Hong Khwan: Calling Back the Khwan, Lanna Style

Hong khwan (ร้อฯงขัวฯร, Kham Mueang reading hong khwan) is the Lanna ceremony for calling back the khwan, the vital essence of a person. The Moradok Lanna dictionary explains it as "inviting the khwan to come back and stay with oneself by holding a ceremony". Whenever someone has had a fright, falls ill, is about to travel far or is starting a new stage of life, the elders of Lanna often hold a hong khwan ceremony and then mat mue, tie the wrists with white cotton thread, so that the khwan will stay with the body.

What is the khwan?

The word khwan (ขัวฯร, Kham Mueang reading khwan) has several meanings in the dictionary. The first is the hair or fur that grows in a spiral whorl on the head. But the meaning that matters for this ceremony is "something without a body (a state like a spirit) that dwells in the life of people, animals and plants from birth to death".

Khwan also means the height of one's spirits or a blessing, good fortune, which is why there are expressions such as khwan di (good morale) and khwan sia (shaken morale), and a gift given to cherish someone is called khong khwan. All these meanings are linked: the khwan is what keeps life steady, and when all the khwan are in place, a person is well and happy.

The 32 khwan

Lanna people believe a person has not just one khwan. The sam-sip-song khwan (สามฯสิปฯสอฯงขัวฯร, sam-sip-song khwan), "thirty-two khwan", are the khwan that dwell in the 32 parts of the body, from hair, body hair, nails and teeth to tears and saliva.

Why call the khwan?

The basic belief is that the khwan can move. When a person is frightened or meets with misfortune, a khwan may slip out of the body. Villagers call this khwan hai (the khwan is lost), khwan ni (the khwan has fled) or khwan bin (the khwan has flown). Kham Mueang has the expression khi hot tot hai (ขี้ห฿ดฯต฿ดฯหายฯ, khi hot tot hai), which the dictionary glosses as "frightened out of one's wits".

The work of Surachet Khuhaloet and On-usa Suwanprathet (2023), a synthesis of 30 years of research on su khwan in the North and the Northeast, concludes that in the belief of Lanna folk healers, illness often comes from one of the khwan having gone missing, for example after a fright or an accident. So the family holds a ceremony to call the khwan back into the body.

Besides times of illness, Lanna people also call the khwan at important moments of life. Research at Ban Pao, Ngao District, Lampang Province, by Panatda Klahan and Tulaphon Saenpron (2020) collected 3 versions of the khwan-calling chant: a su khwan chant for healing the sick and for good fortune, a chant for hong khwan luk kaeo (for a boy about to be ordained as a novice), and a chant for su khwan bao sao (for a bride and groom).

Hong khwan, hiak khwan, su khwan: interchangeable names

In the Moradok Lanna dictionary, this ceremony has several names with the same meaning:

So hiak khwan (รยฯกขัวฯร, hiak khwan) and su khwan (สู่ขัวฯร, su khwan) are Lanna words too, while mat mue tue khwan (มัดฯมืทืขัวฯร, mat mue tue khwan) focuses on tying the wrists to receive the khwan.

The ceremony's objects: khan sa-li and fai mai mue

The heart of the ceremony is the khan sa-li (ขันฯระฯสี, khan sa-li), which central Thais call a bai si. The dictionary explains it as "a vessel holding offerings in a khwan-calling ceremony or offerings to the gods". The bai sa-li (บาฯยฯระฯสี, bai sa-li) is the khwan-inviting offering made of banana leaves folded and joined in tiers, tapering upwards.

The word sa-li (ระฯสี) in these names corresponds to the Thai word si, meaning good fortune, grace and prosperity. The Lampang research found many kinds of bai si trays, such as 5-tier and 3-tier bai si decorated with flowers, incense and candles, and in the chant each object is described as auspicious.

Another essential item is the fai mai mue (ฝ้ายฯไหมฯมื, fai mai mue), the thread for tying the wrists in a khwan-calling ceremony or for tying the wrists of a married couple. Some ceremonies also run a sai sin (สายฯสิญจฯน์, sai sin), a sacred cord, for good fortune.

The image at the top of this article shows a bai si tray at a su khwan ceremony in Luang Prabang, Laos. Calling the khwan is a belief shared by many Tai peoples, so the tray looks much like the Lanna khan sa-li.

