"Si ti tha" = "Siddha" (Lao Pali)

The Laotian gov't officials I spoke with late into last night insisted
on using the english word "God" to refer to various aspects of
Buddhism in a wildly incomprehensible way; for example, they insisted
that "Si Ta Tha" (= /Siddha/?) is "the father of the Buddha" and is
"God", and "started" circa 2,500 years ago.  This is, in their words,
"The God of Buddhism", although not a person, and is the father of the
Buddha, but not in any corporeal sense, and is not confused with the
actual king who sired him, etc.  An official knew one legit Pali
quotation, but insisted that he was not quoting the Buddha, but this
"Si Ta Tha" again; he was somewhat froward when I said that the quote
he recalled was genuine, but spoken by the Buddha himself, not by this
"Father" or "God".

The local "version" of Buddhism, by the way, that they now teach in
the temples, is full of precisely the kind of half-truth of
convenience that I absolutely can't stand in any culture or
philosophical context; e.g., it's okay to drink alcohol as long as you
don't start a fight, it's okay to kill a mosquito if it was about to
sting you, etc. etc. --and, "in the opposite direction" very much
simplified teachings about having only one wife and adultery that are
much more restrictive than the writ of the Pali canon by far.

E.M.