Khong Sip Si

Tai Neua has also Khong Sip Si. Khong Sip Si is a long with Heed Sip Song which we always heard from elders ‘Heed Sip Song Khong Sip Si’. Khong Sip Si is a rule for practice which is related to Buddhism. There is Khong Sip Si for both common people and leaders. There are 14 rules as follow:

Khong Sip Si (for the people, especially women)

1. When the crops are ready, we celebrate and let the Pras and the elderly people eat first.

2. Merchants are forbidden to fix their scales. The scales they use to buy and sell must be accurate. They cannot cheat customers. They must speak politely to people.

3. We must help each other build fences around the Wat, build spirit houses in the four corners of the yard, and build a spirit house inside the house to welcome the Theravada.

4. We must wash our feet before we step inside the house.

5. On Van Sin (Buddha’s Day and the Day of Fasting), we pray and place flowers on the three legs of the stove, on ladders and stairs, and on the door. We thank those things and the people who made them for being part of our lives.

6. We must wash our feet before we go to bed.

7. On Van Sin each woman must bring five or eight pairs ofcandles and flowers and put them by her husband’s feet onthe bed. She must use her hair to clean his feet, and ask for forgiveness.

8. On Van Sin Dap, Sin Pang (waxing and waning days), we invite the Pras to Vai Pra in our house and have a house festival.

9. We get up early in the morning and wait for the Pras on the street with hot rice, fruit, and a glass or a jar of water. While we put the rice into the bowl, we kneel on our knees with bare feet and our heads down. We have to be careful not to let our hand touch the alm bowl. While carrying food to the Pras, itis forbidden to carry weapons, umbrellas or babies, or to wearcloths around our heads.

10. When the Pras perform Khao Watsa and Ok Watsa, we bring flowers, candles, incense and food to the Wat.

11. When we see the Pras, we put our hands together before we talk.

12. It is forbidden to walk in the shadow of the Pras. We do not walk too close to the Pras.

13. It is forbidden to feed the Pras or the husband with leftover food.

14. It is forbidden to have sex on Van Sin, holidays, or our birthdays

Khong Sip Si (For Leaders)

1. The leaders choose and appoint the men to look over the village. The men chosen must be honest, love others and have no record of abusing other people.

2. The leaders call regular community meetings. At the meetings they talk about how to help people live in peace and care about each other.

3. On the New Year, the leaders take the Prakheo, Prabang, and the Buddha statues down and sprinkle the holy water on them. Every Wat in every village celebrates for seven days and seven nights. We also pray for the Nak or Nagas (water snakes) who take care of the water and for the Theravada who take care of the land and look over us so we will have plenty of water to grow our crops.

4. During Sung Karn Khiin, the leaders invite the Pras and parade them around the village with the holy water. The Pras sprinkle the holy water on the ground and bushes while they are walking, so the evil spirits will not harm the people.

5. During Sung Karn Khiin, the leaders tell the helpers, the police, and the villagers to bring a gift of one pair of candles, white flowers, and incense to the king to show respect. Then we walk to the Cave of the Swallows to bring the images of Buddha that are kept there to the Wat and cleanse them with holy water. Afterwards, we parade the statues to every Wat in the neighborhood and bring them back to the Cave of the Swallows.

6. During Sung Karn Lueng, the leaders tell the politicians to swear in front of the Buddha statue and the Pras that they will be an honor to the country and will not mistreat people.

7. During Leuan Tiet, the leaders feed the spirits of north, south, east, and west. They follow the Heed Sip Song and the Khong Sip Si to protect the people from evil spirits so everybody will live in peace.

8. During Leuan Pet, the leaders invite the Pras to bless every corner of the village and to venerate the eight Theravadas who watch over us from the eight corners of the sky. They also bless the fifteen last names of the Nagas, who protect our riverbeds. On the last day of Deuan Pet, the leaders shoot a gun toward the sky and throw sand and soft rocks upwards to cure people who are ill.

9. During Leuan Kao, when we celebrate Ho Khao Padap Dinh, the Feast of the Dead, the leaders tell people in the village to make rice cakes. The people bring the rice cakes to the temple to feed the ancestors who passed away a long time ago. The politicians bring the holy water to the Wat. The next day, we have the Boat Festival. At the same time, we thank the fifteen different last names of Nagas for keeping the people and the country living in peace. We offer them alcohol and food.

10. During Deuan Sip Peng, the leaders tell people to make Ho Khao Slak (rice cakes, with a jar of holy water). People give them to the Pras, then feed the ancestors who have passed away and thank the Theravada who have been looking over us and protecting us from war.

11. During Leuan Sip Et Peng, the leaders celebrate the Sim (sanctuary). They invite the Pras to bless the Sim. On the first day of the waning moon the leaders tell the people to Ly Heou Phay (put a boat made of banana trees and carrying lit candles in the water) in order to thank the fifteen different last names of the Nagas, because they keep the people and the country living in peace.

12. During Leuan Sip Song, Kine Ning Khum (first day in the twelfth month), the leaders tell people who live on the mountains and the lowland people to go to the capital (Luang Prabang) to see each other and to parade the king to the Boat Festival. The people feed and thank the Theravadas in the land, as well as in the sky, and the fifteen different last names of the Nagas for keeping peace in our country. At the same time, we bring flowers, incense, long and short firecrackers, drums, and animals. We celebrate for three days and three nights so that the people and the country will live in peace.

13. The leaders of the priesthood follow the Five- and Eight- Fold Path and Four Sublime States of Consciousness: Karuna, (compassion); Metta, (loving kindness); Mudita, (sympathetic joy); and Upekkha, (equanimity). They must be honest to the country and must not abuse the people.

14. The leaders must do fourteen perfect things: be wise in words, be wise in teaching, be moral, be collectors, be predictors, be brave elders, be honest to the heads of the villages and the people, be psychically wise, be honest men, be knowledgeable of the boundaries, be good rich merchants, be good herbal medicine men who know how to cure illness, be good at geography and census-taking, and be good to the Theravadas.

Today, some people still practice the Khong Sip Si. Some practice only part of it. The young generations are confused. They do not understand it whatsoever. It could be that they are not interested or they just ignore it. It is sad to see it disappear.

Do you know have any idea? Do you know any Khong Sip Si? Could you share with others?