Bai Sri: Thai Banana-Leaf Offering, Parts and Types

Bai sri (บายศรี) is a Thai ceremonial offering made mainly from folded banana leaves. It is built either as a single dish with a cone of cooked rice and an egg, or as a tapering stack of tiers, and it is used in rites that call a person's khwan (ขวัญ), a vital essence in Thai and Lao belief, back to the body [1], [2]. The name comes from Khmer and is glossed as "auspicious rice" or "khwan rice" [1], [2]. The wider ceremony is known as bai sri su khwan, tham khwan or rap khwan, and a UNESCO case study, published in its intangible-heritage sustainable development toolbox, treats the Lao-Thai form as a ceremony for invoking unity and restoring harmony of the individual and the community [1], [3].

Key facts

What does "bai sri" mean, and where does the name come from?

Phraya Anuman Rajadhon, the Thai folklorist, wrote in the Journal of the Siam Society that bai sri is "a word of Cambodian origin" meaning literally auspicious rice, in other words khwan rice [2]. Thai Wikipedia gives the same breakdown, labelling it Khmer, with bai glossed as rice and sri as siri, so "auspicious rice" or "khwan rice", and cites the Royal Institute dictionary of 1999 [1].

Regional speech changes the word. Anuman recorded that in northern Thailand it is also pronounced with a short vowel, bai si, which he translates as "auspicious leaf", and that the northern tray is called khan si; in the north-east he heard ba si [2]. Thai Wikipedia adds the northern spellings ใบสี, ใบสรี and ใบสีนมแมว, and the Isan names พาบายศรี, พาขวัญ and ขันบายศรี [1].

What is a bai sri made of?

The dish-border form (บายศรีปากชาม)

Anuman, who described both forms in detail, calls the smaller type the "dish-border" bai sri (bai sri pak cham) and says it has three kinds of part [2].

• Kruai (กรวย). A cone of banana leaf filled with cooked rice, which he compares in shape to an ice-cream cone. It stands in the centre of a large dish [2].
• The egg. The cone is topped with a shelled hard-boiled egg pinned with a small wood sliver. This is the khai khwan (ไข่ขวัญ), the "khwan's egg". In his main description it is a duck's egg; he adds that in the north either a hen's or a duck's egg may be used, and in the north-east only a hen's egg [2].
• Nom meo (นมแมว), "cat's breasts". Strips of banana leaf folded into flat arrowhead shapes. Three overlap into one unit, and three units are set around the dish with their points rising past the rim [2].
• Mangda (มังดา). A serrated leaf cut in the outline of a horseshoe crab, three or sometimes four of them, placed between the nom meo [2].

Small food items complete the dish: three pieces of ripe banana, three of cucumber or sweetmeat, and three sets of a beeswax taper, incense stick and flower. Hand-span lengths of unspun cotton thread lie across the nom meo for the tying that comes later [2]. Anuman notes that the number of items is always three, a favourite number of the Thai [2].

The tiered form (บายศรีใหญ่)

The major bai sri (bai sri yai) is, in Anuman's description, usually pyramidal and made of five tapering tiers [2]. Each tier is a thin round board threaded on a central rod, with nom meo fixed around its edge in two rings that point in opposite directions, held by a clasp cut from banana stalk sheath [2]. Small banana-leaf platters of food, sweetmeats and fruit sit on the discs, and a small flower-decorated bowl crowns the top [2]. Three bamboo laths support the structure, which is wrapped in three young banana leaves and then in brocade, called the "khwan's cloth wrapper" [2].

Why banana leaf?

English Wikipedia describes banana leaves as large, flexible, waterproof and decorative [17]. Thai Wikipedia offers a rationale it marks as needing a citation: banana leaf is clean and carries no stain of old food [1]. Treat that as a proposed explanation only.

How many tiers does a bai sri have?

Thai Wikipedia lists tiered bai sri of 3, 5, 7 or 9 tiers, each smaller than the one below [1]. Anuman wrote in 1962 that five was usual and that seven or nine were rarely built because the structure would be too tall to stand firmly without a very large base [2].

One research paper gives the tier counts a Buddhist reading. A study of the ma muad ritual among Khmer-descended Thai in Buriram province links a 3-tier bai sri to the three kinds of good conduct, a 5-tier to the five precepts, a 7-tier to the seven noble treasures and a 9-tier to the nine qualities of the Buddha [8]. That is the meaning reported for one community's ritual, not a rule for all of Thailand. The sources consulted for this guide do not tie tier counts to the rank of the person honoured, except in the royal sets described below.

