Ran Ngai (越南蛇姜)

The white turmeric (curcuma zedoria roscoe) has been used in Thailand for curing snake bite victims for many years. It is a little surprise to see it mentioned in Vietnamese snake ngai.

The snake ngai yant.

This is the mysterious Vietnamese snake ngai ritual. This ritual evokes the spirit of snake which can be quite difficult to be controlled. I have tried it, and you are warned.

The method:

1.      Find a snake in the wild or purchase it from known sources. Then dip the snake into rice wine until it is completely drowned.

2.      Draw the above yant on a piece of copper/aluminium/lead plate; or just draw the yant on the bottom of a big flower pot if the snake ngai is to be planted in a pot. But it is best that this ngai plant to be let grown under open sky.

3.      Dig a hole in the ground or pot with soil.

4.      Coil the dead snake with its head facing upwards and put the snake into the hole.

5.      Start burying the snake until its mouth is on the surface of the soil.

6.      Get a piece of white turmeric (curcuma zedoaria roscoe) in or above the snake’s head.

7.      Now continue to bury the white turmeric and dead snake and put the pot far away from children.

8.      The ritual should begin on the 25^th of the month with offering of one cup of sticky rice that is tainted with one drop of your own blood drawn from your ring finger (male: left, female: right).

When ready, first chant the mantra to invoke the 12 Thai snake deities:

“Dich si minh lo a ro bao rau him bau rau cach ph lui lu o lo a in lo lot”

Then recite the below khata to give birth to snake spirit:

“he he gia a sac a ay ni, a ha gia tay gia sai, hi san quant e re qui te, a mao cum hao mat mat.”

And recite the below Thai snake god name:

“ma a la hom” (108x)

The above ritual should be done for a consecutive of 100 days. Please be warned that the practitioner will be disturbed by this snake spirit during first few days.

After the ritual, the white turmeric should be let grow freely. It is said that this empowered turmeric can cure snake bite victims even hours after the person is dead. However, I cannot verify such claims and it is quite doubtful if it is true.

Snake ngai can be used for cursing as well. The method is just to dig up a piece of white turmeric and throw it near the enemy’s house. The person shall be harmed by this snake spirit.

If for some reasons that the sorcerer does not wish to plant this snake ngai, he/she can dig up the turmeric and boil it in hot water. After that, the white turmeric is dried under the sun for 3 days. Finally, this dried turmeric is wrapped with a piece of red cloth and it can either be carried around for protection or it can be worshipped an the altar.

This is perhaps a cross-boundary magic: Vietnamese cum Thai since Thai gods are evoked with Vietnamese :D