Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith, Hang Song, “Gutter”
Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith shares his elaborate water conduit for Buddist rituals featuring the makara river creature and naga serpent.
I made this Hang Song, “Gutter”, to celebrate a Lao New Year two years ago. The piece was made with the trunk of a banana tree. The Hang Lin or Hang Song is a long wooden conduit pieced with holes. It is used to sprinkle Buddha statues and monks with water during rituals.
Water is poured into a receptacle on one end in the shape of a ” hamsa”, a mythical bird (most from the Indo Bramanism animals repertoires). It flows through the conduit, whose surface is carved to represent the scaly body of a makara (a mythical reptilian sea or river creature, alligator, Guak, lizard…), and spits out of the mouth of a naga (a mythical serpent). The flood from the naga’s mouth is represented as a joyous profusion to the body of the Buddha statues or the monks.
About Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith
Tiao Nithakhong Somsanith, born in Vientiane, Laos, is a Laotian artist and descendant of the royal lineage of the former Lao Lan Xang kingdom. He grew up surrounded by traditional courtly arts such as embroidery, painting, and lacquerwork, which his grandmother and mother practised. After fleeing Laos during the 1975 revolution, he pursued higher education in France, earning a master’s degree from the Institute of Visual Arts at Orleans University and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from La Sorbonne. Upon returning to Laos, Somsanith dedicated himself to preserving and promoting Lao cultural heritage through his art, particularly in gold and silver embroidery. His work includes phaa phra bot (Buddhist narrative banners) and contemporary interpretations of traditional Lao art forms, which have been exhibited globally and are collected by major museums and galleries.
