Isan Dancing in Phana

Last week I posted seven pictures of dancers as my Pic of the Day. Then on Saturday Pensri called our friend Adt in Phana and it turned out that he was at Wat Phra Lao watching the dancing competition that is part of the annual celebration of Boun Bang Fai (the rocket festival) organised by the tetsaban.

 

 

 

 

 The dancer here (in Don Chao Poo) is A. Pensri rang her, too, on Saturday, to find out if her new baby had been born yet. He had. Her second child and second son. So no dancing for her at Boun Bang Fai, but some family celebrations, I hope.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These two dancers had been performing at the Phana 300 Years celebration at Wat Phra Lao.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These next four photos are of dancers at Wat Phra Lao, taking part in the inter-mooban competition as part of the Boun Bang Fai celebrations a few years ago. The tetsaban organises these events and sponsors them by providing funds to each mooban as part of the tetsaban cultural promotion policy.

 

 

 

 

The dancers love all the dressing up and spend a lot of time rehearsing for the big event. My impression is that the young (and not so young) men love watching, and lots of them turn up in the evenings to watch the rehearsals as well as supporting their mooban on the day of the competition.

 

 

 

 

 

As well as dancing in the grounds of Wat Phra Lao, the dancers, accompanied by their bands, dance in a procession around Phana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this is what we were missing last Saturday. Not to mention the firing of rockets the following day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo was taken at another tetsaban-sponsored event.The two volunteers had just danced with girls from Phana Suksa School, but I forget the occasion. It doesn't need much to get the young women of Phana dancing.

 

 

 

And by another coincidence, these two volunteers, Sophie and Callie were back in Phana as visitors (they were last years' volunteers) and watching the dancing with Adt when Pensri phoned.

 

Not all the dancing that people do in Phana is as choreographed and rehearsed as this. Here are two very short videos I shot of much more extemporary dancing. This first one was at Phana Suksa School while some teachers and students were preparing for a Kathin ceremony.

 

And this one was shot at Wat Burapha in Phana, again while people were preparing for a Kathin ceremony.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Mike]

Lawrence some great photographs of some very happy folk. A side of Thailand I do enjoy.

BTW you can't really blame the men can you?

Hopefully on Saturday I will be at Wat Dan Singkhon for the "canonball" (Bai Sema) internment (best word I could find) maybe we will get some dancing there?

[Lawrence]

Thanks Mike. No, I don't blame the men at all. I hope you will do a post about the ceremony on Saturday, I have never seen one, except here in Devon (the Devon Vihara), and even then I got there after the 'burial' had taken place. Hope you enjoy it, I'm sure you'll come up with some great photos and your own unique view of the occasion.

[Catherine Wentworth]

Hi Lawrence, great photos and videos. I don't get out of Bangkok often so I thrive on seeing the visuals.

And I'm ashamed to say that I had to google 'Kathin ceremony' and 'Boun Bang Fai'.

But I believe I have heard of Boun Bang Fai (I'm just terrible at names is all)... isn't it the ceremony where they used to stick a cat in a basket and walk around tormenting it until it howls?

I promised Martyn a post about the cat ceremony and I got as far as interviewing Martin Clutterbuck, who wrote a book which included the story: Siamese Cats: Legends and Reality. But the 'troubles in Bangkok' arrived and everything was put on hold.

[michael hare]

Boun Bang Fai is the rocket fertility festival. Extremely large and long sky rockets are shot up into the sky to ask the "Gods" for good rains for the coming rice season. There are many other things associated with Boun Bang Fai. It is also a time of extreme flirting among the young people and the not so young.

However, many young people get very drunk. For those whose rockets fail to fire, they get thrown into a muddy swamp where others, girls and guys, often get involved in a free for all mud fight.

The pictures you have taken Lawrence are very proper and polite. I used to see large 4-6 metre long replica penises being paraded through villages.

[Martyn]

Lawrence I've seen a lot of this type of traditional dancing during my time spent in Udon Thani. The dancers always attract big crowds and the men folk really do enjoy the performances. One of Wilai's uncles is always at the shows, he has an eye for a pretty lady with a fine pair of legs. Haven't we all.

I've just ordered your ebook Looking For Mr Rin and it will be emailed to me when the payment is processed (5-7 days). I'm looking forward to reading it and may do a review about it on BTMJ.

Good luck with your ebook sales and I hope Pensri's History of Phana is selling well too.

[Korea]

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[Milo]

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