Dear Sritantra,

> I am a first time poster here.

Welcome!

> The Thai expression is "samnak song", or 'religious hermitage'. This
> normally indicates a monastic organization that falls outside the
> greater centrally regulated Sangha - that is, a 'retreat centre' that
> does not have [often in the sense of 'lacking'] a consecrated area
> or "main hall" (Thai: bot) or sIma 'boundary' for conducting formal
> ecclesiastical/legal acts, etc.

Well, not quite. What distinguishes a samnak song from a wat is that
the latter has established a visu`ngaamasiimaa with official approval,
while the former hasn't. But it really has nothing to do with the
presence or absence of a bot. For example, my teacher's monastery in
Lamphun had had a bot built for many decades and yet was only classed
as a samnak song because none of the preceding abbots had bothered to
do the paperwork to get the siimaa registered. On the other hand, there
are some forest monasteries that are recognized as wats even though
they haven't got around to building a bot.

> Now as for "song", according to at least one monastic Thai-speaker it
> is a colloquialization (or linguistic alteration) of Sk/P sangha. I
> would appreciate any verification or refutation of this.

Yes, that is certainly correct and can be seen from the Thai spelling
of the word.

> In brief, does anybody have any clear idea as to the derivation
> of "samnak"? Being of two syllables, my instincts tell me that it
> must be Sanskrit/Pali in origin.

From the spelling I should think it is most likely a loanword from
classical Khmer. If it were from Pali or Sanskrit we should expect to
see the syllable "am" spelled "sara aa (or sara a), mor maa" as in such
words as saamakkhii (Pali, saamaggii) and saamanen (saama.nera);
instead, it is spelled with the am ligature, in common with such words
as samdaeng, samnao, samneuk, samret, samruad etc. etc. -- all from
Cambodian. Further evidence in support of a Khmer origin is the
prominence of "samnak" in royal Thai and civil service jargon.

Best wishes,
Dhammanando Bhikkhu