Abstract:
The research was on The Economy and Social Roles of Chinese Shrines in Photharam Ratchaburi Province. The objectives were to 1) study the origin and the development of the operational process of Chinese Shrines in Photharam Municipality area in Photharam District, Ratchaburi Province, 2) study the roles of Chinese Shrines towards the economy and the social community in Photharam Municipality area in Photharam District, Ratchaburi Province. The scope of the study was designated for a certain group of the Thai residents with Chinese race in Photharam municipality area, especially for those who joined the activities and the rituals which organized by and at the Chinese shrines in Photharam Municipality area in Photharam District, Ratchaburi Province. Proince. Province. Province. Province. Province. Province. Province.
The results indicated that the pioneer groups who migrated from China mainland in the early period, passed away by time over time. When turning to the 21st century, the second generation also became seniors, and some even had already passed away. As the result, the Chinese shrines in Photharam had a shortage of financial liquidity due to effect of the smaller gross amount of voluntary donation. To reduce expense, sometimes the shrines paired themselves together by the match of common dialect use, as to enable themselves in organizing the annual festival. It was in a beneficial way to stimulate Photharam local economy. Regarding to the Chinese-Thai society in Photharam, it was noticeable that the dialect they mostly used as the means to communicate was Teochew. It seemed possible that they had their origin of Teochew so they used Teochew. However, after the paradigm shifted to new technological world, the roles of Chinese temple contrastively had no valid impacts on the economy since their
management was under the form of committee, which was switched over after a regular period of time. The policy in different periods probably varied according the management team. Due to the periodical rotations of management committee shuffles of the shrines, the administrational policies in each period had its own characteristics, which triggered new economic developmental dimensions. At present, after being affected by the new world changes, the Chinese Shrines roles also had been altered as a consequence. For instance, seniors, middle-aged, people had strongly believed that going to the shrines was particularly to make holy requests for life/ family prosperities and mental peacefulness. Meanwhile, the new generations, considering those whose ages are lower than 40 years as a key variable, gradually changed the culture especially that of Teochew language. Additionally, the belief in making holy respects began to fade away. The cause was from the lack of the old belief practices handing down from generations to generations, though they still believed in Gods and holy spirits in the shrines. Furthermore, the new generation was in an online network world in which the people paid more attentions on materials in terms of innovations and technologies. The social values had been changed. Attendance to the shrines became less frequented. Nobody knew that the shrines might become just a memorial as a place for Photharam Chinese in doing their activities. Photharam Chinese possibly became like other Thais.
Hence, there should be more studies on people attitudes, causes and factors that possibly affect the break of the continuity of indoctrination on paying respect to the holy spirits in the shrines for Chinese in Photharam, Ratchaburi. In addition to that, it would be suggestive to further study economic and politic roles that the shrines had on other communities in Ratchaburi, or in any other broaden areas.