Life in Phana

Study Centre is Busy, Busy

After opening on 8th March, the Rin-Homhual Mahanil Study Centre in Phana was busy two days later when the Phana Bicycle Rally came by. Then there were a few quiet days when we wondered where everyone was who had said they would visit. Slowly ‘business’ picked up. The Director of Phana Suksa called in with a good luck gift to the Centre, for example, and several people stopped by to do a little weaving.

But this last week has been very busy and has been everything we had hoped the Study Centre would be: a place for people to study, to hold discussions and meetings, and to drop in to browse through the books and magazines and study the exhibits and ask questions about them.

Three groups of children on school holiday are now attending the Study Centre twice a week for English lessons and practice. The largest group (16 of them at the last count) are of Primary One age or a bit younger. One group of them comes in from a village about 7 kms away in/on this vehicle driven by the mother of one of them. I guess you would call this a little-people carrier.

The oldest group (M1) is currently the smallest, but these three girls are very keen. They are joined by ‘Judy’ in the background, a Phanasuksa student who has just returned from a year as an AFS student in Brazil. She is helping out at the Study Centre and especially helping me with the teaching.

The other group, about to double in numbers next week, is Primary 4 and 5. After their class finished on Thursday they stayed on to play some English-language games on the computer.

On Wednesday we hosted a group of teachers and students from Benjamah Mahavat School in Ubon. They were following up an earlier exploratory visit to assess Phana as a possible focus for their off-site study programme. We started the day early after they had had breakfast across the road at the house of Acharn Kalyani, who is involved in the running of the centre.

After introducing them to the centre and looking at the history and monkey exhibitions in some detail, we took them on a tour of other possible educational sites in the village.

The Traditional Medicine Centre had not been expecting us, but when we arrived they had just done a presentation to a group from Si Sa Ket, so they kindly repeated it for us.

 

At Fai Rong Hin the group was most interested in the cooking, using methane gas produced on site with the help of a lot of pigs… (APPLIANCE OF SCIENCE)

… and in posing for a group photo:

After lunch we visited the weaving co-operative in Moo 9. Again, they had not been expecting us and it turned out that a training session was in progress. But again, we were welcomed, given lots of attention and lots of answers to our questions, and a couple of the teachers were sold some cloth produced by the co-operative.

And finally, to Don Chao Poo, where we took them on the Path of the Buddha:

Then it was back to the Study Centre for a plenary discussion. It looks very likely that a group or groups of students from the school will be making a visit of several days to carry out a varied study programme using all the facilities we visited early in the new school year which starts in mid-May.

And finally, on Friday evening the first of a planned series of meetings took place at the Study Centre, organised this time by Khun Chorkdee Pornsri. The idea was to discuss the ways in which the traditional 12-month festivals were celebrated ‘in the old days’.

Thirty-two people turned up, but they didn’t get past the first month! The next meeting in two weeks time will be to listen to the Chao Kana Amphur (the chief abbot of the District) talking about his recent pilgrimage to the places in India associated with the life of the Buddha.

So, a very busy week at the Study Centre, and a very productive one which promises well for the continued use and interest in the Centre.

 

Bicycle Rally calls at the Study Centre

Two days after the official opening of the Rin-Himhual Mahanil Study Centre we were ready and waiting for the bicycle rally to come calling.

CLICK on the images to enlarge them.

We had arranged an exhibition featuring the work of the weaving co-operative in Moo 9. Khun Pitsamai, leading light of the co-op, set up the loom and provided the ingredients for the indigo dying process. Pensri added the explanation of this process in terms of the chemistry, and also set up the microscope and slides showing the indigo being worked on by bacteria.

Also featured was the work of our four researchers, who have been studying Don Chao Poo Forest and the monkey population there.

Our first customers of the day were these people who were staffing the rally checkpoint and information point at the buea baan (lak mueang) on the other side of the road. Also there were the three people who had done most to get the project up and running.

There was quite a long wait before the first of the rally cyclers arrived at the checkpoint opposite us, but when they came they were in several inseparable waves and many of them came into the centre rather than wait in the checkpoint queue, and others cam in once they had checked in and listened to the information from the four staff girls who had been waiting for them in the study centre and practising their English-language speeches with me. They spoke very clearly and precisely though I would not vouch for how much of what they were saying meant anything to them. I guess it must have, because they had also learned the same information in Thai.

They seemed to hold the attention of our four researchers, anyway.

But these competitors didn’t seem greatly interested in the study centre, they were far more concerned with the impression they were making, which was pretty impressive, to be fair.

 

I was quite sorry not to take part in the bicycle rally this year, especially because I was so insistent last year that it should become an annual event. There were not as many people taking part this year and some of the preparations were very last minute, but people who took part seemed to enjoy it. As well as the short course which was similar to last year’s, there was a ‘professional’ event that was ridden over a 47km route. I have some pictures of that which have been kindly offered to me by my friend Khun Surayuth Singhnak. Thanks, Tong!

I’ll start with the charming young woman in the picture above. Here she is, needing both hands on her bike and so i\unable to make any gestures, rude or otherwise:

And here is someone who may have been expecting an easier ride:

 

And finally, here is Tong himself. At all these occasions he takes hundreds of photos (he was a photo-journalist based in Bangkok for many years) but he rarely appears himself.

Tong:

Keeping the ancestors informed

It was important to keep the ancestors informed before we ‘interfered’ with their house, and we duly did that in a small ceremony in the enclosed ground-floor area of the old house built by Ta Rin and Yai Hom. We told them that work was going to be done in the house, that this would improve its condition and that we were doing this out of respect for them and in their memory.

When the major work had been done, we held another ceremony. This was attended by a few more people and this time I had my camera with me. I remember well going through the same ceremony when our house was nearing completion back in the mid-nineties. One of the most memorable features was that an old man prevented us from entering until lots of questions had been asked and entered, and he had decided that we meant well, had sufficient respect for the ancestors who were the true owners of the property, and that we intended to use it wisely and maintain it properly. The old man guarding the property on this occasion was Khun Ta Peng, the husband of Pensri’s father’s half-sister; answering on my behalf (although it was me who was wearing the traditional ‘regalia’ of a hat and carrying a bag containing a hammer and a nail – with which I was going to ‘maintain’ the house) was Khun Ta Gert, father of the mayor of tetsaban Phana.

This was the condition of the house at the time:

Here we are, gathered outside the house:

It was a good opportunity for old friends and relations to get together:

Khun Ta Peng didn’t want to let us in!

But eventually he was persuaded and he helped Khun Ta Gert and me to attach flowers, incense and candles to the foot of the stairs.

Khun Ta Gert prepares to demonstrate MY willingness to maintain the house by hammering in a nail above the photo of Ta Rin and Yai Homhual, Pensri’s parents.

Then Pensri’s adopted brother, Tuan, did the honours at this little temporary shrine in what used to be Ta Rin and Yai Homhual’s bedroom.

And I did, too.

Afterwards, we sat around for a while in the big, sitting area outside the bedrooms. We chatted, but also there was an important presentation. Pensri is going to use the ground floor as a community library or study centre, and a neighbour, Khun Yai Somwang had offered to donate an old ‘accordion’ book which had belonged to her grandfather, the village herbal doctor born about 100 years ago. Here she is in the blue jacket, presenting the book to Pensri.

And here is a close-up of two pages of the book.

Some of the book was written in gold on black, some of it black on white.

Everybody had a good look at the book, which was in quite a fragile state in parts.

But the interest was obvious:

Now we have to decide on the best way to display the book, keeping it safe and intact, but allowing people to indulge their interest in what is certainly an item of historic importance. Pensri has already decided that Khun Yai Somwang’s donation will feature in the logo of the study centre.

Portraits at Phana House

Year of the Rabbit, that was

I was born in the year of the rabbit and that year comes round every twelve years. For me, it has come round six times so far. Traditionally, the sixth cycle (and the seventh) are celebrated more than an annual birthday here in Thailand. It is considered quite an achievement, I suppose, to see your sixth cycle. I certainly feel a sense of achievement, partly perhaps because I can still remember thinking that 30 years old was OLD AGE, and I could not imagine living that long.

My actual birthday was back in October, but we decided that the best time to celebrate it would be close to Christmas. We ended up with Christmas Eve for several reasons, the main one being that the family was asembling in Bangkok the previous weekend for the wedding of Liew and Ashley. By family 'assembling', I mean that our children Dominic and Darunee, with Jay and Adam and our five grandchildren would all be in Thailand for the wedding and then staying on for some holiday time. Liew and Ashley would be here from England too of course. Our Thai family (Pensri's sisters and their children and grandchildren and her cousins and their children and grandchildren) were also able to come up to Phana, as most of them do each year for a tam boun for the ancestors.

Most people arrived in Phana on the 23rd, Dom and Darunee's lot with us in the house, everyone else booked into Phana Garden Resort. Food was organised, monks invited, a stage put up in the garden, and a marquee, plastic tables and chairs stacked up ready for use. In the morning we were going to feed nine monks (one forgot to come!) and then have a baci su kwan ceremony with one of Pensri's second (?) cousins the spirit-caller. The neice of Mom, the woman who spent several months with us in England in 2011, had offered to dance the benediction dance, and three other young women were going to perform another dance for the baci.

