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Laos Essential Artistry Posting Page
Sunday, September 7, 2008
In many of the silk textiles we sell, nagas are important motifs. As we write in our section describing our Intertwining Nagas Silk Scarves woven at the Taykeo Textile Gallery nagas are: "...a mythological water serpent with unparalleled magic powers. Nagas can assume the form of other beings such as animals and humans. Lao legends tell of love affairs between Nagas and humans. Generally they are seen as benevolent beings, that protect and save humans from illnesses, hunger and bad spirits. When they are angry Nagas use their powers to create floods, storms and other natural disasters, or inflict illness and even death. The word Naga is from the Buddhist language Pali, in Lao it is called Nak. Nagas are a prominent feature in temple design, the spikes you see on temple roofs are in fact the horns of the Naga’s head. The Naga is important to animists as it is believed to be an ancestor spirit, whilst Buddhists revere the Naga as he saved Buddha from the floods." (Ockpoptok)
Nagas are very, very real to the Lao and in the video below a small group of villagers are returning the Naga King and the Phanya Khut to the local river after inviting them to partake in their village's celebration of Boun Kong Khao held in December after the rice harvest to thank the rice spirit for a bountiful harvest. In the video you can see they carry the kings in a respectful, royal manner, where they're sitting on a throne (pillow), accompanied by the beating of a gong and chanting of villagers. In the photo below is the cover of a paperbook book about the legend of SinXai and shows the Nak King (Phanya Nak) and Underground King (Phanya Khut). The book is in Lao and published in Laos by Dokked Publishing.  In the next photo belows is the pile of rice, "kong khao," that the villagers donated to the village wat. Boun Kong Khao is a village festival that cebrates the recent rice harvest where every villager brings a donation of rice for the wat to sell and then buy needed supplies. As you can see the rice is piled (kong) high in the wat.  If the villagers didn't invite the Phanya Nak (Naga King) and Phanya Khut (King of the Underground) and they heard people celebrating and having a good time and they weren't invited, well, they wouldn't be too happy, and might cause some kind of mischief or misfortune. Nagas are quite alive in the Lao imagination and if one spends much time in Laos, it becomes quite evident that the many naga representations, from wat gables (photo below at sunset), to carved wooden and stone figures (carved wooden naga photo taken at Wat Sisaket) and the incredibly diverse naga motifs woven into textiles, are an ample affirmation that nagas live!    Elli Findly, a professor in the Religion Department at Trinity College in Connecticut, currently researching and writing a book on Spirits in the Loom: Religion and Textiles in Northeastern Laos, emailed me back when I questioned her about what was going on in this particular grouping of motifs prominently featuring nagas in one of our Sam Neua Silk Tapestries, and replied; "As for the naga design. I call them "naga pillars" in my database - and they always have double naga heads with candle crests on them. They are often found on either side of a hong thien (candle house boat) which is what you have here, carrying the deceased's spirit, phii, to heaven. (It's funny, the funeral shaman's spirit is to go with the boat, but there are never two spirits on it.) Why there are naga pillars (or entwined nagas extending upwards) here is not clear to me, except for two things: (1) the pairing of naga (earth, subterranean waters) and hong bird (sky, heavenly guide) are a natural pairing in TAi thought as creatures of the extremes of the cosmos (and found in Mon-Khmer as naga/Garuda and in Chinese thought as dragon/phoenix), and (2) the interlaced/braided nagas are extending upwards and may be protective guides symbolically extending their protection skywards for the journey to the heavenly village, nam jao. This "naga pillar" is often found in Buddhist hangings shown as part of the architecture around settings of Buddhas, etc." I've learned, and am learning so much from Elli about the motifs used in Lao textiles. Not only are they beautiful works of art, they tell incredible, timeless stories. You can also see the pairing of opposites in the cover of the book on the Folk hero Sin Xai in the photo below the video, with the Naga and Phanya Khut/Garuda (with wings). It's all starting to fit slowly together... by: Laos Essential Artistry 
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