The Magic Of Indochina

Indochina traditionally refers to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. These countries were heavily influenced by India and China. We already have had a very detailed look at the magic practices of South East Asia. Now let us zoom out a litter into a larger region of Indochina.

Basically there are two major streams of magic in Indochina:

1. The betel leaf stream exhibits Hindu influence
• Cambodia, Loas, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia Peninsula
• Thai with Thai magic
• Malaysian with Malay magic
• Cambodian, Laos and Myanmar minority hill tribe with each very distinct tribal magic rituals
2. The non-betel leaf stream exhibits Chinese influence
• Vietnam, Yunnan (China)
• Miao and Yao minorities are heavily influenced by Taoist magic
• The Dai ethnic has the same believe as the Thai.

Below are a mixture of rituals from Indochinese origin that I have not classified in details:

First, some rituals from the betel leaf system:

1. For making your boss mad until dead:
• Write his name on a piece of copper plate then tie the plate to a river fish's tail. Let the fish back into the river. As the copper plate twist and turn with the struggling of the fish, your boss will suffer palpitation days and nights and become crazy. If the fish dies, the your boss dies as well. Unless you can catch hold of the fish, there is no cure.
2. For killing your boss remotely:
• Put your magic knife or spear into a pool of water then perform incantation until it turns into a fish, and if you see the water has turned red into blood, then your boss will be choked to dead by his own blood.
3. For torturing your boss with extreme bad luck:
• Make a doll of your boss, put it into a small coffin and a coffin nail ontop of the doll. Then bury the small coffin with a simple ritual at an evil place. Your boss will suffer from extreme black luck or even death. The only remedy is to uncover the small coffin and remove the coffin nail.
4. For haunting your boss with animal's spirit:
• Chop down a black dog's head, a black cock's head etc. Write your boss's name on a piece of paper then insert the paper into the animal's mouth. Bury the animal head at an evil place and watch the show.
5. For making Indochinese santau, Gu:
• Prepare 5 types of insects and animals: snakes, centepedes, spiders, scropions and lizards into a ceremic urn and seal it with a piece of yellow paper. Bury the urn beside a crossroad. After 49 days if the seal is broken then the ritual has failed otherwise, bring back the urn and hide it under the bed. It must be offered with tea and incense every morning and evening. Take some of the incense ash and give it to your boss. After a while your boss will be intoxicated and his soul will do what is told by you.
• The Dai folks believe the practitioner of Indochinese Santau to be Phi Pop. We already have some discussions regarding Phi Pop before.

And some of the rituals from non-betel leaf system from Yao and Miao Taoist magic in Vietnam:

a.       Thunder in the palm掌心雷

                                                              i.      This is a famous and simple method to get rid of spirits disturbing you. Many versions. The simplest is to write the word “雷” in the left palm.

b.      The god’s arrow神箭法

                                                              i.      This is a method to harm your enemy. Draw the talisman in the left palm and release it to your enemy, he/she will fall sick.

c.       Into the well落井法

                                                              i.      This used to capture bad spirits and to bind bad people/spirits. If untreated, the stomach of the victim will become bigger and bigger until death.

d.      Stop bleeding止血法

                                                              i.      Stop bleeding big or small.

e.       Calm the nerve收驚法

                                                              i.      This will calm people from shock caused by people or spirits.

f.       Bone melting化骨法

                                                              i.      This will get rid of bone or anything stuck in the throat.

g.      Bone joining接骨法

                                                              i.      It was extremely easy to get fracture in olden days, so this is probably the only method available at the time.

h.      The order of snow mountain雪山令

                                                              i.      This is to cool down body from high fever, or to cool down the fire before the fire-walking ceremony.

i.        Tighten the grips緊箍法

                                                              i.      This method will make your opponent has acute migraine.

j.        The drop of one ton千斤墜

                                                              i.      This method will make your opponent transfixed and subsequently may cause death.

k.      The strike of the god神打法

                                                              i.      Another method to treat your enemies.

Enough with just a few examples.


So folks, I welcome you to the greater world of Indochinese magic.