Spirits and their spiritual homes

Phana is busy with the spirit world at the moment. Placating spirits in one place and inviting them to another. It is all about Phana Municipality's plans to have a new lak muang (usually translated as the city pillar). This will be sited at the old market, in front of the community building which is taking shape based on the old fresh-market building. All of these developments are a blend of the old and the new. It is a compromise: many people want the new as a source and sign of civic pride; many others want to cling to the past, to preserve their unique history. Many people have only a hazy idea of the past. History doesn't figure much in the minds of most people, maybe because so much effort has been made by the Thai education system to expunge the memory of a time before the Thai state took over. That effort hasn't been entirely successful in Phana; there is still a strong feeling of Lao-ness here amongst the ordinary people.

The compromise was necessary because a lak muang (of sorts) existed beside the main road through the old village. Here is a photo of it taken back in February 2011 when Pensri and some friends tidied it up before the cycle rally. A group of school students were there on the day to tell people about its history. 

What you can't see from the photograph are the marker stones. You can't see them from the road either. They are exposed, but are about one metre below the level of the road. What that tells us is that the original sandy track was also about one metre lower than the present road. The houses nearby tell us this, too, because to get into them you have to go down some steps.

For years, after the road was raised by several successive 'improvements', the marker stones (bai sema) were buried and forgotten. Then about ten years ago, the Phana Municipality unearthed them (an old-timer must have drawn attention to them) and erected the concrete structure and wooden pillar you can see in the photograph above. This came to be known as the lak muang, though a surprising number of people pass it in their cars and never see it. It became neglected, as the original stones had.

For special occasions such as the cycle rally, the site was smartened up as you can see below:

The marker stones are as hard to photograph as they are to see, but this is my best shot. Click on it for an enlarged view:

Rumours went about that the current Phana Municipality planned to move the lak muang to a new site. Elaborate plans were drawn up and a lot of excitement was generated. But there were people, too, who felt that the move should not take place. This is where the compromise came in. It was finally agreed that the marker stones should stay where they have been for the last 300 years, and that their site should revert to the old Lao name of Bue Baan (navel of the village) and be marked as such. The pillar would be removed to form part of the new lak muang. Perhaps surprisingly, the site chosen for this new structure is at the old market place, in the original village, rather than the administrative centre known as 'the amphur', two kilometres further west. A good decision. Everybody happy. Hopefully, the spirits housed at the bue baan and later at the lak muang will be contented, too, when this grand new structure is completed.

Comments

[MaewNam]

Very interesting, the drawing of the new shrine looks like it would be of a similar size as the city pillar shrines in the provincial capitals, thus quite big for a small town like Phana. As I am collecting locations of these Lak Mueang, a map with the location of the original pillar and the site of the planned shrine would have been a nice addition to the post.

[Lawrence]

Thanks for your comments, Maew Nam. I'm sorry I can't do maps. But the co-ordinates for the new Lak Mueang are:
N15 40 463 E104 51 376.
The old one is at: N15 40 509 E104 51 296, so they are only about 75m apart.

Phana used to be a third-tier Muang under Ubon from 2422 (1879, known as Phanan-nikom. Aymonier mentions it on p44 Chap 4, as being established in 1881. He says the 'capital, formerly Ban Pha Lao, had about two hundred houses'. As does Ban Phana today.

This former glory, and the founding of the village under Champassak 300 years ago, makes us perhaps a bit pretentious, hence the grandeur of the new Lak Mueang.

[MaewNam]

Thanks for the coordinates, too bad Google Earth has no hires imagery for that area yet, so it is just some blurred houses and fields. I wasn't aware that Phana dates back to a Mueang - I have a list of all the Mueang in the northeast before the thesaphiban reforms, but haven't found the time to work through it in detail yet as my Thai reading is still far from perfect. I will mention this post on my blog next week, do you mind if I "borrow" a photo from here?

[Lawrence]

Not at all, Maew Nam. I'll appreciate the mention. I look forward to your post.