Restoring harmony to a life out of balance is one purpose of a ritual known as Ky Yen. The practitioners of Ky Yen—the 1.5 million Tay people living in northeastern Vietnam—hold this ritual for several reasons. A Ky Yen can prolong one’s life or restore good health by finding missing souls and bringing them back to the body. It can counteract bad fortune foretold by an inauspicious horoscope or a bad dream. A birthday may call for a preventive ritual, if it ushers in one of the ages Tay people consider unlucky—every twelfth year after the age of seven. On happier birthdays, such as when someone turns 60, a family may host a Ky Yen to insure continued good health.

During a Ky Yen, which lasts all through the night and into the next day, a huge spirit army journeys through three levels of heaven and battles a titanic monster. The heroic shaman who leads this spiritual campaign is most often an elderly woman.