Life in Phana

Keeping the ancestors informed

It was important to keep the ancestors informed before we ‘interfered’ with their house, and we duly did that in a small ceremony in the enclosed ground-floor area of the old house built by Ta Rin and Yai Hom. We told them that work was going to be done in the house, that this would improve its condition and that we were doing this out of respect for them and in their memory.

When the major work had been done, we held another ceremony. This was attended by a few more people and this time I had my camera with me. I remember well going through the same ceremony when our house was nearing completion back in the mid-nineties. One of the most memorable features was that an old man prevented us from entering until lots of questions had been asked and entered, and he had decided that we meant well, had sufficient respect for the ancestors who were the true owners of the property, and that we intended to use it wisely and maintain it properly. The old man guarding the property on this occasion was Khun Ta Peng, the husband of Pensri’s father’s half-sister; answering on my behalf (although it was me who was wearing the traditional ‘regalia’ of a hat and carrying a bag containing a hammer and a nail – with which I was going to ‘maintain’ the house) was Khun Ta Gert, father of the mayor of tetsaban Phana.

This was the condition of the house at the time:

Here we are, gathered outside the house:

It was a good opportunity for old friends and relations to get together:

Khun Ta Peng didn’t want to let us in!

But eventually he was persuaded and he helped Khun Ta Gert and me to attach flowers, incense and candles to the foot of the stairs.

Khun Ta Gert prepares to demonstrate MY willingness to maintain the house by hammering in a nail above the photo of Ta Rin and Yai Homhual, Pensri’s parents.

Then Pensri’s adopted brother, Tuan, did the honours at this little temporary shrine in what used to be Ta Rin and Yai Homhual’s bedroom.

And I did, too.

Afterwards, we sat around for a while in the big, sitting area outside the bedrooms. We chatted, but also there was an important presentation. Pensri is going to use the ground floor as a community library or study centre, and a neighbour, Khun Yai Somwang had offered to donate an old ‘accordion’ book which had belonged to her grandfather, the village herbal doctor born about 100 years ago. Here she is in the blue jacket, presenting the book to Pensri.

And here is a close-up of two pages of the book.

Some of the book was written in gold on black, some of it black on white.

Everybody had a good look at the book, which was in quite a fragile state in parts.

But the interest was obvious:

Now we have to decide on the best way to display the book, keeping it safe and intact, but allowing people to indulge their interest in what is certainly an item of historic importance. Pensri has already decided that Khun Yai Somwang’s donation will feature in the logo of the study centre.

Tripbase and My 7 Links

I have recently found myself nominated to take part in the 7 Links project hosted by travel company Tripbase. The project aims to link the world of bloggers via a chain of posts in which blog authors list their chosen links from seven different category questions.

Here’s how Tripbase explain the goal for their project:

To unite bloggers (from all sectors) in a joint endeavor to share lessons learned and create a bank of long but not forgotten blog posts that deserve to see the light of day again.

Here are the My 7 Links Rules

Life in Phana was nominated by Martyn of  Beyond the Mango Juice. I'd like to thank him for that, and for all the pleasure I have had from reading his very personal and always humorous take on his life in wonderful Wi's village in Isan, some way north of Phana. The only problem with this is that it means I can't nominate him, even though BtMJ is one of my favourite blogs (as were several of the others he nominated).

The difficult part is providing 7 links to posts of my own. But here goes.

The most beautiful, I think, is this one about the LOTUS. I like it because I like the lotus so much, and food for the spirit and for the stomach sums up most of what Thailand has come to mean to me over the more than 40 years I have been associated with the country.

The most popular I am not so sure about, because I don't have much real information to go by, but without counting, I can see that VISITOR WEEK is itself visited pretty often. It does show that life in a small village can be surprisingly full, something that I hope my blog manages to get across.

The most controversial post was easy to select. Although I am aware that there is no earthy paradise,  I generally try to accentuate the positive aspects of my life in Phana. There are several reasons for this . One is that I know there are several Thai friends in Phana who read my blog regularly, and perhaps a few more that I am not aware of. Another is that if any negativity  does creep into my thinking I don't wish to inflict it on other people. I certainly despise and recoil from much of what I used to read on forums in Thailand. But the post I have selected turned out not to be so very controversial after all, and it led to some very positive action to put the matter right. Readers in Thailand will have no problem in recognizing that this is a problem that it not unique to Phana. You can find the post HERE.

The most helpful post may not be helpful to my readers but I believe it is already proving helpful for Phana. It was the last (for now) of a series that focuses on the village's large population of long-tailed macaque monkeys.

