According to traditional Lao animist beliefs, the souls of a
human being or animal normally occupy and vitalise specific
areas of the body, but sometimes leave in times of strong
emotion if tempted away by another being or an attractive place,
or if captured by a malevolent spirit. Their absence is likely
to cause danger, disease, or even death. To avoid such disaster,
the souk khouan ritual (‘calling back the souls’) is organised
and family, friends and neighbours invited. A celebrant appeals
across various different worlds, calling for the absent souls to
return without delay. To attract them, delicacies are placed on
a round plate below a pyramid of flowers: eggs, chicken, rice,
cakes and so on. After repeated calls, the souls are presumed to
have returned to their host body and the celebrant ties white
cotton threads to the patient’s wrists (or ears or legs in the
case of elephants and buffalo, the only animals that this ritual
is held for). The souk khouan rite is practised at times of
disease, before de