Life in Phana

Why do we love them so?

Phana is sometimes known as 'Monkey Town'. I am not sure that the people of Phana really like that, but I notice that there is a large, framed collage of photos labelled MONKEY TOWN just outside the Mayor's office at Tetsaban Phana. Certainly the monkeys that live in our local forest are a big draw for tourists. What is less certain is whether or not Phana gains anything from this tourism. We gain litter, yes, as my previous post pointed out,  but that may be all other than a certain notoriety. But I wonder whether Phana needs to gain anything, at least in the sense of profiting from the presence of the monkeys.

The monkeys do make us feel good, somehow. Phana lives quite comfortably with them (give or take a few complaints from farmers whose land adjoins the forest). It has generally been regarded as auspicious that the monkeys live in Don Chao Poo, home to the town's guardian spirit, and to four Buddha images. Somehow people feel privileged to be host to the monkeys. The people who come from outside to feed them evidently feel good about doing so, even if some of the girls scream when large monkeys make a grab for food they are holding. 

Why do we love them so? 

They make us feel at one with nature, I think. We are consorting with 'the wild things' when we go into the forest to feed them.

Feeding them makes us feel kind and generous.

Feeding these monkeys makes us forget that we have exterminated most of the wild things around here. 

 

 

 

At the same time, we see these long-tailed macaques as very human-like:

the babies are cute, the mothers take good care of them;

the young males respect the older males, the older males look wise and are very macho.

 

This may be the world as we would like it to be.

 

It is time for Phana to re-think its relationship with the monkeys here. The Governor of Amnat Charoen Province has suggested (with a little prodding, perhaps) that some sort of 'Centre' should be established in connection with them. Selling souvenirs may have been the extent of his thinking on the subject. But several people have put forward the idea of a Study Centre and contact has been made with an academic at a university in Isan who is interested in the study of primates and their place in the ecosystem. First, though, we must decide exactly what sort of relationship we want to have with the monkeys, and what sort of habitat we are willing to allow them.

COMMENTS and SUGGESTIONS would be very much appreciated.

Phana's Pride or Shame?

The people of Phana have much to be proud of. And they are right to feel pride in the cleanliness of the streets, the 'zero waste' campaign that recycles large quantities of waste; the community spirit and community action that enables campaigns such as this, initiated by the tetsaban, to succeed. And the tetsaban is rightly proud of the prizes and the national exposure and acclaim it has won.

The people of Phana are also proud of Don Chao Poo, a conservation site for more than 50 years. And proud of the long-tailed macaque monkeys that live in the forest, some 500-600 of them. The monkeys attract tourists, mostly from the surrounding villages and towns but some from further afield. After the famous Buddha image in Wat Phra Lao Thepnimit, they are what puts Phana on the map.

But there's the rub: put monkeys and tourists together and one of the things you get is litter. Tourists bring food for the monkeys, or buy it in the stalls outside the forest, and much of the food is in plastic bags. Monkeys grab plastic bags; the wind blows them around; the waste bins are a waste of time because the monkeys raid them and scatter the contents. But you can't blame the monkeys; and if the tourists should take more care and take home their litter whenever possible, at least they are being thoughtful and generous in providing food for the monkeys.

Recent trips Pensri and I have made into the forest have dismayed us both: the amount of litter is, quite frankly, disgusting. It makes a mockery of the forest as a conservation area, and it makes a mockery of Phana considering itself a clean place. Here are some pictures I have taken recently.

This one shows plastic bags that have been discarded and blown into the forest close to the track. This degree of litter should be easy to deal with if it is removed quickly, by which I mean daily or at least every other day.

 

But the accumulation of rubbish such as this is on another scale altogether. It is not wind-blown. It is not deposited by monkeys. Some of it is embedded in the soil, so it has been here for years, not days. 

This litter has  been quite deliberately collected here and it is easy to work out WHEN and WHY and WHO by. 

