| Abstract: |
The author questions the nature of relations between the practices of Buddhism and spirit cults, through an examination of the rituals for removing misfortune among the Phunoy, a small Buddhist population in northern Laos. These rituals, formerly conducted by spirit cult specialists, have involved Buddhist officiants since the 1960s. The article attempts, through ethnographic analysis of the rituals, to show the place occupied by the spirits, the treatment they receive, and the qualities attributed to the officiants responsible for them. The analysis concludes that the imposition of a supposedly orthodox Buddhism has not led to the disappearance of earlier reconfiguration between these two articulated logics. This leads the author to defend the recognition of a diachronic dimension in grasping the logic of transformation concerning the articulation between Buddhism and spirit cults.
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