Life in Phana

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.

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.

More than one way to make merit

There is more than one way to make merit, but in Thailand the most common way is to donate to a temple. Putting some money into a donation box is easy. Putting some money into an envelope and handing it to a monk is easy, too. Many people do one and/or the other frequently. But there are other ways to make merit by donating. In my last post, I wrote about people in the village of Ban Noen That donating land and money for the good of the community. And on our visit to Kalasin earlier this year, we came across a common form of donation: donating one's skill and labour.

We had called at Ban Sema village on our way to the provincial capital of Kalasin Province. Ban Sema is part of an ancient settlement known as Muang Fadaet Songyang, and the village gets its name from the large number of sandstone boundary markers (sema) found in Wat Pho Chai Semaram. The women in the picture above were weaving mats. The women on the right were doing the 'finishing' and were also in charge of sales.

 

 

 The materials seen here were almost certainly provided by people who purchased them for donation, but perhaps did not have the time or skill to make the mats. The materials are sourced locally and the skill is one which local people will have practised for a very long time. It's not a skill that is found uniquely here, of course, but often a village would supply mats or whatever within a limited area, perhaps exchanging their product for something produced in another nearby village. It is this tradition that OTOP (One Tambon One Product) is based on, although the success of OTOP relies on making products available to a wider market.

 

The mats are made for sale and the proceeds are ear-marked to pay for this structure where meditation practice will take place. Around the perimeter you can see sema in place. These are of plain sandstone. There are other larger ones with bas relief but those are kept in a covered space. Apparently people walk around where these plain ones are, practicing walking meditation I think, and the path gets very muddy in the rainy season. And so the concrete will make it easier to walk here at any time of year. 

 

This man is one of several who have also donated their labour and skill to building the structure. A monk invited me to donate a can of krating daeng to keep this man going. In the meantime, Pensri was demonstrating her bargaining skills. The mats were offered to her at 300 Baht each, so she took six for 2,000 Baht.

As I said, there is more than one way to make merit.

 

I think that sweeping leaves must be a major way to make merit for monks. If you visit almost any monastery in Isan there will be at least one monk sweeping the leaves. Morning or afternoon. I sometimes wonder whether the task is allocated as a penance. It is certainly an excellent reminder of the impermanence of any state.

 
 You can read more about Wat Po Chai Semaram HERE  on my other site, Isan Traveller.

 

 

Changing Isan Village

I am always fascinated to get insights into the way that villages in Isan work; what makes them tick and how they tick. Last year I posted HERE about the headman of Ban Noen That, and his part in helping to provide a house for someone in need of one. Following that post I discovered that a few houses had been provided or repaired in much the same way in Phana itself with the help of the tetsaban. One commenter on my post expressed the hope that no sign had been erected naming people who had made  donations. No such signs were erected either in Ban Noen That or in Phana. Everything was done very discreetly and without fuss. Just as it should be.

Earlier this year, a donation of land was made in Ban Noen That for the benefit of the community as a whole. In the picture on the left you can see the that  that gives the village its name. Inside are interred some of the ashes of Phana's most famous monk, Yakru (Phrakru in Thai) Boonma. Born in Phana in 1808, he ordained at 20 and went to study in Bangkok, the first person from Phana to do so. He studied at Wat Borwonives with the future Rama IV, King Mongkut. When Mongkut became King, he sent Boonma back to Isan to spread the practice of the new sect, Thammayut. Yakru Boonma died in 1871, aged 63.

 The that  you see above is a fairly recent building. Inside it is the original, which you can see below.

 

 

In this picture you can see the small sala where people of the village gather on certain ceremonial, festive or ritual occasions. Until recently, there was a house and its grounds on the space in the foreground.  The woman who owned this land has donated it to the village, the house has been dismantled, the ground cleared, filled and levelled.

A closer look at the sign makes clearer how this particular donation will work, although it doesn't explain everything. (CLICK on the image to get a bigger picture.) I will give you an approximate translation.