What is khwan, and why are there 32 of them?

Anuman describes the belief this way: every person has a khwan, an unsubstantial thing thought to live in the body, and while it is there the person enjoys good health and happiness [2]. If it leaves, illness or other trouble is expected, and a frightened khwan is said to flee into the wilderness until it recovers [2]. He adds that animals, house posts, rice fields and even cities are said to have khwan of their own [2].

A 2021 article in the KKU International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, drawn from a doctoral thesis on Isan belief, distinguishes three senses of khwan: the human soul, an energy said to reside in people, and auspicious objects [6].

The number 32 comes from a specific tradition. English Wikipedia says a person is held to be a union of 32 organs, each watched over by a khwan [4], [5]. Anuman, writing earlier, says the 32-khwan tradition is known in northern and north-eastern Thailand and among the Lao, but that he did not find it among central Thais, including in Bangkok [2]. He also could not make the enumerated khwan in the invocation texts reach 32, and suggested the number may be a later development influenced by the 32 body parts listed in Buddhism [2]. Everyday Thai expressions name khwan of the eyes, ears, mouth, nose and hands, and the north-eastern texts add the heart, intestines and kidneys [2].

How does a su khwan or tham khwan ceremony run?

The steps below are reported custom, not a prescribed procedure.

Anuman's 1962 account

Anuman describes an abbreviated form, consisting of thread-tying and a "feast of the khwan" with a dish-border bai sri, and an elaborate form that adds a candle-waving rite and a major bai sri [2]. In the elaborate form the two bai sri stand in the middle of a mat-covered room and the person concerned is seated beside them at an hour chosen as auspicious [2]. An officiant, either a Brahmin or a professional layman, recites an invocation in three parts, each ending with three gong strokes. For an ordination it honours the Triple Gem, the king, parents and teachers, and its last part asks the khwan not to stray [2].

Lit tapers are carried three times clockwise around the bai sri and passed from hand to hand [2]. The officiant then mimes feeding the khwan from the offerings. Finally three strands of consecrated unspun cotton thread are twisted together, knotted, passed three times under the arms and tied to the wrists. Relatives and friends add their own threads and give gifts [2]. Afterwards the banana leaves and flowers are floated away in running water, and the cloth wrapper is kept near the person for three days [2].

The Lao-Thai baci form

UNESCO's case study of the baci su kwan, as practised in Lao PDR and north-eastern Thailand, describes the same outline in brief. The community prepares a tray decorated with banana leaves and flowers; a respected elder, usually a former monk, recites Buddhist chants calling on deities and spirits; white thread is tied around the right wrists of participants; and a shared meal follows [3]. The occasions it lists are marriages, ordinations, births, and recovery from illness or an accident [3].

English Wikipedia adds that baci can be held on any day, usually before noon, with the officiant called a mor phon, and that the flower tray is built on a silver tray around a banana-leaf cone [4]. It also says the thread is usually worn for at least three days and should fall off rather than be cut [4].

What is the sai sin, and why are threads tied on the wrist?

Sai sin (สายสิญจน์) is the long white thread held by monks while they chant, or wound around a house for a merit-making ceremony; it is also called dai parit, and popular belief holds that thread charged by chanting can ward off harm such as ghosts [11]. Thai Wikipedia's account of bai sri says the thread is wound around the bai sri to tie the wrists of the person receiving the khwan [1].

Reported meanings differ by source. UNESCO says the white thread symbolises peace, good health and community solidarity [3]; English Wikipedia says white stands for purity [4]. Anuman notes that the officiant brushes the arms or wrists three times with the thread before tying, and interprets the brushing as removing impurities [2].

What are the regional types of bai sri?

Central Thailand

Anuman's two forms, the dish-border and the major bai sri, are the central Thai pair. He adds that folding the nom meo was taught inside families, with a novice formally initiated (krob) when the teacher held the novice's hands while folding [2].

Lanna (northern Thailand)

Thai Wikipedia says northern Thai speakers call the offering ใบสี, ใบสรี or ใบสีนมแมว, and call the tray ขันใบสี. It lists four northern types: บายศรีหลวง, บายศรีนมแมว, บายศรีปากชาม and บายศรีกล้วย [1]. The "cat's breast" in the name matches the nom meo leaf fold Anuman describes [2].

