Last week marked our first Songkran in Thailand.
When we lived in Bangkok almost 10 years ago we fled to Hanoi in lead-up to the New Year, staying away until the Thai capital returned to its normally torpid, hot-season self. If not for our continuing work in Chiang Mai's Gat Luang neighborhood we would have passed Songkran 2011 as we've passed every other Songkran that we've lived in Asia: far, far away from Thailand.
It's true -- there is a not-so-pretty side to Songkran. To whit: A furor broke out when three Thai girls were videotaped dancing topless in Bangkok. On Chiang Mai's Tha Phae Road a farang standing next to me suffered damage to her eye when a high-powered water gun was aimed at her face. (According to traditional Songkran etiquette splashing is meant to be limited to the body below the neck.) An obviously inebriated bikini-clad farang hopped onto a float in last Friday's provincial procession to the Chiang Mai governor's house. (Note: Just because Thais do not tell you that your behavior is offensive does not mean that it isn't.) A nationwide death toll of 271 between April 11 and 17, (The silver lining: that's down 25% from 2010's number of holiday fatalities.)
But there's another side to the Thai New Year as well.
We began the first day of Songkran by joining the members of Gat Luang's Namdhari Sikh temple in a ceremony marking the Sikh New Year, which begins on the same day as the Thai New Year. After prayers, some of which sung to the accompaniment of a harmonium and drums, we ate a Sikh New Year breakfast of chickpea daal, paratha, raita studded with bits of wheat dough, and sugar-soaked jelebi hot from the wok -- all prepared in the temple's kitchen.
Then more food, as in a local kitchen we learned to make several northern Thai dishes from recipes provided by a family with connections to Gat Luang that go back a century or more. (Recipes will be included in the book, but look for one here later.) One of the dishes was gaeng hang lay, a Burmese-influenced pork and ginger curry that's soured with tamarind. Because it's cooked for half a day, it is considered special occasion food -- especially appropriate to the New Year celebrations.
We then hurried to Tha Phae Road for the annual procession of Buddha images. The statues are brought out from wats around Chiang Mai, paraded through the streets, and washed by observers with splashes of water from silvery cups. The procession finishes in the Old City, at Wat Pra Singh, and then each Buddha returns to its home wat.
The third day of Songkran is devoted to dtam hua -- paying respects -- and making merit. Wat Saen Fang sits on the edge of Gat Luang, just off Tha Phae Road. The wat's prayer hall and other buildings are Burmese in style, and the old wooden house that now serves as the monk's quarters was built by a Burmese family whose wealth came from the Chiang Mai logging trade.
Around 7am worshippers began arriving to make merit, first in the prayer hall -- for themselves and their families -- and then in the entrance to the monk's quarters (the wat's abbott is pictured above). Some brought prepared baskets of packaged foods, while other prepared trays of dishes cooked at home (the opening photograph is an example of the latter -- gaeng hang lay is at about 11 o'clock on the silver tray on the right). Offerings to the monks are made for each departed ancestor, whose names are written on pieces of paper and given to the monks for prayer.
After making offerings of food the wat members then plant paper flags in a sand chedi next to the prayer hall, to wish for a long life. Traditionally the chedi were constructed from sand carried by hand by community members from the Ping River, but these days the sand is delivered by truck to the wats. Throughout the year "sand" or earth is carried out of the wat when community members come and go -- this is how it's returned to the wat, on the second day of Songkran.
Dtam hua of a different sort took place in the afternoon of Songkran's third day. Every year each municipality in Chiang Mai sends representatives to participate in a procession to the Chiang Mai governor's residence. Partipants carry a variety of gifts -- mostly symbolic nowadays. The procession ends on the governor's lawn, where participants may join a line to be blessed by the governor.
Dtam hua is a Songkran tradition repeated in workplaces and homes; younger people dtam hua to their elder relatives, and staff dtam hua to their employers. And it's a tradition that northern Thais hold dear. This year Chiang Mai's newish governor -- a descendent of King Rama IV appointed, as most of Thailand's governors are, rather than directly appointed -- caused a stink by announcing that in order to avoid troubling the people on their holiday he would cancel this year's dtam hua procession. Vociferous objections came from all directions, and dtam hua went on as usual.
If you were in Chiang Mai this year and didn't get past the goings-on at the moat you might not know that Songkran is a deeply spiritual time for many Thais. We're thankful for these peeks at the other side of the Thai New Year. We might even return in 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment