are nithans(folktales such as Thao Hung Thao Chuang,
Sin Xai, Om Lom Dang Kieo), anisamsas(blessings
used in Buddhist ritual and magical ceremonies),
parittas(incantations for protection), xalongs(cere-
monial instructions for both lay and religious cere-
monies), aprocryphal JATAKA (noncanonical birth
stories of the Buddha), nissayas(creative glosses and
commentaries of Pali texts), and tamnans(relic, im-
age, and monastery histories). Xalongs, anisamsas,and
parittas are used in everyday house, buffalo, monas-
tery, and bodily blessings; they are also used when
making love potions and protective tattoos. The tam-
nansshow the heavy Buddhist influence in the gov-
ernmental, economic, and military history of Laos.
Nithansand apocryphal jatakasare intricate and en-
tertaining stories of heroism, romance, and adventure
that were (and are) often narrated at religious events
or life-cycle rituals, such as funerals, and at the end of
the rains retreat. Nithansand apocryphal jatakaswere
also the basis for monastic education and public ser-
mons. What should be emphasized is that Pali canon-
ical texts are often in the minority in these collections.
Translocal Buddhist narratives and philosophical texts
have been commented on and adapted by local Lao
teachers, and these commentaries and adaptations are
much more popular in Laos than their source texts
from India and Sri Lanka.
Although they have yet to be fully surveyed, read,
and catalogued, Lao Buddhist inscriptions, particu-
larly votive inscriptions, generally provide evidence of
royal or wealthy lay patronage of certain monasteries.
They also reflect the great influence that Northern
Thailand and, after 1560, Burma (Myanmar) had on
the practice of Buddhism in Laos. One inscription
from Dansai (formerly part of the Lao Kingdom of Lan
Xang, but part of Thailand since the mid-nineteenth
century) tells of Buddhist monks accompanying the
king to a political meeting with the king of AYUTTHAYA.
Another inscription from Wiengjan (the present cap-
ital of Laos) suggests that there were many monks from
Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) in the region, which
would account for similarities in Lao and Northern
Thai Buddhist and secular literature composed be-
tween 1480 to 1620.
King Phothisalarat (r. 1520–1547) was probably the
most active patron of Buddhism and Buddhist litera-
ture in Laos. It is Phothisalarat and his son Xetthathi-
rat (r. 1548–1571) who were responsible for the
creation of most of the extant sources of Lao Buddhist
history. Phothisalarat actively tried to “purify” Lao
Buddhism by banning magical practices and the wor-
shipping of phl(ghosts) and phrabhum(local deities
of trees, rocks, waterfalls, etc.). However, modern rit-
uals like the riek kwan, phuk heuan,and bun bang fai
in various parts of Laos show the limited success of
his reforms; all of these rituals combine the worship
and propitiation of phland phrabhumby Buddhist
monks with the chanting of Buddhist MANTRAs. The
practice of drawing magical diagrams (yantras) by
monks and lay experts has also been popular since at
least the fifteenth century and involves the mixing of
Buddhist prayers with aspirations to be lucky in love,
finance, and the avoidance of attacks by knives, guns,
and poison.
Laos did not have a printing press until the French
colonial period (ca. 1893–1954) and only recently has
there been a regular printing of religious books in Lao.
These books cover a wide range of subjects, but gen-
erally resemble their palm and mulberry leaf manu-
script predecessors. Still, whether it be printed books,
inscriptions, or manuscripts, the textual sources resist
easy classification and cannot be used to provide a
clear, linear history of Buddhism in Laos. However,
this should not suggest that Lao scholars from the four-
teenth century to the present did not attempt to write
(or perhaps preserve orally) historical chronicles.
There are several extant royal and religious chronicles,
the most famous being the Nithan Khun Borom(The
Story of Khun Borom). These chronicles tell of the in-
troduction of Buddhism into Laos under King Fa
Ngum (r. 1353–1374) in the mid-fourteenth century;
the growth and reform of Buddhism under King
Xetthathirat in the late sixteenth century; the move-
ment of monks, scribes, artisans, and so on from Chi-
ang Mai to Laos after the Burmese invasion of the
former in the 1560s; the patronage and building of nu-
merous monasteries under King Surinyavong (r.
1638–1695); the burning of the Sisaket Monastery and
the theft of the Emerald Buddha by the Siamese (Thai)
in the late eighteenth century; the building of numer-
ous monasteries and the reunification of the three
kingdoms of Laos (Luang Pabang, Wiengjan, and
Champasak) by King Anuwong (r. 1804–1828) and the
subsequent burning of the Wiengjan by the forces of
Siam in 1827. Still, these chronicles, like Western and
local modern historical reconstructions written in the
twentieth century, generally sacrifice accuracy to clar-
ity, covering over the variety of Buddhist beliefs and
practices with a sheen of unity and linearity.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, travel-
ers’ reports provide information about the history of
Buddhist practice among the general population,LAOS