Belief

Why any of it happens.

The khwan — the spirits that make up a person, and what it means when one of them leaves. The phi: house spirits, village spirits, the ones you feed and the ones you avoid. The obligations that come with living somewhere.

Some of this is older than Buddhism in Laos and some of it isn't Buddhist at all. Both layers get named. Sukhwan lives here, because it's a belief before it's a ceremony, and it's the most performed of all of them.