No. BRADLEY2006-001
Southern Lisu forest-spirit bullroarer, northern Thailand
Northern Thailand · eastern Shan Southern Lisu dialect range · Southeast Asia · Mainland
Sacred / spirit Candidate only
fũ lù yũ du
Source term: fũ lù (forest spirit); fũ lù yũ du (bull-roarer)
fũ lù = a deaf forest spirit; fũ lù yũ du = bull-roarer. Bradley gives no literal English derivation.
Among the Southern Lisu of northern Thailand there is a forest spirit, fũ lù, with a peculiar affliction: it is deaf, and its ceremonies require a bullroarer. David Bradley's dictionary preserves the pairing in two spare entries — the spirit, and fũ lù yũ du, the instrument its rites demand. The dictionary names other spirits by what they exact, like the house-defiling spirit that requires its own rite of purification; the deaf spirit of the forest exacts the whirring board. Its form, and its ceremony, went unrecorded.
forest spirit which is deaf and requires the use of a bull-roarer at its ceremonies
David Bradley, Southern Lisu Dictionary (2006), p. 289.
Particulars
- Object
- Construction not recorded.
- Function
- Required at ceremonies of a deaf forest spirit; construction, sound, and exact ceremonial role are not described.
Source
David Bradley, Southern Lisu Dictionary (STEDT Monograph 4, 2006), p. 289