Don Chao Poo forest is used by the tetsban and the amphur to hold official 'opening ceremonies' for a variety of occasions. Before the Governor or his representative or some other dignitary is whisked into the forest in a motorcade, the roads are  'cleaned up' -- a euphemism for brushing all the litter into the undergrowth, out of sight. Cliches, maybe, but relevant and accurate: brushing the problem under the carpet; out  of sight, out of mind.

So what is to be done? Well, it is a long-term problem that will only get worse if plans to encourage more tourists to visit Phana come to anything. In the short term, Pensri and I went to the forest last Wednesday and spent about 90 minutes collecting litter. We filled 5 black bin bags in that time. We filled the first one twice because some monkeys came along and ripped it open and re-scattered the litter.  A good demonstration of part of the problem. But we also saw lots of evidence that the monkeys are only part of the problem. It is not, I think, the monkeys who are drinking beer, milk, fruit juice, eating sweets, smoking cigarettes or reading and and discarding magazines full of pictures of naked women. I hope the monkeys know better than to do any of that, though I know they learn fast.

On Thursday we were joined by a friend of Pensri's and three young students from Phana Suksa. On Friday there were five young students from Phana Suksa. On those two days we collected more than 30 bags full of litter and then went to have duck noodle soup together in Ban Don Kwan.

The man in the picture here is employed by the tetsaban to spend a couple of hours a day in the forest, putting down tetsaban-provided rice for them, sweeping up some of the leaves. There is no blame attached to him for the litter: there is far too much of it for one person to deal with.

The youngsters here all wanted to continue working on the weekend but we oldies needed a rest. We will be back in the forest on Monday, but by then the weekend feeding by tourists will have introduced a lot more plastic bags. Never mind, it is likely that we will have removed the biggest proportion of the long-term litter in another two mornings of work. Then it will be up to the community to decide how to tackle the problem in a way that will make a blitz such as ours unnecessary again.

For the rest of this week I will post blogs with some of my thoughts about the 'monkey/litter problem' in Phana. I hope readers will offer some suggestions, too.

Community-Based Tourism

I am not sure I fully understand what the Thai Tourism Authority understands by Community-Based Tourism. But Amnat Charoen is one of two provinces (the other is in the south of Thailand) that is going to run a CBT pilot project. I need to understand what is meant because I have been co-opted onto the Provincial committee that is to draw up plans for the different amphur in the province. My job is to 'collect data'. I wasn't at the original committee meeting (though Pensri is one of the Phana representatives and she was there) so I can interpret data collection pretty much as I please, I think.

Tourists already come to Phana, almost all of them Thais coming from other parts of the country. They  visit Wat Phra Lao and sometimes Don Chao Poo Forest Park. On average, they spend no more than 30 minutes in Phana before getting back into their big tour bus or private car and heading off to the next stop on their itinerary.

These tourists are in no way based in our community. They donate to the wat, no doubt, and those going to Don Chao Poo purchase some food (not necessarily appropriate food) for the monkeys there. But Phana gains little or nothing from their visit

What I have done so far is produced  a document outlining what Amphur Phana has to offer to tourists so that they might spend more time here and provide some income-generating opportunities for Phana people.

SITES TOURISTS COULD VISIT IN AMPHUR PHANA

• Wat Phra Lao -- 300-year-old temple and famous Buddha image
• Wat Ban I-Keng -- attractive wat in a nearby village 
• Wat Ban Sao-Ree --village wat with school for novices 12 - 18 years old
• Wat Don Kwan --new(ish) wat in Tambon Phana; largest black Buddha image in Isan; 2nd tallest Phra That under construction
• Don Chao Poo Forest Park -- Buddha images, Chao Poo shrine, monkeys
• Weaving groups: Ban Phana, Ban Pathum Kaew; Ban Soi (silk production from mulberry leaves to cloth)
• Traditional Medicine Centre: Traditional Massage (treatment and training); herbal medicine production and sales
•  Model Agricultural Centre, at Fai Rong Hin, Phra Lao Municipality
•  School visit(s)
•  Noodle-shops and restaurants

ACCOMMODATION: at Phana Garden Resort

INCOME-GENERATING OPPORTUNITIES: Phana Garden Resort, Noodle-shops and Restaurants, Taxi and bus services, Hire of bicycles, Purchase of woven products, Purchase of herbal medicines, Purchase of traditional massage services, Invitations to donate for site visits:

REQUIREMENTS BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION:

• “Come to Phana” brochure produced, in Thai and in English

• “Come to Phana” brochure to be made available at TAT offices in Amnat Charoen, Ubon Ratchathani, Yassothon, Si Sa Ket, Bangkok, etc. And on TAT web-site.

