14 November 2008 - Recent Developments

Recent Developments
Friday 14 November

The weather has changed here in Isaan. The high temperature is now around 75F. There is not much rain as before. The Thais have broken out their jackets, sweaters, and scarfs. I am enjoying the more moderate weather. I have not sweated in a week! We have not had the air conditioning on in 5 days. I understand that this will continue until February.

Although it has gotten cooler and the stores are selling knitted hats as well as scarves, I don't think that there is any danger or even hope of snow for Christmas. This week when we went to the mall to pay a bill and eat pizza, the stores had their Christmas decorations up. It was nice but I didn't feel like breaking out into the song "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" - yet.

It is amazing to see the Thais react to 70 degree weather. They react as if it were 40 degrees or less in the USA. It is interesting how the body adapts to the various environments that it lives in. I am just the opposite I sweat like crazy most of the time around here - high 80s and low 90s with 90%+ humidity is difficult for my body to deal with comfortably.

Today 14 November is the start of the Royal Cremation Rites (Nov 14-19) for the King's sister. She died 2 January. That's correct. No typographical error - January 02, 2008. In the meantime a crematoriumm has been constructed in Bangkok. Three days of official mourning will take place today, tomorrow, and the next day.

A Royal merit making ceremony will take place today at the crematorium site. Tomorrow the Princess's body will be moved from the Royal Palace to the crematorium. On Sunday she will be cremated. The ashes will be collected on Monday. On 18 November, another Royal merit making ceremony for the ashes will be held. The following day the 19th the ashes will be placed in an urn.

The following is some background from the Bangkok Post ....

"Monarchs in the Chomphu Thaweep, or human world, were believed to be incarnations of Indra, the creator of the world in Thai beliefs, born in the world of mortals to help rule it and maintain the peace and happiness of human beings. The Queen, royal children and royal relatives were also considered to be divine beings, incarnated in mortal form.

Buddhist belief holds that the monarch possesses boonyaathikaan, or inborn Buddhist merit. In order to have enough Buddhist merit to be born as a monarch, he must have accumulated so much merit in previous existences that the Lord Buddha intended for him especially to guide and assist the nation, its religion and its people.

Both of these beliefs have been clearly seen in practice dating back to the Ayutthaya Period in the names of numerous kings, like Phra Borom Trilokanat (which refers to ....all three worlds''), Somdet Phra Intracha (Indra) and Somdet Phra Narai Maharaj (Vishnu). All three have clear Brahmanistic meanings.

The Thai word for the death of a monarch is sawannakhot, which means ....return to heaven''. The deceased royal personage goes back to the Dawadungsa level of heaven, above Mount Meru, where he or she resided before being incarnated into the mortal world. It is a feature of Thai jareetpraphenee - a tradition that must always be observed without change - that an elaborate funeral pyre called Phra Merumas be built for a Royal Cremation.

The form of the Phra Merumas is a stylised representation of Mount Meru. It consists of a high building, a palace set in the middle of an elevated platform. Surrounding it are subsidiary buildings and a fence called Rachawat that symbolise Sattaboriwan in accordance with the Brahmanistic concept of Phop. These buildings are also put to use.

The Phra Merumas is a temporary structure. After the royal personage has been sent to Dawadungsa it is demolished and not retained for future royal cremations. According to Thai tradition, funerals are not prepared for in advance.

Even though the Phra Merumas will be used only once, it is a work of the greatest artistry in its architecture and ornamentation. Its designers, besides having a deep knowledge of royal ceremonial tradition and Thai art history, also have the creative imagination to achieve a sense of perfectly harmonised dimensions and volume.In creating ornaments, gold is used generously because its colour suggests brightness and purity.

"

Thailand is about 95% Buddhist with the next largest denomination being Muslim. There are few Christians in Thailand. I have seen a couple of Mormon missionaries bicycling around town and met a Jehovah's Whitness missionary yesterday. There is also a Catholic school in Udonthani.

Some of the local expats are organizing a Christmas get together, but I am not interested. I think that we will just have a stay at home celebration.

Last night we went to another celebration. Duang's oldest brother got married. There was an Isaan wedding last night in the women's village after they had finished work for the day. She is a widow and has a teenage son and a young daughter. The ceremony was held at her home. The groom's relatives showed up and waited out in the street under a bright full moon outside of her home. Some of the relatives were carrying unwrapped gifts such as sahts (woven reed mats), mohn (small square colorful pillows), and pakama (strip of colorful plaid cloth). At the appropriate time. the group starts to whoop it up and the groom is lead to his wife - to - be's home. He has to pay to cross each of two "gates" to get to the door of the house. At the threshold to the house, his bride is waiting for him. He removes his shoes and stands on some banana leaves. His bride washes his feet with water to symbolize her commitment to him. Once inside the couple seat on sahts and the ceremony begins. This wedding was very much like the other weddings that we have attended here in Isaan.

A Bai-Sii ceremony was conducted to wish the couple "Good Luck" and to the necessary spirits bound inside of them. Last night's ceremony was not as an elaborate or lengthy ceremony as others we have gone to. It did have all the basic elements - counting the money that the groom pays, the money given by the guests, and the tying of threads on the wrists of the bride and groom. Afterwards there was a meal, beer, and Lao moonshine (whiskey in addition to the real moonlight outside).

Earlier in the day, we drove to Nong Khai to report to the Thai Immigration Police. As a condition for staying in Thailand for extended periods of time, expats must report to the Immigration Police every 90 days. This process can be done through the mail but since this was my first time for my Retirement Visa, I was hesitant to send out my passport in the mail.

We headed north towards Laos early in the morning. Aside from some cattle grazing in the median of the four lane divided highway the trip was basically uneventful. I am not comfortable driving around Thai Police. Well into the trip, Duang remarked how good it was because there weren't many cars on the road. I agreed and remarked that it was also good because there was no police. It could not have been 5 minutes later that we came upon a police checkpoint! There was a parked police car and two policemen in the road. I avoided eye contact and kept looking straight ahead (I learned this technique from Duang's son). The policeman whistled loudly and pulled the driver behind me over to the side.

As we approached Nong Khai, I recognized the exit to go to Immigration. I questioned Duang about it and she said no that we had to continue straight. I challenged her on it but she was adamant that we continue straight. She explained to me that she was Thai and I was "falang". She knows the way and I do not understand. It made sense to me - at the time. When the border crossing to Laos loomed large and directly ahead of us, Duang realized that this was not the way to the Immigration Police office. We turned around and found the office without much trouble. I asked her how come she didn't understand the right way to the office, she replied "Me know understand sometimes. Sometimes me stoooopid!" Hard to be upset when you are laughing.

We also had a lot of laughing on the way to the wedding. Her college aged niece was in the truck with us. She has studied English in school but is very shy in using it. Duang was talking a great deal in English and her niece was laughing like crazy because she could not understand what Duang was saying but I understood all of it. The same was true when I was speaking Thai. Her niece told us, Duang's son, and his girlfriend about why she was laughing. We all laughed. I told her that we have our own language - "Ting Tong" - Thai-Inglish Tong. "Ting Tong" means "crazy" in Thai.

If we don't go to Bangkok, the next blog should be tomorrow or the next day.