Abom ALuang / Lik ALuang: oral tradition and written manuscript of ALuang narratives in Dai ethnic group

The Aluang narratives, comprising hundreds of stories, constitute a core component of the Dai ethnic epic tradition. Aluang does not denote a specific figure but rather encompasses the 550 incarnations of the Buddha prior to attaining enlightenment. These incarnations manifest in three evolutionary typologies: Aluang as flora/fauna, Aluang as semi-divine beings, and Aluang as humans, reflecting a progressive spiritual hierarchy. While individual narratives vary in content, they share recurring motifs that form interconnected a motif chain. Through structural analysis of three representative Aluang stories, this study reveals a highly consistent narrative architecture. By examining the identity typologies, motif chains, and narrative structures among dozens of Aluang narrative texts (including oral and written versions), it demonstrates that Aluang narratives exhibit profound resonances with global heroic traditions. The research highlights three key contributions: firstly, systematically mapping the Buddhist cosmology embedded in the Aluang’s evolutionary typologies; secondly deciphering the trial-awakening-transcendence logic within motif chains, which mirrors the Theravada Buddhist framework; Thirdly identifying a cross-cultural heroic paradigm (exceptional origin—trials—apotheosis) based on the Proppian functional analysis. These findings position Aluang narratives as both a repository of localized Buddhist wisdom and a bridge for comparative studies of ethnic epic traditions. Methodologically, this study innovates a tripartite analytical model integrating religious symbolism, motif networks, and structural poetics, offering new pathways for researching oral traditions in ethnic minority cultures.

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