• Production of bi-lingual informational guide leaflets to individual sites; to be made available at the sites, and at Phana Garden Resort, Amphur Offices, Tetsaban offices and OPT offices

• Production of map of Phana district showing facilities, routes and distances; to be made available as guide leaflets above

• English-language menus compiled and made available in noodle-shops and restaurants

• Purchase of bicycles for hire; to be made available at a central location where they are easily available and can be checked for repair, etc. (eg Tetsaban Phana IT Centre at the Old Market)

I suspect that 'Home-Stay' might be part of the TAT definition of CBT, but to me there seems little point in  making all the arrangements that would entail until it becomes clear that there is demand for it from tourists. It would be different if there were not already somewhere to stay. But a visit I recently made to a 'Cultural Village' in Kalasin Province suggests that what might be envisaged is putting on some sort of  cultural performance for large groups of tourists who would be put up in village homes. But this means inspecting and certifying the homes, and preparing to entertain groups which might never materialise. That seems to me a recipe for disillusionment and cynicism. To be fair, at the village in Kalasin it did seem to be working to a certain extent, but that is down to the village being entirely populated by an ethnic group that is sufficiently 'different' to create interest, and whose culture is sufficiently well-maintained that there is likely to be little about it that is specially put on for tourists. I am not sure that Amphur Phana is sufficiently different in that respect, but it does have enough to interest someone for a stay of, say, two days. We shall see what, if anything, comes of this initiative.

 

(No photos with this post, but I expect to be posting about the various sites as I go about 'collecting data'.)

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.)

Making History in Phana

Phana has just celebrated the third-month festival which is the annual festival for Wat Phra Lao. This year was a bit special because it is three hundred years since villagers began building the wat. The exhibition of words and pictures to mark the 300-year history of Phana (see my previous post) was visited by hundreds of people during the three days of the festival and many of them recorded complimentary comments on the boards we  provided.

Several people had also suggested that Phana could hold a bicycle rally (the first ever in Phana, although the Tour de Thailand came through a couple of years ago) and the idea was taken up enthusiastically by the director of Phana Hospital, Dr Pathompong Prupong and by the District Officer (Nai Amphur -- นายอำเภอ). A committee was formed that included them both together with people from Tetsaban Phana and Tetsaban Phra Lao plus Pensri, who was to combine the rally with the celebration of the 300th anniversary. The result was a rally that informed people of the story behind several sites in Phana and involved the collection of little snippets of information, some fun activities, some cultural activities -- and some traditional hospitality.

The rally was well advertised, by word of mouth to begin with, but posters appeared shortly before the big day.

Hundreds of people turned up and everyone had to register and be issued with a T-shirt, a 'passport' / question-sheet, an official entrance number to pin on the T-shirt and a leaflet outlining the aims of the rally and so on.

Who said Thais can't form an orderly queue?

I was a little startled to find this professional-looking competitor, but beneath it all was Acharn Kanok, retired teacher. Did he think fancy dress was required?

There was no fancy dress category, in fact, but there was a lot to compete for, including some impressive-looking trophies and cash prizes of Baht 2,500, 2,000 and 1,500.

These students from Phanasuksa School gave us some historical information (in Thai and English) relating to Don Chao Poo, where the rally was gathering and preparing to start.

 

People were getting a little impatient to get going, but naturally there were also some official opening speeches to hear first.

But finally the rally began, with small groups setting off at about 10-minute intervals.

Some people had an easier ride than others:

The monkeys of Don Chao Poo had been given a fruit and nuts banquet before the rally began, probably as compensation for so many people invading their territory so early in the morning. There were  lots of security men to make sure none of us got run over by  bigger vehicles. The organisers had also  provided helpful signs like this one to make sure nobody got lost or missed a checkpoint. I love the rally logo.