Hundreds of photos were taken, none of them by me on this occasion. It is difficult to make a selection,but here goes.

Presents, this one from my senior brother and sister-in-law:

And more presents:

Beautiful dancers -- worth waiting 72 years for this picture, I think.

Our two 'children', Darunee and Dominic, and three of their children, Polly, Esme and Kim:

The monks beginning their chanting; the senior monk here kindly told me I could sit cross-legged. He could see that I was likely to topple over otherwise!

Most of the guests sit outside on these occasions:

The woman on the right is well past her seventh cycle. She must have attended hundreds of ceremonies like this one. She used to give me massages when I first came to Phana, and I thought she was really old then. Really old, but her thumbs were amazingly strong, and she gave me some of the most effective massage I've had. It was good to see her again because she doesn't get out and about much any more.

And then when the monks were eating, the su kwan ceremony began:

And then the sacred threads were tied around wrists while blessings were muttered. It is usual to wish the receiver good health and a long life but people seemed to enjoy trying to outdo each other by wishing me 100, 300, 600, 1200 years of life! I'm not sure I wish any of those for myself, but who knows.

Then we all had lunch and everyone except the families from Bangkok, Abu Dhabi and England disappeared rapidly, as is the custom. But in the evening we had an entertainment arranged and I'll post some pictures of that very soon.

Moving House in Isan Part 2

Moving house here in Phana, Isan, has finished. What happens next is that the newly-located building is going to be renovated and adapted to new purposes. As I explained in Part 1, the house has been empty for some years and it has looked increasingly sorry for itself and uncared for. But in fact many people care a lot for it and want the house to be used, to be useful, and to reflect the life and memory of Ta Rin and Yai Hom who lived in it for so long and who brought up so many young people (not just their own children) in this house.

As I also explained in Part 1, we were not in Phana on the day that the house was moved back away from the road. But we were here and I did take some photos on the day that the house was raised to its new height. I hope that the pictures will give an idea of how this was done because I think my explanation would be tedious and would probably not offer any clarification at all.  All I will say is that the raising of the house was done with great care and patience, little by little, co-ordinated, and with lots of measuring and fine adjustments before the craftsmen were satisfied that the job was done.

Once the poles had been raised, they needed to have supports added to each of their bases. My father-in-law had a traditional rice store in the lane behind the house but this, too, had not been used for years, and the lane wound round it in a way that made little sense now that traffic (motor bikes) use the lane. So the rice store was dismantled, the ancient hard wood still in excellent condition. Just how hard it was was discovered by these men who had to saw it up, albeit with an electric saw.

The new bases were fitted to the poles and they were all bedded down:

As a reminder of how far the house has been moved back, here is a photo taken before that happened:

And here is the house in its new position, awaiting the renovation and new work:

So the house has moved! Over the next few weeks I will try to record the renovation and adaptation work as it happens. We are expecting that everything will be done by about mid-January. The workmen here don't hang about once they get started.

 

Keeping the Spirits on our side

The village guardian spirits inhabiting the Bue Baan in Ban Phana have been kept informed of the plans to build a new Lak Muang on the site of the old market-place. In effect their place is being down-graded, or at least overshadowed, by the new structure. (See the previous post for details of this.) So a ceremony was held early one morning according to local Isan customs to call the spirits and apologise to them for any inconvenience. I think their goodwill was called upon. If I have it right, there is not much these spirits can do for you, but a whole lot that they can do against you if they are not on your side.

The crowd was not a huge one, but it included most of the elderly residents of Ban Phana, a couple of abbots and a few novices, the District Officer (nai amphur), the mayors and deputy mayors of Phana Municipality and Phra Lao Municipality, and possibly a few other notables I didn't recognise. 

We were asked to be there at about 8 am but we have learned to take starting times to be largely ignored. Besides, we knew that the auspicious time for the spirits to be called was at 9.09, so we got there much nearer to that time. Here we see the spirit expert (a former head teacher from a nearby village) pointing out the need to be precise.

The calling of the spirits was a very serious matter. Some monks will have nothing to do with this kind of rite, but this monk had been called in from outside Phana because he was particularly skilled in communicating with the spirits.

Before long, more and more people became involved in the ceremony...

... the Nai Amphur ... 

... and local people:

The spirits had been offered a generous amount of fruit, but as usual they didn't actually consume any of it. It is always a nice moment in these ceremonies when it becomes clear that the spirits, although no doubt very pleased by the generosity and thoughtfulness of the people who have made offerings, are not going to take up the offer, except perhaps in a very spiritual way rather than a mundane one. This is the moment, you might think, that people have been waiting for. Help yourself (and a few others) time.

