I was born in the year of the rabbit and that year comes round every twelve years. For me, it has come round six times so far. Traditionally, the sixth cycle (and the seventh) are celebrated more than an annual birthday here in Thailand. It is considered quite an achievement, I suppose, to see your sixth cycle. I certainly feel a sense of achievement, partly perhaps because I can still remember thinking that 30 years old was OLD AGE, and I could not imagine living that long.
My actual birthday was back in October, but we decided that the best time to celebrate it would be close to Christmas. We ended up with Christmas Eve for several reasons, the main one being that the family was asembling in Bangkok the previous weekend for the wedding of Liew and Ashley. By family 'assembling', I mean that our children Dominic and Darunee, with Jay and Adam and our five grandchildren would all be in Thailand for the wedding and then staying on for some holiday time. Liew and Ashley would be here from England too of course. Our Thai family (Pensri's sisters and their children and grandchildren and her cousins and their children and grandchildren) were also able to come up to Phana, as most of them do each year for a tam boun for the ancestors.
Most people arrived in Phana on the 23rd, Dom and Darunee's lot with us in the house, everyone else booked into Phana Garden Resort. Food was organised, monks invited, a stage put up in the garden, and a marquee, plastic tables and chairs stacked up ready for use. In the morning we were going to feed nine monks (one forgot to come!) and then have a baci su kwan ceremony with one of Pensri's second (?) cousins the spirit-caller. The neice of Mom, the woman who spent several months with us in England in 2011, had offered to dance the benediction dance, and three other young women were going to perform another dance for the baci.
Hundreds of photos were taken, none of them by me on this occasion. It is difficult to make a selection,but here goes.
Presents, this one from my senior brother and sister-in-law:
Beautiful dancers -- worth waiting 72 years for this picture, I think.
Our two 'children', Darunee and Dominic, and three of their children, Polly, Esme and Kim:
The monks beginning their chanting; the senior monk here kindly told me I could sit cross-legged. He could see that I was likely to topple over otherwise!
Most of the guests sit outside on these occasions:
The woman on the right is well past her seventh cycle. She must have attended hundreds of ceremonies like this one. She used to give me massages when I first came to Phana, and I thought she was really old then. Really old, but her thumbs were amazingly strong, and she gave me some of the most effective massage I've had. It was good to see her again because she doesn't get out and about much any more.
And then when the monks were eating, the su kwan ceremony began:
And then the sacred threads were tied around wrists while blessings were muttered. It is usual to wish the receiver good health and a long life but people seemed to enjoy trying to outdo each other by wishing me 100, 300, 600, 1200 years of life! I'm not sure I wish any of those for myself, but who knows.
Then we all had lunch and everyone except the families from Bangkok, Abu Dhabi and England disappeared rapidly, as is the custom. But in the evening we had an entertainment arranged and I'll post some pictures of that very soon.
Belated "happy birthday" !!
I've been down the road from you in Muang Samsip for the last week with my GF and her family, for a number of family activities. Anytime her large family (8 siblings!) get together is cause for much feasting and drinking, so I'm sure that I'll be leaving much heavier ! In a week we've had a family "fishing trip" which actually meant pumping out most of the water from a dam on the farm and then netting/hand catching all the fish/eels/tortoises for a big feed, Papa's birthday, New Year,ending with a wedding tomorrow.
This morning we had something like your ceremony,but to thank the spirits for a brother-in-law surviving a serious motorcycle crash, and wishing him many more years. It had the same sort of centerpiece but smaller, the white threads had money attached, and instead of monks there was a "witchdoctor" as one sister called him ? he looked like a colonial settler, dressed in a white safari suit and pith helmet ..my girlfriend just says to hard to explain. do you know anything more?
Anyway, "Sawadee Pee Mai"
Posted by: Mike | 01 January 2012 at 03:12 PM
Thanks for the birthday wishes, Mike, and Sawadee Pee Mai to you too! Sounds as if you have had a very enjoyable visit.
Perhaps I should have explained more about the ceremony. The Lao believe that there are 32 kwan (spirits, essences, something like that) but that sometimes they wander away from your body. They are supposed to protect you but they get restless and lazy! A Mor Kwan (or spirit expert, spirit doctor) calls them back, enticing them with the money on the pak kwan, and usually some food such as banana, hard-boiled egg, often some alcohol. He calls them in Lao, not Thai, as this is very much a Lao cerempony. I attended lots when I lived in Laos.
The mor kwan always dresses in white, simple or more often these days in a safari-type suit. You can see the back of ours in a couple of pictures. He's a retired head teacher, and is deputy mayor of a tetsaban (municipality). I've never come across the pith helmet, but I expect the spirits are impressed by it. His chant is partly scripted but mostly improvised according to the circumstances and the person the spirits are being called back to. Often he will chant funny or even bawdy things, so there's usually lots of laughter and people calling out.
The ceremony is always held before or after life-changing experiences: accidents, promotions at work, marriage(s), graduation, arriving, leaving, tat sort of thing.
(I guess you can see why your GF didn't try explaining it all to you.)
Posted by: Lawrence | 01 January 2012 at 07:44 PM
PS
This is not a Buddhist ceremony; although monks are sometimes present they don't take part. It almost certainly pre-dates the Lao becoming Buddhist, and you find it in ethnic groups such as the Tai Dum, who are animist and not Buddhist. Most Lao are animist as well as Buddhist, and they keep the two separate.
Posted by: Lawrence | 01 January 2012 at 07:48 PM
thanks, the same guy was at the wedding this morning, and did a ceremony after the monks. I got talking with one of the guests, an ex local now living in BKK, uni educated, and he said more or less the same as you, but more cynically...guess he does n't believe in the spirits any more !
Actually, it appears Papa was a Mor Kwan, when he was still well, before I met my GF and the family.
He has been very frail for some time, but keeps hanging in there ....I guess the spirits are looking after him ?
Posted by: Mike | 02 January 2012 at 05:29 PM
Wow, how amazing to everyone is enjoying pretty much together!! I enjoyed reading and watching wonderful resources I found here. Thanks
Posted by: Timmy Anderson | 13 February 2012 at 09:55 PM