At several points along the route people had set up refreshment stops such as this one, offering much-needed liquid and some food, too. I saw several people trying to pay, but this was offered freely.

 

When riders reached a check-point they had to present their passport for stamping ...

 

and here at Wat Don Khual they had to take part in this activity and have their score recorded. Who would cheat under such watchful eyes? I was told that I would have to 'play hula hoop' here so I was pretty relieved to find I only had to throw a rubber ring. At two wats we got a stamp for going to 'wai phra' and at Wat Phra Lao everyone visited the exhibition.

 

 At Wat Burapha these young guides from Samaraki School told us about the history of this wat, the second oldest in Phana.

 

On leaving this wat, we were issued with a plastic bag containing a bottle of water and a straw, and three banana-leaf packages containing sticky rice, a chicken leg and some beef, and some chilli sauce. This was provided free by the organisers, Changwat, Amphur or Tetsaban funds, I'm not sure which.

 

Then it was out onto the open road again. The route took us behind the village along this track used to get to some of the rice fields. The gentleman you see here was the oldest rider, 76 years old, I am told.

 

The Phana Thai Traditional Medicine Centre was the last stop before we doubled back to the Amphur Office (ที่ว่าการอำเภอ) for the finish. The Mediicine Centre doesn't usually provide live music but a specially-composed mor lam about the rally was sung and played, and riders with any energy left were invited to dance ...
 

... or to watch these men at work on traditional crafts ...

 

... or invited to drink some of the herbal tea produced here.

 

Finally, after what was a fairly short ride but a very long day (what with the passport checking, finding clues, taking part in activities, taking refreshments and so on) I made it through the finishing arch with my team.

 

But it was this young man who claimed first prize in the individual event for youngsters, and his obvious pride in his achievement will make sure he remembers the day that he and Phana made history together in the first ever Phana Bicycle Rally.

 

My thanks go to Tetsaban Phana and their photographer on the day, Mr Tong, for allowing me to use their pictures.

It's all new in Phana

When you go home you expect to find things as they were when you left. I remember that as a small (and presumably insecure) boy I would sometimes dream of coming home from school to find the house and my family had all disappeared. So when we leave England each winter we hope that everything in Phana will be as idyllic as it was when we left six months earlier. But always we also find ourselves expecting some changes and hoping that they will not diminish our love of living here. The changes that have taken place in the last few years have all turned out to be positive ones, though thinking about them in advance did not always suggest they would be. What that says is probably that the decision-makers in Phana have a much clearer and more positive vision of development than I have.

A good example of this is the new market, which is situated less than half a km from our house. Between us and the market there is one house, two side roads, a bridge over a small steam, and you are there. I had thought it unnecessary, a nuisnace to me personally, and of no great benefit to anyone. A white elephant in English terms, if not in Thai. I was wrong on all counts. So you can expect a post dedicated to the new market before long.

A change I had known about was the arrival of the two new volunteers from Project Trust and we were looking forward to meeting them but when we got here they were on holiday (the schools they teach in were closed) and we only met them when the Desk Officer for Thailand arrived with his asistant for the annual monitoring visit. This involved us accompanying them and the tetsaban representatives to all three schools for meetings with directors and teachers. The volunteers, Billie andRosie, arrived in Phana at the end of August and when I reported that here (I was in UK then) a commenter suggested that they be inteviewed for this blog. I hope they will agree to that. They certainly seem to be first-class volunteers, keeping up the tradition which is now firmly established in Phana.

On our first day back our friend and neighbour Add (deputy mayor of Tetsaban Phana) came round to co-opt Pensri onto a small delegation going to Amnat Charoen the next day to discuss a pilot project on Community-Based Tourism being set up by TAT in two provinces, Amnat Charoen (in the north-east, inland, rural, little visted by tourists, on the Lao border) and Surat Thani, (in the south, on the coast, including Koh Samui, already a major tourist destination). Pensri duly attended the meeting, and now I too have been co-opted onto the provincial committee, adding a 'foreign' perspective and a little expertise in the English language and experience in producing brochures, etc. The next meeting is sometime next week (I think, this is Thailand, so it may not be), and here in Phana we are very excited by the idea and have already formulated some plans. I will be keeping readers up to date on this in this blog -- and even inviting some of you to visit as guinea-pigs!

