• Su-Khuan
The su-khuan ritual invokes and celebrates thirty-two spirits of life (the khuan) which exist in every human being and protect him or her. This is the most distinctive of all Lao rituals. It accompanies all important changes in life. After the birth of a child it is celebrated for the mother when, after about a month of seclusion, she presents the baby to its father and close relatives for the first time. The ritual expresses honour and respect towards the khuan, which are seen as the innermost essence of life, as the holiest, most powerful and most effective core of every being. The ceremony celebrates the existential circumstances of the human being which consist of the known and the unknown, of fragile reality and attainable reality, of the profane and the sacred.

The khuan are neither 'angels' nor 'spirits' that exist independently of a body, nor are they 'souls' possessing spiritual powers. They are the life energies of each and every person that determine the vitality and the equilibrium of all parts of the body, the individual organs and all the abilities of an organism. They have their own lief and are different from the body or part of the body in which they reside. Occasionally they can actually leave the body, and this is something they enjoy doing as they are volatile and curious. At such a moment the human being loses his or her equilibrium and becomes sad, weary or ill, until the su-khuan ritual reunites the body energies once more. When all the khuan depart from a being, it dies. But the khuan continue to exist. They will gather together again in a new formation to give their life energies to another being that has just been born.

During the ritual each of the participants ties a cotton thread around the wrist of the infant (or whom needs the khuan back), and later around the wrists of all the other people present. While doing this, blessing and good-luck wishes are gently murmured.

The su-khuan also may be taken place during the ordination in the novice's home. During the su-khuan in the house, the novice is clothed in white material and the gifts for his khuan are jointly blessed. The mo-khuan (normally an old man who calls for the 32 khuans) reminds him of the circumstances of his birth.

• Takbat
The daily round for alms. The solemn, dignified stance of the monks is an expression of their first morning meditation on emptiness and the transitory nature of the gifts they receive.