THE STAR
Lifestyle & Travel Adventure
Saturday May 24, 2008
[It was also published on CloveTwo]
The traditional frog dance of Laos is performed when times are bad and appeals have to be made directly to heaven.
By LIZ PRICE
The frog dance is performed in Laos to attract the attention of the Thaen God. The Lao believe that they originally came from the World of the Sky (or the kingdom of Thaen) and were sent to earth by the Lord Thaen.
To worship Thaen, they carved stones depicting a big solar star surrounded by smaller stars. This symbol of the solar star is fitting, as the word lao means “star” and has become the name of the people of the land.
Vientiane Museum.
The Lao believe when they pass away they will return to the kingdom of Thaen. When very young people get seriously ill, the parents would organise a lamsongphifar to ask the God of Thaen to prolong their life. A lamsongphifar is a ceremony during which folksongs are sung. It is also used to ask for rain.
The legend of Thaen, which shows Hindu influences, is said to have existed for more than 4,000 years. In the beginning, Thaen sent his people to populate the empty Earth. They had to change their god bodies into the human form, with four minerals, five senses, and six touches (ears, eyes, nose, tongue, body and heart).
These humans followed the laws of nature in that they experienced birth, aging, sickness and death. After death, those who had done good deeds would go to heaven. But those who had done no good or had led bad lives would be reincarnated in the human world for as many cycles as it took them to do enough good deeds to enter heaven.
There used to be communication between Thaen and humans. When the king first sent his people to Earth, there were Kheua Kaukad wire trees linking the human world to the heavens.
When people faced troubles, such as floods, natural disasters, or shortage of food, they sent two persons to climb up to the sky to ask for their god’s help. They would ask him to chase away the badness or to send rain and an abundance of rice and fish.
In this way, the god of Thaen enabled the people to have enough rice to last till the new rice season.
The god was a sympathetic one. However, he later saw that some people were lazy and did not want to work. Instead, they grew accustomed to complaining to him that they had no rice and requesting rice from him. This made the god angry, and he sent them away.
In order to ban them from Thaen, he cut down the Kheua Kaukad trees.
Example of the Kong Bang drum.
Since then, there has been no direct communication between humans and Thaen. All that remains is indirect worshipping called Thaen worship. People perform this to ask for protection from bad things and natural disasters.
To do this, people perform the frog dance ceremony to make the god of Thaen look down and see who the good people are. This ceremonial rite is performed once a year, usually at the end of the dry season, although it can be performed at any time, especially if there is no rain.
If the crops are suffering from drought, people say this is because the god of Thaen is punishing the bad people. During the ceremony, the people must pray and offer food and drink to Thaen.
To pray means to dance. People paint their faces to look like frogs, and perform the frog dance and bang the Kong Bang frog drums to make a noise like frogs singing. The bronze drums are decorated with carvings of frogs.
Some of these drums can be seen in the National Museum in Vientiane. There are also rock paintings of the frog dance. One example can be seen on a rock in Luang Namtha province in northern Laos. It is estimated to be 3,000-4,000 years old.
There are also frog dance paintings on rock cliffs and cave walls in central Thailand and in China as well. Some of the paintings depict the frog dance without the Kong Bang drums, whereas others show the drums.
It is suggested that the dance without the drum is older, maybe 5,000-6,000 years ago, before the Iron Age.
Will the young still remember these traditions?
The existence of these drums and rock paintings is proof of the legend that has been passed down through the generations. Archaeologists have found many examples of this.
In Luang Prabang province, they have found stones sculptured with stars and a possible sun. One bronze drum from Thailand has been dated at 5,600 years old. The bronze frog drums are decorated with four carved frogs seated at four angles. Some have a single frog; others feature two or three frogs at each of the four angles of the drum. They are all designed to ask for rain from Thaen.
The old people still believe that all frogs are sacred animals. When the frogs are singing, the noise would reach Thaen and the god would send rain to the world. If the god did not send rain, then the frog king would fly to the sky to ask for rain.
The Kong Bang drums are not only for rain ceremonies, but can also be used by a chief for escorting leaders, or during traditional rites or funeral ceremonies. The frog dance ceremony has survived for thousands of years and, although fewer and fewer people believe in it anymore, it is still remembered.
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