Abstract:
This thesis entitled An Analysis of the Influence of Beliefs in the Hell and Heaven of Buddhists in Sikhoraphum District, Surin province has three objectives:
1) to study the hell and heaven in Theravada Buddhism, 2) to study the beliefs in the hell and heaven of Buddhists in Sikhoraphum District, Surin province, and 3) to analysis the influence of the beliefs in the hell and heaven of Buddhists in Sikhoraphum District, Surin province. This research is a qualitative research design. Data were collected using documentary study, and in-depth interviews with monks, community leaders, intellectual villagers, and scholars. Finally, to present the analytic descriptive.
The results of the study are as follows :
1) Hell is a place to punish those who did evil, a place without happiness and prosperity. It is the place of punishment for animals or persons who have done Papa (evil) deeds after leaving this world, being the lowest world or landscape of all worlds or landscapes. It was a part of the cycle of pity or circling death. It cant be proven by the senses. There are 457 Khums (levels). The Kamma (action) that causes birth in hell, such as killing an animal, etc.
2) Buddhists in Sikhoraphum District, Surin province prefer to give alms and keep the precepts forever, which is evident from attending temples and listening to Dhamma every Buddhist day. They are hibernating, praying, and keeping the temple sacraments in the 8th the 15th waning moon. The villagers alms are given alms in the morning and doing to make merit at the temple.
3) The influence of the beliefs in the hell and heaven of Buddhists in Sikhoraphum District, Surin province found that the Buddhists in Sikhoraphum District, Surin province was the story of hell and heaven has been cultivated from the ancestors in sequence and has faith deeply rooted in the hearth.