I was surprised by the success of a post about the KATHIN ceremony , which told of one that took place in Devon, England, and the other in Phana, Thailand. I think this post draws on the double life I lead in the two places, and also points to one of the things that bridge the two.

Tripbase also ask for a link to a post that didn't get the attention it deserved. I am completely in two minds about this one. One part of me is still very pleasantly surprised that my posts get any attention at all. I definitely began blogging for my own sake; that thing about writing in order to clarify your own ideas and to make sense of your life. On the other hand, I have come to think some of my posts are really not bad, so when I am in that mood I think none of them get the attention they deserve. I think I was a bit disappointed by THIS ONE because its subject is a book that I like very much and want others to enjoy it too. The post also includes a few pictures that I thought were 'very Thai' and I intended to run a little series of very Thai photos, but didn't do so because the post generated so little interest. So come on! Give me some encouragement, won't you.

And finally, the post that I am most proud of. This one is about another book. The book is about the 300 year history of Phana which was written by my wife Pensri. So it is not so much the post I am proud of, but the author, the book, and Phana.

Now for my 5 blog recommendations. Several of the blogs that I visit the most have already been nominated but there are still plenty of good ones out there that have not.

First up is BOONIE's THAILAND PHOTOS which like me you will love if you like someone playing with words as well as posting some mostly unusual photos -- even if Mrs S did take most of them for him.

 

Then there is VILLAGE FARANG who lives in a house, in a field, in a valley, with a view, in the north of Thailand. He is the best blog writer I have come across, a great style, he writes lyrically of biking through the northern fields and hills, and although I don't generally much like reading opinionated stuff, when he does express an opinion it is clearly thought-out and expressed in a calm, rational, non-personal way. The photos are to be drooled over, too, especially, I imagine, if you are stuck in a city somewhere.

 

Family life in rural Isan, albeit with frequent side trips to the city, to Laos, and also the land of Oz, is documented with some excellent photos by Memock of LIFE IN RURAL THAILAND. Check it out.

 

A young blogger you should definitely check out for the variety of his subject matter and opinions (again, with some great photos) is THE THAI PIRATE. A post I have particularly liked recently was 5 things I didn't like about Thailand but now can't live without. Nice to see that people can change their minds and don't just get stuck in a (sometimes) negative groove.

 

My last choice may be a bit cheeky, but I think that isan traveller should be visited more often. To be fair, I think he should post more often, too.

Politics is banned in Isan

 Here in Isan one man has banned politics. At least, he has forbidden all talk of politics on his farm.

  

You can see the large writing in red on the notice on the left of the picture above. It declares his farm a "Politics Free Zone". Underneath, in black, it warns that political talk is forbidden here. And thanks you for your consideration.

The owner of this farm visits it most mornings on his motorbike. I suppose he does a bit of farming before he goes off to school, because  he is a teacher at one of the primary schools in an outlying village. Pensri and I often see him when we are on our early-morning bike ride. He is a distant relative of Pensri and urged us to visit his farm sometime when we cycle past.

 

 

 

The dragon fruit cacti are the only crop he cultivates, but he has created much more than an orchard here. He clearly likes to spend leisure time in this peaceful spot just off the Phana by-pass.

 

He can entertain his friends sheltered from sun and rain. There are books here, a television set, refrigerator, cooking facilities, and so on. And outside the shelter there is more seating and picnic tables. I like the way that he has made use of a variety of furniture that has seen better days and probably been thrown out by his wife.

 

 

 

You can tell a lot about his character, I think, from this little oasis. It is rumoured that he won a fairly large sum on the lottery and spent it here. No Benz for him, but a place where he can relax with his friends, eating and drinking, and NOT talking about politics.

 

 

 

And if he wants to spend the night here, this little room looks very comfortable, and reminiscent of a monk's kuti.

 

Perhaps he is planning to add a door on this little building sometime. In the meantime, I suppose if a queue forms outside they can be distracted by the picture on the wall.

 

I am indebted to Wikipedia for unknowingly supplying me with the following picture and information about dragon fruit (Pitaya); in Thai แก้วมังกร, kaew mang korn.

 

Particularly red-skinned pitayas are a good source of Vitamin C.

Pitayas are rich in fiber and minerals, notably phosphorus and calcium. Red pitayas seem to be richer in the former, yellow ones in the latter.

The seeds are rich in polyunsaturated fatty acids, and in particular Red Pitayas contain very little saturated fat.

Pitayas also contain significant quantities of phytoalbumin antioxidants, which prevent the formation of cancer-causing free radicals.

In Taiwan, diabetics use the fruit as a food substitute for rice and as a source of dietary fibre.

