Celebrating the Rice Harvest in Phana

The rice harvest is pretty much completed in Phana and a couple of friends invited us to a ceremony at their farm to mark their own successful harvest.

This celebration goes by the name of Su Kwan Khao (Calling the Rice Spirits) although this one that we attended had several non-traditional features. Traditionally, the ritual was held in the fields before the rice was taken back to the house to be stored. Our friends' house is located right next to their fields and most of their rice had already been sacked up. The little pile of unhusked rice in the foreground of this picture represents the way it used to be done.

Another variation  from tradition was that the main ritual was not performed by a Mor Kwan (a spirit expert). Instead, the pa kwan (the decorated trays in the top centre of the picture) was joined to a Buddha image by the sai sin (sacred thread). People in Phana do not generally pay much attention to spirits. Nobody has a spirit house, for instance.

The spirits were well catered for, all the same. At the four corners of the rice heap were plates containing sticky rice steamed in banana leaves, hard-boiled eggs, a boiled chicken and a bottle of alcoholic spirit. The spirits don't seem to be very interested in the offerings (though I'm sure they appreciate the thought) and the guests always end up consuming everything.

 

The ceremony was held outdoors of course in an area shaded by big mango trees. Now usually if I stand anywhere near a mango tree the red ants that live in it find me within minutes. There must have been something about the presence of nine monks that persuaded them to leave us alone that day, because the ants didn't show at all.

This nicely understated set of shrine tables and the paraphenalia that goes with it stood in one corner of the area. The lotus pond in the background set it off nicely. Our friends' farm is fully organic and recognised as a model farm by one of the King's projects.

The contrasting light and shade didn't make photography easy but the atmosphere was very peaceful.

 

Here the acting-abbot of Wat Phra Lao has extinguished the candle at the end of the chant, thereby making the water in the bowl holy.

 

It is always a nice moment when one of the monks sprinkles the lay people with the holy water. You can feel the relaxation of tension after the serious business of chanting and sitting attentively (or not).

 

Phra Dit (the acting abbot) then read from a palm-leaf book, singing the words. They were in Lao, although they were written in the Thai script. This replaced the invocation to the spirits which a mor kwan would have chanted. I was very impressed by the way he could flip the book to a new page using just his right hand. And also he could read all the words without using a finger to point at them, quite an achievement since the words are very small and the lines very long, the pages being very wide. Still, I'm not sure anyone would have known if he had skipped a line or two.

 

The lay people sitting at a suitably respectful distance made me think that the mango trees had been planted with just this ceremony in mind maybe 15 or 20 years ago.

 

While all this was going on, women and small girls were preparing the food.

 

When the time comes to serve it, the young(est) men carry out the trays.

 

The host (in white shirt) prepares to make the offering...

 

... and his wife joins him with the white envelopes containing a small gift of money for each monk, and one for the layman in the dark clothes who had requested the chanting and the taking of five precepts.

 

On this occasion the monks did not eat from individual trays but arranged themselves in small groups and enjoyed the picnic atmosphere. Monks don't speak while they are eating and they don't show any pleasure or displeasure concerning the food.

 

 

We lay people waited patiently for them to finish so that we could eat. We were not constrained to silence when the time did come for us to eat, and we were full of verbal appreciation for the food.

 

Because Buddhist ceremonies in Thailand all follow the same basic pattern, it is easy to think that your experience is going to be the same on each occasion. But in fact there are always little differences in procedure, or place, or people, or FOOD and these things keep them interesting for me even though I have attended so many and often set out convinced that I am not going to have a good time. But I do. Especially now that everyone accepts that for at least some of the time I need to sit on a chair on the fringes of the gathering.

  

 
 
 

 

 

  

 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence some superb photographs and interesting background to these events.

I too need a chair after a while!

[Lawrence]

Oh, come on, Mike. You're a young man, I've seen your profile photo.

Thanks for the comment, though. I appreciate your reading me regularly.

[Martyn]

First I must say I like the new site layout, very crisp and sharp, it sets off the photos very well.

Thanks for another great insight into Thai village life and the more traditional ways of it. This post shows the belief that the Thais place in Buddhism because the 'do' must have cost a couple of baht.

Red ants...the buggers, I'm usually sat somewhere when all of a sudden I can feel a slight stinging on my toes. Like you they always seem to head for me.

[Lawrence]

Thanks very much Martyn, glad you like the new design. Actually I thought I was just experimenting but it appeared published so I more or less had to keep it. (I'm often not sure what I'm doing as far as these things go.)But now I like it too.

Yes, these do's cost a bit, but we all contributed, and everyone had a slap up lunch. And people don't go gallivanting off to foreign places every year, not from Phana they don't. Well, I do, come to think of it.

[Martyn]

Lawrence I really do like the header (the top bit). I have the same problems myself as far as tweaking goes, my site often has teething problems and the pain can be quite horrendous. Keep up the 'village life' education program you are running, I'm learning something new everytime I visit and for me that's a good thing.