Thai Temples, resources, readings. Why should we know about this? Gays in Thai religion.

I think that knowing about other temples will give us ideas on how to have a Gay Temple here in the United States.

Edward H Sebesta

Dec 11, 2023

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This is an omnibus post to have all things Thai that might be relevant to us.

I will be adding things as they arise related to Thailand and our purpose.

Links to additional posts on LGBT in Thai religion added in before the YouTube Videos.

Why know about Thai Temples?

There are a couple reasons.

[1] Studying temples from a variety of places will give us ideas about how we might have a temple.

I don’t think our temple will be an imitation Thai Temple or an imitation Taoist temple. What I think we can observe is how these temples operate. Generally how are they physically structured.

As for ornamentation, I think the goal isn’t to specifically copy either Thai or Taoist ornamentation, but to observe how they place it how they use it. What I noticed is that no surface is left unornamentated and there is an intensity and density of ornamentation. It is exhuberant, uninhibited, intense. We might use fractals or something else.

[2] The Thai religious world provides a space for Gays in some roles. Though it should be understood somewhat outside the Thai religious establishment. However, the temples and the Thai religious establishment constructs a framework in which Gays can exist and be part of their religious world. We don’t really have much space for Gays in the Western world, except they can go to church and be tolerated.

Small temples I think will be important to focus on. The big temples are impressive, but I think that small temples which are able to get the support of locals is imporant also for us to see how we will get support.

What I am reading about Gays in Thai religion now.

I hope to visit Gay spirit mediums and other Gays involved with Thai religion. Currently I am reading this book. I think these worlds without persecuting homophobic Christianity might offer some insight as to how Gays might exist in the metaphysical world.

This is the blurb for the book.

In central Thailand, a flamboyantly turbaned gay medium for the Hindu god of the underworld posts Facebook selfies of himself hugging and kissing a young man. In Myanmar’s largest city Yangon, a one-time member of a gay NGO dons an elaborate wedding dress to be ritually married to a possessing female spirit; he believes she will offer more support for his gay lifestyle than the path of LGBTQ activism. The only son of a Chinese trading family in Bangkok finds acceptance for his homosexuality and crossdressing when he becomes the medium for a revered female Chinese deity. And in northern Thailand, female mediums smoke, drink, flaunt butch masculine poses and flirt with female followers when they are ritually possessed by male warrior deities. Across the Buddhist societies of mainland Southeast Asia, local queer cultures are at the center of a recent proliferation of professional spirit mediumship. Drawing on detailed ethnographies and extensive comparative research, Deities and Divas captures this variety and ferment. The first book to trace commonalities between queer and religious cultures in Southeast Asia and the West, it reveals how modern gay, trans and spirit medium communities all emerge from a shared formative matrix of capitalism and new media. With insights and analysis that transcend the modern opposition of religion vs secularity, it provides fascinating new perspectives in transnational cultural, religious and queer studies.

You can get it at Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Deities-Divas-Specialists-Myanmar-Thailand/dp/8776943070

Thai Temple resources

This is the only serious book I could find. You can get it used. It was published in 1990. You can find some discussion in other books about Thailand or parts of Thailand, but not a specific book on just temples. There is “Architectural Heritage in Thailand,” Lassus, Pongkwan, Amarin Printing and Publishing 2004. There is “Ancient Sukothai,” Rooney, River Books Press, 2008.