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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2011
The two texts presented here are part of a rich corpus of Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) ritual prayers and chants, some of which I was able to record during the course of my anthropological investigations among these Tibeto-Burman-speaking hill folk in the mountains of north Thailand. As I have stated in two previous contributions to this Journal, I am concerned to preserve these texts as a valuable contemporary expression of the cultural heritage of this preliterate people. In this presentation a brief — and therefore far from exhaustive — ethnographic introduction suggests the setting for the recitation of the texts.
1 For further ethnographic data on the Lahu Nyi see Walker, Anthony R., “Red Lahu village society: An introductory survey”, in Hinton, Peter (ed.), Tribesmen and peasants in north Thailand, Chiang Mai: Tribal Research Centre, 1969, 41–52;Google ScholarLahu Nyi (Red Lahu) village society and economy in north Thailand, Chiang Mai: Tribal Research Centre, 1970Google Scholar (2 vols., mimeo); “The Lahu of the Yunnan-Indochina borderlands: An introduction”, in Walker, Anthony R. (ed.), Farmers in the hills: Ethnographic notes on the upland peoples of north Thailand, Penang: Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, 1975.Google Scholar I conducted fieldwork among the Lahu Nyi from 1966 to 1970 while I held the position of research officer at the Tribal Research Centre in Chiang Mai. I thank the director of the centre, Khun Wanat Bhruksasri, for all his assistance. In preparing this article I have been helped by my good friend Professor James A. Matisoff of the Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley, and by my wife, Pauline Hetland Walker. To both, many thanks.
2 
: the Lahu Nyi rite for the recall of a wandering soul”, JRAS, 1972, I, 16–29;Google Scholar and “Three Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu) marriage prayers: Lahu texts and ethnographic notes”, JRAS, 1974, I, 44–9.Google Scholar
3 For further details see my Lahu Nyi village society, 289–301.Google Scholar
4 From suh ve “to die” and 
“good, well”; 
“not good, not well”.
5 
“elders, ancients, ancestors', 
“country, land”.
6 The Lahu Nyi say: suh 
“die badly, become a 
spirit”.
7 Lahu houses are raised on piles and access is by ladder.
8 See my “Blessing feasts and ancestor propitiation among the Lahu Nyi (Red Lahu)”, J. Siam Soc., LX, 1972, 1, 345–73, especially 361ff.Google Scholar
9 This great four-faced mountain is Mount Meru of Shan, Burmese, and ultimately Indian origin. The Lahu derive their notion of this legendary mountain from the Shan, their immediate lowland neighbours in south-west China and in Burma (Thailand's Lahu came from Burma). Shan also believe that at death the soul begins its journey towards Mount Meru (cf. Milne, Leslie, Shans at home, London: John Murray, 1910, 95).Google Scholar Milne shows a pictographic representation of Mount Meru based on a Shan painting (p. 205), which closely resembles the Lahu conception of the great four-faced mountain with sun and moon circling around it. But the Shan painting has Buddha sitting atop the mountain, an idea apparently absent from the Lahu conception.
10 I have the following two short accounts of the journey to the afterworld in my field notes, recorded verbatim from two separate informants.
Translation: If a person dies, he has to climb a four-faced mountain 
, literally “mountain four sides”, the very words being Shan rather than Lahu]. If one climbs this, they say, the sun is very hot and one suffers great thirst. For this reason, when somebody dies, we have to bring for him a chicken wing and a chicken foot. When you have climbed up, when you have asked Pu_ hpa_ [the gate keeper], you give the fare for the boat on the great river. If you do like this, you may reach the land of the dead. When you reach the land of the dead and give the boat fare, this lead becomes gold, they say. The owner of the boat is a man of the land of the dead.
Translation: If a person dies his “soul” 
breaks out from the small of his back. When he [i.e. his “soul”] is about to leave, his relatives who are already dead come back again and call him and tell him that he must climb up a steep slope. The sun is very hot and one becomes very thirsty. For this reason we have to give the dead person a chicken's wing as a fan, and a chicken's claw with which to scratch for and then drink water. When one has finished climbing up, one must cross a big river. In order to do this one must give this lead as a fare for the ferry. They say that this lead becomes money in the dead man's country. The one who earns his livelihood by rowing the ferry boat is a man of the land of the dead.
11 See Walker, 
, 19.
12 To from 
to “body”, bo from 
bon “blessing, merit”, therefore “blessed or meritorious body”;pa_ is the male suffix.
13 
from the Shan for a prince's (sawba) palace, 
“house” in Lahu; hence “princely house”, i.e. one appropriate for 
sha, the supreme Lahu supernatural who is honoured therein (see Walker, , Lahu Nyi village society, 202–13).Google Scholar
14 It has been reported for Lahu in Burma (cf. Robak, Gloria, “Life among the Lahu” (Catholic Life [Detroit], 11 1969, 20–2), p. 22) that an egg is thrown into the air and its landing spot noted to determine the site of the grave. Some of my elderly informants said that they had indeed heard of such a custom in their fathers' day, but in their lifetimes only a knife had been used for this rite.Google Scholar
15 See Walker, 
, 21 n. 11, n. 12; also Matisoff, James A., “Note on the orthography of Lahu”, in Walker, , Lahu Nyi village society, xxxiii–xxxv.Google Scholar Of the seven tones of Lahu, five are open (long vowel) and two checked (short vowel, ending in a glottal stop). The open mid-level tone is unmarked (e.g. ca) in this orthography, and the other tones are represented by symbols attached to each syllable, as follows:
superscript straight line 
: high-rising open tone
subscript straight line 
: very-low open tone
superscript wedge 
: high-falling open tone
subscript wedge 
: low-falling open tone
superscript circumflex 
: high tone, checked
subscript circumflex 
: low tone, checked
For a detailed study of the Lahu language see Matisoff, James A., The grammar of Lahu, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, Publications in Linguistics No. 75.Google Scholar
16 The first part of the chant appears to be addressed to the surviving villagers, but at this juncture the officiating specialist begins to address the deceased's 
directly.
17 This lie is supposed to encourage the deceased's 
to leave, as he will now want to find a new wife in the land of the dead.
18 That is, “Unlike you, she is not a spirit; do not try to take her with you to the land of the dead.”
19 Here “raft” is simply the euphonic couplet to “boat”: haw 
Lahu ritual language, and to a lesser extent ordinary language too, contains many such couplets (cf. Walker, 
, 23 n. 19).