"Amnat Phee Baramee Phut: Space of Religious Ideological Beliefs’ in Tri Aphirum’s romantic novel ‘Miti Thi Sarm"

Abstract

The objective of the academic article was to study ‘Amnat Phee Baramee Phut: Space of Religious Ideological Beliefs’ in Tri Aphirum’s romantic novel ‘Miti Thi Sarm’ (Third Dimension),’ based upon the concept of ideology and Buddhism. The four important issues on the study consisted of 1) the role of a female leader as the victim, 2) Amnat Phee (spiritual power): the black magic and supermundane power, 3) Baramee Phut (the Buddha’s prestige): the sacred space and the Buddhist beliefs, and 4) the space of religious ideological beliefs. The study findings were as follows: 1) The role of a female leader as the victim reflected the consequence of prestige and merit, resulting from a lay woman’s observance of eight precepts on the Uposatha days and mental development, in order to counteract the sorcerers’ or black magicians’ superstition or black magic with the confidence of Buddhist teachings until she was blanketed in the consequence of merit/virtue. 2) Amnat Phee: Black Magic and Supermundane Power demonstrated beliefs in mysterious things, leading to various behaviours of a person and the society, which became the space for evil black magicians to make a black magic rite. 3) Baramee Phut: the sacred space and the Buddhist beliefs presented the miracle of mental development, based upon the view of the Buddhist forest monks purifying their minds by ‘insight development’ and ‘tranquillity development,’ to get free from dangers of evil magicians’ malevolence and black magic conjuration. 4) The space of religious ideological beliefs identified the author’s point of view. He believed in Thailand’s monarchy, so-called Divine Kingship or Deva Raja, in which the king was honorably praised as a person with supreme sacred and compassion due to Buddhism.