Birth rituals of Zeliangrongs and Tais: A comparative study
- Part 2 -

Budha Kamei *

The winnowing basket ritual: The midwife/old woman who officiates as priest will rock the child pronouncing: ‘Bangla, Bangla, Bangla’ not to cause any dizziness to the child in future. Then, the child on a Paantanglu, winnowing basket will place on its parents’ bed and the priest says:  “Long live the child and let fresh hair grow and accommodate him to sleep on the Paantanglu.”

In Thailand, the baby is placed on a Kradung, a shallow round winnowing tray. On the basket are also put a book and pencil if the baby is male, a needle and thread if the child is female. The midwife does bounce the child lightly three times, speaking: Three days a spirit child, on the fourth day a human child. Whose child is it?, and a woman who has a pleasant character and has raised many children with great success comes forward to claim the child.

The custom of placing some objects is closely related to a child’s future tasks. Just after that, the baby’s wrists are tied with white cotton thread in order to strengthen and maintain its vital spirits. The same ritual is found among the Laotians, the Tai Neua, the Lue, the Black Tai and the Red Tai. R Roberts writes, “After birth the child is washed and then a woman places it on a tray and goes to the veranda or to the main door.

She rocks her charge three times and says: Little one, if you are the child of a spirit, may he come kill you; if you are the child of the sky, may the sky take you; if not we will bring you up and you will be our child….” 19 However, the basket ritual is unknown to the Assamese Tais.

Disposal of the placenta: The Zeliangrong wrap the placenta in a banana leaf and bury it inside the house with a sort of hymns.  It is done near the mother’s bed close to the wall and never outside the house. 20 This is called Nalam Phuploumei in local dialect. They bury it inside the house in the idea that the child will sense itself endlessly drawn to its parents’ house when it grown up. There are some variations regarding the disposal of placenta among the Tai groups.

A group of Shan burry the placenta under the steps of the house after wrapping it in a banana leaf. The Lao of Vietnam put it in a bamboo tube and burry it under the ladder leading up to the house. The Red Tais of northern Vietnam use the bamboo tube and hang it in a tree. But, the Tho people burry it in a secret place. Generally, the Thai peoples put the placenta in a pot and burry it not far from the house.

Often it is buried near a tree and if the tree flourishes it is a sign that the child also will be strong and healthy. The Zeliangrong burry the placenta inside the house to have the child continuous link with his/her parents’ house. While the Tai burry it near the tree to predict the health/wellbeing of the child.

Introduction to the society: When a child is completed for five days, a ceremony locally recognized as Najum Gaimei Khatni Nasan Kanmei is performed. This is the first spiritual ceremony in the life cycle of an individual. 

In this ceremony, the priest offers a beautiful cock and a beautiful hen as Sangdai and Sanglou to the Almighty God Tingkao Ragwang and goddess Dampapui, for wellbeing, prosperity and line of generation of the child. The legs of the victims are observed in search of good signs. After this ceremony, the child is treated as a human being. It also declares the existence of a child in the society and the-responsibility of the.parents to bring up the child.

The cooked chicken is distributed among the elders of Pei; the head of the chicken is given to the priest. The cooked Loithin, livers of Sangdai and Sanglou are placed separately on two plates of banana leaf along with a lump of cooked rice, and a piece of ginger on each plate. Then, the priest with a piece of ginger purifies the child by chanting the hymn Kasan Kamnei Soi.

With the end of recitation, a portion of liver of.Sangdai, a piece of ginger, a lump of rice along with a small quantity of holy wine is poured on the forehead of the child. The same process is repeated with the liver of Sanglou. This is locally called Nasan Kanmei. On this day, the child is taken outside the house for the first time to expose to the light.

The Khamyang perform a ritual called Aw Ook Can. It is a ritual of taking the baby outside for the first time and introducing it to the elements. It is performed soon after the remnant of the umbilical cord has dried up and dropped off, which occurs at least a week after birth.

Just in front of the ladder which leads up to the house a number of objects like a bow and arrow, a sword, knife, axe for boy or baskets, needle and thread for the girl will be arranged. Jus at the moment of sunrise the baby will be taken out by an old woman (who conducts the ritual) and the mother also comes out. With the help of the old woman the baby greets the day’s first rays of sunlight and then the child is brought towards the objects to touch.

After this, the baby is made to bow down and greet the earth. Thus, the baby is introduced to the wider world, and for a while exposed to the elements. After returning to the house, a party for the village women is held. They offer a piece of areca nut, wrapped in betel leaf to each woman. The priestess will open the food packet having some boiled rice and eggs, she then divides the egg in two, exposing the yolk.

Whilst good wishes are murmured, bits of this yolk are applied to various parts of the child’s body. Then, a piece of white cotton thread is tied around the infant’s wrists. Whilst the thread is fastened a short blessing is murmured. The present women will follow suit and tie bits of cotton. The part of the ritual which takes place in the house is anticipated to strengthen and bind the child’s strength and vitality.

The period of lying in at the fire: Usually, after giving birth, a big fire is lit and the Zeliangrong woman lies down close by exposing her abdomen and back for about five days depending on her health condition. This custom of lying near the fire is ubiquitous amongst the Tai in general. It is done for medicinal purposes, intended to strengthen the mother and to help with the process of drying up the abdomen. The period of lying near the fire is about three or four days. However, they avoid certain types of firewood.

Naming the child:

In the Najum Gaimei ceremony, the priest will confer a name for the child or get confirmed the provisional name (given on the day of its birth) which was found better without giving a new name. It is a rite of incorporation which introduces the child into the family, because without a name, a person cannot be counted as a member of the family. Fuller says, “A name is a kind of face whereby one is known.” Without a name a man cannot be counted as a member of the society. Most commonly the ancestor names are given to the children. The name is given sometime having some definite signification,

and mostly alluding to some supposed quality or to some accidental circumstance which have happened at the time of birth. In this regard, Colonel McCulloch writes, “Five days after the birth of a child it is named with various ceremonies names are not given at random but are compounds of father’s and grand father’s names or those of other near relations.”

The indigenous names in case of boys are Pantilung which denotes long life, Tampikhon means protector and host of the house, Lanchonglung signifies wealth and for girls are Gairuna implies good girl, Gaithoiru indicates a very prosperous lady girl etc. The first bom is a boy; they give such name like Pouganglei or Pouchalei which means first bom son or first come son. The second, third and fourth are given only generic names.

And the last one is a boy they give name like Poukhamlung or Pougangkham which denotes last bom son or last come son. In case of girl, the first bom is given name like Luchalei or Luleilu or Luhoulei which indicates first bom daughter or first daughter or first seen daughter and the last one is a daughter, Lukhamlu means last daughter. The Tais choose name of the child only after first hair shaving.

Conclusion:

After observing the above facts, it may be stated that there are some linkages between the Zeliangrong and the Tais. It seems that in the distant past, the way of life of the indigenous ethnic groups of Southeast Asia influenced with each other in domineering way. In other words, the way of life of a group or tribe is determined by environment. As northeast, a part of Southeast Asia geographically there may have linkages between northeast and southeast Asia.

Amongst the Tai groups too, there are some variations in the birth ritual practices. It may be because of, they lost contact with each other since the days of their migration, there is, however, no longer homogeneity in the Tai culture maintained by them.

Concluded.....