IN Myanmar, religion does not operate in isolation. It is layered, syncretic, and deeply embedded in both personal life and public ritual. While Theravāda Buddhism is the dominant religious tradition — practiced by the majority of the population — it coexists with an enduring system of spirit worship centered around beings known as nats . The veneration of nats represents a convergence of indigenous animistic beliefs, pre-Buddhist traditions, and Buddhist cosmology. Though often categorized as “spirits,” nats are more than that: they are figures—once human—who suffered tragic, untimely, or violent deaths and who are now believed to occupy a liminal space between the human and divine. These spirits are not worshipped in pursuit of liberation from saṃsāra, as with the Buddhas or arahants, but rather propitiated for worldly concerns — protection, healing, business success, or fertility. Their role in Myanmar society reveals a distinctive form of religious accommodation, where ritual, my...