DON CHAO POO is a forest on the eastern edge of Ban Phana. It is on your right as you reach Phana from Muang Samsip. In the last few years the Tetsaban Phana, which has responsibility for this forest, has built a new fence along the roadside, and three new entrance gates. They have also widened and extended the concrete roads within the forest, making them less appealing in my view than the old sandy tracks, a few of which still remain; but the forest is now used on several municipal and religious occasions, so the new layout is more practical.
Don Chao Poo, the main entrance gate
The people of Phana believe that the original village was situated close by, possibly where the small satellite village known as Muang Sawat is now. The forest, like many similar forests in this part of Isan, is the 'home' of the village's guardian spirit, hence Don Chao Poo which translates roughly as 'the place of the spirit grandfather'.
This is the fairly new shrine house that is home to Chao Poo:
The former one was a much more simple affair as the photograph below shows. This was taken in about 1975:
Even earlier, an old tree was regarded as his home and today a small stump of that ancient tree is still visible nearby.
Inside the new shrine house is a large mural representing Chao Poo, seen below:
There are also four Buddha images in the forest, donated by the families and friends of Mr Rin and Mrs Homhual Mahanil in the early 1980s. The images represent the four significant events in the life of the Buddha: birth, enlightenment, teaching and finally release from the cycle of birth and death and entering nirvana.
The forest is also home to hundreds of monkeys. They sleep in the trees but spend much of the day on the ground, often spilling out across the road outside the main entrance. Chao Poo's shrine is one of their favourite places to play. People come from miles around to feed them, especially at weekends. On the roadside opposite the main gate there are two or three small stalls selling bananas, peanuts, green beans and some other foods which they like. Some of the younger monkeys and their mothers can be fed by hand, but visitors need to beware of the older males which can be very aggressive and greedy, sometimes grabbing and making off with a whole bagful of food. They can be quite frightening, especially towards small children but they are always impeccably behaved in the presence of the man who feeds them regularly with rice provided by villagers and the Phana Municipality (Tetsaban Phana).
The Phana Municipality tries to encourage people NOT to feed monkeys outside the walls of the forest because of the danger to the monkeys of the passing traffic. Phana people, of course, drive past carefully because they regard the monkeys as 'Chao Poo's children', but outsiders are not always so considerate. However, I can only recall one such monkey fatality in the last few years and I believe it is the only one because people still talk about it.
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