The top line invites people to join a public or communal pa ba, a donation ceremony.

The second line says that you join the pa ba by buying the land that has been offered to Luang Boo Tuat (Respected Great-Grandfather -- Yakru Boonma).

The third line suggests that you can be part of this merit-making donation by helping offering towards the purchase of the 555sq m land at 199 Baht per sq m.

Finally we are told where (in the sala) and when (12 April) the donation ceremony was to take place.

Now it may sound as if the woman who owned the land has not actually donated it; but she has, as far as the people of Ban Noen That are concerned. She has given up her house, that's for sure. The money raised by the donations (110,445 Baht if all are taken up) is to be spent on providing the woman with a new house on her farm some way outside the village, making use as far as possible of the material from her original house. 

So the village is changing. A new public space has appeared, and will no doubt be used for lots of dancing and the like. But the village is changing in another way, too, and this might sooner or later alter the nature of the community too. More and more people are moving out of the village and building houses on their farm land. Of course this is something we are familiar with in the west, but in Isan it has been the practice to cluster together in small villages and to walk  out to the farm when necessary. It is easier to get to the farms nowadays, by bicycle, motorbike, tak-tak, or pick-up. But it is also easier to get electricity and water supply to the farm, there is no danger from large wild animals, there is generally little likelihood of attack by bandits. And so on.  But it does mean fewer close neighbours (and more distant karaoke) and that must eventually lead to a diminished sense of community and an increased sense of individuality.

Buddhist Monk, Fashion Victim?

Thai Buddhist monks are not immune to the dictates of fashion, it seems. Not fashion as it refers to dress, of course, but fashion nonetheless. There was an example of this recently when the abbot of Wat Burapha in Phana celebrated his promotion to Phra Kru. Several of the local monasteries now have pictorial maps of their temple compound and the abbot let us know that he thought it would be a good idea if there was such a map for Wat Burapha.

The conversation he had was with Pensri and her friend Yupin. Both of them were students at Matayom Phana, a school which was held in the grounds of Wat Burapha for many years before the Ministry of Education set up Phana Suksa School. Former students of this school hold a meeting at least once a year and a newsletter has been circulated amongst them for several years now. The youngest of these former students are well into their sixties now.

The upshot of the abbot's conversation with Pensri and Yupin was that two maps were produced, one showing Wat Burapha as it is now, and one as it was in the days of Matayom Phana. Here are Pensri, Yupin and another former student, Charatchom, whose husband Samart supervised the production of the maps, offering the 'old' map:

 
And here is me, offering the new version:

 
And here is a clearer view of the two maps. You can click on the pictures to get a larger image.

 

A fad that has largely fallen into disuse in Phana is to inter cremated ashes in small that (the Lao form of chedi).

The problem with this fashion quickly became apparent: there was not enough space in temple compounds. Wat Phra Lao was an example of this, and nowadays the old custom has been reverted to: that is, ashes are interred inside the wall surrounding the compound.

Another fashion that is rapidly filing up space in some temple compounds is for statuary. Again, most of these contain the ashes of members of the family who have donated them. Here is the usbosot at Wat Burapha. If you enlarge the pic below by clicking on it, you will see the small commemorative plaques on the statues.

 
The whole area of donations to a temple is quite complicated. Monks are expected to accept whatever is offered to them, not expressing (or feeling) any liking or disliking. It is possible that a conversation regarding the appropriateness or otherwise of a planned donation can sometimes be skillfully manipulated to the benefit of the temple. This sort of skill is also used to 'suggest' what would be useful or acceptable to a monk, since he is not supposed to ask directly for anything. Lay people can make things easier for a monk by asking him whether there is anything he or the temple needs.

Parading the abbot

 Parades are an essential ingredient of many celebrations in Thailand and parading a monk when celebrating his promotion is no exception. When the lay people of Phana were celebrating the abbot of Wat Burapha's promotion to the rank of Phra Kru recently, a parade through the streets was the order of one of the days.