Less exciting was finding that our water-storage tank which collects roof run-off and provides us with drinking water was empty. Our 'helper' had not made the necessary adjustments to the pipe after allowing a few weeks of rain to clear the gutters. So off we went to the small village of Ban Nong Ka, where water is pumped from a deep well in the wat, treated, bottled and delivered to customers all over Amphur Phana. The facility was very impressive and I will feature it in a later post.

The wat where the well is located is one which I had never visited before and it turned out to be rather unusual. It is a typical small-village wat, no grand buildings, no ubosot (ordination hall), very simple kutis for the few monks who stay there, an old wooden preaching hall with very little decoration, and lots of trees.

But outside the wat was this sign:

 

It seems that the senior monk here is a computer wizard! Possibly more of this another time.

Across the road is a small forest, and here is the Phu Ta, the guardian 'grandfather' of the place (a little hand-shake or out of focus, sorry):

 

And inside the forest, something was going on! More of that, too, another time.

Perhaps the strangest thing we find when we return each year to this quiet, unknown little back-water that is Phana, is how much is going on and how much there is for us to do and to get involved in. I always think there will be nothing of the sort, that I have seen and done everything there is to do here, but that is far from the reality. It's in England, really, where we live an uneventful life. I am not complaining: we still need both kinds of life and still enjoy living in both places. But it is definitely in Phana that we are much more involved in social and community activities. That doesn't seem to change, and we are glad of it.
 

 

 

 

 

Isan Town Goes Global

 
PHANA STEPS ONTO WORLD STAGE

I reported some time back that Phana Municipality had been selected as one of the representatives of Thailand at the WHO 1000 Cities 1000 Lives Global Forum on Health and Urbanization to be held in Kobe, Japan, this year. You can find that post HERE.

The event has now taken place and I have some photos of our mayor, Mr Prachoenlab Intrachan, in Japan.

 

 

Each 'city' submitted and displayed a poster outlining their work on the subject of Urbanization and Health, but only one poster per country was presented to the forum. Thailand chose to present Phana's poster, although it was the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority which made the actual presentation. The mayor was understandably proud of Phana's contribution.

 

As with all these international events, the host country puts on a cultural performance to mark the opening ceremony:

 

As well as attending the forum, the Thai contingent (and doubtless the representatives of all the other countries, too) enjoyed a tour of the area around Kobe. I am not sure where any of the following photos were taken (yes, I do recognise Mt Fuji) but it is clear that our mayor had a very good time. Please click on the photos to enlarge them.

         

      

    

I congratulate Phana Municipality on bringing this small town in Isan to the notice of the wider world. Everyone in Phana is very proud, that's for sure.

Abbot with big plans

The abbot of Wat Don Khual (or Kwan) in Phana has big plans for his monastery. The wat is one of the newer ones in Phana but it has undertaken a lot of building work in the last six years or so. One of the reasons it has been able to do this is that Don Khual is on the eastern edge of Phana Municipality in a small village, but the wat has a large pond adjacent to it and every year the pond has been the site of the largest Loy Kratong festival for miles around. Thousands of people come to join in the celebration, most of them on motor-bikes and in pick-up trucks. It draws in the rural population who are always up for a good time. The abbot and the villagers who support his monastery (that means pretty much all of them) organise the festivities and raise (and spend) a lot of money each year. Roses are bought and sold at a profit and presented to contestants in the beauty contests (one for the girls, one for the lady-boys) and the person with the largest number of roses is declared the winner. The local schools, too, play their part by making little 'favours' for sale, and kratongs are made and sold too. Highlight of the evening is the firework display, the highlight of highlights for me being the way the abbot fires off rockets he holds in one hand while he lights them with the other. So far he has been miraculously (?) unburnt by this. No-one but me seems to find his performance anything out of the ordinary.

