The legend of Pha Malai is one of the core texts of popular Buddhist teaching in Southeast Asia. The story relates how Pha Malai, a monk who has accumulated great merit, travels to hells, where people ask him to urge their relatives to make merit on their behalf, which indeed he successfully does after having come back to the human realm. When on earth, Pha Malai receives eight flowers from a poor woodcutter, offered with the hope to not be reborn as a poor man in his next life. To enable that, Pha Malai goes to the Tavatimsa Heaven, where he meets Indra, the king of Gods, in front of the Chulamani stupa, a stupa with the relics of the Buddha’s hair. There, Pha Malai also meets and converses with Metteyya, the Buddha of the future. Some detailed ways to gain merit are discussed, including listening in one day and night to the Vessantara Jataka. On earth, Pha Malai tells this story to his listeners, explaining to them the many ways of gaining merits.