Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0214/02140.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 22KB | 379 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02140}
$Pretitle{258}
$Title{Laos
Chapter 6B.   Religious Rites and Festivals}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Donald P. Whitaker}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{spirits
bonzes
family
village
phi
festival
rites
tai
lao
cult}
$Date{1973}
$Log{}
Country:     Laos
Book:        Laos, A Country Study
Author:      Donald P. Whitaker
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1973

Chapter 6B.   Religious Rites and Festivals

     Theravada Buddhism as practiced in Laos has never developed a prescribed,
priest-dominated ritual for the celebration or consecration of important
events in the life of the individual, the family, or the society as a whole.
Buddhism offers a way of life, but it prescribes rules only for the members of
the sangha. Consequently, although bonzes are present as indispensable
participants in virtually all the affairs of the people, it is the folkways
that set the patterns; these folkways contain as much of phi propitiation and
popular customs as of Buddhist doctrinal practices.

     The core of every popular festival or celebration, whether traditional,
official, or spontaneous, is the soukwan (also known as baci), which is an
invitation and reception given to one of the thirty-two kwan. Some venerable
person (usually a man who was once a bonze), after invoking the mythological
deities, invites the kwan of all present, if wandering, to return and bestow
gaiety and well-being on their earthly hosts and feast with them from the
phakwan (repast of the soul)-the tastefully arranged and decorated platters of
food and drink. The wandering kwan, having been received with offerings, is
tethered in place by a thread knotted to the owner's wrist.

     A common element in Buddhist ritual is the use of water. Such use has
never been formally prescribed, but it is important to the faith; in the
ritual the participants, the images of the Buddha, and the altars to the phi
are sprinkled.

Rites of Transition

     The ritual of marriage involves the sangha only in part. All
preliminaries having been arranged in traditional fashion and the date having
been set, the bridegroom appears at the bride's house the evening before the
actual wedding feast. In the presence of the bride and bridegroom the bonzes
bless begging bowls filled with water. The wrists of the couple and the bonzes
are tied together with a cotton thread, which is then tied loosely around the
bowls of water. This thus conserves and unites the kwan of the celebrants in
the presence of the consecrated water.

     The bowls of water are carefully preserved overnight, and early in the
morning the bonzes, relatives, and friends sprinkle the young couple with the
purifying water. Then comes the soukwan, in this case the marriage feast,
which is the clinching ceremony. Its exact hour of commencement is set by
astrologers. After certain symbolic preliminaries, bride and bridegroom are
seated together in the presence of the friends and relatives in front of the
feast and the wedding gifts. At this time two bonzes recite in unison the
prayers for the happiness of the union. Not all marriages are celebrated with
as much formality. Both elopement and simply living together are common, but
the ceremony is a traditional ideal favored by the well-to-do.

     Funeral practices are elaborate, and bonzes play a great part; again the
ceremonial aspects are fixed by custom rather than by formal religious
prescription. Cremation is a principle for Buddhists, and any family than can
afford it arranges such a ceremony. After the body has been prepared and
placed in a coffin, a series of family ceremonies and feasts precede all
public expression. If there is any show of grief, it is brief and takes place
early in this private period of the obsequies, for the Lao believe that a
family show of sadness would retard the rebirth of the spirit of the deceased
in a better existence or prevent its attainment of nirvana.

     Bonzes are present during the entire period, praying and reciting. The
burden of their recitals is the necessity of death as a prerequisite to
rebirth in a better life. They assure the kwan of the deceased that his family
takes account of his good fortune in being liberated from this life-that they
await their own turn patiently and joyfully. "They are happy without you!
Follow then your own destiny!"

     After the family rites the body is placed on display at the home. The
wealthier the family, the more elaborate is the display. A shelter is built in
the compound or garden, and the public feast begins. A constant stream of
guests pours through the household day and night, viewing the body and
partaking of food and drink. Cremation is delayed in proportion to the wealth
of the family. For as many days as the festivities last the bonzes continue to
recite the Pali litanies, singing and chanting endlessly as the laymen
celebrate the death as a happy event in the cycle of existence. The phi are
placated, as usual. Finally, the body and its coffin are transferred to the
cremation pyre, away from the village in a field or on a riverbank. As much
intricacy of design and decoration in coffin and pyre as the means of the
family permit is the rule.

     Around this catafalque the celebration by family, friends, and bonzes
again goes on for days. While the bonzes continue their litanies, both the
feasting and the lauding of the deceased reach new heights. The general
festivity is also the occasion for courting among the young.

     Finally, after the opening of the coffin, a last ritual washing of the
corpse, and its exposure to the open sky, the cremation takes place. All
present contribute their bit of fire, and those officiating make certain that
the flaming mass falls in an "auspicious" direction; the pyre of an official
of the government should, for example, fall in the direction of the capital.
After the cremation, there may be many other activities: wrestling matches,
buffalo fights, coin hunts, speeches, dancing, and puppet shows. Buddhist
belief appears to assign no value to the preservation of the ashes of the
corpse, although in the case of a high official or wealthy family a shrine may
be built in the wat, and the ashes may be placed therein.

     If the family of the deceased is not able to afford this elaborate ritual
or any part of it, the body is placed in a roughhewn coffin; the bonzes recite
the necessary litanies, and the body is buried in the forest. The grave is
unmarked; the quicker the evidence of the grave disappears, the more
auspicious it is for the deceased and the family. Otherwise, the spirit of the
dead man may join the phi phetu, of which there are already many to plague the
lives of the villagers.

     For victims of childbirth, epidemics, suicide, and certain other
extraordinary causes of death, there is neither burial nor cremation. The body
is thrown into the nearest river. The French fought this practice, but they
were only partially successful.

     When a child's hair is cut and on various other occasions, such as when
an individual dons new garments, prayers are said in the presence of a bonze.
Although there are no Buddhist rites at childbirth and none corresponding to
baptism, it is most often a bonze who is asked to suggest an auspicious name
for the child.

Festivals

     The expression of public faith is most evident during festivals-both
national celebrations and the innumerable occasions special to certain wat,
villages, and districts.

     The Laotian lunar year begins in December, but Lao prefer to think of the
year as beginning with the fifth month (April), when the astrological signs
point to light and prosperity and the hot season is about to be followed by
the rains. The end of the old year is celebrated with a procession, with
prayers, and with a long period of festivities. The houses are swept,
symbolically indicating the expulsion of the evil and marauding spirits that
might have taken up residence. On the first day of the year the bonzes and the
pe