Grandfather Nyoe, Guardian Ancestor of Luang Prabang

Pu Nyoe ('Grandfather Nyoe') is one of the two great guardian ancestors of Luang Prabang. In the myth, a colossal creeper, the khua khao kat, grew up over the world and hid the sun; at the command of the sky lord Phaya Thaen the aged Pu Nyoe and his wife Ya Nyoe descended to cut it down, and when it finally fell it crushed them both. For this sacrifice the Lao honor them as the founding ancestors and tutelary deities (devata luang) of the royal city, a cult that tradition traces to the reign of Fa Ngum, founder of Lan Xang. Their red-faced, white-maned masks are kept at Vat Aham, and at the Lao New Year (Pi Mai) dancers embodying the couple, together with their lion companion Sing Kaew Sing Kham, lead the processions and take part in bathing the Prabang, the palladium of Laos. Villagers still invoke the pair when calling blessings, and they are believed to bring prosperity and abundance to the city and its people.

Domains

• guardianship
• seasonal renewal

Powers

• to cut down the great vine that darkened the world
• to guard Luang Prabang and bring prosperity and abundance to its people

Epithets

• ເທວະດາຫຼວງIng-Britt Trankell, 'Royal Relics: Ritual and Social Memory in Louang Prabang', in Grant Evans (ed.), Laos: Culture and Society (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1999), pp. 191–213 (secondary)

Relations

• spouse: Grandmother Nyoe, Guardian Ancestress of Luang PrabangGrandfather Nyoe and Grandmother Nyoe act throughout the myth as a married primordial couple and are honored together, as a pair, as the devata luang of Luang Prabang.Pathom Hongsuwan, 'PuYer-YaYer: Myths and Rituals of Ancestor Spirits with Buddhism in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR', Journal of Lao Studies 6:1 (2018), pp. 94–106 (secondary); Ing-Britt Trankell, 'Royal Relics: Ritual and Social Memory in Louang Prabang', in Grant Evans (ed.), Laos: Culture and Society (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1999), pp. 191–213 (secondary)
• subordinate to: Sky LordIn the Luang Prabang myth it is Phaya Thaen Luang who orders the aged couple down to earth to save humankind from the world-shading creeper.Pathom Hongsuwan, 'PuYer-YaYer: Myths and Rituals of Ancestor Spirits with Buddhism in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR', Journal of Lao Studies 6:1 (2018), pp. 94–106 (secondary)

Sources

• Pu Nyoe is the male half of the ancestral couple who died felling the giant creeper that blotted out the sun and who are venerated as the devata luang, the guardian ancestor spirits of Luang Prabang, embodied by masked dancers at the Lao New Year.: Ing-Britt Trankell, 'Royal Relics: Ritual and Social Memory in Louang Prabang', in Grant Evans (ed.), Laos: Culture and Society (Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1999), pp. 191–213 (secondary); Pathom Hongsuwan, 'PuYer-YaYer: Myths and Rituals of Ancestor Spirits with Buddhism in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR', Journal of Lao Studies 6:1 (2018), pp. 94–106 (secondary)