Festivals of Light

The past few weeks have been an adventure-packed series of festivals and celebrations, both Thai and Western, that have taken me around the country on a sort of party pilgrimage.  I am continually amazed by the passion and enthusiasm Thai people possess for their cultural and religious identity and it has really made this "holiday" season very special.

The first stop on my journey brought me to the beautiful ancient city of Sukhothai, located six hours north of Bangkok for the Loi Krathong Festival.  The Loi Krathong Festival is celebrated in bodies of water across Thailand on the full moon in November to celebrate the official end of the rainy season and to worship the river goddess.  Sukhothai, however, was the site of the first celebration of the Loi Krathong festival and so I headed there.

To celebrate the Loi Krathong festival, intricate water-lanterns, called Krathongs, are built from banana leaves, covered with flowers, filled with candles and incense, and released into bodies of water as an act of absolution.

Home-made krathong (water-lantern) courtesy of our guesthouse

Unfortunately I didn't get the memo in time to collect mine, but Thai people collect their fingernail clippings and/or hair clippings to sprinkle on their krathongs, as a tangible remnant of the past, before lighting them and releasing them into the water as a symbolic act of renewal.

 Lighting my krathong

Loi Krathong seems to me to be the Thai version of Rosh Hashanah / Yom Kippur; a shedding of the past and a fresh start for the new year.

The festival itself was held in the ancient city of Sukhothai amidst ancient temples with incredible stone Buddha statues.  The krathongs, complete with glowing candles and burning incense were released into the central lake of the ancient city and soon the water was filled with light.

 The central lake in the ancient city of Sukhothai

Vendors sold huge lanterns to light and release into the sky which was soon speckled with light as well.

 Releasing our lantern

The whole night glowed!  This ancient city was packed with excited and passionate people celebrating together.  Street vendors had gathered from all the surrounding areas and set up in the park selling food and other goods.  As I wandered through the crowds, weaving in and out of rows of vendors, I was mesmerized by the glowing ruins.

Never before have I been in such a crowded place and felt so at ease.  The passion Thai people possess for their traditions is contagious and it is hard not to get caught up in the spirit of an event like that. 

The festival continued late into the night and concluded with a beautiful performance in boats on the lake, complete with a fireworks battle scene.  The entire show was in Thai, but it was so beautiful and powerful that I knew exactly what was going on.   I have never felt so connected to something so unfamiliar in my life and it was absolutely incredible.

My days in Sukhothai were spent exploring the city by bike.  The ancient city was incredibly beautiful and it was amazing to see so many surviving structures.

OOPS!!!!

My last day in Sukhothai I took an amazing bike ride to find a small, secluded temple called Wat Taweh.  The trail to the temple followed a meandering river, weaving in and out of beautiful neighborhoods and passing small hidden temples along the way.

 weeeeeee!!!

As we biked past homes and small shops locals came out to wave and giggle at the strange "farang" passing by.

At the end of our amazing bicycle journey, which would have been incredible on its own, we reached the amazing and bizarre complex that is Wat Taweh.  Unlike the beautiful decoration of other temples, depicting scenes of serenity, the sculptures and architectural details depicted a darker side of Buddhist ideology.  A crowd of emaciated figures kneel in front of an ornately painted Buddha while others are clenched between the jaws of an alligator.  Despite the obvious darkness of the imagery, there was a kind of playfulness at Wat Taweh I have not encountered in the seriosness of other temples I have visited.  It was a refreshing departure from the monotony of the ordinary Thai Buddhist temple.  Wat Taweh was like nothing I have ever seen before.  It was the perfect end to my adventure in Sukhothai.

gettin' friskay!!!

The following week was Thanksgiving and I was afraid being so far away from anything familiar would make me miss home, but my anti-American Thanksgiving ended up being amazing!  Alana and I were invited to a friend's house, another English teacher living in our province, and we adventured around her neighborhood looking for the perfect Thanksgiving meal.  Since we couldn't find any traditional Thanksgiving treats we decided to go totally Thai.  After a wonderful game of street-car roulette we ended up with a Thanksgiving feast consisting of som tam (spicy papaya salad), chicken and rice, que-tiou (Thai noodle soup), some strange meat-filled puff dumplings, 4 gummy bears, some questionable wine, and Hong Thong whiskey (a Thai version of whiskey tastes more like a combination of rum and whiskey).  We set up our feast on a mat on the floor of the car park and sat on the ground wining and dining the night away.

Counterclockwise from left to right: the lovely and amazing Alana Miller, Dalia, and last but not lease our gracious host Katherine!