The steps of a hong khwan ceremony

The officiant reads the khwan-calling chant, a composition in rai verse using both Kham Mueang and Pali. The research at Ban Pao (Panatda Klahan and Tulaphon Saenpron, 2020) found that all 3 versions of the chant for people have a structure of 5 parts, which are also the order of the ceremony:

1. Opening: names the occasion and the auspicious day, beginning with Pali words meaning "a good day", and pays homage to the Triple Gem.
2. Describing the offerings: describes the khan sa-li, the flowers and the food prepared, each one as an auspicious thing.
3. Inviting the khwan: calls the 32 khwan that may have strayed into the human world, heaven or the underworld to come back to their owner and eat the food prepared for them.
4. Brushing away misfortune: brushes misfortune, bad luck and illness away from the body.
5. Binding the khwan: says the words of feeding the khwan, then ties thread around the wrists. This research records that the left wrist is tied first, then the right, following the old belief that "the right is bad, the left is good".

The dictionary explains mat mue (มัดฯมื, mat mue) as "holding a ceremony receiving and inviting the khwan into a person", and it is also used to show acceptance, as in tying a young man's wrists to show that he is accepted as a son-in-law.

For the North and Northeast as a whole, Surachet Khuhaloet (2015, cited in Surachet and On-usa, 2023) divides healing by su khwan into 6 steps: contacting the su khwan healer, preparing the materials, setting up offerings to the teachers, finding the cause, performing the healing ceremony, and rewarding the officiant.

Son khwan and pha khwan: khwan ceremonies for special cases

Besides ordinary hong khwan, the dictionary also records khwan ceremonies held in special cases:

Not only people: the khwan of rice and of buffaloes

The belief that "everything has a khwan" leads Lanna people to call the khwan of the things that sustain their lives too.

• The khwan of rice: khwan khao (ขัวฯรเขั้า, khwan khao) is the blessing that dwells in the rice plants and grains, revered as Ya Khwan Khao (ย่าขัวฯรเขั้า, ya khwan khao; Mae Phosop, the rice goddess). The su khwan khao (สู่ขัวฯรเขั้า) ceremony invites Grandmother Rice Khwan from the fields into the granary after the harvest, and invites her back to the fields when the planting season comes.
• The khwan of buffaloes: hong khwan khwai (ร้อฯงขัวฯรฅวฯายฯ, hong khwan khwai) is held by farmers at the end of the farming season. The dictionary explains that it thanks the buffaloes and asks their forgiveness (kho su-ma) for the scolding and whipping during ploughing and harrowing, and blesses them with strength and many calves.

Hong khwan today

Scholars see value in the khwan-calling ceremony beyond belief. Surachet Khuhaloet and On-usa Suwanprathet (2023) conclude that it cares for both the body and the mind of the sick, helps people through the crises of life, and connects people with their families, communities and nature. The local language of the chants is also a mark of identity that shows at once which group a chant belongs to.

Today white threads around the wrist are still seen all over Lanna: at ordinations and weddings, when welcoming guests, and when blessing children before a journey. It is a gentle way of saying, "may your khwan stay with you."

Summary

• Hong khwan (also hiak khwan or su khwan) is the ceremony inviting the khwan back to stay with oneself.
• Lanna people believe a person has 32 khwan dwelling in the parts of the body; after a fright or an illness, a khwan may flee.
• The key objects in the ceremony are the khan sa-li (bai si) and the fai mai mue thread for tying the wrists.
• The khwan-calling chant has 5 parts: opening, describing the offerings, inviting the khwan, brushing away misfortune and binding the khwan.
• Lanna people also call the khwan of rice and of buffaloes, reflecting the belief that everything has a khwan.

Look up more Lanna words about the khwan in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read about Lanna beliefs in spirits and guardian spirits in the article Pu Sae Ya Sae.

Sources

• The Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): ฮ้องขวัญ · ขวัน · สามสิ๋บสองขวัญ · มัดมือ · ขันสะหลี
• ปนัดดา กล้าหาญ และตุลาภรณ์ แสนปรน [Panatda Klahan and Tulaphon Saenpron]. (2020). การวิเคราะห์บทสู่ขวัญ ในพื้นที่บ้านเป๊าะหมู่ ๕ ตำบลบ้านโป่ง อำเภองาว จังหวัดลำปาง [An analysis of su khwan chants at Ban Pao, Village 5, Ban Pong Subdistrict, Ngao District, Lampang Province]. วารสารมังรายสาร มหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏเชียงราย [Mangraisan Journal, Chiang Rai Rajabhat University] 8(2). In Thai.
• สุรเชษฐ์ คูหาเลิศ และอรอุษา สุวรรณประเทศ [Surachet Khuhaloet and On-usa Suwanprathet]. (2023). การรักษาโรคด้วยพิธีกรรมการสู่ขวัญ: ความหมาย คุณค่า และตัวตนของคนไทยภาคเหนือและอีสาน [Healing through the su khwan ritual: meaning, value and identity of Northern and Northeastern Thais]. วารสารมนุษยศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยนเรศวร [Journal of Humanities, Naresuan University] 20(3), 62–81. In Thai.