 

Dancing girls are an important ingredient. Here they are all wearing skirts woven in Phana to a traditional pattern.

The dancers are accompanied by this group of musicians:

 

Lay people follow the band, all smartly dressed and in exhuberant spirits. The umbrellas are to keep off the sun rather than the rain.

 

b 

The organisers were keen to involve the tetsaban officers and were insistent that they wore their white uniforms. Many social occasions in Phana are organised either by the wat committees or by the tetsaban; and as in this case, often both are involved together.

Here we have the mayor and his deputy seemingly glad to see me; or glad to see me taking their photograph, perhaps.

The small children amongst the onlookers got very excited when the mayor threw small coins wrapped in silver and gold paper into the crowd and there were wild scrambles to pick up the coins. 

Taking part in the parade or standing by and watching it go past -- both are seen as auspicious events, and the people of Phana make sure that they take advantage of as many occasions like this one as possible.

 

Promotion for our abbot

When a monk is promoted it is always a cause (or an excuse, possibly) for celebration in small rural communities in Thailand. This is especially so if the monk is an abbot. The date for the celebration is fixed well in advance to give everyone the chance to make all the necessary arrangements and preparations.

Promotion comes in several different forms. Most frequent, but not always especially celebrated, is when a monk passes a new level of Pali studies. Passing level three, for example, entitles a monk to be addressed with Phra Maha before his name. This is often as far as a monk will go in his Pali studies, and many do not get this far.

Being appointed an abbot is more of a cause for celebration. It is not necessary to be a Phra Maha to be an abbot, but a monk must have been ordained for at least five phansa (five rainy season retreats) before becoming an abbot. Abbots are often promoted to the rank of Phra Kru on the basis of their contribution to the development of their wat.

In the last few years Phana has celebrated several such promotions that I have been lucky enough to attend. The biggest occasion was when Phra Maha Samlee of the Wat in Sao Reek village was made Chao Kana Amphur, the senior monk of the amphur in admin terms. The abbot of Wat Don Kwan was promoted to Phra Kru and Phra Dit became abbot of Wat Phra Lao. And just a few weeks ago, Phra Maha Jantee of Wat Burapha was promoted to the rank of Phra Kru. At the same time, he was given a new name, but I think for a long time to come I will only remember the one I have known him by for the last few years.

The two days of celebration at Wat Burapha were advertised widely. This banner was at the end of the road leading to the wat.

 

In the wat compound marquees were set up, vehicles decorated, and the donations book prrepared:

A traditional Isan suk kwan had been arranged...

 

... and the car that the abbot would be paraded in was got ready:

 

A special shrine table was set up to commemorate the three abbots who preceded Phra Maha Jantee:

 Phra Maha Jantee was supervising the preparations although the abbots of Wat Phra Lao and Wat Don Kwan, both very senior in terms of the phansa they have spent in the robes, were in overall charge and did a fine job on behalf of their fellow abbot.

 

These pictures were taken the day before the celebratory procession which I will post pictures of in my next post.

 

Preparing for the third month festival

Here in Isan we celebrate each of the twelve-month festivals. The third-month festival runs from 16 to 18 February and it is the festival reserved in Phana for Wat Phra Lao. This year Phana is also celebrating 300 years of the founding of the wat. Pensri has arranged an exhibition illustrating the history and we have spent several weeks putting together the words and pictures with the help of two young friends. Today we set it up in the old sala, which is generally only used now as a store-room. There is a bit more to do tomorrow, such as installing two TV sets to show the video of the Phana 300 Years which was celebrated three years ago.

There are twelve of these panels. Panel 10 seen here is concerned with education, started in Phana by the famous monk Chao Khun Ubali, who founded the first primary schools in Ubon (1897) and Phana (1898). His photo is at the top of the panel. Panel 11 relates the story of the development of Don Chao Poo Forest Park.

