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Some of the prettiest photos of the longest solar eclipse of the century that cast a wide shadow for several minutes over Asia and the Pacific Ocean Wednesday, luring throngs of people outside to watch the spectacle.
In India, where an eclipse pits science against superstition, thousands took a dip in the Ganges River in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi to cleanse their souls.
In Chinese tradition, there is a story about a heavenly dog eating the sun. As the story goes, people would make noise to scare off the dog and rescue the sun. Source and photos.
As for the Lao and Thai, there is a folklore of the Luna Eclipse, I’m not sure if it also applied to the solar eclipse as well. This picture was taken at the Buddha Park the Spirit City in Laos, it’s believed that during the Luna Eclipse, the moon is being swallowed by the frog as we called it Kop Kin Deuane, loosely translated as frog eats moon, therefore when we were kid, we had to bang our pots and pans to chase the frog away. I think we would have done the same thing with the solar eclipse.
Pee Mai Lao or Lao New Year falls on April 13-15, 2009
Sok Dee Pee Mai 2552. Happy Lao New Year 2009.
This is a story told in Laos to explain why Lao people pour water on each other on the New Year in the fifth Lunar month. The story is called Nang Sangkaan.
The origin of the parade of Nang Sangkaan is not Buddhist, but Brahmanism. Later, Lao people changed the tradition, but kept the idea of carrying the Buddha images and respected persons in the procession and pouring water on them.
Video by ArnuShawn
Translated and description by Nye Noona
Narrated by Mr. Akkasith
Photo by Siriphone Shields and Kevin Borland
Video by ArnuShawn
Translated and description by Nye Noona
Narrated by Mr. Akkasith
It is not common for subordinates to speak back or outwit their superior in the Lao tradition or amongst Lao people, but in the Lao Folktales, the notorious trickster Xiang Miang was an exception, he was so clever that it was a challenge to outwit him, and the only one that had succeeded in doing so was a tiny snail. The clever snail teamed up with other snails and defeated Xiang Miang in a race.
In this episode, the king was trying to outwit Xiang Miang but instead, Xiang Miang outwits the king.
Video by ArnuShawn, Xiang Miang is one of the most popular folktales in Laos. This is part I and the beginning of the story. It narrated by Mr. Akkasith and translated by Nye Noona. Special Thanks to both of them that make this film possible.
The following is the brief introduction of Xiang Miang written by Nye Noona:
Once long ago, there was a kingdom by the name of Muang Tavaravadee, where all lived in harmony and abundance, but the king was lacking the heir to the throne. The queen later gave birth to a little prince, with such gift, the king called upon the court astrologer to make a prediction of the prince’s future and the prediction was that it’d be very difficult to raise him due to illness at the age of 12, and to solve this problem, he must be raised alongside another boy that was born the same day and the same time as the little prince, so the search began.
The search came to an end when they found a poor woman with a child. She was rewarded with gold and silver, and in return took her son back to the palace, he was named Kham (gold) after his natural mother’s name, Kham Hang. The king was delighted, and raised Kham alongside the prince, Kham showed his wit and intelligence from the age of three.
Sadly the king passed away when the prince was seventeen, Kham was ordained to be a novice monk during the royal funeral, this was to make merit and lead the king to his afterlife. After the funeral, the prince became king and Kham remained a novice monk, and this is the story of how he got his name, Xiang Miang, and other stories of this notorious trickster.
I’ve been searching for Lao folktales, and was told by a friend about SEAsite Laos website that have a good collection of Lao folktales. Then I found a book called Lao Folktales by Wajuppa Tossa with Kongdeuane Nettavong, edited by Margaret Read MacDonald. It’s in hardcover and has some of the great stories that my mom told me when I was little. One of my all time favorite stories is the ghost story called ‘Phi Kongkoi: The ghost Named Kongkoi’ and was surprised to find it in this book as well. Here is the story, told by Suphaphit Khantha, mahasarakham, Thailand, collected and retold in English by Wajappa Tossa.
Once there was a man named Thid Kaew who lived with his old mother. Thid Kaew was a grateful son who took very good care of his mother. He earned a living by fishing. At first he could get a lot of fish, but later there was no fish, not a single fish. So he went to tell his mother about this.
“There must be someone stealing our fish. Why don’t you go and watch the trap?” suggested his mother.
So Thid Kaew went to hide near his fish trap. Later that night he saw a dark shadow emerging from a bush, shrieking, “Kok kok kok Koi koi koi.” It was Phi Kongkoi, the female ghost named Kongkoi.
Thid Kaew jumped on the shadow, and it cried, “Kok kok kok Koi koi koi, (Hungry! Hungry!).” Thid Kaew wrestled the shadow down, and they struggled for a long time. Finally he subdued the hungry ghost. Now she looked beautiful to him. He became the husband of Phi Kongkoi. He was very happy.
As the golden rays of the sun appeared in the sky at dawn, the rooster crowed, “Egg-I-en-egg.” Thid Kaew woke up. He stretched, but…whoops! He almost fell off the high branch of a tree. “Oh, no. How did I get up here?” he asked himself. He called out:
“Help! Help! Thid Kaew can climb up the tree, but not down. Help! Help! Thid Kaew can climb up the tree, but not down.”
It was cool in the morning, but Thid Kaew was drenched with sweat. Nobody came to help. Thid Kaew tried to climb down, with difficulty, and finally he managed to get down from the tree. Once his feet touched the ground, he began running, running, running.
He was running around and around in the forest until dark. He came across a little hut in the field. There he saw Phi Kongkoi, crying, saying, “Oh, dear husband, we can’t live together. I have to go my way. But before I go away, I will give you some treasures that I have.” Then she handed the treasures to Thid Kaew, and Phi Kongkoi disappeared.
Thid Kaew grabbed the treasures and ran back home to his mother. It was real treasure. And the ghost lady was really gone forever. So they lived happily ever after.
This is not as scary as when I heard it as a little kid. According to my mom’s version, he went by the water bank and saw Phi Kongkoi, and she had fish in her mouth, blood dripping from her lips. She said ’Hungry! Hungry!’ and Thid kaew was scared but tried to be brave, he had a flame torch in his hand and told her to open her mouth wide, then wider, and when she did that, he shoved the torch into her mouth. She cried out in pain. I recalled that the image of Phi Kongkoi was very vivid in my mind when my mom told me.
I think if you love Lao folktales, this is a good book to have. There is also another ghost story in the book that I like called Phi Khon Long: The Ghost Who Carried Her own Coffin.
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