Monsoon season Celebrations
**There are two special places to see the start of Buddhist Lent **
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[li]Published: 8/08/2010 at 12:00 AM[/li][li]Newspaper section: Brunch[/li][/ul]
The three-month-long Khao Phansa, otherwise known as Buddhist Lent, starts at the beginning of every monsoon season in late July. There are a couple of major holy days when people hold merit making ceremonies nationwide. The most outstanding activities on the tourism calendar are in the Northeast, especially in Surin and Ubon Ratchathani.
People can join the festivals organised yearly in the two provinces, which are only about 135 kilometres apart from one another, and can be covered in one trip.
Start at the town of Surin. The province organises Tak Bat Bon Lang Chang (offering food to monks on elephant’s back) in the area of the statute of Phraya Surin Tara Phakdi Si Narong Jangwang, the first lord of Surin, which is in the middle of the town. This year, the ceremony was held on July 26, or Wan Asarnha Bucha, the day when Buddha gave his first sermon, and it is always one day before the main Lent celebrations.
During the early morning, about 40 elephants from Ta Klang elephant village wait patiently on the main street. Two monks sit on each elephant’s saddle and are joined by a mahout at the front and a soldier, who helps put offerings of food in a sack at the end of the saddle. There were 83 monks this year to mark the upcoming 83rd birthday of His Majesty the King. Thousands of locals and visitors took part in the event, which has been held for the past four years.
Provincial officials set up three temporary stands where people could offer food - normally dried produce - to the monks. Then the elephants walked past each stand. At the top of the stands, people crowded in and pushed one another, trying to hand their offerings to the monk’s alms bowls, despite an announcement that the elephants would walk past the stands as many times as possible until there were no more offerings.
But people kept pushing, while some also tried to take pictures of the elephants, because this activity is one of a kind in the nation.
The procession lasted an hour. Then visitors proceeded on to Ubon Ratchathani, which is northeast of Surin and next to the Mekong River.
In the late afternoon of Asarnha Bucha Day, many took the opportunity to visit Wat Supattanaram Woraviharn, which is in town. The temple is on the banks of the Moon River, where visitors could watch the grand offering ceremony of the royal candle procession, which started from Wat Luang, a royal temple about 1.2 kilometres east from Wat Supattanaram Woraviharn.
This event is organised yearly and this year it was magnificent with 34 boats taking part. Their crews wore tops in separate colours of red, blue and white to create harmony. Locals also held traditional dancing performances to welcome the royal candle, present monks with bathing robes and other offerings at Supattanaram Woraviharn temple.
The next morning it was time for the annual wax sculpture festival organised on the main day of Buddhist Lent. Traditionally, people presented candles to monks because there was no electricity. Candles were their only source of light during the rainy season when monks are confined to temples. Instead of donating big, plain candles directly to temples, Ubon Ratchathani organised its own candle festival, which started in 1927 and was promoted as a national event in 1979. The candles are carved and sculpted in various shapes depicting episodes from the life of Lord Buddha to pay homage to Buddhist methods of art and sculpture. Each carving is about 10 metres long and four metres high.
Sixty-four of the works were on show this year.
One of the highlights of the parade was a carved candle in pink made to celebrate His Majesty the King. Normally all carved candles are yellow, the colour of bee’s wax. Apart from the long parade of carved candles, there are also various performances staged on the four-kilometre long main street of Ubon.
Buoyed by the success of the wax sculpture festival in Ubon Ratchathani, some other provinces also organised similar ceremonies this year, including Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram and Suphan Buri. But this is a once in a lifetime event, and you’re better off seeing the original.
Within a single two-day trip, you can pay homage to Buddhists and experiences the cultural festivals in the big provinces in the southern part of Isan.
USEFUL INFORMATION
For more information, visit Surin province’s website at http://www.surin.go.th or Ubon Ratchathani’s website at http://www.ubonratchathani.go.th.
Visit the Tourism Authority of Thailand’s website, Surin office, at http://www.tat.or.th/surin or call 044-514-447/8 or the TAT’s Ubon Ratchathani office at http://www.tatubon.org or call 045-243-770.