Loy Krathong Festival

16 November 2005

A genuine spectacle, Loy Krathong occurs on the night of the full moon in November. People go to rivers and canals to float Kratongs – small floats made of cork and banana leaves – to thank the rivers for their bounty and support throughout the year, and as a means of making merit and gaining good luck. Each Kratong has a flower, a candle and three incense sticks – the candles and incense sticks are lit before placing the Krathong in the water and making a wish. The sight of hundreds of candles floating down the river is quite something! Pure Thailand!

Visit the official Loy Krathong website: http://www.loikrathong.net/EN/

Tags: Loy Krathong, moon, Thailand, river, Festival

Lucky Elephants Go to Haven

One year ago I visited the Elephant Nature Park north of Chiang Mai. The camp was created by Sangduen Chailert (Lek) who has been working to protect Thai elephants throughout her life. Many elephant camps around Thailand exploit elephants to make a profit. Lek's camp was created as a sanctuary for elephants. Her aim is to purchase mistreated elephants and allow them to retire at her camp which is located in some beautiful misty, green mountains in Northern Thailand.

Lek's story sounds like the making of a Hollywood movie. She was featured in a National Geographic video which exposed the brutality of the phajaan. This term can be translated to mean "crush" and is a technique used to "crush" the spirit of a wild elephant and thereby tame them. The phajaan involves locking an elephant in a tiny pen which prevents any movement. The young elephant who is newly separated from their mother is beaten, deprived of sleep for several days, and jabbed with sharp spears. This is done until the elephant submits to human commands.

The National Geographic documentary exposed this inhumane practice. This video was shown to the visitors of Lek's camp and her assistant, an Australian woman named Michele, told Lek's story. Michele explained that shortly after the video was released, the animal rights group PETA held an international press conference, at which they played the video and then called for a complete ban of tourism in Thailand. The entire country lost face.

As a backlash to this tactic, Lek was completely vilified. A price was placed for Lek's assassination and she was forced to go into hiding. While living underground, one of her baby elephants was poisoned and murdered.

Several years later, the uproar has died down and Lek is no longer in fear for her life. She can be found spending her days caring for her herd of elephants and seeking new animals to rescue. She was featured in the October issue of National Geographic and Time Magazine named her as one of Asia's forty heroes this year.

The camp itself is absolutely amazing. It feels like a Disney movie. Each of the elephants has such an interesti

by thai-blogs.com

Tags: Lucky, Elephant, Chiang Mai, mountains, Northern, Thailand, beautiful, Hollywood, movie, National Geographic, Magazine, Disney, amazing

That Phanom

According to the That Phanom Chronicles, eight years after the Buddha’s death 500 Arahants and five lords of the five states headed by Maha Kassapa constructed the reliquary in the shape of a four sided kiln, eight to ten meters tall, and in it placed the breast bone relic of the Buddha. Over the past 2500 years the shrine has been restored several times and now stands 57 meters tall overlooking the town of That Phanom.
People visit the shrine throughout the year, but the most moving and auspicious time to visit That Phanom is during the festival that marks Magha Puja. This small town on the Mekong River, half way between Mukdahan and Nakhon Panom grows from a few thousand, to the size of major city, as tens of thousands arrive each day to make merit and worship at the shrine. This was my 5th visit to the festival.
he first place to stop is the museum. It houses some quite interesting artifacts and information about the history of the shrine. There is also a set of murals that explain Buddhism in Isaan. From there, west of the shrine about 50 meters is a Bo-tree that is a branch of the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment and was brought here in 1952. Now it’s on toward the shrine. As you pass through the first door-way you’ll enter the cloister that makes up the outer wall where many of the monks at the festival will spend the night and in front of you will be the inner wall that surrounds the shrine. This wall has first built in the second century B.C. and has been rebuilt numerous times. Remember to take off your shoes when entering the inner wall. The That itself is surrounded by statues of past abbots and sometimes Buddha images from the cloister are placed around the That.
More about That Phanom and other Isaan places in following entries.
by Tom thai-blogs.com Thailand

Tags: That Phanom, Buddha, People, festival, museum, thai, Thailand

Kalasins Museum of Thailand

Let's go to the museum, oh what a lovely idea. One step better than the dentist office or I'd rather have a lobotomy.
"Oh, look the shard is from a 1,000 year old pot that who cares what was stored in it". And how do they really know, anyhow?
"Oh, look an obsidium arrow head used by pre-nasal man to kill whatever animal was on the menu".
Also for a kid it's wonderful,"don't run. don't make noise, don't tuch that"
Museums with narrow aisles jammed with display cases aren't my cup of tea, nor the ones where the lighting is terrible and I can't see in their display cases for the reflection from the sun or flourescent light.
Museums can be one royal bore.
Museums should be educational, interesting, comfortable and fun all at the same time.
The Museum in Kalasin fills that bill in spades.
If you want to learn ablout life in Isaan this is the place to come. Even if you don't care about life in Isaan this place is brilliant and I bet you get interested or at least enjoy the place. Lifelike plaster figures depict scenes of Isaan life, from a woman gving birth, morlom, monks and people in their homes, to death.
Tools and musical instruments are on display, and you can even touch them. Dioramas or vignettes or whatever they are called lifelike and well presented.
The display rooms are bright and spacious, and spread nicely over the whole first floor of the old sala khan (2d floor for Americans).
If you're ever in the area this is the place stop. Kalasin has tonnes of stuff to see and do, from dinosaurs to the best silk in Thailand. More about the province in the future.
The pictures tell a better story than me, so enjoy.

By tom

Tags: Kalasins, Museum, Thailand, wonderful, enjoy, futur