World Beat was out and about in Isan recently for a visit to the annual Boon Pha Wet Festival in Roi Et.
The 35th Boon Pha Wet was held in Saket Nakhon Park from March 7-9 and the three-day event was packed with merit-making ceremonies and Buddhist sermons, a massed dance performance, processions, traditional and modern molam stages, a light and sound show and other cultural shows.
Boon Pha Wet is part of the Heet Sip Song, or 12 monthly merit-making events in Isan. The tradition is rooted in the Buddhist Jataka Tale of Phra Maha (Prince) Vessantara. Still practised in many villages, the three-day event begins with a gathering on day one to prepare and on day two, a procession is held to welcome Phra Vessantara back to the city (or village) after he was banished. On day three, a merit-making ceremony is held for which a thousand balls of rice are made -- a number determined by the 1,000 Pali-language verses that make up the prince's story.
On the first day of the festival, a ceremony was held by the Chi River. After official proclamations, governor Chatchawan Benjasiriwong dipped into the river to recover three sacred items, one of which was the Phra Upakut icon. The icon, representing a powerful supernatural monk, is revered and once recovered was paraded in a procession that slowly moved to the park nearby.
Roi Et is also known for being the woad (Isan cylinder-style bamboo panpipes) capital of the world. In fact, downtown Roi Et is dominated by a huge concrete building in the park designed to look like a woad (the Roi Et Tower has great views of the city and hinterland and is worth checking out). At night, the observation floors at the top of the building were lit with flashing lights, providing a beautiful backdrop to the festival site. There is also a museum dedicated to the instrument close to the park.
Day two began with a gathering of 10,101 dancers of all ages. But just as most of the dancers were in position to start, the heavens opened and we all had to rush for cover. I was told that rain had never fallen during the festival in the 35 years of its existence. Normally, temperatures are close to 40C, so it was something of a relief to walk around in the cool after the rain.
Boon Pha Wet in Roi Et.
I found myself crammed in front of the traditional molam stage on which National Artist Por Chalad Noi performed a new lam specially written for the event. He was supported by many Isan-based National Artists, including Chaweewan Damnoen and woad maestro Songsak Prathomsin.
For the evening shows, molam mu troupes provided entertainment with scores of dancers, comic interludes and luk thung Isan singers.
As with any festival in the Kingdom, the range and variety of tasty food and snacks was impressive and easily available. Free noodles and rice cakes were provided for the participants (with more than 10,000 taking part, that's a pretty impressive logistical feat).
I also attended a fascinating woad competition on the City Hall grounds. The playing from the woad players in the competition -- judged by maestro Songsak -- was of a very high level.
On the third day, Isan music carts -- known as bak ti len in the Isan Lao dialect -- took to the streets along with their supporters, who danced in front of the carts, carrying money trees of donations for charity. Some of my colleagues called them lot hare, but that is the term used for six-wheeler units of speakers, often seen at temple fairs.
Some people will have seen the carts at village celebrations or funerals. A cart is piled high with speakers, at the back of which is a generator, an attached drum kit (and sometimes keyboards) and connected are electric bass and phin (three-stringed Isan lute) or electric guitar. Out front are a bunch of drummers, mainly glawng yao (long drums) and then in front of them are the dancers and supporters.
We followed three music carts; I was surprised to see that some outfits had sponsor signs and were very professional in their approach. (The best sound I heard from any of the carts was run by older performers with no sponsors. They just knew how to create the groove.)
The carts took to the streets, but we had no idea that more than 20 of these monster sound systems were arriving from across the province to join the parade to the park. The organisers had arranged for everyone to set off at the same time, so that three different bak ti len met at the intersection in front of City Hall. It was a fantastic sight and the music was so loud. If there were any malevolent spirits lurking about, they were definitely chased away by a sound that would wake the dead.
It was a perfect way to end three days of fun in Roi Et. I'll definitely be going back to this beautiful event.
John Clewley can be contacted at clewley.john@gmail.com.
