A best more general translation of the word ãNehvq” would be that of ãInvisibleä, and this includes invisible physical (hidden) beings, invisible forces like principles of life, growth and decay in people, animals, plants and trees; invisible natural and social ãlawsä and principles; the causes of diseases; invisible ãwavesä öforces like in healers who dispose over telepathy, clearvoyance, magnetism and maybe hypnosis. Belief in many of these human capacities have been lost in modern technocratic society, in which they seem to devolute. In fact: The Akha/Zaqnyiq have kept, like so many other ãtribalä ethnic minorities, this awareness of ãinvisible forcesä. Although all these invisible forces/beings belong to the larger category of ãNehvq”, they generally are not called by that name. The use of the word ãNehvq” has been, restricted to those invisible forces, which are seen as dangerous and negative, but with some exceptions, which will follow here. This is clear in the division of ãvillage for the peopleä and ãforest for the Înehvqâã, as has been a popular belief of some Akha, in the past also intended to frighten children somewhat. It was said that ãOnly the shaman and the dog can perceive the Nehvq in the forestä, referring to clear perception of hidden dangers in both. This is confirmed by the installation of the Law Kang or village-gate in which it is asked to keep ãbandits, tigers, preying animals, birds and also diseasesä out of the village, as the old dzoema texts say.
This also indicates, that translation of ãspirit-gateä for ãlaw kangä, as is now told to tourists and based on missionary translations, is incorrect and biased.
The same is also true for the concept of ãNehvq to to euä. The reciting of old texts, by the pirma/reciter is not meant as ãincantations to ö or about the spiritsä, but rather ãrecitations regarding the invisible worldä. These texts are not directed towards and most are not dealing with the invisible personalized forces at all.
Especially the ãfuneral textsä are - in a way - the ãAkha Bibleä, dealing with processes of life and death and contain the practical rules for living for the Akha in different stages of life; ceremonial rules of various kinds and in various circumstances. They also contain quite some elements of Akha history and their geographic setting amongst a great variety of other peoples. They are complex, like the Tao texts and didactic like the old Confucian and Hindu texts. But told in a highly poetic way, helping memorization.
A last example, that the category of ãNehvq” refers to things, difficult to observe is, that the concept of ãNehvq” is used for beings which have clearly physical bodies: Examples are the ãNehvq anyoä or ãWild Gaur / Buffaloä, which is almost impossible to observe (in the past) as it came in at night; ãNehvq ya ciä or ãInvisible Chickenä, which is an insect, eating trees from the inside, etc.
In a past more popular way of thinking Akha/Zaqnyiq would - traditionally - divide physical reality into the visible, easy observable part of reality (Tsoha Mixang) and the invisible, not easily observable world (Nehvq Mixang).
They are the two sides of a basically physical world. But they were seen as ãoppositesä. If it would be day in the world of people, it would be night in the ãinvisible worldä of the ãNehvq”, and vice-versa. If it would be nice weather in the world of people, it would rain in the ãinvisible worldä and vice versa. That this was conceived as physical was clear from the fact that, based on the stories told by foreigners about differences in time and hearing about the weather in Western countries, older Akha/Zaqnyiq would - in the past - ask if Western people might be those inhabiting the ãinvisible world of the Nehvq”.
In this way the rainy season, being the season of fertility and agriculture, from May to September, would also be related to risks for health and vulnerability of the rice-crop. Besides this also the risks of dangers in the lush community forests would increase in this period.
It thus has been called the ãperiod of the Nehvq” as opposed to the dry period. It is clear however that the Akha/Zaqnyiq were talking about real physical problems of disease and malnutrition (as in many cases the rice-stock has finished already) and also increased dangers in the forest, in the rainy period
This idea of a ãvisibleä and an ãinvisibleä side of the physical reality is coming back, in Akha/Zaqnyiq thinking in many forms.
In the traditional Akha /Zaqnyiq thinking, the concept of ãTso haä, or person, is very important. A human being becomes a ãtso haä or person with at name giving after birth.
Traditionally the composition of the person is that of the physical body or ãMaw doä. Its internal invisible spiritual principles are the several ãsalaä and the ãYaw sangä or owner.
The ãsalaä in people are the principles of strength and life; People do have 12 such energy centers (some believed that women do only have 9 sala); they are also the nervous centers of human energy and central points for massage. (It can be compared with the Thai concept of khwan). The translation of ãsalaä as ãsoul ã thus seems incorrect.
