Associated with the belief in Buddhism is the worship of spirits (Pi), especially
widely performed in the villages in the Northeast. Pi puta is the ancestral spirit and
protector of villages, land, forest, and life of villagers. The worship of Pi is widespread
throughout the rural areas, particularly among villages in the Northeast. This has been
recorded and analyzed thoroughly in the works of Tambiah (1970), Charles Keyes (1989)
and the more recent one of Tegbaru (1997)
With the changes brought into village life, rural people are more tempted and
exposed to modern way of living. Material gains seem to have influenced their
worldviews. They are drawn more and more to the worldly things of the city life, away
from that of their predecessors to the extent that the traditional Buddhist way of living
has been affected or sometimes disregarded.