The abbot also has some rich supporters in Bangkok who have donated statuary and some small buildings. Presumably these supporters are Phana people, the abbot himself being a local.

About two years ago the abbot conceived the idea of building the second tallest that in Isaan, the tallest being Phra That Phanom. The amount of money that had to be raised was set at 20 million Baht. The project, not surprisingly, has been very stop/start but it was back in full swing when we left Phana back in March. I believe that about 7 million Baht had been raised at that time. Donations to the wat are acceptable at all times, but now if you are making a donation it can be dedicated to this building project or alternatively to the wat's general upkeep fund. I shall be interested to see how far the building has progressed when I get back to Phana, which coincidentally will be on the day they are celebrating Loy Kratong. In the meantime, here are some photos I took from a site called wat isan which the abbot is always asking me to link to on this blog. It is all in Thai and applying google translate can provide some interesting and amusing moments.

This first photo is a montage of the abbot's 'vision' superimposed on the first 'poles' to be built. The tree will survive because it is actually some way behind the that.

 

I love the sturdy bamoo scaffolding so commonly used in construction in Thailand:

 

The abbot is always very hands-on, as noted above re the fireworks:

 

The naga balustrade nears completion:

 

And this shows how far the project had progressed when I visited a few days before we left Phana.

 

Still a long way to go. Onwards and upwards.
 

Kathin celebrated in Phana and Devon

A telephone call to Phana last week alerted us to the Kathin being celebrated there under the sponsorship of the Tetsaban on Sunday. This year we are still in England at the end of the vassa (phansa, in Thai), the so-called rains retreat which lasts for three months. Kathin ceremonies have to be performed in the month following the end of the vassa. But by coincidence our local Buddhist monastery was celebrating on the same day as Tetsaban Phana and we had planned to take part.

Last year, one of the things I wrote was this:

Each wat with at least 5 monks in residence is entitled to benefit from one robe presentation (Tod Kathin) each year. Originally that is all it was, the presentation of a new set of robes to one monk nominated by the abbot. Nowadays, and for some time past, it has become a major source of fund-raising for the temple, a major source of merit-making for lay people, and a major source of economic activity for the makers and sellers of Buddhist supplies and for local construction companies. Oh, and it is also a major source of sanuk for everyone who takes part.

The celebration at the Hartridge Buddhist Monastery (or the Devon Vihara, as it used to be known) was certainly a sanuk occasion, and the teaching by the senior monk (Tan Acharn Sucitto, abbot of the monastery at Chithurst in Sussex) was amusing and uplifting, focussing on the benefits and responsibilities of friendship. The ceremony was organised and sponsored by two Thai women long resident in England, Noi and her aunt Mudhitta. One of the objects was to raise funds towards the enlargement of the shrine room at the monastery. In fact, because the number of people attending ceremonies such as this has increased so much, the main ceremony was held in the local village hall.

This monastic fan was presented three years ago at a previous kathin ceremony.

 

This group of (amateur) musicians welcomed people into the hall. 

 

A large group of Thai women were busy in the kitchen receiving offerings of food for the alms round and the meal that lay people would share.

 

Some of the food was labelled 'VEGETARIAN' as you can see in this photo. The rest was labelled 'NORMAL' which is how most Thais I know view the distinction, but it caused some murmuring amongst the rather earnest meditators and seekers after enlightenment who frequent the monastery more often than the Thais and who have a more puritanical view of Buddhism. They are English, don't forget!
 

 

One end of the hall had been prepared fro the arrival of the monastics (monks, a nun and an anagrarika, a young man preparing for ordination). They did not eat here as most monks would do in Thailand. These monks are followers of the late Luang Por Ajahn Chah, so they are in the forest tradition and eat only once a day, from their alms bowl.

 
 

Another job for the Thai women was receiving donations and recording the amount offered and by whom. This is the custom in Thailand, of course, as is the money-tree you can see here on the right.

