October 03, 2012

Buddhist Prayers and Chants Books

Have you ever been curious about what the monks are chanting or the prayers that you hear old Lao people say?

There's a type of book that has essentially a compilation of all the Lao Buddhist prayers and chants for almost every different possible life event.  There are prayers and chants for when you buy a new home, a new car, when a new baby is born, before taking a trip, at a wedding, at a baci/sukuan, when becoming a monk, etc.

Books like this often have titles with keywords like vy pa (praying) or soot mohn (chants).  The prayers and chants are often Pali but written in Lao so it may be difficult to understand.  Although some books will explain and translate a bit too.  I find that older Lao people, especially the more religious ones, are interested in these types of books so they do make a good gift idea too.  Some of the cultural books mentioned in the previous post will sometimes also include some of the prayers and chants.

5 comments:

  1. I like to know where can you get a chant and praying book in the U.S.?

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    1. That's a good question. The only place I've been able to find chant and prayer books (outside of Laos) were actually from Lao temples. If you have one in your city, I highly suggest starting there. Many temples nowadays will produce pamphlets and booklets for lay followers.

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  2. The Wat Lao Dallas fort worth used to spell out their prayers and chants phonetically you still didn't understand but still the words were spelled out using English at least i could follow along. Have been looking for it for years.

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  3. https://lao-online.com/all_files/books/B01877.pdf

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