ABOUT BACII
BACII is a rebellion.
A reverent resistance to anything antithetical to love.
Rooted in the ancestral threads of the Lao baci ceremony, BACII calls the spirit back to the body, to the community, to the present moment.
In traditional ritual, white threads are tied around the wrist to bless, to protect, to accompany one another through the thresholds of life and death.
We extend that thread around contemporary culture.
We are living in a world undergoing its own metamorphosis.
We inhabit a grief-illiterate society ill-equipped to understand death.
Systems that crush the essence of what it means to be alive.
BACII tends to the shedding of outdated paradigms.
We believe grief is not a pathology.
It is the mark of being human.
It is love seeking new form.
Creative force in motion.
We believe death is not the enemy – it is misunderstood.
It is a teacher. Mirror. Political. Portal.
BACII builds cultural infrastructure around the cycles of life, grief and death — weaving new threads of care between individuals, communities, and the unseen realms.
We create:
𓆩 Practices that cleanse and release
𓆩 Rituals that honor transition
𓆩 Gatherings that restore and expand communal intelligence
𓆩 Art that expresses the invisible
𓆩 Spaces where realms converge
We are invested in what it means to be human.
We honor its vastness through embodied experiences.
We practice continuity and ongoing learnings.
BACII is for those willing to meet the inescapable rhythms of existence.
For the ones who have buried versions of themselves.
For the ones who have buried someone or something else.
For the ones who know loss and sense there is something more on the other side.
We believe in the evolutionary merging of ancient and modern.
We believe in collective healing without erasing individual sovereignty.
We believe grief and death work is foundational to personal and global wellbeing.
To deepen our relation to grief and death is how we transform how we live and die.
This is BACII.
An offering. A blessing. A living vision.
MEET MANGDA
Photo by Anaïs Delsol
Mangda Sengvanhpheng is an artist, death doula, and the Founder of BACII. She is devoted to creating a deeper culture of care and expanding our experiences through the wisdom of impermanence through all of her work with individuals, communities, and organizations alike. Her life and death work is guided by her Lao last name, which means “the light of the full moon.”
BACII is inspired by all of her experiences with loss and life, and specifically the challenging loss of her mother. This life-changing experience of helping her mother through the dying process included being with her in the final moments, washing and dressing her body, arranging a funeral service, and managing a household of tasks that come with death. This experience revealed to her how difficult and isolating grief and loss can be which became the catalyst in reimagining our society’s relationship to the end-of-life as a healthier and more supportive experience.
Driven by these experiences, Mangda became a certified death doula through Going with Grace and an end-of-life volunteer. She then launched BACII as a platform to integrate death into our lives so that we can better support ourselves and those we love in 2020 right before the pandemic hit NYC.
She has been immersed in the mystical, creative, and healing arts throughout her life and is certified and trained in pranayama, asanas, and meditation with Bhooma Chaitanya and Swami Yogeshananda through Aarasha Yoga Vidya Peetham in Kerala, India, Reiki 2 accreditation by Joanna Crespo, NYC, 13th Octave LaHoChi accreditation from Soul Healing, CT, Grief Literacy from Being Here, Human and Contemplative Care from New York Zen Center.
Mangda was an awarded recipient of Reclamation Ventures for under-represented leaders making pathways to addressing grief and loss.
Her work has been featured in publications such as Vogue, Vice, Architectural Digest, NY Mag’s Curbed, Brydie, Chacruna Institute, Svenska Dagbladet (Swedish Wall Street Journal) and more.