Isan (north-eastern Thailand)

Thai Wikipedia lists three Isan types: พาขวัญ, พาบายศรี and หมากเบ็ง [1]. A 2025 interview-based study of Isan communities along the Mekong, in Parichart Journal, reports that bai sri there combines older Naga beliefs with Buddhism and is described as a medium between people and supernatural powers; it also finds that making bai sri reflects local artisans' skill [7]. A Thai PBS programme from 2019 shows villagers in Ban Dung district, Udon Thani, making a bai sri phaya nak (Naga bai sri) as a new occupation [14].

Khmer-heritage communities in Isan

For Isan communities of Khmer descent, Thai Wikipedia gives the name บายแสร็ย and three types, including a tiered form (บายศรีต้น), a tray form (บายศรีถาด) and a dish form (บายศรีปากชาม) [1]. In the Buriram ma muad ritual, a researcher-reported sequence involves preparing rice cones, sweets and other offerings, making offerings to the spirits of the practitioner's teachers and asking their help in caring for a patient, and ending with wrist-tying and alms-giving [8].

How is bai sri used in royal ceremonies?

Royal use is documented factually in both older and recent sources. Anuman describes three types of royal bai sri for the court tham khwan: a banana-leaf bai sri with a nickel rod and discs, always of seven tiers and one of a pair; a minor set of crystal, gold and silver bai sri of five or seven tiers; and a larger version of both for a ceremony in grand style [2].

In the north, the bai sri thun phra khwan (บายศรีทูลพระขวัญ) is a tradition kept by northern princely families, offered to the king and royal family on important occasions [1]. Thai Wikipedia lists seven such occasions, the earliest dated 23 January BE 2469 (Thai calendar), for King Prajadhipok and Queen Rambai Barni, and the latest 26 January BE 2568 (2025) [1]. Bangkok Biz News reported that on 26 January 2025 the King and Queen attended such a ceremony at the Three Kings Monument in Chiang Mai, held for the 6th-cycle birthday celebrations and described as the first during this reign [12].

Where did bai sri come from?

Origins are debated. Thai Wikipedia says it is conjectured that bai sri derives from Brahmin belief, pointing to the offerings (egg, cucumber, coconut) and to rites such as candle circling and anointing, but it marks the statement as lacking a citation [1]. Anuman judged that the dish-border bai sri is in effect a plate of food for the khwan and "perhaps, in part, of Indian origin" [2].

A 2017 academic article from Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University, "Baisri and Transformational Beliefs", reviews three periods. It cites Sukhothai inscriptions that describe phanom mak (พนมหมาก), says Ayutthaya use followed the devaraja idea of the king as a god-like figure, and says Rattanakosin forms continued the Ayutthaya pattern. Its author concludes that much present-day bai sri is made without academic grounding [9].

Anuman documented change in 1962: some makers had replaced banana-leaf cones with croton leaves, and one officiant's major bai sri was built entirely of painted wood, with the rod shaped as a Naga [2].

Who makes bai sri today?

Bai sri making is both a family craft and a small trade. A 2026 study of 20 bai sri entrepreneurs in central Thailand separates professional makers from part-time craftspeople and reports volatile raw-material costs as a main problem [16]. A 2023 Thai PBS segment profiles a younger maker in Buriram who folds banana leaves into bai sri, described as items for auspicious ceremonies [13]. A 2025 interview study of 16 academics and practitioners found that their preferred sources of knowledge about the ceremony were people, such as experts and village sages, social media, and events such as festivals [18].

Change also reaches the material. At a November 2025 exhibition in Nakhon Phanom, researchers showed bai sri from fresh banana leaf, used in worship of the Naga king, alongside a recycled version made from banana-fibre paper, which the organisers said lasts for years [15].

What do researchers say the ceremony is for?

A 2026 documentary study in the Journal of Dhamma for Life analyses the bai sri su khwan through Buddhist ethics. Its authors report that the ceremony expresses values including gratitude, compassion, social harmony, respect for seniority and social responsibility, and that it works as a mechanism for psychological healing, strengthening morale and relationships among individuals, families and communities. They propose reading it as a "cultural ethical system" that joins folk belief with Buddhist ethics [10].

Where to see pieces like this — Our sister shop, Shogun X Amulets, has a page on Bai Sri: https://shogunxamulets.com/bai-sri-the-sacred-thai-offering-of-blessing-ceremony/. Disclosure: Shogun X Amulets and ThaiAmuletExchange.com are run by the same group.