The next stop on my festival seeking adventure brought me to the small and, aside from said festival, otherwise unremarkable city of Lopburi for the annual monkey festival.  To understand the annual monkey festival you need some background on the town of Lopburi and its relationship to monkeys.  Lopburi has what you could call a monkey infestation.  Monkeys are absolutely EVERYWHERE and they wreak havoc on the town and its citizens.  They walk in and out of shops at will, they threaten local citizens, and they steal whatever they want--food, drink, shiny objects--directly from your hands.  Local citizens are forced to walk around with large sticks to scare the monkeys away from their homes, food, even their babies.  Basically, monkeys rule the school!!!

In any western country, the obvious answer to these monkey woes would be mass assassination, a.k.a. animal control.  In the Buddhist country of Thailand however, killing, especially killing monkeys which are seen as semi-divine figures in Buddhist ideology, is out of the question and so the monkey infestation persists.  The most logical alternative to eliminating the monkey "problem" is clearly then to throw an annual feast, known as the Monkey Breakfast, for all the local monkeys to eat to their hearts' desire.

The Monkey Breakfast is exactly what it sounds like, a feast arranged for the monkeys of Lopburi.  Locals donate fruit, vegetables, rice, pastries, and drinks--anything the monkeys will eat--and it is arranged in a huge buffet in the central temple of Lopburi.

Fruit pyramid with monkeys

Food art (so the monkeys can delight their eyes before they delight their bellies)

 Drinking milk straight from the bottle!

Baby monkeys licking ice! 

When I asked a a resident of Lopburi to explain the rationale of this little shindig he told me that this annual breakfast was to show appreciation for the monkey's protection of Lopburi as well as an attempt to appease the animals and avoid monkey run-ins for the rest of the year.  GOOD LUCK WITH THAT ONE!!!

Although my time in Lopburi was short I am glad I got to see the insanity that is the annual monkey breakfast.  

After the monkey festival in Lopburi I returned home to celebrate the most familiar holiday of lights, Hanukah.  I tried explaining Hanukah to one of my co-teachers and you would have thought I was speaking in tongues.  Most Thai people living in Prapradaeng don't even know what a Jew is.  When Alana tried explaining Judaism to a Thai teacher she was met with blank stares.  The closest association they could make with Judaism was Palestine.  Alana just smiled and nodded.

It was strange celebrating a holiday in a country that doesn't even know what Judaism is.  Thankfully, Alana and I have made a Jewish friend living in Bangkok who graciously invited us to his house for a Hanukah party.  A night making latkas, eating kugel, and lighting a menorah with friends was exactly what I needed to make Thailand feel like home during the holidays.

And the festivities just kept coming.  December 5th was the king's 83rd birthday and considering the intensity of Thai devotion to their king, school was closed and celebrations ensued across the country.  In honor of our three-day weekend, Alana and I headed south to the beautiful and amazing island of Ko Chang.  Ko Chang (which means literally "island of elephants") is Thailand's second largest island, after Phuket, and is located about 6 hours south of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand.

Ko Chang is one of the most amazing places I have ever seen; there are even elephants on the island, although I'm still unclear as to how they got there.  Half of the island's coastline is jagged and rocky while the other half is white sand beaches.  The island's beautiful coastline is made all the more amazing by the dense mountainous jungle interior complete with 6 beautiful waterfalls.  It was heaven!

The one road running around the island

Our guest house, called Magic Garden, was just that, magical.  Our quaint straw hut was calm and peaceful and came complete with a hammock out front.  We really were living in the jungle.

Our lovely bungalow, complete with hammock, mosquito netting, and Dalia!

Our first day on the island was spent relaxing in the sun until sunset when we kayaked out to sea.  I have never felt at once so lucky to be alive and so incredibly humbled as I did watching the sun set into the deep blue ocean from a tiny boat floating in the immense ocean.  Looking back at the orange-lit island was absolutely breath-taking.

Mother nature, you done good!!!!
 

The rest of my time on Ko Chang was spent hiking to a beautiful waterfall in the jungle, exploring the rocky beaches, and adventuring around the island.  It was an absolutely incredible place, but a weekend just wasn't enough to see it all. 

Beautiful sunset from our ferry as we left the island

After the amazing weekend, I returned home to Prapradaeng to make lesson plans and prepare for classes.  Life as usual has resumed and my time these days is spent handing out worksheets, playing hangman, and trying to get blue dry-erase marker off everything I own.


Time is flying!  The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of adventures and I have so much more planned for the upcoming weeks.  I'm looking forward to ending 2010 and starting 2011 with a New Years/ 23rd birthday bash down south.

Missing everyone immensely and wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

More updates to come!!!