Life in Phana

Little-known Thai Tourist Destination

 

My Pics of the Day this week were all taken at stalls at Kaeng Sapheu, a popular riverside venue at the town of Phibun Mangsahan, in Ubon Ratchathani Province.

Check them out by using the tab at the top of the page.

 

 

 

People come here especially in the dry season when the River Mun is low and the rocks exposed.

 

 

 

 

There are several different facilities for visitors, including toilets at 3 Baht a time (Thai and foreigner, you will be pleased to know) and these rubber rings and bathing clothes. Most people bathe in the clothes they came in, though.

 

 

In the park overlooking the river you can have fabulous lunch-time food (and drink), the specialities being laab (of course, this is Isan) and prawns of various sizes and cooked (or not) in several different ways.

One of the most colourful sights here is the Chinese temple which overlooks the river.

 

 

The town of Phibun Mangsahan is renowned for the salabow made here. You can find them all over town. Some of the best are close to the bridge and the old bus station, both close to Kaeng Sapheu. The road to Ubon (via Warin Chamrap) has loads of little outlets at the roadside stretching up the hill out of town for about one kilometer. In both cases the passing tourist trade is being targeted.

 

 

 

 

 

These steamers in one small outlet give you some idea of the scale of production.

Something else that the town of Phibun is famous for is foreigners. Across the river from the park is the Kaeng Sapheu Hotel which has a mini-village in its grounds specially built a few years back to provide homes for Japanese retirees. And I have heard rumours of a nearby village where almost a hundred Scandanavians (Norwegians, mostly, I believe) spend much or all of their time. I suppose that one of the attractions is that Phibun is the lower eastern Isan home to the Thai Immigration Department, the place to go to renew or extend your visa. And just a few kms down the road is the Chong Mek border crossing to southern Laos.
 

Pic of the Day 22 - 28 March

My Pics of the Day last week all featured Thai houses in Phana. If you missed them, here they are. Click on an image for an enlarged view. And don't forget to use the tab (Pic of the Day) at the top of the page to see today's image. And come back every day to see what you can see.

     

   

Phana Houses

My Pics of the Day this week are of houses in Phana.  Click on the Pic of the Day tab at the top of the page to see today's image and the ones I have posted previously. Come back tomorrow and the following days to see subsequent pictures.

 

 

 

I've chosen to show houses that have only recently been completed, in most cases within the last six months. You will see that although some people have opted to build houses using 'modern' materials and in non-traditional styles (though they are becoming the norm, perhaps) others have built beautiful houses using traditional materials and reminiscent of the traditonal Isan house, albeit with elaorate variations. Here are two that do not appear on Pic of the Day partly because they are both older houses.

 

Pic of the Day 15 - 21 March 2010

My pics of the day last week were of Thai hands. I hope I have caught something of the gentleness and elegance that I see in Thai hands, no matter how old they are, male and female.

Click on a thumbnail to see an enlarged image.

          

     

 
   
  
  
 

Thai Hands

My pics of the day this week are of Thai hands. I hope I have caught something of the gentleness and elegance that I see in Thai hands, no matter how young or old they are, male or female.

Click on the Pic of the Day tab at the top of this page to view today's image and the ones I posted earlier in the week.

Red Shirts: How do you avoid them?

In so many ways, Phana seems to defy the Bangkok streotype of Isan. The District Town shows no sign of real deprivation despite its lack of commercial development. A person from the adjacent town of Trakan Phuetpon,which IS commercially developed (2 banks, 7-11, daily market, Tesco Lotus mini, etc. none of which we have) recently commented that Phana has no shops but plenty of money. The connection seems pretty obvious to me.

Phana defies the political stereotype, too, because it has been a staunchly Democrat enclave for many years, even though the occasional constituency boundary change has sometimes produced an MP of a different party. 

I do have some Red Shirt stories, though, and two of my informants rank amongst the top gossips in Phana.

One story concerns recruitment for the current protest in Bangkok. A recruitment team went to the village considered the poorest in the district and failed to recruit a single person.

Another tells of a man here who was recruited for an earlier demonstration and was promised 500 Baht for his participation. He came back very disgruntled because he had ended up with just 50 Baht in his pocket ... the rest had been 'deducted' for expenses such as travel, food, and so on. He won't be going again.

I have met one 'supporter' of the red shirts, a man, somewhat the worse for drink who wanted me to help him with his MEd dissertation, who whispered his views and asked Pensri and I not to tell his wife or children, who all thought otherwise.

So if you want to avoid the Red Shirts, come to Phana.

Thanks to a reference in the BBC's reporting of the 'bloodspread' in Bangkok, I have discovered the wonderful blog of SOMTOW SUCHARITKUL, also known as the author S.P. Somtow. I loved his first book 'Jasmine Nights' about a boy called Little Frog, and I have also read 'The Bird Catcher' about a famous Thai serial killer whose remains can be seen in the very macabre museum at Siriraj Hospital in Thonburi. That was  in a collection of very Thai ghost stories. In his short post yesterday he made a seriously sensible suggestion regarding blood-letting. I recommend you take a look at it HERE and go on to explore some of his other posts. I guarrantee they will give you an amusing and always different take on Thai life in Bangkok. On life, in fact.

