Pu Nyoe Nya Nyoe dancers

Photographer

Halpern, Joel M. (Joel Martin), 1929-

Date

• 1957

Summary

• These costumes represent Pu Nyoe Nya Nyoe, the ancestral spirits of the Luang Prabang kingdom. The names are in the northern Lao dialect, where "nyoe" means "big" rather than the "nyai" typical of Vientiane and points farther south. The names of these spirits translate something like "big grandfather and big grandmother."