The ãyaw-sangä in people, which literally means ãownerä, is defined as ãConsciousnessä, or ãpersonality and ego-principleä. It is in so far closer to the western concept of soul, that it is the ãregulating/moral principleä in human persons. It is the ãYaw sangä making human beings a tso ha or person. (In Thai the personality/principle is called winyan but the association with ownership is absent.)
When people die, they loose their (several) ãsalaä, which die, but their ãyaw sangä is traditionally believed to go back to the original ancestor-village, in order to complete their cyclical journey. This road follows the genealogical system, in opposite direction. At Tang Pang, mentioned already, the deceased are checked on their moral deeds and debts, and three roads are open. Itâs the middle road leading to the original village, where they take up an after life with their deceased relatives. These would certainly not be called ãNehvq”.
Respect for the uniqueness of the ãtsohaä and itâs unique ãYaw sangä is traditionally very high in Akha/Zaqnyiq thinking. I have seldom seen a culture with such a high degree of tolerance for the individual person. This includes everybody, even some peoplesâ idiosyncracies and abnormalities, which still are given a value. There is also a very high awareness of equal human rights for all. Killing another person, even out of self-defense or in a war, was traditionally considered a main offense and reason for expulsion from the community.
ãKa, Bi and Jeã, or äPlants, People and Animalsä, are mentioned in that sequence in old texts and referring to rice, people and husbandry, first of all. They are the most important elements for subsistence and sustainability, in Akha/Zaqnyiq traditional life.
In the past it was logical to think that without rice (ka) there could not be people (bi), as it was a main subsistence crop.
Without people there could not be husbandry (je). The word ãJeä for husbandry and cattle, also had a secondary meaning as money (like is the case with original meanings of capital/cattle and pecus/pecunia).
Plants, especially rice and animals, do also have a ãsalaä or life-principle. They also equally do have an internal ãyaw-sangä, ãownerä or regulation principal.
Especially to rice, seen as a main symbol of subsistence and independence, traditionally special honour is given in several ceremonies. The principle internal ãownerã of rice yami/zami is female and she has a small Xm pi, ãrice-mother-houseä in the field, set up at rice planting. Some time after harvest some of the best rice for primary planting in the next year is transferred to the cidzi cima oghâm a small ritual house on four high poles near the main family-house, under the ärice-motherÎsã protection. Calling these houses ãspirit-housesä would be quite offensive because they honour really existing life-forces of survival, which are not visible.
Of course: Husbandry, cattle and rice do have external ãYaw sangä, who are the people owning them and in which case the word is used in its normal, literal sense.
ãKaä, äBiä and ãJeä in a more general sense relate to all plants, trees and animals of the traditional community-forest (Baw tsang) and fields (deh ma or ya-ngeh). They all have a ãsalaä or life-principle and a ãyaw sangä being a regulating principle, but of different order. These are, however, never conceived as ãspooksä or ãphantomsä, but inherent forces, by which they have life and can grow. According to traditional Akha/Zaqnyiq zang and thinking, people, plants and animals also have to live in a pragmatic harmony of the ecology to which people themselves belong. Its up to people to maintain this harmony, by bringing some order to it also. Some older Akha/Zaqnyiq still have an impressive knowledge of plants trees and animals. This knowledge of plants and trees for food, medicine, colouring, handicraft and sale, besides knowledge of animals has been built up over centuries in certain families through carefully conserved ãlines of knowledgeä. All families in a traditional village do have though a basic knowledge to cope with medical and food-problems.
This also has helped to reduce high mortality and health problems of children and adults as it still exists in many areas where Akha/Zaqnyiq live, at this moment particularly Northern Laos.
Some of our research in SEAMP-Thailand regarding knowledge of medical and food-plants, and in cooperation with Canadian ethno-botanists. We registered up to 700-800 names of such plants, including recipes proving often more effective than ãmodernä medicine. Several plants like teas, indigos and important food/medicinal plants are also given special care by which they have become, over many years, domesticated.
Traditional archaic texts of the pirma/boemaw also contain many names of animals, plants and trees, for educational purposes and of which we now are trying to set up lists.
Bio-diversity and its sustainable conservation for future use in Akha/Zaqnyiq zang and tradition is not idealistic or romantic, as in some modern ecologists. It is extremely pragmatic and has been essential for still are essential for the villagesâ economic and political survival, sustainability and a minimum of independence. In this effort of sustainable conservation of plants and animals, in the community-forest also the traditional village-leadership often still plays a role of control, imposing fines in case of violations.
