Last night we were honored at a traditional Baci ceremony given to us at a local home by people from a nearby village. We learned that, while people here are primarily Buddhist, they also believe in animism and that spirits inhabit both everything in the world and also our bodies. Interestingly enough, our bodies have 32 spirits. Because we have traveled so far, with a large part of that via airplane, it is thought that one of our spirits might have gotten lost. (Maybe that’s why I had such a bad cough for about 10 days. It started the day after we landed in Hanoi).
The Baci ceremony, then, strives to bind all of the spirits in our bodies back together. Uncle Ti, (on the right in the photo) who is a local shaman, lead the ceremony.
The centerpiece is made of orange marigolds. Orange is a holy color – the color of the sun and fire and the robes that the monks wear. Around the centerpiece were arranged sticks holding white strings, and around it was a mound of orange braided strings.
Each of us was wrapped with a scarf. I learned that this denotes respect, and is worn not only for ceremonies like this, but also for giving alms to the monks (subject of another post).
After a blessing chant, the shaman came to each of us in turn, kneeling before us, putting an orange string around our wrist. We were instructed to hold that hand flat and facing upward, while holding the other hand facing upward, perpendicular to the floor. This facilitates receiving the blessing from above.
Then, all of the other people took turns to come, kneel before us, and tie white strings around our wrists. I counted 13 white strings and 2 orange – not quite 32, but nonetheless, I suspect, an auspicious number (auspicious numbers, I learned are always odd numbers, never even numbers).
We bowed to show our respect and appreciation for the blessings.
Then there was traditional music and dancing. One of the elderly gentlemen seemed particularly to be enjoying the festivities, and smiled and twinkled at us while urging us to clap along (and then dance) with the music!
We were told to leave the strings on for at least 3 days, and that, when we remove them, they must be untied, not cut. Otherwise the spirits might find a way to depart along with the strings!
Luang Prabang, Laos 2/1/18
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