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With the time change on Sunday night, I actually drive home in the dark now, and I saw a full moon tonight. This made me think of Loy Krathong, I knew it was that time of the year and sure enough many places in Thailand celebrated their Loy Krathong over the weekend.
The Loy Krathong Festival takes place in all parts of Thailand, and in Laos, it is called Lai Heur Fai Nam, this takes place on the full moon night of the Twelfth Lunar Month. The Krathong or Heur Fai is made of banana leaves that contains flowers, candles and incense sticks, as well as some food and coins placed in there.
When I was little living in Thailand, I was told that Loy Krathong is a traditional Thai way of life, it is widely believed that these are offerings made to Mae Khongkha (mother of waters) either to please her in an expression of gratitude for providing life-sustaining water throughout the year, and to ask her for forgiveness for man’s carelessness in polluting the water that nourishes all life. Many also believe that by setting adrift the krathong, one symbolically casts away one’s grief, misery, and ill fortunes. Coins are also placed in the krathong as offerings. For the romantic at heart and young couples, Loy Krathong is the time to make wishes for happiness together and success in love.
The Lanna (Northern Thai people) use sky lanterns all year round for celebrations and other special occasions. And on Loy Kratong festival, lovers and partners gather on the riverbanks to float flowers and candles, launch fireworks and release sky lanterns together, also known as Khom Loy or Khom Fai. It is considered good luck to release a sky lantern, and many Thais believe they are symbolic of problems and worries floating away.
This year’s event, Loy Krathong Sukhothai.
More information on the Lanna celebration.
Yesterday we had Thot Kathin or Kathin Ceremony at our local temple, Wat Greensboro of North Carolina.
Dork Champee, I’ve not seen one in a long time. The aroma is incredible and it’s one of the offering flowers.
In most Southeast Asia countries, where Buddhist monks live in one place for 3 months known as Punsa or Rain Retreat, and after the three months of Retreat observance, people have a very grand festival of offering food to the monks in various Wat (Temples), each Wat could only Thot Kathin once a year. At this same time, they prepare special yellow robes that are offered to the Sangha .
This special yellow robe offering is called the Kathin Offering Ceremony. It can be done only during the period from the end of the Rain Retreat to the first day of the Waning Moon of the 12th Lunar Month, which means only within 29 days after Ork Punsa. There must be at least 5 monks for a Wat to Thot Kathin, and in the United States, it’s hard to have that many living in one Wat, but we have 6 monks at our Wat for the Kathin Ceremony. This year we have a Kathin Samakee, which means that it’s being hosted by many and not just one person, we had the Khmer, the Lao, and the Thais and raised over $10,000.
Today was Ork Punsa at our local temple Wat Greensboro, also known as Greensboro Buddhist Center, but tomorrow is the day that marks the conclusion of the Rains retreat. The tradition of Buddhist Lent or the annual three-month Rains Retreat known in Laos and Thailand as Punsa, which dated back to the early Buddhism in ancient India, this is the time where monks spent three months of the annual rainy season in permanent dwellings. This is to avoid unnecessary traveling during the period when crops were still new for fear they might accidentally step on young plants. According to our sermon today, in the ancient time, the Lord Buddha left earth for 3 months to visit his mother up in heaven, he wanted to show his gratitude by chanting for her during this Lent period, and the day of Ork Punsa was the day that he returned to earth, and all the people came to greet him. It is also considered inauspicious to get married or move house during the Lent period, but after Ork Punsa, the calendar is open for weddings.
As I’ve mentioned before, according to our Buddhist belief, Tuk Badt or Alms giving is believed by many that it’s a Boun (merit making) of life, that they’ll live a long and healthy life, which technically speaking, by Tuk Badt, they’re offering foods to the monks to sustain their livelihoods.
Today’s Alms giving is called Tuk Badt Tayvo, its an old Thai tradition of Alms giving where the Buddhist worshipers would lineup and the monks come by to collect Alms, I’m not sure if it’s called the same in Lao. This made me think of the time that we lived in Kamphangphet, Thailand, we would Tuk Badt Tayvo with rice grains, and dried foods that way it would not get spoiled because there were long lines of Buddhist worshipers and hundreds of monks collecting Alms, it’s a beautiful sight to witness and to take part in the ceremony.
The tradition of Buddhist Lent or the annual three-month Rains Retreat known in Thai and Lao as Khao Pansa marks the beginning of the three month Buddhist ‘Lent‘. Laypeople provide monasteries with stacks of new robes for Lent monks, since during the Lent period monks are restricted to their monasteries for a prolonged period of spiritual retreat. Ordinary people are also expected to be rather more religious during this time, marriages do not take place and it is inauspicious to move house. This is a good time for young men to temporarily enter the monastery. (source)
As for our local temple, Wat Greensboro or Greensboro Buddhist Center, we’ve Buddhist service and Alms Giving every Sunday during the Rains Retreat. Our Wat (Temple) is looking to expand the Sala Hong Tham (worship hall) and we’ve the opportunity to broadcast part of the sermon on TV, I think it is going to be on NatSat TV.
