Khun Borom is the primal ancestral lord of the Tai origin narrative, sent down from heaven by Then to govern mankind. After the flood, humanity is reborn at Mường Then—Muang Thaeng, the plain of Điện Biên in the Black Tai heartland—where a great gourd (nam tao) is pierced and the ancestors of the Tai, Lao and neighboring peoples issue forth; Khun Borom's sons then disperse to found the several Tai lordships. The tradition is shared across the Tai world and appears in Buddhist Lao form as the Nithan Khun Borom; sources differ on the extent to which the Black Tai telling is independent of, or colored by, that Lao chronicle, but the gourd's placement at Mường Then anchors the myth firmly in Tai Dam territory.