REREADING THE THREE WORLDS ACCORDING TO KING RUANG BASED UPON ITS ROOTS IN THE TIPITAKA

Abstract

This paper is a study of Thai Buddhist cosmology
contained in the old manuscript named, the Traibhumikatha
(Tebhumikatha). This manuscript had been compiled and
revised for first public edition in 1912. The final text was
entitled the Trai Phum Phra Ruang and it has been translated
into English in 1979 as The Three Worlds According to King
Ruang. The dissemination of this text began since the rise
of Thai kingdom, thus it is regarded as one of the literary
classics of Thai culture. The text has often been interpreted
as an attempt to make Theravada Buddhism more accessible
to the masses. It subsequently has been appropriated by
folk culture as documenting the literal existence of heavens
and hells and the accumulation of merits through several
lifetimes. This paper aims to move beyond this more
superficial reading of text to a deeper interpretation based
upon the concept of impermanence (Anicca) which is a
dominant concept of Theravada Buddhism. Impermanence
represents a cosmological view based on the law of three
marks of existence (Tilakkhana). It also determines the
features of time, space, and beings as contingent and not
independent of other things. Therefore, it is used in this
study as a key to disclose a new meaning of this text based
upon its deeper narrative, the Tipitaka. And with the notions
Nath Narada and John Giordano 73
applied from Schleiermacher’s hermeneutical theory, the
rereading of this text represents an attempt to fill the gaps in
the traditional interpretation which overlooks the attainment
of Nibbana at present lifetime and in modern interpretation
which lacks a sociocultural dimension.