As for the community forests of Akha/Zaqnyiq, they are also divide in many zones. The main division is that between Baw tsang tsang xa, or larger forest and Tsang Cu, near Law gaw, or source-areas. This last area is most protected, also with heavy fines for cutting, as sources will dry up with deforestation. For occasional cutting in other areas special permission has to be given.
Many secondary names for particular areas in the forest exist, such as the steeper, higher and lower areas. Steeper slopes, called law xm and xaw dm are also more protected as they are easier prone to erosion. Ga tsang are those strips, where paths can be made without creating damage. Traditionally there was also some expression of ãrespectä for trees and plants: I can give here some examples, witnessed personally in villages: Traditionally often an axe was placed against a big tree the night before cutting it, as if to ask permission from the äSang dzoe nyo na pha chaä, its owner. If the axe would have fallen the next day the tree would not be cut. Another rule, regarding precious medical plants, still is - in older herbalists - that it is not respectful to collect them with your feet. Before collecting them a short wish is also said for their conservation. As for animals and hunting, many rules traditionally have guaranteed their sustainable conservation for the future. Hunting is restricted to certain periods in the year.
Hunting of pregnant and young animals was strictly forbidden. There has been also - correctly - respect and also fear for the yaw sang of dangerous animals like tigers, bears, wild boars and so on.
It has to be remembered, that several hundreds of years ago, when the archaic texts originated Akha/Zaqnyiq were not yet involved in swiddening or ãslash and burnä, as they became later. Fields were mostly stable terraced fields (deh-ma or deh-ya) and forests were a great deal reserved for hunting, gathering of food and medicinal plants.
Swidden techniques developed later, after they were pushed up into higher areas where water was not sufficient for the building of terraces.
Belonging to the category of ãYaw sangä or ãOwnerä, are also those who external, like in the case of the Chao in Thai-language. They also are not called by the name of ãNehvq”. This concept of ãownerä, yaw sangä in Akha or ãChaoä in Thai, is an ambiguous concept, which can have several meanings. In daily life a ãyaw sangä is like: The head of the household; the boss of an enterprise; the director or manager of a company; the owner of some land or other daily objects. The derived concept of ãYaw sangä or ãOwnerä, when speaking about living beings, including people, plants and animals, refers to an internal principle regulating them.
The category of external ãYaw Sangä and their ambiguity. External natural ãYaw sangä are those natural and political forces on which people, communities and their survival, subsistence and sustainability depend for survival.
They are by certain laws and principles, which are important to know and to forecast if possible, like in modern society. We have seen that äm-yehä the water/rain principle and ãm-saä, the heath principle play an important role. From oppositional thinking Akha/Zaqnyiq also know ö from hundreds of years of experience - that after years of too much rain years of too much drought might possibly follow.
Or that after periods of too much heath, periods of very cold weather could be expected. Akha forecasts, like the forecasts given to HM the King of Thailand by Brahmanic priests thus are deeply rooted in certain pattern, which traditional wisdom has discovered over very long periods.
Political forces/systems are another variable on which traditional Akha/Zaqnyiq communitiesâ survival depend. If Akha/Zaqnyiq speak of a yaw-sang in this context they refer to a Ruler or Lord, as they existed in feudal systems, and which have all but past. The concept of yaw sang here is similar to that of the Thai concept of Chao ti or Phra Chao, meaning traditionally something like ãHis/her Highnessä. Like the Thai, the Akha have several of such chao ti or yaw sang.
Before rice planting, in April, the Akha/Zaqnyiq do have the yearly ceremony of ãMi-sang law-euã, near the village, in the forest. There a small bamboo structure is built on four poles of a few meters hight, near a big tree, named sang dzoe nyo na pha cha or ãking of the forestã. On top of the poles a small festively looking space is constructed, where expensive field-produce are laid down and silver implements are displayed. They also display a picture of H. M. the King of Thailand. The elders gather there and engage in a ceremony in which they behave contrary to all rules in Akha/Zaqnyiq ceremonies.
Taking their turbans off they do give deep bows and ãwaiâsä, in the four directions of the wind, and giving their offerings speaking in Thai language. In an archaic text they refer to the ãMi sang, Cu sang and Jo sangä, owners or Lords of the (local) land/district, river and the mountain where the village is located, mentioning their names.