Some Buddhist worshipers were there to Tum Boun (merit making) for their passed loved ones, the deceased names were written on a white piece of paper, then burned during the ceremony.
Lee Wai to pay respect during the ceremony.
Some pay respect by the big Buddha.
The Thais and Lao culture are very similar when it comes to greeting, instead of shaking hands, we wai (hands in upside down Y) instead. I’ve had many friends that asked me if Lao or Thai people still wai each other when meet, and I do have to say that when I visited Laos and Thailand, it’s still a common practice amongst Lao and Thai people. One thing that most don’t ask me is where do I place my hands (in an upside down Y) when I wai? This I probably can’t tell, all I know is that my hands go up automatically, and mostly in the chest level area, obviously not the proper way for all occasions of wai.
Since so many people visit Thailand, the Thai Ministry of Culture have come up with a guide line of where to place your hands that I thought is interest, and good to know. The Lao would follow the same guide line in my opinion since our greeting practiced is very similar. This is Greeting: Thai Social Etiquette, Ministry of Culture, by Malithat Promathatavedi.
In Thailand, people in general greet one another with the word Sawatdi (Sabaidee in Lao). This word can be used at all times of day. A male would add the word khrap and a female the word kha after Sawatdi to show politeness (Lao people don’t add any word). The word Sawatdi (Sabaidee or Largone in Lao) can also be used when taking leave of someone or saying good-bye.
If the persons are friends or about the same age, the word Sawatdi (Sabaidee in Lao) alone is sufficient for greeting. A wai is a gesture of pressing the palms together in the position of a budding lotus at chest level (upside down Y), with the fingertips touching the tip of the nose. There are three levels of wai.
1. For the Buddha images or the monks only
Raise the pressed palms until the thumbs touch the space between the eyebrows and the fingertips touch the hairline at the forehead. The tips of tbe index fingers are pressed against the forehead, not tilting to the left or right. This is the 1st level wai.
- I wrote this a while back, but never posted here, and it sort of related to the current topic that I’m posting at the moment. All Photos are from my Laos Trip.
The belief in ghost or spirit has been in our Lao/Thai culture for generations, especially the belief of ghost in the house. The younger generations might think its nonsense, and superstition, but not according to our parents or grandparents, whom believe in ghost spirit in the house, might be because they’re thinking that eventually they’ll become the ghost of the house.
Because of this belief, there’re many things that we could and couldn’t do inside our own home, therefore this belief dictates how we live our lives, sounds a bit silly now, but if you’re Lao or Thai, you might not think it’s silly after all.
There’re basic rules that I’ve to follow, silly right? Me, following rules of superstition, don’t laugh because I might not be the only one, you might find yourself doing this also. I was told that when I sleep, I’m not suppose to lay my arms across my chest or in a hug myself position, not suppose to lay my arm (wrist) across my forehead, not suppose to sleep below the beams of the house, simple explanation given to me, “Pee See Umm.”
Pee Umm, which loosely translated as ghost controlling your body while you’re asleep, but I believe that it’s the same as a paradoxical sleep in which intense dreaming occurs during REM sleep as a result of heightened brain activity, but paralysis occurs simultaneously in the major voluntary muscle groups, which is a mixture of encephalic (brain) states of excitement and muscular immobility. Long explanation for Americans, Lao/Thai just call it Pee Umm, short and simple to the point.
Most younger generations don’t believe in Pee Umm, but they’re still experiencing or dreaming that gave them the sense of Pee Umm. However, if we’re to pay closer attention as to why our parents or grandparents don’t want us to sleep under the above conditions, then we’d see that it has nothing to do with Pee Umm, but a simple reason that we should pay more attention to how we sleep, even while we’re unconscious during our sleep, not just flop your body down and no telling which direction your feet are pointing when you wake up. This is all about mannerism, even while we’re asleep, and as for crossing your arms over your chest, you’re restricting the amount of oxygen intake, therefore not a good position to sleep and should be avoided, to prevent us from doing this, they’d say “Pee See Umm,” and it works every time.
The ceiling beams above your bed are a Feng Shui nightmare, and Lao/Thai call it Pee Umm, but the term nightmare that is being used here, I seriously doubt if it means the same as Pee Umm. I think it means that the beams can be a source of cutting chi and the beams carry a tremendous load, and this pressure is focused into the beams generating chi, which continues downwards, placing direct pressure on you while you sleep.
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