{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "sak-yant",
 "type": "tradition",
 "names": {
  "name": "Sak yant",
  "th": "สักยันต์",
  "rtgs": "sak yant",
  "local": "សាក់យ័ន្ត",
  "local_lang": "Khmer",
  "aliases": [
   "yantra tattooing",
   "สักยันต์"
  ],
  "said": "sàk yan — to prick a diagram"
 },
 "region": [
  "mainland-southeast-asia",
  "lanna"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "poke",
  "status": "living"
 },
 "when": {
  "from": 1400,
  "to": 2026,
  "circa": true,
  "label": "Living, and the one tradition on this site a visitor can walk into"
 },
 "practice": {
  "method": "poke",
  "tool": "khem-sak",
  "ink": "lampblack",
  "placement": [
   "back",
   "chest",
   "arms",
   "neck",
   "legs"
  ],
  "marked": "both",
  "marks": "specialist",
  "status": "living",
  "countries": [
   "TH",
   "KH",
   "LA",
   "MM"
  ],
  "first_record": 1600,
  "first_record_note": "the designs are older than any dated description this site can name",
  "sessions": "one design in a sitting; an ajarn or a monk, not a shop",
  "note": "A formula in letters and figures, laid on the skin, held by rules the bearer keeps afterwards."
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "Letters, numbers and figures arranged into a diagram — *yant* — and pricked into skin with a long needle.",
  "story": "*Sak* is the verb: to prick. The Khmer root *cɔkʔ* means the same, and the Khmer dictionary keeps the word native rather than borrowed from Sanskrit. *Yant* is the diagram — the same word as Sanskrit *yantra*, the same family as the yantra drawn on cloth, on brass, on paper.\n\nThe Lanna volume explains why it moved to skin at all, and the reason is logistics: a yant on paper or metal is left at home. A yant on the body is carried. Everything else — which formula, which animal, which direction the letters run — follows from that one decision.\n\nTwo corrections this site carries, both from the client and both checkable. **Most sak yant is not done at Wat Bang Phra.** That temple is what the film crews know; the ordinary route is an ajarn or a monk near where you live. And **Khom is not \"what a yant is written in.\"** Khom script is the central Thai convention. In the north the letters are northern Thai — *tua mueang*, the Tai Tham script — or Shan, or Tai Lue.",
  "today": "Chiang Mai has working masters, and one operation there publishes the lineage of every one of them — who taught whom, which temple, how many years in the robe and how many out. That published lineage is the closest thing this site has to a family tree for a living hand tradition.",
  "notes": "The designs themselves are indexed on wichaa.net at /yant: 36 named designs across 63 plates, entered by what each one is for."
 },
 "text_th": {
  "what": "ตัวอักษร ตัวเลข และรูปสัตว์ จัดเป็นแผนผัง — ยันต์ — แล้วแทงลงผิวหนังด้วยเข็มยาว",
  "story": "*สัก* คือคำกริยา แปลว่าแทง รากคำเขมร *cɔkʔ* ก็แปลอย่างเดียวกัน และพจนานุกรมเขมรถือว่าเป็นคำพื้นเมือง ไม่ได้ยืมจากสันสกฤต ส่วน *ยันต์* คือแผนผัง คำเดียวกับ yantra ในสันสกฤต ตระกูลเดียวกับยันต์ที่เขียนบนผ้า ทองเหลือง และกระดาษ\n\nหนังสือล้านนาอธิบายว่าทำไมจึงย้ายมาอยู่บนผิวหนัง เหตุผลคือการพกพา ยันต์บนกระดาษหรือแผ่นโลหะถูกลืมไว้ที่บ้านได้ ยันต์บนตัวไปด้วยเสมอ\n\nข้อแก้สองข้อที่เว็บนี้ถือไว้ **สักยันต์ส่วนใหญ่ไม่ได้ทำที่วัดบางพระ** วัดนั้นคือวัดที่กองถ่ายรู้จัก ทางปกติคืออาจารย์หรือพระใกล้บ้าน และ **ขอมไม่ใช่ \"อักษรที่ยันต์ต้องเขียน\"** อักษรขอมเป็นธรรมเนียมภาคกลาง ทางเหนือใช้ตัวเมือง อักษรไทใหญ่ หรือไทลื้อ",
  "today": "เชียงใหม่มีอาจารย์ที่ยังทำงานอยู่ และมีสำนักหนึ่งเผยแพร่สายครูของทุกคนไว้ ใครเรียนกับใคร วัดไหน บวชกี่พรรษาและสึกมากี่ปี"
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "sak-kha-lai",
   "as": "The other job of the same needle, and the one that stopped.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "khem-sak",
   "as": "The needle itself.",
   "rel": "tool"
  },
  {
   "to": "khan-tang",
   "as": "The fee, north and centre.",
   "rel": "rite"
  },
  {
   "to": "kho-ham",
   "as": "The rules that come with it, and what happens if they are broken.",
   "rel": "rite"
  },
  {
   "to": "sak-yant-chiang-mai",
   "as": "The published lineage.",
   "rel": "org"
  },
  {
   "to": "shan-tattooing",
   "as": "Where Shway Yoe says the charm specialists came from.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  }
