Sky Lord
Thai Lao · deity · Lao Isan cosmology; living folk cult · Recorded classification
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
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 'Lord Thaen' — supreme sky-power of Lao/Isan cosmologyLao/Isan phi tradition; Bun Bang Fai rocket-festival myth (secondary)
Relations
- rival: Lord Serpent of the MekongReciprocal of thai_lao_phaya_nak.rival — In the Isan toad-king epic the naga host wars on the rain-withholding Sky Lord until the rain-compact sealed by the rocket festival.Wajuppa Tossa, Phya Khankhaak, the Toad King: A Translation of an Isan Fairy Tale (Bucknell 1996) (secondary)
Sources
- Phaya Thaen is the Lao-Isan sky god and lord of rain, propitiated through the Bun Bang Fai rocket festival and prominent in the Toad King and Khun Bulom myths.: S. J. Tambiah, Buddhism and the Spirit Cults in North-east Thailand, CUP, 1970 (secondary); Wajuppa Tossa, Phya Khankhaak, the Toad King, Bucknell University Press, 1996 (secondary)