their territory, or if they have not been properly pro-
pitiated. In Burma, spirits are called nat. In Thailand
and Laos they are know as phi, and in Cambodia as
neak taaor kmauit.
Spirits are seen as, among other things, guardians
of morality, particularly as regards proper community,
family, and sexual relationships. This is illustrated by
the Northern Thai tale of a prince who was visiting a
friend, the ruler of a neighboring principality. While
there he had an adulterous liaison with his friend’s
chief wife, the reigning princess. On his return home,
he had to ride across the mountains through the for-
est, where a powerful spirit caused him to drown in a
stream as punishment for his wrongdoing.
As guardians of proper human relations, spirits pro-
vide benefits to communities more than to individu-
als. Spirit rites are important markers and maintainers
of social solidarity in villages, families, and lineages.
Benefits are believed to come to individuals when they
turn to individual spirits for help with personal prob-
lems. Spirits can heal and find lost objects, among
other things. People first seek the help of local spirits.
If that fails they turn to professional spirit mediums
who are said to serve particularly effective spirits.
Spirits that have been domesticated—that is, turned
from things of the wild into elements of the human
community—are powerful sources of protection for
the people who honor them. The places they protect
range in scale from whole kingdoms to individual
rooms of the home. Generally speaking, the larger the
place a spirit protects, the more powerful the spirit. On
the other side of the coin, the smaller the spirit, the
more likely it is to be offended by the wrongdoings of
particular individuals. The bedroom spirit is the most
dangerous of all if one offends it by committing an im-
proper sexual act in its presence. Great spirits will
afflict whole communities that offend them (for in-
stance, by withholding rain), but will only punish in-
dividuals of equivalent rank. The tutelary spirit of a
kingdom may harm a king, but is unlikely to concern
itself with the misdeeds of a peasant.
The Buddhist cultures of Southeast Asia make a
strong distinction between wild and civilized spaces,
that is, between nature and culture. Wild spaces, such
as the forests and mountains, are regarded as danger-
ous and said to be filled with potentially harmful
spirits. Humans encroaching on these spaces—for in-
stance, to clear woodlands for agricultural fields—
must take care to address the leading spirit of that
place and ask permission to undertake human activi-
ties. The spirit, and its attendant lesser spirits, are then
invited to protect that place on behalf of humans. For
their part, humans must make regular offerings to the
spirits. These offerings can be as simple as small por-
tions of food, often accompanied by tobacco and
liquor, which are offered with humble words by the
local farmer or householder, or the offerings may be
as elaborate as large-scale animal sacrifices lasting one
or two days and requiring the participation of spe-
cialized priests.
In addition to the spirits of wild places, spirits of the
dead are also important. Like the spirits of the wild,
they are bound to and protect designated spaces. One
dramatic example is the ancient use of ritual homicide
(human sacrifice) to create powerful tutelary spirits. It
was sometimes the practice when building entrance
gates to walled cities to seize an unsuspecting passerby,
kill him or her, and bury the body beneath the foun-
dations of the gate. The resulting spirit was considered
to be particularly ferocious, having been ripped so
wantonly from this life. The spirit was given offerings
and beseeched to turn its rage against strangers seek-
ing to enter the city for wrongful purposes. This spirit
would receive generous offerings each year as part of
the city’s elaborate set of sacrifices to its guardian spir-
its. On a less gruesome note, the spirits of powerful
and revered leaders are often enshrined as the protec-
tive divinities of the people and places they once ruled.
Since these rulers were Buddhists in their own lives,
unlike their wild counterparts, they are likely to be
moral beings and inherently benign. They, like some
converted spirits of the wild, serve as protectors of the
faith as well as protectors of the land and people.
Burma (Myanmar), in particular, constructed a highly
elaborate state cult of tutelary divinities drawn from
the spirits of deceased rulers.Brahmanism
Brahmanism (in its Southeast Asian form) tends to be
directly concerned with male spiritual potency. This
potency is applied for the benefit of all people, male or
female, but the source of the power is closely connected
with maleness. This operates at the individual level.
Every man has a certain level of spiritual power or ef-
fectiveness that derives from a combination of good
KARMA(ACTION) and textual knowledge. This spiritual
potency can be built and displayed through conspicu-
ous acts of Buddhist piety—especially temporary ordi-
nation as a novice or monk—and knowledge of certain
ritual texts. Particularly pious and powerful men may
come to be known as learned masters (acariyas) orFOLKRELIGION, SOUTHEASTASIA