In the Lao cultural form of Theravāda, merit-making unfolds within a religious landscape where Buddhist and animistic elements are woven together rather than sharply distinguished. Acts such as giving alms to monks, sponsoring rituals, and observing precepts are understood to generate merit, yet this merit is frequently dedicated not only to deceased relatives but also to a wide range of spirits (phi), including local guardians and ancestral beings. Offerings of food, flowers, incense, and money to monks and temples thus coexist with offerings to spirits at shrines or spirit houses, with the overall intention of fostering both karmic benefit and spiritual protection. The same gesture of generosity can be seen as simultaneously supporting the Sangha and maintaining right relations with the unseen world.

Ritual specialists—monks and spirit mediums—often operate side by side in this context, especially during important communal or life-cycle events. A house blessing, healing rite, or village ceremony may involve monks chanting protective texts, giving precepts, and receiving offerings, while a spirit medium or village ritual expert conducts invocations and propitiatory offerings to local spirits. Sponsoring such events, or participating respectfully in them, is itself regarded as a way of making merit, because it supports both the Buddhist community and the network of spiritual forces believed to influence human well-being. The coordination of temple and spirit practices, sometimes even within the same sacred space, reflects a concern for both karmic advancement and communal harmony.

The baci or su khwan ceremony illustrates this integration particularly clearly. Although rooted in animistic ideas of soul-essences and their proper alignment, it is often framed by Buddhist chanting and symbols, so that the restoration of spiritual balance is accompanied by the generation of merit. Participants gain merit through their support of the ritual, their offerings, and their recitation of basic Buddhist formulas, while the tying of strings and calling of the khwan address the more specifically animistic dimension of the person. In festival observances and family rites alike, offerings to monks and offerings to spirits are not seen as competing paths but as complementary means of securing protection, prosperity, and a favorable karmic trajectory.

Across these practices, merit-making in Lao Buddhism emerges as a holistic endeavor that acknowledges both the law of karma and the agency of spirits. By giving to monks, maintaining precepts, and engaging in temple-centered activities, devotees cultivate the canonical Theravāda ideal of wholesome action. By simultaneously honoring local spirits, ancestral beings, and soul-essences through offerings and propitiatory rites, they seek to ensure that the conditions of life are receptive to the fruits of that merit. The result is a religious ethos in which karmic merit and spiritual harmony are mutually reinforcing dimensions of the same lived path.