Similar ceremonies can be found also amongst the Hani peoples in the Red River area, as in the ãAma tu- euä ceremony. These ceremonies remember of the past in which regularly high percentages of tribute were payed the local Thai princes and rulers, who in fact were also the owners. The King of Thailand is-in fact-still the official owner of most of the mountain land and its watershed areas.
Jurisdiction of mountain land has been given, though, to the Royal Forestry Department. As in the past usufruct, that is right to use, was given to mountain -peoples, this seems to have lost its value in the last 5-10 years.
In the whole area these Chao ti or ãYaw sangä do have an ambiguous double meaning. Besides the meaning of external ãOwners, Lords, Oversee-ersä, they are referred to also as a kind of ãpatronä, or ãprotectorä as an internal principle. Land, fields, forests, game, rivers, mountains and their several subdivisions do have internal principles, called yaw sang, which have to do with fertility, prosperity, harmony and health, for the use of people. The word ãpatronä or ãprotectorä seems an adequate translation here and equally derived from the feudal system. The translation given by French researchers has been generally that of ãgenieä. They are not called ãspiritsä either as they refer to real forces in peoplesâ ãmeans of productionä and subsistence/self-reliance systems. Here, again, nobody thinks about spooks or phantoms but internal vital forces.
Just like in the case of ãinternal forcesã (life principle and directing principle) in animals, plants and trees, also the concept of ãYaw sangä, seen as a more general patron and protector of land, forests, rivers, fields and animals is extremely positive for ecological harmony and conservation. These ceremonies and concepts are not typically Hani/ Akha, but can also be found in the traditions of the Chinese, the Thai peoples and other mountain minorities. In Thailand it is the popular Buddhism besides most of the mountain minorities, who still have kept these traditions.
The attitude of respect by older Akha/Zaqnyiq generations has been, unfortunately, faced with attitudes - particularly by outsiders - by seeing land, rivers, forests, plants, trees, animals purely as ãcommoditiesä, that it objects, which do have a certain financial value only. We call this process of commodization also ãre-ificationä. That is making a ãdeadä object on a market of something living.
What can be observed by any-one knowing Akha/Zaqnyiq and other mountain peoplesâ villages in Northern Thailand and Laos well, is that in many if not most of them still a well-tended ãcommunity-forestã around the village is maintained. In cases that such forests have by logging companies, Akha/Zaqnyiq and others are still continuously blamed. A general outcome of this is, however, that in Thailandâs North, where mountain peoples live, still relatively more forest has been conserved than in the North-East and the South of the country.
Traditionally the concept of Yaw-sang was extended, by Hani/Akha, to quite a variety of different items and in particular when they needed protection or caution. There is the Yami or Zami, or the (female) protector of the family house-dwelling place with emphasis on the soil on which one lives. Some also speak about the kitchen-protector, or protecting against fires. There were the protectors of the quite dangerous swing, set up once a year at Jehkudza-eu and used for four days.
Dangerous places on paths or streams in the forest, such as forks, steap slopes, waterholes had their yaw sang; Lianas, climbers, vines, which can be extremely dangerous had them and so on: They had a protector and who also served also a warning, especially to children. In many cases these protectors/yaw-sang were seen as female or as a couple in case any opposition was included.
There was also a series of daily implements, which are dangerous, such as a hunting gun, a big machete and so on, which were seen to have a ãprotective/regulating principle/yaw sangä, helping to aim well and to prevent problems. In many of these cases the metaphorical and educational aspect of the use of the term yaw sang is clear.
The word ãsalaä, which in persons has the meaning of ãenergy centerä, is or was used in several other cases in a metaphorical way. In the case of a house f.i. a ãgood salaä just means: a good atmosphere. In the case of house-implements and utensils it just means: valuable and strong. In the case of money or precious materials it means ãeconomic valueä.
In contrast with the way the Thai use the word ãphiä, the word ãNehvq” is used by the Akha/Zaqnyiq mostly in a negative sense. Although they all belong to the category of the ãinvisibleä, Souls (Yaw sang) of the deceased, the wide variety of Yaw sang, be they regulating principles or patrons and other natural or human forces are not called ãNehvq”.
In the archaic texts and also in popular use the word ãNehvq” is mainly reserved for real/existing dangerous and harmful entities. These entities are mostly not of a ãspiritualä order, but real and physical such as diseases, epidemics, disasters. In a metaphorical sense they are also used-but mostly in popular talk for physical dangers, dangerous people, or political systems threatening the subsistence/self - reliance of the villages.
© Leo Alting von Geusau, based on Geusau (1999)