Sky Lord

Deity (the supreme sky-power of the Lao/Isan phi cosmology, overlapping the phi fa sky-spirit). English title leads; native Phaya Thaen (ພະຍາແຖນ / พญาแถน) in alt/transliterations.

Children

• Progenitor King of the Tai-Lao

Domains

• sky and heaven
• rain and monsoon

Powers

• Grants or withholds the life-giving rains from heaven
• Sends the first lords and the gourd-born peoples down to earth

Epithets

• พญาแถน

Relations

• rival: Lord Serpent of the Mekong

Sources

• S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-east Thailand, CUP, 1970
• Wajuppa Tossa, Phya Khankhaak, the Toad King, Bucknell University Press, 1996