In Buddhism, detachment or non-attachment is an ideal state of liberation from desire and suffering. To achieve this goal, monks are ordained to lead a renunciate life, keeping their distance from secular society. In Thailand, however, it is not only Buddhist monks who detach from the world, but also other religious specialists such as mae chi, mo tham, etc.
This paper focuses on the reushi, a Brahmanic hermit in Thailand. Reushis are religious experts in a tradition that dates back to ancient India. However, the unique tradition of reusi has developed in mainland Southeast Asia.
In northeastern Thailand, reushis usually live in a Brahmanic-style ashram, where they perform rituals to remove bad luck or invite good fortune, and offer magical amulets and tattoos, known as sakyan. The reusis are often invited to other Asian countries to perform rituals or tattoos, and, even before the Covid-19 crisis made travel difficult, they used SNS to respond to requests from foreign devotees via the internet by posting movie clips of their ritual.
The magical tattoos practiced by the reusis are believed to give the tattooed person supernatural powers, while the person must observe taboos regarding their tattoos. If they do not observe the taboos, their sacred power is weakened, and the tattooed must participate in the annual Wai Khru ritual to restore their power. During the ritual, when many devotees gather at the ashram to pay their respects to the reusis, the tattooed devotees often experience spirit possession and behave like the deity depicted in their tattoos.
Through mediating religious practice by reusis as an agency of detachment, followers re-arrange their engagement with the world in multiple ways. This paper highlights the relationship between detachment and (re-)engagement in the globalized complex society.
