That Xieng Tung Festival in Muang Sing

---

Muang Sing is a small village in a plain of rice fields just to the edge of the Golden Triangle in north-west Laos. In spite of govermental antidrug enforcement squads the locals still plant a lot of opium. And they sell it just about everywhere. When I walked down the main road old women approached me and between the jewelery and bracelets they offered, barely hidden in the palm of their hands were little packets of brown sticky stuff, an occasional 'Gansha' they whispered to make things clear...
The main festival place was outside of town, some kilometers away on top of a hill, at the golden That Xieng Tung, a Stupa very similar to the big That Luang in the capital Vientianne.
On the festival day the whole village was coming to the stupa. Everybody brought offerings such as flowers, food, candels, and joss sticks. With their hands folded on the forehead the men and women walked in circles around the stupa, one inner circle for the men and one circle further out for the women. In the meadow around the stupa a fair had been set up, offering food, musik, and other sorts of entertainment.
The local girls were all wearing their best skirt. Beautiful shiny hand-woven skirts! We were told, the festival is one of the few chances to officially look out for a husband, so you better dress up!
In the evening the full moon was rising over the hills and the stupa was illuminated by hundreds of candles. Under favour of the night we saw people collecting the food and other offerings again. We were told that they belong to a non-buddhist tribe and most of them are very poor. The festival is chance for them to eat for free. The other things they collect they resell to make some money.
Back in the village a big party with disco had already started. Everybody was having 'Beer Lao', the national beer and also lots of 'Lao Lao', hard liquor home-made from rice.
Our place to stay had a nice roof terrace where we could listen to the Lao pop and look at the stars all night long.

---

Photos

The Festival Place
Food and amusement stalls are arranged around the golden stupa.

Dressing Up...
All the local girls are wearing their best skirt... since this is also a chance to flirt!

The Holy Stupa
At night the stupa is illuminated by many candels brought by worshipers. In the background the full moon is rising.

Disco
Their taste of music might be a bit differnt but otherwise having a party resembles western ways. Beer Lao is cheap and even cheaper is Lao Lao, the homemade hard stuff.