 ],
 "links": [
  {
   "label": "Yantra tattooing",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yantra_tattooing"
  },
  {
   "label": "The yant designs, indexed on wichaa.net",
   "url": "https://wichaa.net/yant/"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-yantra-tattooing",
  "s:ms6968",
  "s:sycm",
  "s:thwp-การส-กย-นต-"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-yantra-tattooing"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:ms6968"
   },
   "text.today": {
    "tier": "cited",
    "source": "s:sycm"
   },
   "text_th": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "high",
 "tags": [
  "lanna",
  "start-here",
  "protective",
  "script"
 ],
 "images": [
  {
   "file": "sak-yant/sak-yant-sak-yant-gow-yord.jpg",
   "source": "commons",
   "title": "File:Sak-yant-gow-yord.jpg",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ec/Sak-yant-gow-yord.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "page_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASak-yant-gow-yord.jpg",
   "license": "CC BY 3.0",
   "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/",
   "author": "Mikhailovich",
   "credit": "Own work",
   "alt": "Typical \"sak yant gow yord\" tattoo for use on Wikipedia's Yantra tattooing article",
   "date": "2011-02-26",
   "primary": true,
   "sha256": "f9a3631953f9b4f14fb58e0ff3255f12316ad551a37e2685fa6fd06509c1c1e4"
  },
  {
   "file": "sak-yant/sak-yant-sak-yant-chiang-mai.jpg",
   "source": "commons",
   "title": "File:Sak Yant Chiang Mai.jpg",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Sak_Yant_Chiang_Mai.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "page_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASak_Yant_Chiang_Mai.jpg",
   "license": "CC BY 4.0",
   "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
   "author": "Immanuelle",
   "credit": "Own work",
   "alt": "Sak Yant Chiang Mai",
   "date": "2024-08-26 23:58:50",
   "primary": false,
   "sha256": "7bda912fb9ccae7bab713ff3b204aad1df8e5fba20a9c56759576913beabc95b"
  },
  {
   "file": "sak-yant/sak-yant-thai-tattoos-1.jpg",
   "source": "commons",
   "title": "File:Thai tattoos 1.jpg",
   "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Thai_tattoos_1.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original",
   "page_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AThai_tattoos_1.jpg",
   "license": "Public domain",
   "license_url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain",
   "author": "Love Krittaya",
   "credit": "Own work",
   "alt": "Thai tattoos (สักยันต์)",
   "date": "2004-08-28 12:28:45",
   "primary": false,
   "sha256": "599860b0f644ccedf9cb337c0e3faa1b8a6d1421324cf63fe7947b8d1aa3459c"
  }
 ],
 "geo": {
  "lat": 14.5,
  "lon": 100.6,
  "precision": "region",
  "source": "s:commons"
 },
 "updated": "2026-09-19",
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "sak-kha-lai",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Sak kha lai",
   "as": "The other job the same needle does, and the one still being done."
  },
  {
   "from": "shan-tattooing",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Shan leg tattooing",
   "as": "What the Shan specialists were carrying when they crossed."
  },
  {
   "from": "khem-sak",
   "type": "tool",
   "name": "Khem sak",
   "as": "What it makes."
  },
  {
   "from": "hanuman",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "Hanuman",
   "as": "The tradition it belongs to."
  },
  {
   "from": "mystic-square",
   "type": "motif",
   "name": "The lettered square",
   "as": "The tradition it belongs to."
  },
  {
   "from": "khan-tang",
   "type": "rite",
   "name": "Khan tang",
   "as": "And the living one that still collects it."
  },
  {
   "from": "kho-ham",
   "type": "rite",
   "name": "The rules",
   "as": "Where the rules attach."
  },
  {
   "from": "ajarn-dang-sak",
   "type": "person",
   "name": "Ajarn Dang and Ajarn Sak",
   "as": "The practice."
  },
  {
   "from": "chiang-mai",
   "type": "place",
   "name": "Chiang Mai",
   "as": "What is still done here."
  },
  {
   "from": "stencils",
   "type": "art",
   "name": "The stencil book",
   "as": "The tradition."
  },
  {
   "from": "sak-yant-chiang-mai",
   "type": "org",
   "name": "Sak Yant Chiang Mai",
   "as": "The tradition."
  }
 ]
}