Pitaya supposedly increases excretion of heavy metal toxins and lowers cholesterol and blood pressure. Eaten regularly, it is credited with alleviating chronic respiratory tract ailments.

Appliance of Science at the Model Agriculture Centre, Phana

The appliance of science was the tag-line on a series of advertisements in the UK some years back. I think it was used by a company producing fridges and freezers. The phrase came back to me when I visited the Model Agriculture Centre in Tambon Phra Lao, Phana. It seems that this piece of equipment is proving of interest to lots of local farmers. It is only of use to them if they are keeping pigs, however. That is because it relies on a good quantity of pig dung to be produced and collected as often as possible. Here are Pensri and  the young man in charge explaining to each other how it works. He explained the day-to-day running and Pensri explained a bit of the practical chemistry behind it. The dog found it all very interesting but made no comment.

The first step is to collect as much pig dung as possible. That is not a problem here as my next post updating the post about livestock will show. The dung is washed into the strong plastic storage tank through this aperture:

The tank is filled to about half its capacity with the slurry of pig dung mixed with water. Methane gas is given off and rises to fill the tank. A pipe connects the tank with a gas cooker through this pipe arching over the water containers. An offshoot of the pipe leads into the inverted plastic bottle which has water in the bottom and a hole cut into the top. The short piece of pipe going into the bottle has a valve which allows gas into the bottle if the pressure is too great. The gas then bubbles through the water and escapes into the air through the hole in the bottle. The purpose of the water is so that if bubbles are seen then it is apparent that the gas pressure is too high. Ingeneous, eh?

Here you see the gas ring, actually a double ring, hence the divided pipe and the two taps. Depending on how much heat you require, you open one or both of the taps. Of course, the gas supply could be attached to a more sophisticated cooker if required.

 

 

About 10 kgs of pig dung is collected here each day and fed into the tank. Enough methane gas is produced to provide all the fuel the half dozen or so workers need in order to cook their food and heat water for tea.

 

The tank is emptied every few days by running off liquid from the end of the tank. Bacterial action inside the tank destroys the fecal matter and there is no smell from the run-off. However, the tank that collects the run-off is normally covered.

Rong Kham, Kalasin Province

Rong Kham Municipality has recently been awarded first prize amongst Thailand's small tetsban. Apparently it is a good place to live, the environment is good and well-conserved, and there is good co-operation amongst the members of the community. That's all very fine, and I am very happy for them. What bothers me is that Phana Municipality came third in this competition. The mayor will be going up to Bangkok to collect the award on Monday.

I had never been to Kalsin Province, although like many other people I had passed through it several times. So earlier this week I made a special trip there and the first stop in the Province was Rong Kham.

The little town is certainly very neat and tidy and is contained in a small box-like grid of roads like this one, set to one side of the main road through the amphur.

 

 

The roads are certainly kept clean and free of rubbish. The shops are almost all in  quite old wooden houses like these first two on the left:

The wat gate and the main building of the wat were somewhat different from usual:

At one end of this little township is a quite extensive park area around a lake. This being Kalasin there are dinosaurs prominently displayed at the entrance:

As well as the dinosaurs, there are several monkey statues in the nearby Don Phu Ta forest, but I didn't see any real live monkeys. So that is something that Phana has over Rong Kham. In fact, from my point of view, Phana is very much the better place to live. But then I would say that. In fairness, the community of Rong Kham and its tetsaban had clearly made a great effort to provide a pleasant environment and they are no doubt rightfully proud of the national recognition they have just achieved.

 

PS my lens seems to have been very dusty (or fingerprinted) when I took these photos. The sky was overcast, but the dirty marks, I'm afraid, are down to me.)

Honey Trap?

Another low-tech but effective piece of local ingenuity is featured here. They were not in use, but covered in sand, so I suppose that is where they had previousy been placed.

 

They are about 20 cm tall and perhaps 14 cm across at the widest point. They are like modified jars in that the open neck has a stopper in the form of a ball, but with a skewer through it that prevents it being accidentally removed.

 

But the most important modification to the jar design is the little doorway and metal flap near the base. The flap is very light and the smallest push will open it inwards. But it won't open outwards!

 

So what was this designed to trap? Answers, please, on an electronic postcard. No prizes, though; it's not so difficult, I think.

Lottery Numbers -- remember you heard it here first

For several days now, some strange people (by which I THINK I mean people I don't know) have been coming to look at one of our banana trees. I have been taken to look at it several times but have no doubt shown my farang insensitivity by being very unimpressed. I knew I had to look at the small bunch of bananas growing on it, and I have taught some of the people how to say "hand of bananas". I had no idea why they attracted so much interest.

