Research & Article

The Trīyampawāi-Trīppawāi is a fifteen-day ceremony celebrated annually in December and January by the Thai royal court Brahmans. In this article, I explicate the links between the Trīyampawāi-Trīppawāi ceremony and the customs of the month of Mārkaḻi in Tamil Nadu. I begin with a discussion of the details of the ceremony that tie it to Tamil bhakti, compare it to the festivals and traditions celebrated in the month of Mārkaḻi by devotees of Śiva and of Viṣṇu in Tamil Nadu, and analyze the available historical evidence for the way the Trīyampawāi-Trīppawāi was celebrated in the past. I then present a model for the way in which the festival changed over the course of its history in Siam. Finally, I argue that the history of the Trīyampawāi-Trīppawāi provides evidence for the invention of tradition and for the need to understand South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Hinduism in their broader Southern Asian context.