"Sinh" City

Question: Do you have a "sinh"?. . . (traditional skirt worn by the women in Laos, especially during religious festivals)
Answer: No, not yet, although I plan on getting one or two made for my western figure.

So . . .  I wasn’t able to participate in every event of the county’s biggest religious festival – That Luang Festival; however, we did get a good feel for the mania that drives this event, a dose of good energy coming from a lot of people packed into a relatively small place, and some great pictures.

That Luang is a “that” (pronounced taht), or stupa, at the biggest and most famous temple in Laos which is said to have a relic of Buddha - some say a hair - some say a bone. This “that” has become a symbol of the country, Luang meaning Royal or Great. It is a 10-minute walk from our house, so we were right in the middle of the madness starting weeks before the actual festival when food stalls and dart-throwing booths started blocking the sidewalks.

I asked locals to tell me about the festival – a lot of conflicting information ensued: “It officially starts on Wednesday – No the opening ceremony is on Friday – You need to go to Wat Simeuang on Saturday evening – No you need to go to another Wat then -You need to go on Sunday at 1pm to see the ceremony – No the procession starts at 3 – Tuesday is the best and final day – No Monday is the full moon so it is the best and final day – you need to see the alms giving at 10 am – No you must go to the alms giving at 5am  – At night you will see the fireworks and a candlelight procession…. In the midst of my frustration, it occurred to me that although the International Balloon Fiesta is held in Albuquerque every year, would I be able to tell a tourist when the “Special Shapes Rodeo” was . . . or on what night “Balloon Glow” is held every year!

I finally assigned “What a tourist should know about That Luang Festival” as a journal entry for my students. Sneaky, huh? I got a bit clearer rundown of information with details of the events that they themselves were going to attend. On Saturday night we stumbled upon Wat Simeung’s procession of beeswax palaces being brought into the temple. Bills of Lao and US currency were affixed to the palaces. The flowers on the palaces were made of beeswax – how they didn’t melt, I’ll never know!

Sunday was really the big photo op for me . . . around 2, the procession started from Patuxay – the big square cement structure (called the vertical runway as the cement used had been orignially paid for by US dollars to build an airport runway). A parade of dancers and “palace carriers” came through right past the café at which we were eating . . . on a bathroom run to our house we actually stumbled upon our very own neighborhood’s procession – one of my favorite shots – note the converse sneakers!

All of the attendees entered the temple at That Luang to give their offerengs to the monks. Everyone was so dressed up in traditional sinhs and “pantaloons” worn by some of the men. I was so energized by this part of the festival that I ended up talking Joe into coming back the next morning to “see the gathering of monks” inside. Yes, we awoke at 5am and stumbled down to the temple. I swear it was almost empty, but we decided to wait. By sun up there were thousands of devotees waiting to give their “alms” or offerings to the hundreds of monks that had come from all over the country. The alms baskets consisted of:

1. takbat bowl

2. food such as oranges, sticky rice, cookies, cake, or bananas

3. candles

4. incense

5. flowers

6. clean money

7. small bottle of water to be poured as part of the ritual

The evening of the last day, we saw the most amazing view of the full moon poised directly at the top of the stupa – quite extraordinary. I didn’t have a tripod, but I feel that the image is still incredible. People came again to give offerings. Following the religious part of the festival, the crowds peacefully moved to outdoor cafes to eat grilled foods, chicken, prawns, larvae, crickets, and more! Then they watched live what we decided to watch on our TV at home: staged dancing and singing performances in a State Fair type of venue.

The festival ended late Monday night . . . the overall most impressive thing being how peaceful thousands of people were at the festival grounds and temple. No one acted up, raised their voice, or donned a scowl. You mustn’t even ask about the trash around our neighborhood though. Hopefully, all will appear shiny and new for the SEA Games next month . . . they’d better get going!

Postscript: When I started writing this post, I didn’t have a “sinh” – therefore we didn’t go directly into the temples during the festival at all. It felt somewhat inappropriate even though we saw other foreigners doing it (some in shorts no less!). There were even “sinhs” for rent at the entrance. However, we felt better about being observers. Well, just today, one of my students said – I have something for you . . . guess what she gave me? And it actually fits!! I’m all set for the next festival – bring it on!