Laotian refugees began migrating to the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s as a result of the Vietnam War. These refugees largely assimilated into American culture, while later migrations of Mon-Khmer, Hmong-Mien, Mia-Yao, and other ethnic groups from Laos brought their own cultural beliefs, customs, and traditional medical practices with them.
Today, many Laotian Americans seek the services of their traditional healer, or txiv neeb, in congruence with the local medical clinic, depending on the ailment. The traditional belief is that most illnesses are caused by spirits called dabs. These spirits, Laotians believe, can interfere with the Khuan, one of the thirty-two spirits that occupy the body. These Khuan are associated with the organs and can leave the body for a variety of reasons, including the presence of fear, or they can be lured out by dabs. The loss of one or more Khuan can result in a variety of symptoms, illnesses, and even death.
Laotian Healing Ceremony
The txiv neeb specializes in retrieving the lost Khuan and returning them to the individual’s body. In Laos, the txiv neeb can specialize as a spiritual healer, bone setter, or healer of skin conditions. The healer sees patients in his home, with his spouse or older child as an assistant. It is common to see an altar to Buddha, and in preparation for the diagnostic ritual, the txiv neeb turns the living space into a sacred space. A tray is prepared with rice, eggs, candles, bells, charms, coins, or herbs, which become offerings to the spirits. The process begins with divination, a ritual for diagnosing the cause of the ailment. A freshly laid egg is rubbed gently over the painful area, and the spirit causing the pain is lured into the egg by the soft-spoken txiv neeb. The healer then cracks the egg into a bowl of water and examines it with chopsticks for spots, lines, or unusual coloration, to determine which spirit is causing the illness. Divination is a common practice among traditional healers worldwide, although instead of an egg, entrails from a sacrificed animal, or a diagram drawn in the dirt sprinkled with charms, bones, and shells, are more commonly used for diagnostic purposes. After the healer inspects the egg, the patient may be sent home with a mix of herbs, told to return for the “soul-calling” or Baci ceremony, or told to seek the help of a Western medicine doctor for medication or procedures.
If a healing ceremony is prescribed, the shaman prepares by gathering herbs from his garden and/or the forest. The healing ceremony can last hours or days, depending on the ailment. The shaman’s wife prepares a tray with candles, coins, offerings of herbs, rice wrapped in banana leaves, eggs, Laotian rice whiskey, flowers, or fruit. The txiv neeb then performs the ceremony by entering a trance, all the while dancing to traditional music with an accompaniment of bells, gongs, singing, and chanting. Buddhism is the main religion in Laos, and as such sacred Buddha texts may be chanted or sung while the patient’s soul or spirit is enticed back into the body. To negotiate the return of Khuan, the txiv neeb has to transcend the spirit world. A chicken, pig, or goat is typically sacrificed, and its spirit is exchanged for that of the missing Khuan. Holy water blessed by monks is then used to wash the patient, who may be given a talisman for protection and to prevent further occurrences of spirit loss. The sacrificed animal is eaten by the healer and the family of the patient in a feast following the ceremony.
Preventive Care and Cultural Taboos
Laotians believe that sickness is caused by spirits. To avoid illness, Laotians avoid cultural taboos and regularly pay homage to their ancestors. They have many traditional stories told to instill life and cultural lessons. For instance, eggs are highly symbolic in Laotian culture; in the Laos creation story, the first people of Laos and the first evil spirits were hatched from oversized eggs. This story is in some ways similar to the myth of Pandora’s Box: The parents lovingly tend to an oblong-shaped egg for three years. When the couple becomes impatient, they consult their reincarnated father, a txiv neeb, for advice and he performs divination and determines that the egg is full of evil spirits. The parents’ attachment prevents them from destroying the egg as per their father’s advice. The egg hatches, unleashing evil spirits upon the world. To this day, eggs are used in divination by Laotians.
Taboos are the Laotians’ daily guide to good health, happiness, and the avoidance of evil spirits. These include dietary, behavioral, and religious strictures, but also seemingly incidental actions, such as touching a baby mouse or urinating on a stone that resembles a tiger. Even accidents, such as being pelted by bird droppings, may signify the breaching of a taboo.
Baci Ceremony
Baci ceremonies are performed at celebrations that pay homage to ancestors; such occasions include weddings, funerals, going-away parties, homecoming parties, births, and the New Year. The Baci is never performed without a pyramid-shaped bouquet of marigolds, called a Pha Khuan. At weddings, the Pha Khuan is used as the centerpiece and is surrounded with offerings of rice wrapped in banana leaves, Laotian rice whiskey, candles, charms, and eggs. A fine thread is tied around the couple’s wrists to symbolize a connection with the spirits that protect them from illness and bad luck, and to encourage unity, family bonds, renewal, and homage to ancestors. After three days, the string is removed or left on until it falls off; it is never cut off, as that would be like severing the Khuan.
Childbearing Customs
In Laos, there are many cultural taboos involving childbirth. Children are normally born at home with the mother squatting over a large bowl with little help. The father of the child assists in cutting the umbilical cord and buries the placenta next to the main house pillar or in the dirt floor of their hut, depending on the sex of the child. The placenta is thought to be a jacket that the baby will need at the end of its life to return to the spirit world. The mother is fed chicken soup with sacred herbs and rice after giving birth, but she is not allowed to share it with anyone; if a grain of rice falls into the broth, the newborn’s skin is likely to break out in little white pimples across the nose and cheeks. There are many taboos the newborn is subject to as a result of the mother’s actions, like spilling grains of rice in chicken soup, until the hu plig ceremony is completed.
In Laos, there is a 50 percent infant mortality rate; therefore the mother is discouraged from becoming attached to the infant until after the soul-calling ceremony is performed to call the baby’s Khuan. Until this ceremony is performed, the new arrival is not considered a full member of the family. If the infant dies within the first three days after birth, it is not given the customary funeral rites. At the time of the hu plig ceremony, the entire extended family is in attendance, animals are sacrificed, and strings are tied around the wrists of the newborn and the family. The string is never to be cut when removed from the wrist, just like in the Baci ceremony; it must always slip off at a later time. The sacrificed animals become part of the feast. After the ceremony, the parents keep a close watch on the baby, as the new soul can wander off, be enticed by dabs to leave, or be scared out of the new baby, so special precautions are taken to prevent this from happening.
René Fox Small
See also Folk Medicine; Good Luck Charms; Shamans; Superstitions; Witch Doctors
Further Reading
Berger, Hans Georg. 2000. Het Bun Dai Bun, Sacred Rituals of Luang Prabang. London: Westzone.
Fadiman, Anne. 2007. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Johnson, Charles, and Se Yang. 1992. Myths, Legends and Folk Takes from the Hmong of Laos. St. Paul, MN: Macalester College.