Sak Yant Herbal Effigies for Sacred Ink
December 28, 2017
The Dtugadtaa Paya Wan Sak is an effigy or image made from herbal powder clay, sometimes covered with dee buk leaden coating or even solid silver foil, or sometimes a solid cast image with a hollow in the base, filled with sacred herbal powder paste. In ancient times, Sak Yant Masters would have an assortment of these ‘Magic Dolls’ to dip their Sak Yant sticks (‘Khem Sak’, or ‘Mai Sak’) into the magical herbal mixture and stir some into their inkpot. This is believed to imbue the Sak Yant ink with different magical powers, depending on the magical attributes of the particular image, and of course the magical mixture of sacred herbs and powders within the image
Below is a gallery of different kinds of Dtugadtaa Paya Wan Sak, mostly from the Thai Yai Northern Lanna Sorcery tradition. Click each image to view full size.
The Thai Yai (otherwise known as the Shan) People of the Northern Lanna Region have a massive pantheon of Animist Gods andn Occult Practices, which is the subject of my E-book ‘The Book of Thai Lanna Sorcery’
An ancient practice hardly seen these days the use of Paya Wan Sak amulets and effigies made from magical herbal powders and woods, used to dip the Sak Yant instrument into, and mix magical inks with. This was done to imbue different powers and kinds of magic to the ink, and the spell within the Sak Yant tattoo, depending on the type of Sak Yant Tattoo being performed.