Page 63 - Nora a Living Dance Tradition of Southern Thailand

Friday: The Third Day of Rong Khru Rituals.

On this, the final day of the Rong Khru ritual, the
ancestral spirits are sent away and the ritual hall is dismantled.
In the morning, the Nora master will sing farewell songs for the
ancestors and former Nora masters, praising and thanking them
for having participated in the ceremonies on Thursday night,
but telling them it is now time for them to return to their home
in the nether world. The spirits must depart before it gets dark
on Friday because it is believed that if they stayed, wild spirits
and bad ghosts would haunt the house of the host. The head
Nora master of the Rong Khru needs to control the spirits in
a humble but firm way, using all of his powers.

In sending the spirts away, the Nora master will
call out their names in the reverse order from which they
were invited to attend the ritual. He then removes part of During this part of the ritual, the song lyrics include
the roof of the ritual hall so the ancestors will be able to sad words about the separation of the ancestors from their
return to the nether world. Finally, the Nora master will living descendants. When talented Nora artists sing these
chase away the wayward spirits who had come to covertly songs, they can bring tears to the eyes of those listening.
eat the offerings of the ancestors, using singing and dancing with Affecting the emotions of the audience helped them to
a rattan stick and powerful spells to whip the wayward ghostly better understand the cycle of life and death. The ritual hall is
spirits until they are forced to leave. then dismantled, marking the end of the ritual space and time
of the Rong Khru. The white cloth โ€œceilingsโ€ where the spirits
were staying are cut down, and the white ceremonial threads
and white candles are cut. These cuts mark the divide between
the world of the living and the world of the dead. The food
offerings used to honor the ancestral spirits are distributed to
the community, given to animals like pigs and dogs to eat,
or thrown out. The Rong Khru ritual then ends with the
overturning of the special ritual mat placed in the ritual hall
since before the Rong Khru started. This has been the same
mat where the main dances and rituals were performed from
the first day. Once the ritual mat is turned over, the Nora master
strikes the musical instruments of his troupe to signal the end
of the Rong Khru ritual.

61