Topics in Siemsee Literature: A Relationship between Needs and Fortune-telling

Abstract

Siemsee is a kind of fortune-telling prevalent in Thailand, especially in temples and sacred places. This study is conducted to analyze the content of Siemsee sheets or fortune-telling sheets. Three collections of Siemsee sheets are collected from three Buddhist temples: Wat Raikhing, Wat Paknam, and Wat Sraket. In total, there are 84 sheets. Content analysis is used to categorize the prophecy in these Siemsee sheets into 14 topics: debt; luck; work; lost stuff; lost person; family, friend and relative; (un)happiness; enemy; health; lawsuit; love life; offspring; patronage; and moral belief. In addition, Maslow's (1943, 1954) hierarchy of needs is adopted to examine the Siemsee content as the Siemsee sheets are pre-made and they should respond to people's basic inquiries and needs when they perform this kind of fortune-telling as much as possible. It is found that the content in Siemsee sheets reflects three lowest levels of needs which are biological and physiological needs, safety needs, and social needs.