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Published: April 20th 2010
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I certainly don't want to make it seem like Pi Mai is just about drinking and water throwing. That’s just one part of the celebration. Pi Mai is made up of many wonderful traditions. On one day, the main street is closed off, and a giant street fair is held. Then everybody takes the short boat ride over to the sandbar in the Mekong River to build stupas, little castles, out of sand. People bring flowers and beautiful hand-colored, handmade flags to stick atop their stupas. People believe that every grain of sand moved to build the stupa is a sin from the last year forgiven. After building the stupa, many people stay on the sandbar to party, dancing and drinking til it gets dark. Others set off homemade rockets from the beach. At night, people build floating lanterns out of banana leaves and set them afloat down the Mekong, a candle lit inside.
Another day, everyone gets dressed up in their finest clothes and climbs Mt. Phousi, the mountain in the center of town, to leave rice and sweets for the spirits of the mountain who have no family to care for them. The poor come and collect the
Beautiful Flower Stupas
People carry these in the procession and then place them as offerings in front of the Pha Bang once it has arrived at Wat Mai rice and sweets to eat later. People pray and make wishes for the new year in the temple atop the mountain.
Another tradition is taking the main Buddha statues from each temple in town and placing them in an elaborate gold case on the covered front porch of the temple for washing. Although each temple has many Buddha statues, washing the most important statue is considered symbolic of cleansing all the Buddhas for the new year. Villagers come to their village temple to water the Buddha, dressed in their finest clothes, with bottled water, perfumed and laden with flowers, carried in a beautiful silver bowl, used only for this purpose. They do not pour water directly on to the Buddha, but rather they climb steps up to the top of a long, elegant dragon slide, and pour the water in to the end of this slide. The water runs down the slide to fall upon the Buddhas head.
Everybody comes to water the two most important Buddha statues in town, the Pha Bang and the Pha Man. Luang Prabang is named after the prized 1200 year old Pha Bang statue, a gift from the court at Angkor Wat
The Pha Bang
1200 year old Buddha statue, a gift from Cambodia in the fourteenth century in the fourteenth century. Buddhism arrived with the Pha Bang, becoming for the first time the official religion of this country, so the two are intimately linked. This statue is regularly kept on display at the old Royal Palace, now the National Museum, although rumors abound that the real Pha Bang was sold during the War and this version is only a replica.
During Pi Mai, a procession is made to bring the Pha Bang, by gold throne carried by sixteen men, to Wat Mai, an important temple nearby. For the procession, important local people dress in their finest traditional clothing and create and carry gorgeous, ornate flower stupas, to accompany the Pha Bang on the short trip to the temple. Monks chant blessings in front of the Pha Bang before gloved assistants gently lift the buddha and carry it to the waiting gold throne. One monk gingerly replaces the buddha's crown, then slips golden gloves on to its hands and golden slippers on to its feet.
Over the course of three days, people dress in their finest clothes, bring scented, flowered water, candles and incense and pay their respects, washing the Pha Bang. The temple is packed
with people for three days. People wait their turn to kneel around the Pha Bang, displayed outdoors in a golden throne under a big tent. The people light their candles and incense and clasp them and their flowers between their hands in prayer. They then place all three of these items on to small stands placed all around the Pha Bang. There is a full-time staff of three employed to blow out the small fires that arise as a result of placing lit candles and incense atop piles of flowers. Nobody seems to mind that their candles are quickly extinguished because once they depart from prayer, they go to wait their turn to climb the stairs up to the naga, or golden dragon slide, where they pour their water to wash the Pha Bang. Before pouring your water you must lift your silver bowl to your head and make a wish. After you climb down the stairs you can head over to a blue pipe that evacuates the water that has washed the Pha Bang. People collect this water and rub it on each others heads and faces for good luck, as it has touched the prized buddha.
The
temple grounds of Wat Mai are like a fair grounds, with cheap Buddha amulets for sale, lucky yellow bracelets, balloon dart games and shake the stick to predict your destiny games. There are women selling the perfumed water, the flowers and the candles. There are also wonderful live performances of traditional Lao dance and song, complete with intricate gold costumes and animal masks. This is a beautiful though crowded scene. After a second procession returns the Pha Bang to the museum, the Pha Man Buddha is brought to Wat Xieng Thong, the most important temple in town. People come to pay their respects and wash this Buddha for a full week.
There is also a huge carnival, lasting ten days, packed every night with more people than I thought lived in Laos. The carnival boasts an ancient rusty merry-go-round, bumper cars, a big bouncy castle for the kids and loads of pop the balloon games. There are vendors everywhere, selling hardboiled eggs from a bucket on the ground, fried crispy bugs from a table, popcorn, soda, t-shirts, underwear, fermented eggs. At the carnival, there are nightly musical performances on stage by modern and traditional Lao musicians and dancers. The
Miss Songkran competition is also held on this stage, over two televised nights. From eligible young local women, one woman is chosen to ride atop a giant paper mache horse in the two-day parade down the main street. To be Miss Songkran is a very big honor. The means of selection are quite dubious as there are no talent or speech contests and I do not think bribery is unlikely. Police, monks, government officials, dancers, fighters and drummers all walk in the parade.
Another tradition is to hold baci ceremonies, the traditional animist ritual of calling the wandering spirits back to the body by tying white strings around the wrists and making offerings of chicken and sweets. Baci ceremonies are held frequently in Laos, for any special occasion, a wedding, birth, return of a family member, opening of a new store, a new home, etc. Many baci ceremonies are held for Pi Mai to ensure optimal health for all going in to the new year, although some families did not hold their usual baci, believing 2553 to be an unlucky year for bacis. Interestingly, this and other animist beliefs coexist happily with Buddhist beliefs here in Laos, the two
religions intertwined beautifully together over the past two thousand years. Monks often attend baci ceremonies, chanting blessings prior to the tying of strings and making offerings.
During Pi Mai, people also clean their homes, cars and other vehicles to enter the new year fresh and clean. They clean their spirit houses, the adorable doll house on stilts that exists outside every Lao home so the spirits of the family house have somewhere to live happily and the family can live in their home undisturbed. If the spirits don't have a house to live in, they will pester the family in the family house. The spirits are also regularly fed, with offerings of fruits, rice and whiskey. People often get hair cuts or new hair styles and buy new clothes. Sometimes people visit their elders on their knees to beg for forgiveness for the sins of the last year, bringing gifts.
Pi Mai is a fascinating and fun time to be in Lao. What I've written here is likely a tiny fraction of what's really going on, just a small slice that I've been able to glean by asking lots of questions. What makes Pi Mai so interesting is
the meaning behind all these behaviors, the years of tradition, superstition and religious belief that molded them. I really appreciate that the new year is welcomed in with not just one day of celebrations as we do in the west, but with an entire week of well-known and much-loved preparations to ensure everyone leaves the old behind and enters freshly in to the new.
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