And since the number 9 was so auspicious on this day, I had better add one more photograph to this collection. There I was at the end. Just me, a resting monk, and the village guardian spirits at the navel of the village, the bue baan.

More visitors to Phana

For a small town, Phana gets more than its fair share of 'official' visitors. I recently posted about the visit of two leading primatologists, one Thai and one Japanese, who had come to Phana to learn something about our monkeys (long-tailed macaques) and Thai culture. (You can read about that HERE.) While they were in Phana  tetsaban Phana (Phana municipality) were also hosts to two other visitors.

Ms Jaree Kiatsupimol was in Phana to assess its suitability to host a Peace Corps volunteer to work in community development. Mr Supot Akhpram was an assessor of the Democratic Community Award Panel, so there was an overlap of the things each of them wanted to see.

Here are a few pictures taken during their visit.

They went to the weaving co-operative ...

 
 
... and the Traditional Medicine Centre ...

 
 

... the library ...

 

... and of course the monkeys:

 
And this time next week, I should be back in Phana, although the train from Bangkok will be re-routed because of the flooding in Thailand at the moment, with more expected in Bangkok when I arrive next Sunday. 

Visit Phana

VISIT PHANA was the theme of the community-based tourism that was on the agenda of the Amnat Charoen Provincial authorities earlier this year. Nothing much seems to have come of it so far, at least as far as the Provincial initiative goes. That may in part be due to the change in government. Not because a change in government necessarily results in the abandonment of all previous policies, but because budget allocations inevitably have to be looked at again in order to reassess priorities.

But in Phana itself some progress was made towards planning for community-based tourism. Perhaps it has taken a new direction, or at least a somehwat unexpected one, in that Don Chao Poo and the resident monkeys have become the focus; and the focus has been narrowed down further to the educational possibilities that they offer.

Another step towards community-based tourism in Phana has been the production of several leaflets, in English initially, but to be translated into Thai and possibly into Japanese.

Here is the content of the first leaflet.

VISIT PHANA 

THE TOWN OF FIELDS IN THE FOREST

Visit Phana and uncover the secrets of this little-known but historic and surprising town in the heart of Isan.

Phana just may be the best place you have never heard of!

Phana is famous for Phra Lao Thepnimit, the beautiful image in a 300-year-old temple: come and pay your respects.

 

Phana is famous, too, for the large tribe of long-tailed macaque monkeys in Don Chao Poo forest – come and feed them, or just sit and watch them.

 

But visit Phana and you can discover much more

Visit during one of the festivals – there is one every month, but the most lively is the Wat Phra Lao festival in February. Join the festivities at the temple. Take part in the bicycle rally around the town …

Come for the rocket festival in May. You can see the young women of Phana competing in traditional dancing as well as watch the firing of huge rockets.

Or Boun Pravet in March when the story of Buddha’s penultimate life is paraded on a banner and read in 13 chapters in a temple.

Or celebrate Loy Kratong at the big pond in Don Kwan village in November.

Visit on market days – Wednesday and Saturday mornings – but you must be up early as most of the action is between 6.30 and 8.00 a.m. The market meets again on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from about 4 – 6 p.m.

Come to Phana and eat gai yaang with som tam and sticky rice, or duck noodle soup, Korean BBQ perhaps.

Or a local speciality: Jao Hawn.

 

Visit the Traditional Medicine Centre for a massage or a sauna – or spoil yourself and have both!

Ask to see how traditional herbal  medicines are produced — and then buy some to ensure your health and comfort.

 

Hire a bicycle to visit the nearby villages. Watch weavers at work at their looms or dying thread; take a tuk-tuk to Ban Soi in Tambon  Chan Lan and see the complete process of silk production from mulberry leaf and silkworm raising to the finished cloth.

Take a picnic to Fai Rong Hin (the Model Agricultural Centre) in Tambon Phra Lao. Enjoy the quiet serenity and take a look at the livestock and find out how farmers are advised to adopt a more self-sufficient and sustainable style of farming.

 

Don’t forget to take a look at those fields in the forest.

 

 

Phana Garden Resort is waiting to welcome you.

Get to Phana by bus from Amnat Charoen or Ubon Ratchathani. Or take the a/c coach service from Bangkok to Khong Jiam.

But don't forget your destination:

Phana

Come on!

Surprise yourself

with an unforgettable visit.

Portraits from Phana

When I am in Phana I like taking portraits of people and I think I am getting better at it and the subjects seem to be getting more relaxed. Here are nine of my favourites. All the photos were shot in Phana, but two of the people had come from outside.