Boun Pravet: hearing the great story

The day after the parade from Don Chao Poo is the climax of the Boun Pravet fesival as it is celebrated in Phana. Calling Phra Uppakrut was a necessary precaution and gathering in the forest and walking back to the wat in procession was good fun, but the following day spent in Wat Phra Lao is an important way to make merit.

When the lay people assemble in the viharn early in the morning they listen to a sermon telling of how Phra Malai visited first the different hells and then the heavens. In one of the heavens he is said to have met the future Buddha, Ariya Maitreya, who assured Phra Malai that anyone who heard all thirteen chapters of the great story of Prince Vessandorn in one day would certainly meet the future Buddha.

More sermons follow, read from palm-leaf books. One tells of the Buddha's renunciation of the life of a king and one tells of the tricks that Mara resorted to in trying to prevent the Buddha's enlightenment.

 

 

Then the reading of the great story (Mahachad) begins. It continues throughout the day and is only completed late into the night. A succession of monks takes it in turns to read each of the thirteen chapters. They do this from a sermon chair hidden behind a facade of greenery. Previously, volunteers have prepared special offerings for all the monks who read as well as those who read the preliminary stories. The idea is that they do not know which monk they will be making an offering to, so there will be no favouritism. The offering is made to the monk when he has completed his chapter.

 

 

 

 

The story as illustrated on the long banner carried in the procession the previous day is hung up along three sides of the viharn to remind people of what they are listening to.

Here we see the Prince with his wife and children leaving his father's city because he has brought disaster upon it by giving away his rain-bringing elephant.

 

 

 

And Phra Uppakrut, Phra Malai and the future Buddha, Ariya Maitreya the Boddhisattava, are increasingly portrayed in the form of statues in wats throughout Isan.

 

 
 

 

 

  
 

 

Pic of the Day 8 - 14 March 2010

Here are my Pic of the Day photos for the week 8 - 14 March 2010.

I post a new pic every day. Click on the tab at the top of this page to see today's image.

Click on an image below for an enlarged view.

       

     





  
 

Boun Pravet: Procession to the Wat

The procession from Don Chao Poo Forest back to the wat is a loud and lively affair. Here are some pictures of this year's procession.

 

 

An important part of the festival is the parading of this long banner which tells the story of Prince Vessandorn pictorially. When it reaches the wat it is stretched along three walls of the big sala to serve as a bckdrop for the ceremony which takes place on the following day.

 

 

 

These two children were playing the role of Prince Vessandorn's children who have been returned to him and accompany him back to his city.

 

 

There were many more monks than usual in the procession this year. Many of them had come to Phana for the celebration of the four promotions I posted about previously.

 

Most of the children walked alongside the procession but a few of them walked in it, and this young man obviously enjoyed carrying a banner, though it must have been hardwork for him.

 

When the procession reached the old marketplace, it was greeted by very loud firecrakers to warn off any demons who might have been lurking around. Some firecrackers had been let off for the same purpose as the procession started to move off back in Don Chao Poo.

 

But this is what the children were waiting for. The senior monks riding in the back of a pick-up truck kept throwing out handfuls of one baht coins and there was an excited scramble to pick them up. A few adults took part too (it is supposed to bring more luck than actual monetary gain) but those I saw passed the coins on to children.

 

In my next post I will explain what happens in the wat on the following day.
 
 
  

 

Boun Pravet: Gathering in the Forest

The Boun Pravet festival is concerned with re-telling the story of the penultimate life of the Buddha, for Thais the favourite and best known of the Jataka stories. It is the Mahachad, ‘the great story’. It tells of Prince Vessandorn (Pravet), son of King Sri Sanjaya, who gave away his white rain-producing elephant to a nearby kingdom which was experiencing drought. He was driven out of his home city with his beloved wife and two children. He never hesitated in giving away anything that was asked of him and even parted with his children and his wife when they were requested. In the end, his wife and children were restored to him as reward for his generosity and the people of his city went to the forest to beg him to return to rule them. As a result of his unfailing generosity and his complete lack of ‘clinging’ he was reborn into his final incarnation.

In Phana, monks and lay people assembled in Don Chao Poo Forest in the afternoon after performing a ceremony calling Phra Uppakrut, as recounted in my previous post. Signs of royalty play an imporant role: a white horse, an elephant, a red and gold umbrella, banners and lay people in smart clothes are the most obvious indicators.

While people were assembling, the Mayor of Tetsaban Phana, Khun Prachoenlap, welcomed people and kept them amused. This was the first time I had witnessed Boun Pravet being celebrated on a Saturday, and so the number of people present was much greater than any I had seen before. In fact Boun Pravet is a festival that has no particular fixed date, but in Phana it is always celebrated at the time of Maha Pucha.

 

 
A senior monk recited from memory a summary of the story. This year, a lay man was taking the part of the prince. He was invited to return to the 'city' and was carried back on the back of the  white horse in a loud, happy procession. His 'children' rode on the elephant. His wife did not seem to have a role!  The other lay people were re-enacting that part of the story when they went to the forest to invite the prince to reurn to their city.

 In my next post I will show some pictures of the procession as it made its way back to Wat Phra Lao.