Pu Sae Ya Sae: Chiang Mai’s ancient giant-appeasement, still going strong

Pu Sae Ya Sae is an annual ceremony held in Mae Hia, just south of the city in the foothills of Doi Suthep-Pui, where a buffalo is sacrificed and eaten — raw — by a local who claims to be possessed by the spirit of a giant. The story behind this unusual tradition is that a long time ago, two giants by the name of Pu Sae and Ya Sae — grandfather Sae and grandmother Sae — roamed these hills and, being cannibals, preyed on villagers in the Mae Hia area. The Buddha was called upon to intervene and graciously obliged, asking the two giants to stop eating people on the grounds that it wasn’t a particularly good thing to do. As a compromise, the giants were permitted to consume one buffalo per year, channelled through the body of a human medium. Hence, today’s ceremony.

This year’s edition, held on 30th May at the ceremonial ground inside the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park protection unit, was organised by Mae Hia Subdistrict Municipality and the Chiang Mai Provincial Cultural Council — a pairing that rather sets the tone. Proceedings opened with a procession carrying an ancient painted cloth depicting the Buddha in the “restraining the relatives” posture, followed by Buddhist rites and traditional Lanna offerings attended by the usual complement of monks, officials and dignitaries.

The medium this year was a man from Li district in Lamphun who had previously served in the role back in 2017. Once in a trance state, he descended to receive the ritual offerings and consumed raw buffalo meat, entrails and fresh blood from a black male buffalo prepared for the occasion. The possession lasted around 20 minutes before he climbed a tree, as the ancient rite prescribes. By all accounts, this year’s performance was committed: no browned meat on sticks, no whispered instructions from officials to wrap it up and go home.

After the possession concluded, the medium blessed attendees, distributed wrist ties for good fortune and offered the auspicious number 403 — which generated considerable excitement among the faithful and will no doubt appear on lottery tickets across the province this week.