Today, when quite a group of people all arrived at the tree at the same time (it is at the back of our house), I found out what all the fuss was about. There are three 'hands' and they are growing in the wrong way. Or the wrong place. Or something. Actually, they hardly seem to be growing at all. However, they are very significant, apparently. Here they are: 

A mor song 'an expert who can see things' had been called in by someone (not anyone in our house) and here he is making his preparations:

 Soon he addressed the banana tree, but he did it in silence as far as my hearing goes:

 

As owner of the tree, Pensri was called from what she was doing to make a little offering to her tree. I should perhaps point out that Pensri and most of her sisters have a deep scepticism of this sort of thing which they learned or inherited from their father, a very rational man.

 

And then the expert took over again:

There followed some careful peeling back of the soft bark of the tree, some picking away at the surface of the trunk, and quite liberal sprinkling of scented talcum powder. I had wondered what that little pink container was for. And then some gentle, thoughtful hands on.

And this is what he had found:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The important bit being this:

     

And he wrote down what he saw:

 

And here are two people who now aim to put his information to lucrative use. I know and like them both and wish them success (though as the saying goes, neither of them is short of a bob or two).

 
And you too could strike lucky, thanks to our banana tree. Not me, because I never buy lottery tickets. Still, remember where you got the numbers, if you should happen to win big.

 

 

 

Bloggers and their blogs in Thailand

I posted my first blog on this site just over a year ago. It came about by one of those happy accidents that have characterised much of my life. The newspaper I usually read was sold out of my local newsagents so reluctantly I bought my second choice. It happened to have a little supplement booklet inside, all about blogging, blogs, platforms, SEO, etc. It has served me well enough but was very elementary I have since discovered by reading blogs that are sometimes about blogging like My Thai Friend which is always interesting and informative.

Reading other people's blogs has served me well, too. My BLOG ROLL lists the ones that I read regularly. They were chosen orignally for several different reasons: they are all Thailand-based, some are 'local' to me, such as Life in rural Thailand, some are both amusing and perceptive such as Beyond the Mango Juice and Boonsong Somboon's Thailand Photos ; others are informative, or I just read them because the writers have a take on life in Thailand that I find appealing such as Retired in Thailand and Loving It  and I love the writing style of My Thai Village Life, because of or despite never feeling the urge to ride a motorbike.

I feel very grateful to have come across these blogs and the others on my blog roll list. They have certainly enriched the last 12 months and in a way I suppose they have changed my life for the better. A bit. I am not talking the road to Damascus here. So thanks, fellow bloggers.

What has really brought all this to my attention was a recent post by another on my blog roll. Catherine recently posted about a new ebookshop launch at Women Learning Thai. The bookshop is run by Hugh Leong, who contributes to Cat's site some really useful Thai language learning materials such as this recent one entitled I'm Not Fine, Thank You. I have been looking for some time for an e-book outlet for a book about my father-in-law which I wrote as a retirement project some years back. It has sold reasonably well in Thailand but as time goes by it gets harder to find on shelves as new books are coming in all the time. It is available now from ebooks in Thailand and I hope to have another book there soon. Take a look, amongst other tempting titles you will find a free 7-day cookbook download!

I saw a cartoon in a newsaper recently. A teenager was resisting reading a newspaper because it had no links she could follow, she couldn't leave instant comments, she couldn't forward pieces to her friends, and so on.

I've never used so many links, but if they don't work, I know Martyn will let me know. Thanks, Martyn.

Hmong villages in Lao PDR

The report in the Vientiane Times which I posted yesterday interested me especially because we visited several villages of Hmong returnees on our trip back in December 2008. Before doing so we had a chance meeting with a government official from the Ministry of Health in Vientiane. He was staying in the only hotel in the small district town of Borikham, 60 kms north of Pakxan, and so were we.

Hmong girls in traditional dress, Phonsavanh, Lao PDR

 

We got to talking about returnees in general and Hmong in particular. One point he made stood out for me. He said that the Lao government was in a very difficult position regarding the Hmong. Partly because  Hmong in the USA  have kept the fate of Hmong refugees in the public arena, and also bcause of the involvement of UNHCR, the Lao government feels they have to make special provision for them. But this results in other minority groups, who have never left the country, feeling that they are being neglected as compared to the positive discrimination from which the Hmong benefit.

