This was a week of new cultural insights. In one of our weekly meetings, some SAILers had expressed a desire to delve deeper into the cultural subtleties of the Lao people. Why are there different ways to “nop?” Why do the designs on some sinhs mean? Although these are questions that cannot easily be answered in a short course, and may require expert opinion, I have tried to do my best to help the SAILers find some answers. My plans coincided nicely with the absence of the professor of the Lao History & Culture class, who had to travel to Cambodia for the week. In her absence I could find guest speakers and opportunities to augment their regular learning.
The first speaker I found was Charles Alton, an agriculturalist by trade, but ethnic minority enthusiast at heart. I had little time to prepare him for the talk, but he quickly put together a presentation of the four main ethno-linguistic groups in Laos (most of which lived outside Vientiane). Although I had previous knowledge of these groups from having lived here, most of the SAILers did not. Charles gave some history of their migration to Laos, general characteristics of the groups, and some background on their animistic beliefs. He especially held our attention when explaining the difference between house spirits (or “pii”) and those living in animate objects (trees, rivers, etc.). It’s important for these ethnic groups to talk to, and constantly appease these spirits, lest they anger them and bring problems onto themselves and their families. He said one danger was the fact that those working on development projects in these areas, and who don’t respect these animistic traditions, can create lots of unnecessary tension between themselves and villagers. There should probably be a “Pii Handbook” readily available for all those intending to work with these communities!
To round out the religious discussion, the group paid a visit to Wat Ongteu in central Vientiane. The Wat is well-known because of its Sangha College. When we arrived, we were greeted by one of the Head monks of the school, as well as other Buddhist scholars. I loved that the discussion was an open forum, where we could pose any question we wanted. We covered everything from the color of their robes to whether it’s a violation of the precepts to smoke (which created a little debate among the monks) to the role of women in the temple. But the cultural bonus the SAILers received was spending time with the monks in their territory, seeing how they interacted with us and each other, and even use computers during the discussion. The monks were incredibly gracious to us and very enthusiastic about our visit. “If you have time, please come back and visit! And if you have any questions, you can email us!” Buddhism in the modern age. Before we departed, they asked to take pictures with us, and even said it was OK to stand. But the SAILers, ever culturally-conscious, kneeled down in front of the monks. Maybe they didn’t have much to learn after all!
Our temple trip occurred on the same day as a scheduled class field trip to That Luang. There, the Buddhist ceremonies were brought to life for us by our Achaans. With Yaeng acting as interpreter for those few words (ha!) the SAILers couldn’t catch, we learned how gold bars inscribed with Buddhist writings were placed all around the stupa, but were taken by the Siamese (Thais) when they invaded Laos. We learned that the parts of the stupa that curved outwards were Lotus flowers, and that during the That Luang festival, the Lao walked around the stupa 3 times — once for the Buddha, once for the Dhamma, and once for the Sangha. I had done this myself years ago, but not until today did I know why! After this week, I am confident that the SAILers have deepened their knowledge of an extremely important aspect of Lao culture in a comprehensive way. They heard from a foreign researcher, Lao monks and their English interpreters, and Lao teachers. I’d say this exceeded any classroom lesson they could’ve gotten!
