Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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LAOS NEW YEAR IN LUANG PRABANG

Text & Images : Tom Paine

Cool it!!

Many readers may be suffering from the western notion that they really celebrated the New Year on December 31, and wonder why millions of Asians get excited about New Year during April.

For the predominantly Buddhist nations of SE Asia - Burma, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos - the world turns on a very different calendar. About this time of year there is a grand opportunity for people addicted to western domination of culture and society to reorientate their minds to another civilization: to Asia which informs us that in mid-April according to the lunar calendar, we are most definitely not in the year AD 2007 but the Buddhist calendar year of 2550! So that means we poor occidentals have been left trailing far behind the East for many years - not just in Kung Fu martial arts and Shaolin Temples. Our calendar is no less than 443 years behind Buddhist Asia which starts the historical year AB - `After the Buddha'. This is the season to celebrate AB and not the year AD.

Unlike the western New Year's Eve, the Buddhist celebrations are a minimum of 3 days up to a week combining religious rites, traditional dancing and cultural events, as well as feasting and drinking.

Over the last two decades Songkran, as it is known in Thailand has been a major tourist attraction bringing multitudes to Chiang Mai and other cities and suffering some loss of traditional spontaneity with the arrival of mass invasion of tourist buses, commercial sponsors and the organization of mass spectacles.

It’s all fun

However in the more tranquil environs of Luang Prabang, the ancient royal capital of Laos, a far more spiritual experience awaits the visitor in which the Lao people enjoy their most important festival with little commercial contamination from the outside world.

Luang Prabang, a World Heritage Site, still represents in the 21st century the spirit of traditional Asia that most towns and cities lost at least two decades ago. In December 1995, the entire town of Luang Prabang was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, ranking it alongside architectural treasures like Angkor Wat or the Taj Mahal. The UNESCO report identified 33 temples and 111 historic Lao-French buildings for specific restoration, citing Luang Prabang as the best-preserved traditional town in Southeast Asia -- a kind of living museum.

Luang Prabang: a jewel of conservation

In a world where modernization threatens to engulf every last oasis of the olde world, the electronic age blitzes its hegemonic path through mountain ranges and the last vestiges of romantic isolation, Luang Prabang stands out as a conservation success story where the ancient wooden houses still defy the onward march of concrete and corporate globalisation. First congratulations to UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation, for their masterplan of conservation and their partnership with the Lao communist government. It has been designated a World Heritage site since 1995 to protect the 32 precious temples, the royal palace and the picturesque surroundings of the inner city.

One that got away

The inhabitants of the inner city may alter their houses and villas only in the traditional style. Strict rules apply to the heritage zone of the city banning all advertising billboards, fast food shops and other materialistic intrusions that usually accompany a popular tourist destination.

If you're up at the crack of dawn, you can catch the town's most extraordinary sight. Scores of saffron-robed monks file out of the monasteries and make their way barefoot through the streets, bearing gold-topped wooden alms bowls. Along the route, locals wait to present sticky rice and other food to the monks -- thereby earning merit by performing this good deed.

Although this ritual can be seen in numerous parts of Southeast Asia, it's particularly striking in Luang Prabang because of the density of temples and the concentration of monks. Out of a population of 15,000 residents, there are over 500 monks in this former royal capital. The oldest part of the city is where royalty and nobility once resided -- patrons of temple building in centuries past.

The old Pathet Lao guerilla leadership that heroically resisted US bombs and mercenary soldiers during the CIA-run secret war in Laos the 1960-70s, have ended up some 30 years later as one of the regions most conservative governments - meaning they are deeply afraid of change. This happens to be a very good thing in the case of preserving the architectural splendour and beauty of this ancient royal city.

Unfortunately the government's policy of conservation did not extend to the old royal family, that was closely attached to the ancien regime. The peasant leaders from the caves of Sam Neua, viewed the Laotian monarchy as their class enemy and unworthy of any special consideration. Soon after the 1975 revolution when the guerillas gained full control, the royals were dispatched to a remote province and forced to do hard labour until they died. The good news is that their Royal Palace in Luang Prabang is very much intact and is now a major tourist attraction.

A Festival of Cleansing, Splashing and Getting Very Wet

Lao celebrations in common with other Buddhist countries is all about water. Water is splashed on members of your family, on monks, on friends and everybody else. Its deeper purpose is the cleansing away of the accumulated dirt, grime and sins of the old year.

It is a festival of water and a time of beckoning the gods to bring more water…an appeal by all those who toil in the fields for the gods to bring on the rain and for the monsoon season to commence.

As this time marks the end of the dry season and the hottest part of the year, few people complain about a good soaking in the sun, and should you as a visitor complain you will probably get dowsed twice as much for your insensitivity to local customs.

