Ban Phon and my cousin's wedding


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Asia » Thailand » North-East Thailand
September 8th 2007
Published: September 21st 2007
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From KL I flew up to Bangkok, overnighting there before meeting my cousin and his wife at the train station to take the train up to Khon Kaen. I hadn't seen my cousin and his wife since last Thanksgiving and was looking forward to spending some quality time with them before the wedding. The train ride up was lovely, passing through the terrain of central Thailand and chatting with my cousin. We were booked in different carriages so my cousin spend time split between myself and his wife and Mom.

We were picked up in Khon Kaen by a minivan full of family - my Thai aunt and Thai cousins and we drove the 2 hours to Ban Phon. The family house was all done up with decorations and there were people everywhere! The wedding was to be a big event in the village. Apparently there hadn't been a traditional wedding in a number of years. Saturday was the day of the wedding. We all got up early and dressed in traditional dress. The morning ceremony consisted of a cermony of feeding and receiving blessing from the monks. I didn't really understand any of it, but it was interesting to watch, although a little hot in my long sarang and black jacket. After feeding the monks we were allowed breakfast ourselves.

After breakfast, a number of us went to a separate house with my cousin to start the marriage ceremony. We were to bring my cousin to his wife through the village streets, singing, clapping and dancing - it was a grand parade. We sat through the marriage cermony, which lasted almost 2 hours and which I didn't understand either. For the afternoon we were allowed to change back into shorts and t-shirts and lounge around and chat. Dusk saw us back into our ceremonial clothes for the evening's festivities - a feast and dance performances at the silk museum. The food and entertainment were amazing, particulalry the dance troup of what we would call lady boys.

One thing that is amazing about Thailand is the acceptance of the transvestite and transgendered. Earlier in the afternoon I was sitting with my Thai aunt with a group of ladies. She pointed out a young beautiful girl to me and asked whether I thought she was a man or a woman. I knew that she had originally been a man, as she had the deepest male voice I had ever heard. She had been teaching me Thai dancing in the parade earlier in the day. "You mean originally?" I asked. My aunt kind of laughed. She knew I understood. So I asked my aunt about how well the transgendered were accepted in Thai society. My aunt just told me that one day her nephew decided to be her neice and so she was. That is all. No problem. A man can become a woman and a woman can become a man. Although a woman still must know her place among men - the society is still very strongly patriarchal.

This part of my trip was only for my cousin's wedding. On Sunday, I made my way to Khon Kaen with my aunt and uncle and on the Monday we took the train back to Bangkok. Tuesday was spent shopping with my aunt and on Wednesday, I got at 4am to catch my 8am flight through Japan to Vancouver where I was looking foward to seeing more family and old friends.


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