Spiritual features in buffalo sacrifice

(Baonghean) - The Thai people in Quy Hop district (Nghe An) have a custom of dividing their belongings for the deceased to take to heaven. One of the most "valuable" possessions is a buffalo...

There are many different perceptions surrounding this custom. Some people believe that it is necessary to immediately end this situation of "the buffalo also dies when the person dies", because it not only causes double losses to the homeowner, but also affects livestock and draft power. Some explain that food is needed for a funeral that sometimes has hundreds of people, so buffalo meat is needed to have enough to eat for a few meals while the coffin is still at home... There are opinions suggesting to encourage the Thai people to abandon this "bad custom". Once considered a "bad custom", the custom of sacrificing buffalo becomes a social matter, going beyond the scope of pure spirituality...

As for us, those who have spent a lot of effort studying Thai culture, we have our own opinions. Of course, we do not intend to analyze a custom with the aim of defending this custom. The existence of a custom, especially when it has become a spiritual cultural feature, does not entirely depend on the will of an individual, but it belongs to the community, no one can suddenly "order" it to be taken away, unless the people themselves see that it is no longer suitable for the new society and the new times.

The ceremony of walking around the buffalo as an offering to the dead.

Originating from the folk philosophy of life and cosmology of the Thai community from ancient times until today, the Thai people always believe that "death is not the end". The soul of the deceased has expired the Then Na's permission to be a human being of flesh and blood on earth, now it must return to "Muong Then" according to the will of heaven.

Returning to Muong Then, people still have to live and work normally as when they were in Muong Nguoi, so they need a buffalo to get pulling power, serving the livelihood in the eternal place of human life, because the buffalo is always attached to life, and is loved the most by the people. The buffalo not only helps people plow the fields and gardens, and pull wood to build houses. To have a bountiful harvest, to have a high stilt house to live in, to have rice to eat... a buffalo is needed. The buffalo is also the biggest asset in the house, can reproduce and multiply and be inherited from generation to generation.

The buffalo is also a source of food, more importantly, the buffalo has a special place in the spiritual life of the local people and the Muong people. According to ancient legends, most clearly in the poems "Quam To Muong", "Lai Long Muong" of the Thai people in the Western region of Nghe An, talking about the time when heaven and earth were first divided. At that time, Heaven sent humans down to the lower world, and the buffalo asked to follow them down to help people with farming. People did not forget the buffalo's work, finding good grass to eat during the day, finding cool streams for the buffalo to bathe in after a hard day of plowing and pulling wood. In the cold winter, they protected the buffalo from the cold wind. The stilt house was also divided into two parts, the people lived in the upper part and the buffalo lived in the lower part. In the summer, before going to bed, people make a big pile of garbage, burn it and smoke it to repel mosquitoes for the buffalo... Every year, people also hold a ceremony to worship the buffalo with a separate Tet feast to thank the buffalo for helping people earn money throughout the year, and at the same time worship to help the buffalo be healthy, reproduce well, and avoid risks such as epidemics, snake bites, falling off cliffs, or getting lost and not knowing the way home. The affection between people and buffaloes is like that when they are alive, and when they die, they are still attached to each other.

When someone in the family passes away, the Thai people usually choose a buffalo from the family herd or must buy one if the family does not have one and conditions allow. The buffalo to be killed for the deceased, regardless of size, must be a black buffalo. White buffaloes are only to be killed for food, or are only allowed to be offered to heaven (Po then). Ordinary people are not allowed to offer white buffaloes. The sons-in-law in the family and clan are responsible for killing and butchering the buffalo.

Immediately after the buffalo is slaughtered, the ceremony to worship the buffalo’s soul for the dead begins. This ceremony is quite strange to people of other ethnic groups who have never seen it before. The brides wear long red dresses, holding a small bamboo tube containing clear spring water; the “good” grooms usually wear long white or yellow dresses, with a knife belt and a torch in their hands.

The bride and groom begin to circle the buffalo. They must circle it exactly three times, lighting torches at the buffalo as they walk to ward off slugs, leeches, mosquitoes and other insects that cling to the buffalo. The brides sprinkle water on the buffalo to clean it before cutting it up to offer to the dead. After the third circle, everyone puts out the fire and pours the remaining water in the small bamboo tubes held by the brides onto the buffalo carcass. When the ceremony of circling the buffalo (liep quai) is over, the buffalo is butchered by the grooms. The meat, intestines... each a little bit is boiled and brought out on a tray of offerings at the head of the coffin in the house for the dead to "eat" first.

The buffalo head is left intact, and when the funeral is held, two people will carry the buffalo head to hang it on a tree branch next to the grave of the deceased. That is the body of the buffalo. As for the soul, the deceased will be offered a buffalo by their descendants to take the buffalo's soul to heaven.

The shaman's words include the following lines: "Sons offer buffaloes with fat horns/ Offer buffaloes with beautiful horns to Muong Bon to sow rice/ Go to Muong Then to plant rice in deep fields/ Offer one buffalo to become a herd of buffaloes/ While still alive, tie a rattan rope to lead/ Now take a twine made of thread/ Lead the buffalo's soul back to Muong Then...".

The night before the funeral, a shaman or sorcerer will sing and recite the lyrics to send the ghost and buffalo spirit back to Muong Then. On the way, the dead person's soul leads the buffalo spirit, the shaman's soul only holds a whip behind to urge the buffalo. And the shaman will escort the soul to the boundary dividing the three muongs, the muong of heaven - the muong of the human world - the muong of the underworld, then the shaman must return.

The Thai shamans in Western Nghe An escort the souls of the dead and the buffaloes to Pu Quai Mountain in Muong Ton (Que Phong District, Nghe An Province today). The shaman's lyrics describing the Pu Quai Mountain scene include the following: "Having arrived here, looking up at the sky, I see dark clouds swirling/ Under the sky, this place is called Pu Quai/ The road to Muong Then is still very far!". At this point, the shaman did not dare to follow to escort the ghosts anymore, but only described the scene to let the ghosts know about the journey they had to take to get to Muong Then. At this time, only the soul of the person who had just died remained, leading the soul of the buffalo.

In funerals, almost all Thai people, no matter where they are, rich or poor, always try to find a buffalo to offer to the deceased. Even if they don't have money, they have to borrow or go into debt to get a buffalo. Only when they have no other choice but to do otherwise, they still regret and feel remorse for the rest of their lives... Thus, the killing of buffalo in funerals according to Thai customs was once considered superstitious, heretical, and wasteful because it was thought that killing buffalo was only for the purpose of serving food and drink; and also because of not understanding the customs that are deeply spiritual in the Thai ethnic community, there were criticisms as mentioned at the beginning of this article...

Thai Tam