 
The wat committee lent us the banner recounting the story of Pravet, which we have draped around the inside of the old sala, partly because it looks so good but also to disguise some of the dustier corners of the building. Here are a couple of scenes from the story:

Wat Phra Lao itself, especially the area around the ubosot, is also being prepared for the festival, which will begin on Wednesday evening with a somphot ceremony during which lay men and women who have taken the eight precepts and are dressed in white will alternate in chanting throughout the night. They chant 108 repetitions of the 'Reflection on the Triple Gem' which itself contains 108 words, 38 referring to the Buddha, 14 to the Dhamma and 56 to the sangha. The chanting is arranged so that each group chants 12 repetitions with 9 intervals. Throughout this, a series of four specially-trained monks who have been ordained for more than 5 years, will chant something else inside the ubosot while a very senior monk will meditate throughout the entire proceedings.

Here are some of the images waiting to be 'sacrilized' by the ceremony:

and some of the decoration:

but the window decoration is my favourite:

This year, for the first time, there will be a bicycle rally on the morning of 16th. It will be a 'tour' of nine significant places in Phana, starting at Don Chao Poo (where the monkeys will also be given a ceremonial breakfast) and ending at the Amphur Office.  Participants will be expected to answer some questions on the history of Phana as well as performing some 'activities' (singing and dancing?) at some of the check-points. Personally, I am not convinced as to the sanuk-ness of this last bit. But I am looking forward to the three days of festivities, possibly even including one or more of these, currently being advertised in the wat compound:

 I hope to bring you more pictures of the festival when it is all over.

The Foundation of a New Ubosot

A few days ago we were invited to attend the foundation of an ubosot at Wat Panarat, located just outside the boundary of Phana Municipality. The wat is quite a new one. It is almost opposite the secondary school, Phana Suksa, so it is supported by teachers and students at the school. Last year we were invited to a  ceremony  at which a very large number of monks were being feasted, and the money raised on that occasion went towards the building of a main gateway to the wat. Here are two workmen a few days after that ceremony:

... and here is the finished gateway, by most standards a modest but effective one, featuring the 'Wheel of the Law' representing the teaching of the Buddha:

The ceremony we attended recently was to insert the 'poles' of the new Ubosot building. Pensri was asked to insert one of them as representative, perhaps, of her deceased parents. As it turned out, the 'poles' were themselves symbolized by slivers of sacrilized wood which were placed in a large container of sand. But first the local spirits were invoked to bless and protect the site and the people taking part in the cereomony. Pensri joins the group in the picture below:

 Here the mor kwan (the spirt expert) is invoking the protecion of the spirits and deities:

Occasions such as this are also opportunities to renew old acquaintenceships, as Pensri is doing here:

The monks on the left are putting some finishing touches to the sand which was symbolizing the buidling site. Later, the symbolic poles were placed in here, and so were various bricks, amulets, and a mass of marigold petals.

There are several large marigold farms in Amnat Charoen Province, and the petals of marigold have become a standard feature of many religious ceremonial occasions. Money trees have been around a lot longer.

The senior monk, the Chao Kana Amphur, and other local dignitaries about to place items in the 'building site' watched by just a few of the shool students who attended:

And here are some more of us watching the proceedings:

Taking some beating in a Thai Wat

While I was visiting a village temple between Phana and Muang Samsip, monks and lay people began to gather for the early evening chanting. An elderly monk came to strike the big wooden bell which hung under a building which seemed to be mostly used as a store. The bell looked as if it had been struck a good many times.

This was not the only curiosity at this temple. The luk nimit, the round stones which are usually buried around the perimiter of the Phra Ubosot  to mark the sacred area within which monks can be ordained, were here only partially buried, although still marked as usual by the sima stones.

 
And there was also this vehicle parked beneath one of the kuti, the living quarters of a monk in a rural monastery such as this. The vehicle obviously has been made to feel at home because a special shelter has been added to the kuti to protect it. There are temples which have had Mercedes Benz donated to them to transport the abbot from place to place. This much more modest donation is more in keeping with the renunciation of worldly things that should be the lot of a Buddhist monk, I can't help feeling.