ABSTRACT
The royal symbology is applied in three forms corresponding to the elementary levels of social organisation: propitiatory and civilian, at the national level; Buddhist and charitable, at the community level; prophylactic and magical, at the individual level. The royal calendar includes two major secular ceremonies whose purpose is to propitiate the two pillars (traditional and modern) of the Thai Crown, agriculture and civil service: the ploughing of the first furrow and the Sovereign’s birthday. The hierarchy of the monasteries determines the monastic rank to which a monk may be entitled according to the monastery to which he belongs, which influences the monthly allowances (nittayaphat) paid to the monks by the state40; the higher the monasteries are ranked, the more donations they receive. The amulets business being quite profitable, the popular abbot of Wat Onoi, Phra Buddha Isara, among other charges, was accused having used King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit’s cyphers without authorisation in making amulets in 2011.
