On the Lanten Methods to Fetch the Hon or Living Force of the Original Rice

Abstract

<p>Rice rituals are core to the rice-cultivating societies in Southeast and East Asia. The planting, growth, and harvest of rice depend upon how well the farmers secure their spiritual integrity and the effectiveness of the homage paid to the spiritual owners of the rice. This chapter presents one of the ritual actions associated with the Lanten rice rituals in northern Laos: fetching the hon or living force of the original rice. Informed by a decade of fieldwork and various academic projects directed by the author in Laos, this chapter translates and discusses the secret words in ritual use employed by the Lanten master leading the ceremony, revealing the logic and ethnographic context of the ritual itself in connection with research on rice rituals and their historical development in the region, with a focus on Yao Studies.<br></p>