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Tai Cosmology and the Influence of Buddhism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Bernard Formoso
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Extract

For the Black, White and Red Tai, the universe is composed of three levels: the heavens, the “flat world,” inhabited by man, and the “world beneath the waters,” upon which the flat world rests and in which the ophidian genies, the nguok, live. These ophidians at times transform themselves into men and devour the heart of young girls. The white Tai imagine that the third level is also peopled by dwarves. The soul is multiple, according to the Tai, and its components become distributed post mortem among the two upper levels of the ternary world mentioned above. Indeed, some souls of the deceased migrate to an afterlife in the heavens, others fake up residence in the altar of ancestors where they become tutelary household spirits, while the remainder, bound to the body of the deceased, reside in the cemetery.

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 44 , Issue 174 , January 1996 , pp. 61 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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