Grandmother Nyoe, Guardian Ancestress of Luang Prabang

Ya Nyoe ('Grandmother Nyoe') is the ancestress of the guardian pair of Luang Prabang. With her husband Pu Nyoe she came down, at the bidding of the sky lord Phaya Thaen, to cut through the monstrous khua khao kat creeper whose canopy had plunged the world into darkness; the falling vine killed them both, and in gratitude the Lao raised the couple to the rank of devata luang, the great tutelary spirits of the royal capital. Her mask, kept with her husband's and that of the lion Sing Kaew Sing Kham at Vat Aham, is danced through Luang Prabang at the Pi Mai New Year, when the ancestral couple bless the town, join the great processions, and help lustrate the Prabang image. Households calling the couple's names at ceremonies remember them as the nurturing grandparents of the Lao people, givers of protection, prosperity, and abundance.

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: Grandfather Nyoe, Guardian Ancestor of Luang PrabangGrandmother Nyoe and Grandfather 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

• Ya Nyoe is the female 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)