Tai folk religion

Sāsnā Phī (Lao: ສາສນາຜີ; Thai: ศาสนาผี Ṣāsnā phī, "religion of spirits") is a Thai and Lao term describing ethnic Tai folk beliefs.

Tai folk animist traditions are practiced by the Lao, Lao Isan and Thais of Thailand. These religions are pantheistic and polytheistic and their practice involves classes of shamans.

Animist beliefs are often practiced side by side in Thailand and Laos. Among the Lao, the Lao Loum and Lao Lom are predominantly Buddhist, while the Lao Theung and Lao Sung are predominantly folk religious. Tai folk animist traditions have also been incorporated into Laotian Buddhism.

Within the Sāsanā Phī belief system, supernatural Deities (ຜີ, ผี, [pʰiː]) or gods can sometimes be the tutelary gods of buildings or territories, of natural places, or of things. Dieties can also be ancestral spirits, or other types of spirits of seemingly supernatural forces. Such dieties often interact with the world of the living, at times protecting people, and at other times seeming to cause harm. Guardian deities of places, such as the phi wat (ຜີວັດ, ผีวัด) of temples and the lak mueang (ຫລັກເມືອງ, หลักเมือง, [lak mɯːaŋ]) of towns are celebrated and propitiated with communal gatherings and offerings of food. Gods of Hindu derivation are included in the Sāsanā Phī pantheon of gods, as well as several indigenous non-Hindu gods called phi thaen (ຜີແຖນ, ผีแถน). Gods are ubiquitous, with some of them being associated with the universal elements: heaven, earth, fire, and water.

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