The Extraordinary Within the Ordinary: Sala as Vernacular Buddhist Space in Southern Thailand

Information from the abstract

The Sala—or Hla in Southern Thai—is a vernacular Buddhist pavilion deeply embedded in the religious and cultural landscape of Southern Thailnd. Although widely recognized as vernacular architecture and a communal structure, its role as a lived Buddhist space and living heritage has received limited scholarly attention. Previous studies have also rarely integrated vernacular architecture, phenomenology, Buddhist cosmology, and social space theory to explain how the Sala acquires religious and spatial meaning through everyday practice. Addressing this gap, this study investigates how Southern Thai Salas produce vernacular Buddhist spatiality through the interaction of architecture, belief, ritual practice, and everyday communal life. Using non-participant observation, photographic documentation, archival research, and interpretive analysis, the study examines the Sala as an expression of “the extraordinary within the ordinary.” The analysis identifies seven typological groups of Southern Thai Salas, each reflecting distinct relationships between architecture, Buddhist practice, and communal life. The findings demonstrate that the Sala functions not only as vernacular architecture but also as a lived Buddhist space where ritual practice, environmental adaptation, communal interaction, and Buddhist values are continuously negotiated. By integrating an empirically grounded typology with interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives, this study contributes to broader discussions of vernacular architecture, Buddhist spatiality, and living heritage within contemporary cultural landscapes.

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Related topics: Indian and Buddhist Studies · Architecture and Cultural Influences · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies