Luang Prabang, Day 3
Fran recognizes a good deal – she headed for the hotel spa for a full treatment! Hot rocks, massage, she was fully relaxed.
Bob and the guide headed to the morning market – largely food, for the local population. Lots of fruit and vegetables, fish, live fowl (chicken, ducks, and birds), and the occasional python (!) already cut into large sections.
Outside the city we visited a Hmong village. The Hmong are mountain people who migrated from Mongolia more than 1,000 years ago (many have reached the U.S.). They were a simple, delightful people, and the kids spoke surprisingly good English. Back to the city to explore more agrarian Buddhist temples, then to the hotel for a special treat.
What an evening! We had been promised a traditional Baci ceremony, but didn’t really understand the significance. From the UC Irvine web site, The core of all Lao celebrations and ceremonies is the baci ceremony. The ceremony may be interpreted as "the invitation of the kwan" or "the calling of the kwan," which are 32 spirits believed to watch over the human body's 32 organs which are thought to constitute a person's spiritual essence. The baci ceremony is a ritual binding of the spirits to their possessor and is a means of expressing goodwill and good luck to others. A respected person, usually an older man who has been a monk, performs the ceremony, invoking the kwan in a loud song-like voice. He calls on the spirits to cease wandering and return to the bodies of those present. He then asks the kwan to bring well-being and happiness and to share in the feast that will follow.
After the invocation to the kwan is finished, the celebrants take pieces of cotton thread from silver platters covered with food and tie them around each other's wrists to bind the kwan in place. While tying the thread, they wish one another health and prosperity. Some of the threads must be left on for three days; when they are removed they must be broken or untied.
On the hotel lawn we saw more than two dozen local people, and several dancers, clearly preparing for a celebration. Hotel employees assured us this was a very special ceremony. And we were the guests of honor!Our guide explained the symbolism, the local elder chanted the ceremony, everyone tied strings around our wrists and wished us well, musicians played and dancers danced for us. People were hanging over every balcony to watch. The hotel then provided our special feast of traditional Lao food. We really felt like a king and queen. What an evening!