 

Young Hmong men, Phonsavanh, Lao PDR

 

This is very similar to the sort of ill-feeling that arises when long-term refugee camps are set up. Certainly when the Hmong and other refugees were first in Thailand much resentment was caused by the fact that daily living allowances paid to them by UNHCR and/or the Thai government were above the level of income that many local people were able to earn. The same sort of resentment arises in countries such as the UK when refugees are seen to be provided with housing and other benefits.

The two photos above were taken at a Hmong village close to Site 1 (as it is called) on the Plain of Jars near Phonsavanh in Xiang Khuang Province. It seemed to be a new village. The young people were celebrating the New Year with the traditional courting ritual, throwing a soft ball to and fro to each other while holding a flirtatious conversation designed to see whether they would make good marriage partners.

Plain of Jars. The figure in the foreground is walking past a bomb crater.

 

Two young Hmong girls sit on one of the larger jars. The notices saying not to do so were all in English.

The hotel we stayed at in Phonsavanh was owned and run by Hmong, as were many of the small businesses in the town. The staff in the hotel were returnees and possibly the owners were, too, although it seemed more likely that they were still in the USA. However, many Hmong in Phonsavanh were not reurnees at all. One of the impressions that Hmong in the USA like to give is that all Hmong fought against what is now the government side in the civil war. But this is not the case at all, though many were made refugees initially by the fighting going on in the areas where they lived. The Plain of Jars in particular.

 

 

War debris, Phonsavanh.

The tourist information office has a comprehensive collection of war debris in its yard, and you can find lots more on display or in use (as gate posts and flower beds, for instance) throughout the whole province.

 

Later in our trip we stopped in a village on the road from Udomxai to Luang Nam Tha. It was a mixed village, one half of it populated by Tai Lue and the newer half adjacent to it along the roadside by Hmong returnees. Again, the unmarried young people, including some very young children, were playing the ball game. The adults were having a perhaps less traditional party to themselves. Here are some portraits of people in this village. I believe all of them are Hmong, except possibly the woman in pink (though she seems to have at least one habit she might have picked up in Thailand, as do the father and son). The party, however, was being held in the Tai Lue end of the village.

 

 I know that you must be careful in drawing conclusions about the conditions in which people live, and I do know that life is hard for most people in a country as poor and mountainous as Laos is. Nevertheless, the Hmong I met in Laos gave no indication that they were oppressed, and what I saw of their lives in these brief snapshots certainly did not hint at oppression to me. Without doubt they were better off than they could have ever been in a refugee camp.

 

You can see a short video I shot in this village here:

  
 

 

 

 

 

Hmong resettlement village finally sees the light

 

This was the headline of an article in the Vientiane Times earlier this month. It refers to  the return to Laos of Hmong refugees from Thailand, which was big news in Thailand towards the end of 2009. Events in Thailand have long since eclipsed this as a news story, so it is no surprise that this update has not figured in the English language press to my knowledge. I am reprinting it here and will follow it up tomorrow with a post of my own on the subject of Hmong resettlement villages I have visited.

 

 

Hmong resettlement village finally sees the light

 

Residents in the Hmong resettlement village of Phonkham in Borikhamxay Province’s Borikham district now have access to electricity. Villagers gained access to the power grid last weekend after officials held a ceremony to mark the occasion on Sunday. The villagers have been granted use of free power for the next year, Borikham district Governor, Mr Khene Lomany, told Vientiane Times last week.

 

The village, consisting of more than 610 houses, was built by the Lao government for over 3,500 homeless Hmong people, including Hmong returnees who had previously migrated to Thailand illegally. Many of them returned to Laos in December last year.

 

Mr Khene outlined some of the progress made by the government in helping the villagers to become self-sufficient.

 

More than 600 hectares of land has been cleared for upland rice cultivation, with each family allocated 1.2 to 1.5 hectares. Provincial and district authorities have worked with private companies to encourage the villagers to become self-sufficient and help the government to wean them off subsidies by next year.

 

Officials are currently in the preparation stage of building a small scale five-bed medical dispensary to provide healthcare services. A gravity-fed water system has already been installed in the village, along with toilets. Construction of a 57km road connecting the village to the district centre was recently completed. Local authorities plan to develop the village’s temporary market into a permanent one to boost community trade, as well as to build a passenger-vehicle station nearby.

 

Mr Khene said the Party and government places great importance on the well-being of the villagers, reflected through the realisation of 13 development programmes introduced to develop the village. This has given the returnees confidence tin the policies aimed at assisting them and made them realise they are safe upon their return, after earlier worrying about being persecuted as widely rumoured in Thai detention camps, Mr Khene said.

 

Source: Vientiane Times (June 03, 2010).

 

The article can be viewed here at Lao Voices  where some photos of the official ceremony can be seen.