The Baci ceremony

The Baci ceremony is one of the most important, unique and most regularly held ceremonies in Laos and Thailand’s northeastern Isaan provinces.

The Baci celebration is always sincere, and anyone is welcome to join. During the ceremony a goood health and long life is wished to all its participants.

The Baci ceremony is also known by Laotians and Thais as “Soukhouan” which means the calling and receiving of the soul. People in Laos and Isaan believe that the body has 32 parts and each part comes with its own wandering soul. While the ceremony is held, the absent souls are asked to return to their physical bodies.
This is part of the ceremony is usually performed by an elderly man also known as a “Thit” or “Chane” a former monk.

On the day of Soukkhouan the participating people take a tray called a “Phakouan” with them. The tray is made of banana leafs filled with flowers, the “champa” or frangipani flower, which is the national flower of Laos.

Other things which are used during the Baci ceremony are: alcohol; eggs; rice cakes; money; candles and cotton thread.

When all the guests have arrived the ceremony will begin with the lighting of the candle on the top of the tray and some incense sticks after which the “Thit” communicates with the divinities. Then cotton thread is nodded around the participants’ wrists, like thin white bracelets.

During a wedding Baci ceremony also money is tied on the wrist of the married couple…

Phra That Renu and the Phu Thai minority

Nakhon Renu is home to the Phra That Renu and to the Phu Thai minority group, which traditionally settled along the Mekong River and its tributaries. Phu Thai people preserved their unique tradition of the Baci ceremony.

Definition: "Briefly the Baci is a ceremony to celebrate a special event, whether a marriage, a homecoming, a welcome, a birth, or one of the annual festivals. A mother is given a baci after she has recovered form a birth, the sick are given bacis to facilitate a cure, officials are honored by bacis, and novice monks are wished luck with a baci before entering the temple. The Baci ceremony can take place any day of the week and all year long, preferably before noon or before sunset. [...]”. (Lao Heritage Foundation)

Phra That Renu is located within the compound of Wat That Renu. The 35 meter high That Renu is an imitation of the famous Phra That Phanom, which is located further south along the Mekong River. From Phra That Renu to Phra That Phanom it is approximately 40 km. Phra That Renu was built in 1918. The stupa itself houses the Buddhist Tipitaka - the three divisions of the Buddhist Canon, consisting of gold and silver Buddha images, some other precious items and regalia of local noblemen.

Wat That Renu can be reached from highway 212, and the following the road 2105 for another 7 kilometers.