OF SOUKHUAN AND LAOS Elena Gregoria Chai Chin Fern Faculty ...

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The new government announced that, “every Lao citizen is allowed to practise any religion he wishes. He also has the right not to practise any religion” (Evans, 1998:57). In other words, when the communist took over, Buddhism was no longer the state religion of Laos. Alms giving such as offering food for the monks was banned. Monks were forced to cultivate land and raise animals, acts which totally violated their monastic vows. During this period, the Pathet Lao tried to eliminate all superstitious beliefs in spirits and thevadas (divine angels, benevolent in nature and living in heaven). The soukhuan ceremony was also suppressed. It was considered as a backward superstitious belief and a waste of time and money. Nevertheless, many elderly people in Paksan (a district in central Laos where this research was conducted) remarked that the Lao people had continued to hold such ceremonies. Officials and members of the Pathet Lao were definitely discouraged from holding such ceremonies. Marie-Nele Sicard (1981) wrote about the view of a few Pathet Lao members during the marriage of two party officials in 1977. “We entered into a bare room, on a kind of altar covered with a white sheet was the flag of the new popular democratic republic, no phak(h)uan for the baci (or soukhuan) or flowers; and above were the portraits of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. The chief of the locality lectured those present on the requirements of a good citizen under the new regime, and encouraged the young couple to put all their effort into helping the people. We all applauded, shook their hands, as in the West and left. Everything had been said, without embellishments, and with no wasted gestures” (Sicard 1981:48). In 1988, Grant Evans described how in the early 1980s most villages and suburbs of Vieng Chan carried out the soukhuan ceremony. Even communist officials started to participate openly in the ceremonies. Evans wrote, “The main noticeable political influence on these ceremonies was some toning down in the blessings which formerly called for the couple to get rich or powerful, and at the end, the officiant (Mor Phon) called on the couple to be good socialist citizens and to work hard for the development of the country.” In my research here on the soukhuan of marriage in modern Laos, the advice to the newly weds to be good and hard working socialist citizen, as described by Evans above was absent. Instead the text showed how the elder (Mor Phon) summoned the young couple’s khuan to be prosperous and rich. This indicates a change in peoples’ perception which is, a far cry from the communism era. Furthermore, the reforms directed by Pathet Lao on Buddhism has resulted in a shift in the religious faith in Laos. - 6 - PDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com
The khuan The belief in khuan has long been a strong element in Lao culture. The word ‘Lao’ used in this text describes the people of the Lao Loum group. The Lao still retain what most people consider as a pre-Buddhist belief in khuan or soul. Written material on this is very limited as books and were burnt during the Revolution of 1975 (pers. comm., Bounmihang [Lao National University]). The Lao people originated from southern China. Phya Anuman Rajadhon (1968) linked the word khuan with the Chinese (hwun). The concept of hwun is similar to those of khuan. For instance, in both cases, the absence of hwun will make one vulnerable to sickness and misfortune. In order to call one’s lost hwun, a (Chao Hwun) ceremony is performed. For thousands of years, calling the soul back to the body has been a custom in China (Terwiel,1978:13). Ch’un Yuan wrote a poem sometime in the early third century B.C. called Chao hun or “summons of the soul” (Hawkes,1959:100). It is evident that the ritual is still performed now (Terwiel, ibid). Chao Hun was used in ancient China to call the wandering soul of a sick man back to his body and also to summon the souls of the dead (Terwiel, ibid). When a baby is sick, a mother “hastens up to the roof of her house and, waving about a bamboo pole to which is affixed a garment belonging to the little one, exclaims several times in succession: “My child …. (child’s name), come back, return home! In the interim, another inmate of the house beats a gong loudly to arouse the attention of the soul. After a while, the vital spirits are expected to recognize the garment and slip into it; and so, along with it, they are taken back to the sufferer and placed either upon or at the side of his bed” (De Groot, 1892:243). This Chao Hwun ceremony for the sick child is similar to the Wankhuan ceremony performed by an elderly woman for her grandchildren as described in the following section. Although the paraphernalia of the ceremony is different in both cases, there is a similarity between the Chinese and the Lao practices. The Chinese perform the soul calling with the child’s garment while beating a gong, where as the Lao uses a fishing cage and a piece of smoldering wood. Both are used to call the return of the lost soul. The Lao ritual is a close resemblance to the Chinese one. The word ‘khuan’ means ‘soul’. Clearly, any researcher who is keen in Lao culture could not help but be fascinated at how the social and religious belief of the Lao and their outlook on health and happiness are governed by the belief of khuan. Such belief is not restricted to the Lao; the Thai, the Burmese and other Tai-Lao speaking minorities occupying the Mekong Delta region also hold such belief. In fact, this belief could be traced to other races in Southeast Asia as well, for example, the Iban, - 7 - PDF Creator - PDF4Free v2.0 http://www.pdf4free.com
Page 1 and 2: OF SOUKHUAN AND LAOS Elena Gregoria
Page 3 and 4: Spiritual beings are held to affect
Page 5: ecome a dominant aspect of their mu
Page 9 and 10: 11) hua chai - heart 12) tap - live
Page 11 and 12: Soukhuan is mainly performed by the
Page 13 and 14: The smoldering wood was waved in a
Page 15 and 16: When there is a lightning in the sk
Page 17 and 18: should conduct herself in the prese
Page 19 and 20: Please come back to see your belove
Page 21 and 22: The Mor Phon gave moral instruction
Page 23 and 24: Acknowledgements I have been blesse
Page 25: Tambiah, Stanley J. 1970. Buddhism

OF SOUKHUAN AND LAOS Elena Gregoria Chai Chin Fern Faculty ...

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