Village Festival

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In the dark I bicycle to the village, several miles from Chi Phat, past houses and cows and dogs lurking on the sides of the road. I see my friend Pon on the way, and sit for a tea before I move on. I hear music, and motos, smell grilled meat, and I know I've arrived. This is the village that is celebrating the rice harvest festival.

A temporary shelter of shredded plastic is the focal point for gathering, singing, and praying. A small Buddha statue is perched on a platform. People sit with feet carefully folded back to the side on the mats below. Older men are at one end, and they tend to baskets of fruit, flowers, and other offerings.

I hear a man's voice over a loudspeaker, chanting, then talking. He's there in the tent, and seems to be the master of ceremonies. Someone later tells me he is a clergyman, a former monk.

I park my bike and a smiling woman pulls me to the bawbaw table where many are seated eating bawbaw. This seems an important part of the festival. Everyone must eat bawbaw. Then I wander to the tent and watch. People on the side are playing traditional instruments. An old lady tries to speak to me, then she gives up and grabs my arm and pulls me through a small forest of bamboo decorations with incense burning on each sprouted stem of decoration.

Now I'm right with the musicians, squatting with the woman, enjoying the drum and the single stringed instrument right in front of me. A woman is singing into a microphone. So beautiful. Other men are squatting with them, clapping.

Then they stop. The woman pulls me up and over to the seated people at the tent. I see my friend Pon sitting, and she motions for me to join her. I remove my shoes and sit next to her. I put some money in the basket, and the man chants with hands in prayer. I hold mine in prayer also. He prays for my health, happiness, and long life. Another man records the amount I gave in a little book. When the chanting man is done, he smiles and nods to me. I recognize him, he is a ranger for Wldlife Alliance.

Then Pon takes me to the bawbaw table. They bring a fresh pot, and I dish some in my bowl. It has chicken and of course rice. It is good. I feel I must eat it, because this is the rice harvest festival. I tell Pon I cannot squat on the bench as the other women are doing. Their knees! How do they sit like this for extended periods? Pon and I remain standing as we eat the special bawbaw.

We lock elbows and we walk to the food booths. I buy her some grilled skewered pork and bread and she eats it. At other booths, an older lady with a krama wrapped on her head sells a variety of fruit, another squeezes sugarcane through a press for juice, others sell grilled meats, sugary things. Motos are pulling in, the man on the microphone keeps talking. I separate from Pon and take more photos. I'm the only westerner here. Everyone smiles and welcomes me.

I go watch the activity at the Buddha tent. Men and women sit separately and pray. A garish poster from India depicts fantastic beings and love and light. A huge mound of rice is at one end, lit candles and incense are stuck in it. Every so often someone comes over and dumps another basket of rice on the pile.

I see someone I met the previous day. He says that the monks are here, I can sit down and pray with them. I ask, can I get up any time? (after all, my knees.) He says, it's up to you..

I decide not to sit with the monks and instead mill about. Kids are furiously playing in the central dance area lit by a big fluorescent bulb. They chase and circle round, and don't run out of energy. A dog trots through, searching for food. A woman and her baby offer me longans to eat, I take some and peel, and she smiles sweetly, offers me more. I stroll by the tent again, and now the monks are chanting, and more people are seated and praying

I sit on the Chinese buffalo--the tractor of sorts with a very long steering column--with some kids. They giggle. I watch the pandemonium. A generator grumbles, the nice traditional music has stopped, and the monks continue chanting. The kids are in small gangs now, wailing on one another. All ages, girls but mostly boys. Fists are out, feet are used, thirty kids having a free for all just twenty feet from sedate, praying adults. People are still eating bawbaw, but cases of beer appear, and the big boys are at one end of the table consuming it. Energy intensifies.

Sometimes the clergyman sings while he prays into the microphone. He sings so beautifully, passionately, transporting me. And the kids wail away nearby. Then the monks are chanting, more people sit and pray, pray for plentiful harvest, health, good fortune. It goes on for a long while, then finally stops.

I'm blasted off the Chinese buffalo, because now the speakers are booming. The DJ is hot tonight, he's tuning the sound system. I stand on the sidelines of the open area, where plastic bags fly everywhere and kids are now punching balloons into the air instead of each other.

Then it happens. The first song starts pounding. I feel hands tapping my arm as girls rush past. They want me to join them. Within half a minute over fifty kids, tweens, teens, and adults are moving, weaving, bouncing, gyrating in the dance area. Adults scoot the little ones to the middle so they won't get trampled on the fringes of the mass of arms and pumping legs. Everyone is smiling and appreciating everyone else's moves, and we all want more loud booming. A Khmer song starts, and now we move around in a circle, snaking our hands and fingers, encouraging the little ones to move with the music and smile and laugh.

The music pauses after an intense, sweaty, 25 minutes or so, and I slip out. It is getting late, and I have a bicycle ride in the dark to make. Thank goodness the road is level and straight, and I have my flashlight as I spin down the road thinking how full of laughter and joy I am right now and how I want to always feel like this.

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Comments

[Julie]

Beautiful piece
This piece is beautifully written and shows your true heart and light. Thank you for sharing! Love you sis!

[Traveling Terry]

Festival
Thanks much! Love you back!