Calling the souls: a Cambodian ritual text / Le rappel des âmes : texte ritual khmer

This publication explore pralung, a Khmer term often translated as "soul" or "vital spirit". Pralung are believed to animate human beings as well as certain objects, plants, and animals. As the pralung are fragile and can easily be lured away or lost from the person or thing to whom they belong, many types of rites are performed to call them back. These generally involve a recitation or performance of the poem known as the "Hau Pralung", or the "Calling of the Souls", one of the earliest extant literary-ritual works in Khmer. This book includes the 17th-century Khmer therapeutic poem, annotated English and French translations of the poem.