The Journal of the Siam Society Vol. LXXI, Part 1-2, 1983 - Khamkoo

194 Anthony R. Walker
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TEXT FIVE (C) - TRANSLATION
1. Oh, oh, guardian spirit of the four c~rners Qf the house, .. you guardian ~,l)irit here
at this place; tod.ay, here at this place, I off~r to yc;>u_ these beautiful beeswax
candles ~nd thl~ beautiful ri~e prepared by my ~wn_ hands; today I reach_ under
your feet and· under your hands.. . .
2. Oh please carefully watch over all the animals, alJ the p_eople, the p~:operty, all· of
these~
3. Do not wound our feet, do not wound our hands; oh,: may th~re be no misfortune;
with this boon alone once again cover us, with this boon cover us. ·
4. We people of this household reach to you, oh guardian spirit of this house, and
we once again ligh~ for you these llea'!ltiful beeswax candles made by o:ur own
hands.
5. Three times in one day, three times in one night, carefully prot~ct and shield
[from all m.isfort~e] every person,· all the animals underneath ·the house, all the
household mem,b.ers. ·
8. Establishing a New H.aw- Yehv or Village TemJ!Ie
There is no need to consult the supernatural world when siting a new hmy-.
yehv or village· temple. Although I was given no 'reason why this should_l?e' so; I
imagine it has something to do with the pre-eminence of G'uiv sha aniong all supernl!-­
tural entities recognized by these..:Lahu. Since the villAge teq:~.ple is explicitly '·'G'~iv
s,ha's house", it would be inappropriate to ask a lesser supernatural ~ing, the resident
locality spirit, for permission to set up this building ...
The haw- yehv preferably is sited at the head of the village on the uphill side.
At any rate, informants were agreed that it should never be built at the bOttom of the
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village beca~se, they said, "all bad· and dirty things" :flow down to the bottom of the
village and the haw- yehv, house of the supreme deity, should never be defiled by
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