The serpent stays elusive

Mayoury and Pheuiphanh Ngaosrivathana have itemised and analysed all the available information about the different protective guardian spirits of sacred places in Laos.

They have used unpublished texts, paintings, local lore and guesswork to piece together a complex and sometimes confusing overview that has hitherto mostly been the preserve of Archaimbault and other scholars.

The text starts with consideration of the saltwater crocodile (ngeuak) and serpents (ngu) known to proto-T'ai. Spirits of these forms were tamed and turned into naga, which were worshipped throughout Southeast Asia.

The naga are closely associated with the rice-growing cycle and spirits of place, and the advent of ever-needed rain. 

The iconography of the naga protecting the Buddha is widely known and appears to be a fusion of two traditions - the naga of place and the naga cementing Lao adherence to Buddhism, which came relatively late.

An early manuscript text, the Urangkhathat, deals extensively with the subject. The origin of the text is discussed, and its publication in 1969 in Thai. The authors acknowledge though that "the naga cults may be no more than the worship of the geni loci, the respect people pay to the spirits of the earth and, more generally, to the places where the naga live, whether on water or on land".

Naga are classified into three groups. The first originated in China and spread south. It inhabits seven Luang Prabang river mouths, seven "original sacred abodes", eight dwelling places of "selected Naga Lords", five auspicious sites in Vientiane protected by naga, and more.

The second group "includes the indigenous nine naga guardians of Vientiane itself, plus other naga, ngeuak and serpents which lie south of Vientiane."

A "third group combines 15 naga, ngeuak …of Luang Prabang".

The only link among them "was that the Vientiane naga were led from afar by Suvannanag, the chief of the naga who migrated from Nong Sae". Incidentally, the suffix -nag is the verbal Lao form of the classical naga.

Chapter 4 deals with the naga of Nong Sae and the central Mekong River valley, and in particular with Burichan Uai Luai ("bulging-belly Burichan") that appears in the Urangkhathat text.

His doings and existence may have based on fact: He may have existed, we are told, in a polity in the fifth century.

Vat Phou in Champassak - a region that seems rather depleted of naga - makes a visual appearance here, but without an obvious mention in the text. Certainly the carved crocodile and naga stairway at Vat Phou, and the mysterious hidden ruins of nearby Huai Tomo, on the opposite bank of the Mekong, could well be sites where ngu are said to appear.

Chapter 7 deals with naga invocations and worship, the latter attested in many documents. Then come the Vientiane mantra, a note on the decline in the appearance of naga in documents and rituals, and ending in a final chapter, with a highly questionable "Modern Resurgence" in naga worship.

This reader feels some sympathy with Lao kings who might have become "blase or fed-up with the tortuous, time-consuming, and physically draining rigmarole of ceremonies and rituals".

But some spirit worship still takes place, inevitably, even in the shade of famous temples.

The book comes with three excellent maps, detailing respectively all the sacred spots in the country, the Vientiane region, and those of Luang Prabang.

There is, incidentally, reference in the text and on the Vientiane map to the "Angkor imperial road system running through Sakol Nakhon, Loei, Paklat, Sayabouli to end at the mouth of the Nam Khan River in Luang Prabang".

This is not generally acknowledged, and the dog's-leg bend to include the That Luang is suspicious. One would like to know more about this road, and its possible connections with the spirits.

There are three appendices, dealing respectively with the abode of the Naga Lord Suvannanag, and the sandalwood palace of Burichan Uai Luai, an extensive naga rite and invocation, and a lengthy list of references and works consulted.

While there may be, as suggested, some evidence of a revival of interest of naga in the Vientiane boat races, one suspects these are more for fun than a manifestation of the existence of naga cults.

The hotly disputed cause of Nong Khai fireballs during the full moon marking the end of the Buddhist Lent appears to some to lend support to a naga presence, but sceptics abound.

This slender book of less than 100 densely argued pages is no easy read, made more difficult by the excessively small typeface. The 89 coloured illustrations are all rather dark and too small to pick out the details to which one is directed.

While undoubtedly the authors have investigated most if not every possible aspect of Lao naga, at the end of the day one is led to wonder if indeed the whole business is not all peasant mumbo-jumbo seeking to explain the inexplicable.

The Enduring Sacred Landscape of the Naga

By Mayoury and Pheuiphanh Ngaosrivathana

Published by Mekong Press, 2009

Available at leading bookshops, Bt595

Reviewed by Michael Smithies