Ya Ab Herbal Bathing Rite of the Ban Mak Nao Lineage, Xaythany (อาบยาสายบ้านหมากนาวเมืองไซธานี)

The Ya Ab herbal bathing rite of the Ban Mak Nao lineage of Xaythany (อาบยาสายบ้านหมากนาวเมืองไซธานี) is widely known in Laos. Lao-lineage bathing medicine, and this formula in particular, requires the herbs to be steeped in mist-water. The best known practitioner of this rite was Ya Pho Ban Dong Khwai (ยาพ่อบ้านดงควาย), whose tradition is famously told, in the old accounts, as having been tested with a firearm. Reading the incantation itself makes clear why the lineage came to be associated with invulnerability in popular belief. This work follows the old manual in every detail, undertaken for the sake of preservation. The ingredients are considered easy to obtain, about ten items in all. They are recorded here purely for preservation.