 

Pensri joined others lined up outside the hall waiting to offer rice to the monks. It was a bright, sunny day but very cold and people waited patiently a long time for the alms round to start.

  

  

 
 

The nun (in brown) and the anagarika (in white), below, were the last in the line. In Thailand, of course,women do not receive full ordination and so would not be wearing a robe like this, and the English Sangha in the line of Ajahn Chah has caused something of a controversy by ordaining women. 

 
 

 When the main ceremony finally started, the atmosphere was quite light-hearted.

 

Here, Khun Mudhitta is raising the tray that the robe is offered on.

 

The two monks facing each other formally received the robe and announced that it had been decided unanimously by all the monks that it should be given to the abbot of the Hartridge Monastery. This led to the lay people breaking into spontaneous applause and the abbot himself remarking that it must be his birthday.

 

Following the presentation of the robe it was explained that by custom the pieces of cloth which will make up the robe have to be sewn together before dawn the next day, so two monks who had been assigned this task left with the robe to return to the monastery to begin sewing.

Then came the dhamma talk by the senior monk. During this, many of the Thais present behaved as is 'normal' (that word again!) in Thailand. That is, they carried on conversations, moved around, behaved normally, in fact. This led to much 'shushing' from elderly English people. At one stage a particularly noisy outburst at the back of the hall resulted in equally loud requests (or orders) to be quiet and I heard one man call out "This is disgusting!" I learned later from one of the young Thai women involved that they had been totalling the monetary donations and had been excited by the amount. A little later a difference of opinion had arisen between the Thais and English as to whether the total should be announced, as is the usual custom in Thailand. The Thais won, and the abbot was pleased to announce that a little short of £3,500 had been raised.

I suppose these cultural differences which had been thrown up were funny as much as anything, and certainly the Thais did not seem particularly put out.

The fact is that although there is a small group of particularly hard-working English supporters who are very active on occasions such as this, nevertheless, without the Thai people not much would get done and the whole affair would have seemed much less of a celebration. The Thais do know how to put on a good show and most definitely know how to avoid overmuch solemnity.

My posts on Kathin celebrations in Phana last year (2009) can be accessed most easily through the Archive tab at the top of this page. Posts were dated 20, 29, 31 October and 2 and 3 November. 

http://www.forestsangha.org  is the community portal page for the world-wide Sangha of Ajahn Chah's communities. Besides providing links to most of the branch monasteries and associated groups it also hosts a variety of teachings in English and other languages.

NB If this link does not work, please type the address yourself. I originally mis-spelt it but have corrected it. However, whenever I test the link the original mis-spelling appears and of course the site cannot be found. However, patience is something I learned the meaning of in Thailand.

 

 

Volunteers come and go in Phana

I miss a lot in Phana because I am only there for six months of the year. There is always a lot happening when I am there so it doesn't really matter very much. At my age you can have too much of a good thing (if you are lucky).

One of the things I regret missing is the arrival of the new volunteers from Project Trust in late August and then I miss their leaving the following July. Tetsaban Phana, which sponsors them, always put on a good bash for both occasions. The welcoming party always features the traditional Lao Bai Si ceremony as well as dance performances, and, naturally, lots of speeches. I blogged about this HERE and one of our first volunteers put her view of the experience Here .

These two volunteers, Sarah on the left and Lauren on the right, were in Phana 2009-2010. They were really excellent and they were very popular with everybody -- the children they taught, the teachers they worked alongside, their host family, the tetsaban staff, vendors in the market. Everyone they came in contact with, in fact.

 

 

In fact, Phana has been very lucky with the volunteers that have been sent by Project Trust. They have all been very good indeed and have given a lot of themselves to make their year in Phana a success for everyone, themselves included. When Pensri and I get back to Phana we will find two new volunteers, Billie and Rosie, already installed. They will be the seventh pair of volunteers welcomed to Phana. What makes them a bit different is that they are both English. Of the previous twelve, seven have been Scots and one was from Northern Ireland.

 

This year, Project Trust has sent 279 volunteers abroad, and 10 of them are in Isan, in Amnat Charoen, Yasothon and Mukdahan provinces.