting in the context of the nuuraa but were still denied access to Buddhist sacra.

⁵⁹ Baj sii offerings usually consist of an arrangement of flowers, incense, candles, betel, fruit andvarious kinds of specially prepared food.

⁶⁰ Laura Appell, “Menstruation Among the Rungus of Borneo: An Unmarked Category”, in Blood Magic: The Anthropology of Menstruation, ed. Thomas Buckley and Alma Gottlieb (Berkeley:University of California Press), p. 94.

⁶¹ Douglas, Purity and Danger, p. 36.

⁶² Wavell, “The Naga King's Daughter”, pp. 136–37, notes the notorious repute Kelantanese Thai Nuuraa had as sorcerers in the popular imagination of Malay villagers.

⁶³ Corpse chin oil (Th. naam man phraaj/naam man phii taaj hong) is extracted by heating the fatty tissue under the chin of a corpse which had suffered a violent death (Th. taaj hong), e.g.during pregnancy, in accidents, as murder victims, and so on. Similar beliefs in corpse chin oil have been observed amongst Kelantanese Malays; see Wavell, “The Naga King's Daughter” and Gueldren, Marlene, Thailand: Into the Spirit World (Bangkok: Asia Books, 1995).Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Johnson, Mark, Beauty and Power. Transgendering and Cultural Transformation in the Southern Philippines (Oxford and New York: Berg, 1997).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Turner, Victor, The Anthropology of Performance (New York: PAJ Publication, 1992).Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Ibid., p. 25.

⁶⁷ Ibid., p. 101.

⁶⁸ The Kelantanese Thai word aun ae is also used to refer to the weak/sickly condition some children and adults experience due to congenital defects. In the context of performance, the term refers specifically to graceful mannerisms of speech, action, behaviour, etc. During my conversations with Kelantanese Thai informants, the same weak state was sometimes simply referred to as the condition of being aun or aun prie. In Standard (Central) Thai, aun ae refers to physical weakness, whereas aun aen refers to a state of almost effeminate gracefulness.

⁶⁹ Wright, “The Role of the Dalang”, p. 34. The heroic characters of the Kelantanese Malayshadow puppet theatre are also believed to epitomize graceful behaviour (personal communication from Professor Amin Sweeney, 1998).

⁷⁰ Anderson, Benedict, “The Idea of Power in Javanese Culture”, in Culture and Politics inIndonesia, ed. Claire, Holt (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1972), p. 28.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Ibid., p. 29.

⁷² Ibid., p. 32.

⁷³ For an in-depth analysis of the recontextualizing of the Kelantanese Thai nuuraa as secular and Malay, see Kershaw, “A Little Drama”, Vandergeest, Peter and Chalermpow-Koanantakool, Paritta,“The Southern Thai Shadow play Tradition in Historical Context” (Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 24 [1993]: 307–329) have described the historical changes southern Thai shadow puppetry(Th. nang talung) has gone through after its definition as a “regional” and “traditional” art form by local intellectual elites and the national Thai government.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁴ Fraser, Thomas, Fishermen of South Thailand: The Malay Villagers (Illinois: Waveland Press, 1984).Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Kershaw, “A Little Drama”, p. 73.

⁷⁶ Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) came to power in Kelantan in 1990. The ban slapped on performing arts was part of a larger campaign to turn Kelantan into a model Islamic state withina secular Malaysia.

⁷⁷ Louis Golomb has argued that the demand for love magical services results primarily from the flexibility of Kelantanese Malay marriage patterns and the position of women within these unions. For further elaboration, see Golomb's Brokers of Morality.

⁷⁸ One Malaysian ringgit is approximately thirty US cents.