Although Laos is not known for its certainties - the buses don't run on time, nobody keeps punctuality in appointments, and this is the land of bo pen yang, it does not really matter - one thing is a dead certainty. During Lao New Year you and all your companions will get gloriously wet by the end of the day… unless of course you lock yourself in the toilet for 24 hours.

The water will hit you from all angles from passing trucks with youths hosing down the pedestrians, from pedestrian groups well-armed with buckets of water, and even from waitresses in restaurants gleefully joining in.

During these festivities few people are standing entirely upright, given the serious tonnage of Beer Lao imbibed by revelers, both Lao and foreigners. Beer Lao with 96% of the domestic beer market in Laos is now exported to 10 countries, and is fast increasing its appeal even here in Chiang Mai.

But the New Year festival has grown far more fierce in Thailand, especially in Chiang Mai, where icy water is frequently used to spray the enemy. Be assured that all aspects of life are more gentle in Laos. Last year in Luang Prabang some foreign tourists who had just experienced the Chiang Mai version expressed their sense of relief. "We have just escaped from the water war …it was just too much, here more relaxing."

However, visitors should be aware that as you wander near people's homes, the ever hospitable locals will most likely entreat you to join their party and sample the local whisky known as Lao lao. Sometimes the local firewater has been medically enhanced with another spirit emanating from a small dead snake coiled in the bottom of the flask. In any event we recommend you drink with caution.

New Year Day Two and the Lao Space Programme

On Day Two most of the celebrations shift to the other side of the Mekong River with a flotilla of small boats bringing the multitudes to the sandbanks on the other side.

Many locals are putting the finishing touches to their sand castles dedicated to their ancestors with little Buddhist flags aloft. But the event that everybody has come to watch is the Lao Space progamme aka the annual rocket festival.

Well, maybe they have not heard of this space programme at Cape Canaveral, but try asking Lao people if it makes any difference …. Not many Lao rice farmers have ever heard of the US launching pad for astronauts either.

The crowds gather around 2 pm behind a small fence. The launch pad consists of a row of bamboo trees. The rockets are carefully attached to the bamboo pad. A boy shins up the bamboo pole to light the base of the rocket. About 30 rockets are fired with various results. Some turn out to be duds or crash immediately after take-off. (Just like the US Space Programme). And a few rockets soar into glorious space - well in this case a few hundred metres into the sky, providing the crowd with some good `oohs' and `ahs!'

So take your choice - the modern `water war' in Chiang Mai, or the more traditional festival up there in Luang Prabang. Only a few hundred miles separate the two cities, but aeons of difference of culture...or is it `development'?

SONGKRAN in Chiang Mai
Schedule 2007

11th > 15th: SONGKRAN AND LANNA THAI FESTIVAL, Chiang Mai. Among the highlights (and in addition to the traditional water-throwing) are the parade of the Emerald Buddha image through the town, and dances, cultural performances, a local food festival, and much more.

1-5	Activities	Location
09.00 - 18.00	Local Craftman Festival	Chiang Mai University Art Museum
1-9	Activities	Location
17.00 - 22.00	Chiang Mai International Art & Culture Festival 2007	Three Kings Monument
1, 8, 11-15	Activities	Location
17.00 - 24.00	Celebration of 711th Chiang Mai Anniversary Walking Street and International Food	Ratchadamneon Road
4-6	Activities	Location
09.00 - 22.00	Poi Sang Long (Buddhist Novice Ordination)	Wat Pa Paow
5-8	Activities	Location
09.00 - 22.00	Lanna Cultural Exhibition	Lanna School of Wisdom
7, 14	Activities	Location
17.00 - 24.00	Lanna Arts and OTOP Exhibition	Wualai Road
8	Activities	Location
08.00 - 16.00	Lanna Drum Contest	Three Kings Monument
12.00 - 22.00	32nd Northern Cuisine, Larb Contest	Kad Suan Kaew
10-14	Activities	Location
19.00 - 24.00	Lanna Artists Contest, Miss Songkran Contest, Miss Congeniality Contest	Tha Pae Gate
11-15	Activities	Location
08.00 - 21.30	Traditional Sand Stupa Building and Local Arts Contest	Wat Jedlin
12	Activities	Location
16.00 - 18.00	Three Kings Monument Bathing Rite Parade	Yupparaj School - Three Kings Monument
12-15	Activities	Location
09.00 - 22.00	Youth and Cuisine Contest, and Lanna Cultural Performances	Chiang Mai Buddhasatan
13	Activities	Location
07.00 - 12.00	Cycling Parade of the Parasol-Holding Beauties	Nawarat Bridge - Tha Pae Gate
09.09 - 09.39-	Phra Phutta Sihing Buddha Image Parade from Lai Kham Vihara	Wat Pra Singh
14.09 - 18.00	Procession of Important Buddha Images in Chiang Mai	Sanphakoi Shell Petrol Station - Wat Pra Singh